Label: Self-released
Release year: 2018
Production: Prismojeni profesorji bluesa
Album length: 50:07
Rating: 10 / 10
The third act of this one-of-a-kind phenomenon, if you count the live album “Live – Križanke”, could just as well have been called “Wacky Blues Scissors” instead of Wacky Blues Professors. They cut and snip their way into places where you least expect them! They grab hold of the listener’s soul, take possession of it and lead it like true shepherds of souls. In just a few years, Prismojeni profesorji bluesa have, completely unintentionally and without realizing it, been chiseling themselves a monument as the leading soul shepherds of Slovenian blues rhetoric. And that’s in only three years of activity, with this already their third officially released document!
Given the brilliance of the debut “Family”, and the somewhat reckless nature of the live document, which served up a bunch of tracks in the style of unfinished jams, a mild skepticism started gnawing at the writer of these lines: had the guys perhaps blown their whole load of expressive musical-visionary ammo right off the bat? The answer is clear and loud (and in the music): “No way!” The new album “Wacky Blues Professors” is a brilliant continuation of the band’s journey. Considering how hermetically cemented the reach of Slovenian rock’n’roll is, Prismojeni profesorji bluesa are, for many, a story bordering on science fiction.
The opener grabs the listener, and the album doesn’t let go of that embrace for a full 55 minutes. From track to track, Prismojeni profesorji bluesa keep the listener right beside them and in a state of intense tension. Whether through jaw-dropping playing, incredibly cunning solutions in the bold arranging of the compositions, or sheer lived-through vocal delivery, they make use of literally all four available voices (this time Miha Ribarič also steps in for a vocal part on the opening title track). The opening track instantly exposes the band’s lucid side, which has no shortage of sparkling mischief, or of self-irony either! The funk-invasive Framed Love in the second half of the album (with Zlatko on vocals) could, judging by the nature of its arrangements, easily have replaced Wacky Blues Professors as the album opener. It’s especially delicious for Miha Ribarič’s hugely active and dynamic bass line, which gives the track an incredible groove texture woven from a tangle of low notes.
Poorboy is “Julijan’s track” from head to toe. The intro Hendrix-ism, backed by a wah-wah pedal, hints at it, while holding on to some of the funky rhythmic kinetics of the album’s opening moment. Julijan has that genius tone for tracks like this, which sounds very natural, totally unpretentious and responds on a sensual level too. A track full of little decorative tricks. All of it played without a pick. Julijan doesn’t once repeat the same two ornaments, which he artfully lays over the song’s motif, and then comes that middle section where he explodes on guitar in a completely breakneck fashion. Hendrix runs in his blood. Distant backing vocals add a gentle sheen of psychedelia to the track. And just from the performance of this song it’s clear that PPB never play two songs the same way twice. Every performance of a given song is a whole new story for them. A band you absolutely have to hear live.
Creepy is definitely the album’s absolute oddball. The guys brought cabaret into it, and “The Boogeyman” Miha Erič steps onto the scene with an incredibly entertaining vocal, somewhere on the edge of a narrator, grimacing without restraint and bringing a real nightmare and horror movie into the essence of the song. This is the track where the man shows up on stage with a chainsaw and a butcher’s apron, certainly one of the most entertaining tracks Prismojeni profesorji bluesa have put together to this day, and undoubtedly a track that will go down as one of the live favorites. The modulation in the mid eight section is outstanding, with even a moment of surf creeping in, bringing a crazy fun detour, and then PPB swing back onto the unhinged black horror polka blues, directed by the theatrical gallows-humor of Miha Erič’s brilliant vocal performance! The “black brother” of Ragin’ Mad from the debut “Family”, which keeps plenty of the band’s wacky nature!
The infectious instrumental Vigilante offers some southern rock sentiment up front, but above all it’s a first-class jam where all the virtues of full-blooded instrumental feel and the quartet’s symbiosis shine in full light. Harmonica and guitar wash into each other, over sharp, piercing and well-grooved rhythmic kinetics. Feel and awareness at every step of the playing! Voluminous and boundlessly penetrating. Punchy blues rock rowdiness that also evokes the old-school approach of the emerging hard rock pioneers of the second half of the sixties. The track was played “in one take” and is suddenly “cut off” at the end, which means it’s an authentic sonic imprint of the band’s devilish jam.
