Self-released
Release date: 11. 12. 2020
Production: Andrej Maver & Feedback
Album length: 41.19 min
Genre: Jazz-Rock Fusion/Art Rock/Blues
Rating: 9.5/10
Feedback are one of the few Slovenian bands that play, plainly put, jazz rock fusion, and not just that. They release albums too, of course. Feedback, who racked up an EP and no fewer than three studio albums in 2008-2009, followed by the album “Skrivnost” in 2013, are a band that stays true to its musical vision. By putting out two studio albums in a single year, they may even be unique in the entire history of Slovenian rock. The band, which has now taken the longest break between two albums so far, has run with an unchanged lineup the whole time and keeps everything under control. Among other things, they release and record their own albums and book their own gigs too. So Feedback are a nut with not just a hard shell but a hard core as well. Isn’t that kind of artistic freedom the best thing there is? An “indie” and “D.I.Y.” crew in the truest sense of the words.
Musically, Feedback make music that is absolutely one of a kind and opens doors for them on any stage in the world, whether jazz, progressive rock or even blues. Why? Because this is a top-notch all-instrumental quartet with a unique musical charisma and character. And audiences abroad reward that. Since being a Slovenian jazz and rock band is, well, a cross to bear of its own kind, that’s hard to pull off, but with their presence Feedback are an outstanding enrichment to any music scene in every respect. In the wider field of bands reaching for such a finely chiseled paradigm of instrumental jazz-rock fusion, where you can feel elements of blues too, there actually aren’t any here. With the new album as well, Feedback hold today, in Slovenia at least in terms of artistic character, the strongest link to what the bands Izvir and Predmestje created in the 1970s. Among active Slovenian bands, you could also put Idrija’s Divje jezero and Ljubljana’s Moonlight Sky in the same camp, and after that the smart comparisons nearly run out.
Feedback’s big advantage is that the four-piece lineup has stayed unchanged since the very start. A seven-year break between the new album and the previous one is a long stretch. During that time, the quartet member most in the public eye was guitarist Matej Magajne, who got more actively involved in working with Bakalina Velika and the more blues-oriented Poltrona Express.
Feedback are truly a phenomenon. Miloš Leban, Andrej Maver and Matej Magajne have been playing together since the mid-nineties at the very least, while bassist Andrej Klavžar joined them in 2004, when they grew into a quartet. What I’m getting at is that they know each other inside out and are superbly in sync. And because they’re perfectionists, let’s call them sonic purists devoted to the analog signal, they recorded the new album in the studio the way you’d play a live show. Mostly everything on the first take. It’s no secret anymore either that their music usually comes out of group jams. They use instruments that put rock on the world map at the turn of the sixties into the seventies. These include, among others, the Rhodes electric piano and the Hammond organ with a Leslie amp (Procol Harum aren’t far off), while Magajne, who plays entirely without a pick, is considered a real oddball among guitarists, not just here but more broadly. I’ll just throw out that he plays guitar the way Albert King did, or the way Eric Gales and Coco Montoya do. The young man has exceptional control when it comes to accenting notes, and his solo vocabulary reaches an almost boundless spectrum. Even when he repeats a given note, it will always ring out differently. In this virtue Magajne is certainly one of the greatest guitar “feel merchants” around here. That’s why this subtle guitar master tossed the pick out of his left hand (!!!) long ago.
No two ways about it. A little over 41 minutes of playing time confirms that the band was once again having the time of their lives recording the new album. Playful, waggish interludes and sparkling virtuoso pranks are once again everywhere in abundance. The band again proves its extraordinary skill at delivering exceptional dynamics and flow across the album. Given that the core of their musical language is improvisation, you’d expect Feedback to be a pretty tough nut to crack. But they’re not. They’re surprisingly accessible to anyone. The album as a whole is thrilling from the first second to the last. That’s why it flies by, and when it ends, you happily hit “play” again. Even though we’re talking about a jazz-rock fusion album. It’s brilliantly balanced. The ratio of listenable structures to tantalizing, exploratory moments of solo acrobatics is ideally spread out.
