Label: Sintetic Production
Release year: 2018
Production: Demolition Group
Album length: 39.33
Rating: 9.5 / 10
»Pojdiva tja« is the new studio album from the alternative rock heavyweights out of Brežice! Big veterans of Slovenia’s rock underground and rebellion! Demolition Group. Since there’s a hefty read ahead of us, let me say it straight for everyone who can’t be bothered to chew through it all: the new album »Pojdiva tja« is a textbook Demolition Group record in every way. Style-wise and sound-wise. But it’s also a new chapter for the band. Why?
Because this is an album recorded without Jože Pegam on sax. New times? Yes. In their new working environment, Demolition Group go for artistic moves they haven’t tried until now, even though they’ve flirted with them and they’re by no means foreign to the band. The overall sound »Pojdiva tja« serves up is softer and more subtle, but by no means more radio-friendly, so let’s kill any hint of some sneaky drift toward commercialization right away. Demolition Group don’t need that. There are more experimental detours, something the opener Vse je tu already hints at. »Pojdiva tja« is the kind of album where Demolition Group, or rather Goran Šalamon, touches on personal, confessional intimacy and inner life, so the somewhat “softer” production look, along with some completely new artistic directions in the songwriting, is more than welcome, because these artistic moves are in tune with Šalamon’s poetry, which this time around is intimate and personal. So some of that noise and grit of abrasive rawness that was still typical of the previous release has been swapped for a more finely structured sonic landscape of building blocks making up the new sound picture.
Aleš Suša and Petar Stojanovič are the new members. They bring new and different qualities compared to the two guys they replaced. Suša, known to those who follow what Big Band RTV Slovenije is up to these days, is technically extremely well put together, and that shows in the plasticity and the seriously skillful use of the available space in the compositions. Both in the jazzy touches and in the neo-classical variations. In the songs, Aleš Suša draws on a wider range of saxophones, and Demolition Group also make use of his chops on keyboards and programming. No less interesting a musician is Petar Stojanović from the Krško outfit Kontradikshn, who knows full well how to fertilize arrangements with electronic sound tricks. Demolition Group made good use of both new members’ qualities in shaping some of the new arrangements, effectively coloring and contrastingly bringing to life the drama theater they wanted at certain points of the songs. Suša is omnipresent, but he doesn’t necessarily push his sax into double phrasing (guitar plus sax). Instead he often “steps away” from the guitar lines and decorates them with extra ornaments. Stojanovič is a man of minimalist tricks who handles sounds very deftly, building them with real aesthetic sense into the massive wall of guitar phrases, which, in the doctrine of short but punchy minimalist tricks inside the individual middle-eight passages, proves to be a very convincing fact. He shows that skill, for example, in the solo section of Korak nazaj. Doubled-up sax-guitar phrasing is still there in abundance, which is one of the band’s trademarks, but it doesn’t feel as dominant as, say, on the previous album. The sax and guitar lines “split” beautifully in the song Preveč je vsega, which only confirms the exceptional sense for making the most of the available sonic landscape in the compositions from this seasoned and incredibly insightful, expressive lineup.
Given that the new album is more measured in production and arrangement (the building blocks of the picture coexist in better balance), the rhythm section steps decisively into the contrasting foreground. It tries out even more variability and rhythmic quirks than the previous album delivered. Attention is often grabbed by the incredibly warm, full, organic-sounding funky groove volume of Tomi Gregel’s bass guitar, adorned with the exceptional aesthetics of many fine little tricks, with no shortage of slapping. The great Mark King (Level 42) himself should meet Tomi. This bundle of trying out more sonic subtleties in the arrangements comes precisely thanks to the slightly more “laid back” production, which in exchange for the angry, abrasive bristling of the previous album now stresses more finesse and sensuality, a new experience for the band and the listener alike (or more precisely, the band’s fans). Of course, there are moments where Demolition Group blow up in a more punky way too. Grozno sam is one, where Ivan Gregel impresses with some outstanding drum fills, while on the closing title track of the album Demolition Group even flirt with the rhetoric of the blues.
This is an album that’s more variable in how the songs are put together than its predecessor. It’s loaded with a bigger dose of artistic moves that smell of sonic experimentation, meaning the band lays bare the artistic pose of its own, self-grown musical ID card. That doesn’t mean the new album is worse or better than the earlier ones. It’s simply an honest reflection of the state of new times, which have led Demolition Group along the natural path of self-grown evolution to the point where it was necessary to reach for new artistic challenges.
The renewed Demolition Group steered through these new challenges with distinction, and based on the artistic face of the new album, it’s fair to conclude that »Pojdiva tja« gives the band a superb platform for a pile of new development possibilities along the path of self-grown evolution, ones Demolition Group can try out in the future and build into their musical dossier. That dossier has to stay a constant, which the new (and just different enough) “Pojdiva tja” successfully holds on to. New times, new state of affairs. A new excellent album. In short. No, anyone who thought things would go downhill after Joc’s departure will have to take another close look at the band’s new situation. The band is nowhere near losing its compass, and Pojdiva tja is a gorgeous addition next to its older studio siblings in the group’s rich discography. Demolition Group are nowhere near saying their last word, and with such a potent crew, Goran Šalamon will surely deliver a pile of musical delights in the future. In this new era, then, what’s expected from Demolition Group is further full-blooded artistic blossoming!
by Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Vse je tu
2. Zvezde so onstran
3. Korak nazaj
4. Napačna midva
5. Grozno sam
6. Preveč vsega
7. Nostalgija
8. Se vidiva jutri
9. Pojdiva tja
Lineup:
Goran Šalamon – vocals
Petar Stojanović – guitar
Aleš Suša – saxophone, keyboards
Tomi Gregel – bass guitar
Ivan Gregel – drums
Matjaž Pegam – sound, production