Easy For You opens in the glow of a ballad-like blues lament, even though it later develops elsewhere. Zlatko Đogič remains incredible with his piercing emotional intensity. Some of that black vocal charisma flows through the drummer’s bloodstream. Miles away though it may be, still. A parallel with someone like Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railorad isn’t that out of place anymore. The opening, middle and closing parts of the album belong to Zlatko. The album ends with the black blues hard rock heavyweight Deathproof, once again torn apart by all the unbridled emotions of Zlatko Đogič’s extraordinary vocal performance, and for the album’s grand finale Julijan Erič delivers yet another top-class solo masterpiece on guitar. An extraordinary final crescendo at the close of the album, which makes you want to put the CD back in the player.
The two Eričs skillfully open up space for each other. While one holds a motif, one of them breaks into a solo, then the cards get shuffled and the roles switch. Bitchin’ N’ Cryin’ and Edd Genee (the latter again with some southern rock and surf aesthetics) are moments that reveal this remarkably harmonious mutual awareness between the two brothers, each in its own way, very vividly. If the first is packed with constant solo escapades of harmonica and guitar, the two instruments coexist in Edd Genee far more concisely, yet in their interplay they still “neutralize” each other very successfully, meaning they at times keep a great equality of expression. The later songs on the album, Take it Easy and Deep Cuts, bring a bit of a boogie moment to the band’s new work, which wonderfully livens up the album.
“Family” was a kind of little blues lexicon of the band, an important work of affirmation. “Wacky Blues Professors” feels a touch groovier and funkier, and its musical vision is stylistically more focused and chiseled. Still, the album doesn’t give the feeling that Prismojeni profesorji bluesa spend much time worrying about whether they’ve established a recognizable style or not. That kind of thinking could even kill the band entirely, since its character is built on four fully formed, free-spirited essences of incredibly charismatic and penetrating individuals. Heart and total authenticity are the key. That’s the essence. To be heartfelt means to be fearless and brave. And that heart drives the band forward. Where the heart is, there is the essence, and where the heart is, there is always the goal, even if the road there is thorny and uncertain. And in their craft, Prismojeni profesorji bluesa work with an element that is becoming a huge rarity in the ever more calculated world of Slovenian rock’n’roll. They are what they are: what you see and hear is what you get. No “cosmetics” and no “frills”. It’s precisely this courage, with which they live their passions and emotions without brakes and approach everything they take on with great fire and full-blooded, potent momentum, that makes them so special, so strong and, last but not least, even though the guys won’t admit it, in some way currently dominant and authoritative on the present map of the Slovenian rock scene. They suddenly appear like a bolt from the blue, and soon after they’re already filling Križanke, Kino Šiška and Cankarjev dom. Through all of that, they still like returning most to club spaces like Prulček. So can we even wish for anything more than these guys’ sincerity? They remain one big wacky family that will keep thrilling us all with their music for a long, long time. Across generations and with no genre limits. Armed only with their heart and bubbling fire! And yes. Through all of it, they give the absolute feeling of an international blues rock outfit that outgrew the confines of the current Slovenian rock scene long ago.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Wacky Blues Professors
2. Poorboy
3. Creepy
4. Vigilante
5. Easy For You
6. Bitchin’ and Cryin’
7. Deep Cuts
8. Framed Love
9. Take It Easy
10. Edd Geene
11. I Need Love
12. Deathproof
Lineup:
Miha Erič – harmonica, lap steel guitar, vocals on tracks 3, 7 and 10
Julijan Erič – guitar, vocals on tracks 2, 6, 9 and 11
Miha Ribarič – bass guitar and vocals on track 1
Zlatko Đogić – drums, vocals on tracks 1, 5, 8 and 12
FAMILY LINEUP:
Jasna Kmetec – saxophones
Andrej Tomazin – percussion
Domen Gracej – trumpet
Gal Gjurin – Hammond organ