The album opens softly and gently, a Hammond backdrop building space for a guitar solo that deepens the mystical mood with its melody, and the track is called “Balada za Meliso”. The mellow opener “Balada za Meliso” alone serves up an extremely warm, organic, velvety sonic depth, which defines the sonic landscape of this release’s production. Right after it comes “Tiskarski škrat”, which carries a playful, folksy lead (harmonized) ornament and where the Hammond organ also gets to stretch out in a solo. A lovely moment of the album that could easily reach radio frequencies too. Feedback show exceptional sensuality and chemistry in the “botanical” “Škrlatnordeče mrtve koprive rastejo za živo mejo”, where more bluesy sentiment creeps in. This plant, by the way, has no connection at all to the common nettle, except that it’s likewise medicinal and edible (it’s bursting with vitamin C and iron). In this track the band shows exceptional softness and flexibility, and that chemistry, as it measures out and strings together its artistic moves. “Gilgameš iz Uruka” is the album’s moment that, compositionally, most delicately and in one single place sketches the band’s homegrown, indigenous musical aura. It combines the musical and experimental sides of Feedback in the most felicitous way. It contains an extremely attractive lead motif that builds the mystical intro. The band comes alive and explodes particularly adventurously and fiercely in numbers like the racing, funky “Modni razmak” and “Ajde, gremo”, with a real “prairie ride” connotation (lead motif/rhythm) and a jazzily solid, “bristling” middle section. The most dynamic track on the album is “Golobradi momci”, where the jazz elements are also more heavily emphasized. Yep. You guessed it. It’s the most “loosened-up” and “dynamic” track on the album. In the last third of the track the band lets the rhythm section step forward too, to stretch out in a solo, before playing the lead motif once more at the close. “Sladko, slano” is tacked on at the tail. It’s a lost track that was recorded back in 2012. It stands apart from the rest of the material. It would work very well as the exit/closing track of a film soundtrack. It carries a mild touch of psychedelia, deepened up to the halfway point by recorded speech with messages that only the bravest will piece together into a meaningful whole. Amid the smoke of a good housewife’s spinel.
Underpinning all of this is an exceptionally lively sound picture of the production and its three-dimensional depth, which gives off the feel of a live gig while you listen. You can feel the “depth” placement of the instruments. Live is where Feedback are strongest anyway. The band again lays its analog heart bare. It doesn’t go deeper than that. Given the crew’s experience and seasoning, that’s hardly surprising. What is fascinating, though, is realizing that Feedback really sweated the details and on the new release once again delivered what has always set them apart. Top-notch magic, driven by the chemistry of the bond between the quartet’s members. They approached it with sensuality and softness as well as intensity and burning passion. The blend of the two principles is downright enchanting. The quartet senses each other superbly and communicates phenomenally across the most varied musical figures and rhythmic keys. The quartet’s highly perceptive flexibility and reactive responsiveness in such a dynamic musical landscape is at times breathtaking.
With their fifth album, Feedback have once again confirmed that they’re a one-of-a-kind musical story. Far from what the otherwise funny and debatable album title would suggest. It’s hard to find parallels for them. Looking back to the seventies, say, you could find some shared vibe with Camel’s debut, or with Santana’s early-period creations. “Iztrošeni in predvidljivi fusion vzorci” simply seduce you, cast a spell on you and enchant you. “Feedback” remain, in what they do, great masters of their musical craft, and few can match them. Here at home, there’s no one like them. The guys have put together yet another highly appealing all-instrumental release, a mature step up from past achievements. Once again it embodies the group’s great distinction and finesse in reconciling complexity with musical infectiousness. Nebula is born. Welcome home again, boys!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Balada za Meliso (03:43)
2. Tiskarski škrat (03:36)
3. Modni razmak (05:28)
4. Gilgameš iz Uruka (04:28)
5. Ajde, gremo (5:23)
6. Škrlatnordeče mrtve koprive rastejo za živo mejo (04:25)
7. Golobradi momci (09:29)
8. Sladko, slano (04:29)
Lineup:
Matej Magajne – guitar
Miloš Leban – Rhodes electric piano, Hammond organ
Andrej Klavžar – bass guitar
Andrej Maver – drums
