Label: Nostromo Records
Release date: 2011
Production: Grega Habič
Album length: 44.16 min
Genre: Instrumental Rock / Art Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
Two years after the release of “Self Destruct Sequence”, Slovenian guitar wizard and mastermind Grega Habič is back on the music scene with a fresh studio effort. Anyone who moves in Slovenia’s musically “uncontaminated” circles knows this name all too well. Grega is one of that handful of creative geniuses sworn to protecting and constantly pushing forward their own artistic freedom. Given the curse of being a “genius, any genius” living in Slovenia, you’re doomed to make a living from anything and everything except peddling your genius. Unless you’re hiding some crook’s talents, that is, because those have been encouraged for years, from the political elite on down the pyramid of the state. Grega is a guy who could be raking in stacks of rustling greenbacks in the backing bands of Slovenian pop entertainers, but he’d rather take the thorny road of defiance. Don’t get me wrong. Abroad, they welcome musicians and live-stage gladiators like Grega Habič with open arms, so let’s hope Grega breaks through soon and makes a successful leap abroad.
A musician we Slovenes can be truly proud of! “Open Heart Surgery” deepens and widens the expressive horizons Grega has revealed up to now, including on “Self Destruct Sequence”, and presents him in a new light, one where he’s sharpened his profile further and distilled the clarity of his musical vision, putting the musical substance front and center. To date, this is the most mature, most focused and, above all, sonically polished record of Grega Habič’s career. The maturity shows especially in some particularly sophisticated passages where, more than ever, Grega leans on the legacy of jazz, which undoubtedly feeds his investigative streak and insatiable appetite for musical experimentation.
The production is livelier than ever, even the programming is mostly well camouflaged, and in the final mastering, maestro Mika Jusilla has optimally emphasized the contrasts between the individual sonic collages, so brilliantly weaving together the final (three-dimensional) picture of the sound spectrum.
Grega, who once again not only played all the guitars but also programmed the drums, added some keyboards and played most of the bass (except on the track 2 L8 4 Tears, where Matej Sušnik guests), kept up the collaboration with the excellent multidimensional American musician Jesse Adams for the new album. The peculiarity of the Habič / Adams pairing is best summed up by the track Fighting The Undertow. A dark piece where, in this experimental tag team, a sense for doom-laden theater, the psycho-frenzy of Adams’ rhythmic poetics in delivering the verses, and the bared, lively figuration of Grega Habič’s trademark guitar hairdos shake hands beautifully. The album opens with the ominous, furious riff of the track Pig. It feels alive, “American” in its thrash riff, fashionably smeared and roaring, and it maintains Habič’s recognizable signature, which the previous album already embodied. Pig reminds you what it looks like when a pig gets to the trough, though it can also be misleading, since with its direct riff-based provocation and “growly” noise it raises suspicions that this is an album built on riff-mashing. It’s an early, direct revelation of six-string theory on the record, summing up in a tight four minutes what kind of dough Grega Habič is kneaded from. A great choice of opener, one that automatically gets you to sharpen your ear stumps and happily surrender to the further processing of this excellent piece of work
Alyx is the moment where the album first flirts heavily with elements of jazz, woven into a coquettish funk rhythm anchored by a wah-wah riff in the background and once again buried in Grega Habič’s typical guitar language, loosening up the tense opening a little, while Mirror calms the album’s initial opening fury completely. In Mirror, the guitarist’s power of refined expression sparks for the first time in his guitar language, and that language finds safe shelter in the keyboard structures of his colleague Robert Humar, who masterfully keep the backdrop going. The especially mellifluous 2 L8 4 Tears brings a deepening of the jazz fusion, with a lucid seasoning of Adams’ vocals.
The tracks Alchemist and, right after it, Devil’s Whisper extend the power of fusing metal with jazz moves, as only Grega Habič’s experimental inner self understands it. If the description in the previous sentence applies especially to Alchemist, Devil’s Whisper is more direct, keeping a strong bond with melody and, along with it, direct riff integrity. That makes it all the more tailor-made for lovers of hard (metal) erotica.
Tunel Lights and Marionette are new leaps into an abundance of flowing organic structures. These very moments on the album, much like in the first part of Mirror and then 2 L8 F4 Tears, feel a lot closer to the ear, as if a whole band were breathing along with the listener. And if we’re looking for the moments where the music of the new album touches the hidden corners of the heart in particular, the second-to-last track, Irreversable Damage, offers just that. The track doesn’t skimp on a fantastic contrast in the guitar playing, which, after a proper “mini flamenco acoustic solo assault”, turns through guitar tricks of boundless wit and inspiration, with no end in sight. The song shatters all the familiar templates, erases the borders at the genre frontiers and melts them in a crucible into a unique expressive stew, the personification of many atmospheric twists along the leading motifs. The element of unpredictability stands out here especially, while the track’s remarkable flow and listenability are fully preserved. Many of the track’s special feelings are also co-created by the acoustic guitar of Glenn Snelwar.
The album closes with one more wound-up-to-the-limit track, which really completes the circle of the album’s story. It’s the title track, which in terms of atmosphere could easily swap places with Pig as the opener. A breakneck guitar rally, with a motivic impression that in the soloing also leaps into a few seconds of soothing, extravagant oriental melos. A great closing hook on the album, where the grabby, metallized punch and the dark atmosphere of a scripted drama theater return.
“Open Heart Surgery” is an album that deserves you following this advice before you put it in the CD player: “Relax your mind, disconnect your reason, empty your head!” Only then will you be fully receptive to its message. It demands more attention, but in return for that attention it rewards you handsomely. A new high point for Slovenian rock and fresh proof that we Slovenes have excellent musicians who also have enough guts not to deny or hold back their genius. “Open Heart Surgery” is an album that, with its unshakable and utterly unique message, puts Grega Habič among the world’s elite Earthlings, and one that can make even the biggest masterminds in this game prick up their ears at any moment, irreversibly. From Steve Vai to Jason Becker. Grega Habič will have to find confirmation of the musical charisma of his unique sermon and vision abroad. He’s not the only genius cast into disfavor by the historical attitude of the mother country and the sado-masochistic, tight-fisted envy of the small-mindedness of the “Slovenc-lings” toward geniuses of his caliber. “Open Heart Surgery” throws the doors wide open for Grega Habič to break through abroad!
What this musician needs now is the following. A proper backing band, with whom, besides playing live shows, he could optionally record future studio albums too. At times it’s impossible to miss the synthetic cosmetics of the drum programming on the new album as well, which modern software otherwise camouflages superbly, but a prime example, say, of the “robotically precise responsiveness” of the hi-hat cymbal in the mix of the overall sound structure just can’t be missed. All of that will happen in the future. But nice and slow. Step by step!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Pig
2. Alyx
3. Mirror
4. 2 L8 4 Tears
5. Alchemist
6. Devil’s Whisper
7. Tunnel Lights
8. Fighting The Undertow
9. Marionette
10. Irreversable Damage
11. Open Heart Surgery
Lineup:
Grega Habič – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, programming
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Jesse Adams – vocals (tracks 3 and 8), keyboards (tracks 1, 6 and 8), rhythm guitar (track 1)
Glenn Snelwar – acoustic guitar (track 10)
Manfred Dikkers – percussion (tracks 7 and 9)
Robert Humar – keyboards (tracks 3, 4 and 9)
Matej Sušnik – bass guitar (track 4)
