Label: Celinka
Release date: 20.05.2018
Production: Gašper Kržmanc
Album length: 32.35
Genre: Country / Folk / Pop Rock
Šlajn is a new Slovenian outfit that swears by forging little tunes, cobbled together the typical way, straight from the sunny side of the Alps. What makes them special is that they flirt openly with country and country rock sounds. Given that the music is written by Slovenes, we can’t skip past the cabaret drama theater, which brings a heaping helping of playful tomfoolery to the debut “Ljubezenske”.
Šlajn are four strapping gents, “sharp-dressed” men, and their home turf is Inner Carniola. Head that way to Lake Cerknica, where, you won’t believe it, there lives a fish that’s part of the lake’s former native ichthyocoenosis. That’s the community of fish that still existed there in the days of Janez Vajkard Valvasor, so long before “fisheries management” came into fashion and they dragged in rudd and the rest of the fishy vermin that has no business being there. There have even been attempts to introduce Soča trout, but let’s leave that aside. Anyway, this famous fish, which survived every cross and hardship, still lives in Lake Cerknica. It’s called a šlajn, which the Inner Carniolans probably borrowed from German, where the same fish goes by »Schleie«, which in standard Slovenian is linj (tench, Tinca tinca). The šlajn also graces the cover of the album by the band Šlajn, titled »Ljubezenske«. And if you’ve been at least a little good, it can also stand in for that little fish that grants you three wishes.
The poetry is simple, direct, no beating around the bush. It’s about? Love. Not the unconditional Christ-style kind, the one who turned the left cheek, then the right, as the mood took him, but love of a much more everyday nature. That one is (at least seemingly) simpler. It’s about the romantic ups and downs between a man and a woman.
The tracks are built on major scales, unpretentious, they grab you right away, which means you can put on »Ljubezenske« whenever you feel like it, it’s that undemanding and speaks to the listener so infectiously. Everything clicks on it. The songs are compact, the arrangements chiseled, the melodies accessible, the production organic and lively, and it’s all topped off by sturdy, convincing playing. The interplay of guitar, banjo and mandolin, the building blocks of the album’s mostly country character, is outstanding! Šlajn can also be devilishly fast (Zvezda karnevala, Jaz bom doma ostal). Smaal Tokk jump into the story too (Moja punčka), which deepens the cheeky side of the album.
While less demanding listeners will quickly adopt this album and will be right at home with the playfulness and country tomfoolery with plenty of banjo flourishes, the gourmets (with some necessary patience) will discover the versatility and hair-splitting refinement of guitarist Gašper Kržmanc. He’s an outstanding guitar talent, which Gašper already made plain with Nula Kelvina (and he keeps doing it). Listening to Šlajn, you can indeed find some parallels with Nula Kelvina, not so much because of Gašper’s playing, although some of that material did land on the new Nula Kelvina album “Kdo za vraga so Nula Kelvina?”, as because of the nature of the songs themselves. The two bands certainly share a cabaret theater, but above all an occasional similarity in energy and character, which goes especially toward coaxing out lucidity, playfulness and that love drama where men, with their occasionally tactless childishness, always draw the short straw with women and then come crawling back to repent. If the ending is happy, the girls take them back.
Gašper is incredible. On this album he shows off some virtues that totally surprise. He handles the banjo with unbelievable skill, and he also shows off some guitar tricks that he doesn’t on Nula Kelvina. We got to experience his multi-layered refinement on the album »Klemen Kotar in dušni pastirji«, but »Ljubezenske« is, in this respect, once again a different story. Here we have country Gašper, who occasionally slips in a blues tune (Uvodni ples), along with a whole heap of little filigree tricks that he sticks into mid-eight passages, lead phrases, transitions, and the outros and intros of songs. Fingerpicking (Jaz grem) is second nature to him, and at moments the whole playing is so teasing that it could swerve into some ragtime “clowning around”. Gašper is a big lover of natural tones, which he coaxes out of the guitar. Sensual and organic is the sonic »hair-splitting when it comes to shaping tones. It’s also worth noting that Gašper occasionally colors those tones very effectively with emotion, which is far from easy and, for a true guitarist, maybe even the greatest artistic-expressive challenge. Surely Gašper listened in his day to many aces, such as Greg Koch, Michael Landau, Carl Verheyen, Sonny Landreth, Warren Haynes, Colin Linden, Steve Dawnson… Even the “titanic Nashville trio” of Bob Ferguson, Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins would smirk at this album. Country swing? Absolutely. If »Jaz grem« was a fun vocal track in this respect, the instrumental »Kje si, miška mala?« is the moment where the guitar, combined with Gašper Kržmanc’s banjo, shines in full light. It even offers a great backdrop for the script of some burlesque, like the ones the famous Benny Hill made.
The guys don’t run out of dynamite. The sharp, savvy content of this album will keep you endlessly entertained. From start to finish you’ll witness full-sound fun, looseness, exuberance, big-time cheek and positive vibes. Excellent musicianship, with Sašo Kovačič’s gorgeous vocal tenor, which couldn’t fit the whole Šlajn story better with its vocal color.
In terms of poetry, the album actually works like a story made up of several smaller stories. A love story made of ten little stories. So the album has a red thread running through it. The girls will swoon when Šlajn play for them on stage, and Sašo will tease them with the poetry! They’re definitely a band that gives off a vibe of its own, a chemistry of its own, and we’ve never had anything like it here.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.0 / 10
Track list:
1. Šlajn na suhem
2. Ko sva odšla na Bled
3. Moja punčka
4. Uvodni ples
5. Jaz bom doma ostal
6. Zimska pravljica
7. Jaz grem
8. Kje si, miška mala?
9. Ob dekletu
10. Zvezda karnevala
Lineup:
Sašo Kovačič – vocals
Gašper Kržmanc – guitar, banjo, mandolin
Klemen Krajc – bass guitar
Goran Kovačević – drums
