Label: Self-released
Release date: 18.01.2020
Album length: 39.18 min
Producer: Mario Babojelić
Genre: indie-rock / art pop
Rating: 9.5 / 10
AKA Neomi is a Slovenian indie-art-pop (and rock) outfit that some time ago “refreshed” its name and “stretched” it out a bit. Under the name Neomi, the album »Poglej« came out in 2011 – RockLine review HERE. Behind the name Neomi, really, stands the artistic charisma and nature of singer Saša Vipotnik. The band’s songs lean mostly on her signature vocals, as well as her ideas, for their vocabulary. Eight years between »Poglej« and the new »Beautiful Disasters« is a long stretch, and a lot happened in between. The musical vision changed gradually too, and ripened to the point where Saša and the crew felt that tweaking the name for the new band and new times made sense, as the content of the album »Beautiful Disaters« itself justifies.
An important building block, a generator of the band’s new artistry that clearly reflects the core of the changes, is the excellent musician Mario Babojelić. Yes. Whenever we talk about Babojelić, expectations rise for the discovery of uncharted musical dimensions. That’s driven by his often palpably intuitive exploration of musical information in the ether. Let’s just say it straight: you expect a generous dose of experimenting with sound collages and the creation of a soundscape (the Brits, thanks to the Robert Fripp phenomenon, have a great term for it: »soundscapes«). On »Poglej«, Saša Vipotnik captivated the public with her recognizable vocal charm, with a strong and ever-present soul aesthetic; on the new album, she expands and nurtures her vocal nature with maturity. Saša has a distinctive vocal charisma that’s infectious and, what matters most, recognizable. This time she wrote the lyrics for AKA Neomi in English, and the interesting part is that the vocals (given the new characteristics in how the meter is used) also behave considerably differently in the new musical arrangements than they did on »Poglej«. The crucial difference is the decisive leap of »Beautiful Disasters« into electronic arrangement territory, which pulls it firmly away from the mostly acoustic content of »Poglej«.
The album »Beautiful Disasters« plugs very successfully into the global (new) pop soul and indie rock aesthetic, with its confessional »conglomerate of homegrown originality« setting the tone and giving it a clear, unburdened streak of strict art premise. That means that even though the album works perfectly well for radio frequencies, it isn’t hung up on its content having to land there at all costs. »Beautiful Disasters« works in an aesthetic of delicate, fine-mechanics handling of sonic character, and its production is not only up to date but very attractive, since in its arrangements and sharply accentuated contrasts between the building blocks of the sound picture it is exceptionally accomplished, polished and honed, which means that, as a manifesto of committed perfectionism, it went through a long process of coming together. That the crew was stepping into new times was already signaled by the songs Istanbul, She Knows and White Dove, which the band, still under the name Neomi, put on YouTube back in 2015. Of those three, only White Dove found its way onto »Beautiful Disasters«. It’s wedged between the tracks Interlude and Outro, has a breath of jazz about it, and, unlike the rustling swell of synthesizer pastels and guitar-line pastels, it keeps more “traditional sonic groundedness”. So the reason the band put it at the tail end of the tracklist is probably precisely that its arrangement drifts a bit away from the rest of the album.
»Beutiful Disasters« is a consistently demanding and pleasingly varied album, full of diverse ideas that constantly keep up an endearing note of musical accessibility while also holding a compact note of its own artistry. In the melting together of the worlds of sonic experimentation and instant musical catchiness (accessibility), the album’s seventh track, Empty Bottles, is surely the confessional peak of the musical character of »Beautiful Disasters«. This song especially showcases the theatrical build-up of atmosphere, which reaches the optimum of merging two worlds, above all in the closing atmospheric crescendo, rolling on a layered fusion of sound collages of synthesized guitar lines, under which Babojelić even slips in a bit of distorted avalanche. It’s a communion of teasing sonic experimentation and pop and soul charisma, which the vocal meter keeps up in picturesque, reconciling contrast.
It’s hard to find parallels for this band. Basically, there are none. Still, AKA Neomi know how to draw in a base of fans of bands from Silence to Pliš or the late Melodrom. That tells you nothing, or rather hints that the level of cross-genre blending on »Beautiful Disasters« is everywhere, so this is a super-genre album. Here, in an exceptionally conciliatory dialogue, the aforementioned charisma of a new soul and pop hairstyle, cabaret chanson and pronounced experimenting with the sounds of electronic music keep handing each other their hands, a cunningly disguised element of indie rock steps into all of it, and there’s a passing breath of jazz. Hence it’s clear that AKA Neomi are unique musical self-taught originals, with an art rhetoric leavened from entirely homegrown musical dough.
Saša’s gently caressing, mild and shapely yearning vocal, which addresses you in the arrangements with a hint of whisper, as if coming from beyond, is ennobled by the rich sound collages of a polished aesthetic of tinkering with electronic sound collages. Yet a clear anchor is felt throughout in the organic tones too, brought by the integration of piano as well as the depth of the low end, courtesy of the excellent Dejan Slak on bass guitar (Moveknowledgement, Dubzilla,…). Saša gave the crew for »Beautiful Disasters« a proper airing-out, which dragged a change in musical direction along with it. That’s reflected in the look of the new album’s substance, commanded by a new troop of top Slovenian musicians, among whom Igor Matković also joined in as a special guest on trumpet.
The album sticks to a proven artistic recipe and doesn’t let up on it. It feels cerebral and “transcendental” throughout, trying to lead the listener into fields where you switch off the rational and the effect of such music becomes a completely new and singular experience. It carries an element of psychedelia, you see. If you know how to give yourself over to this kind of music and aren’t afraid to switch off the rational, it can take you far, far away. Farther than you ever hoped. That’s why an album like this is always worth taking the time for, surrendering to it by switching off your consciousness and opening up space for a new dimension of information that couldn’t otherwise reach you. You’ll be richly rewarded. All in all, one of the most beautiful Slovenian music releases, which already in January 2020 signals that it will become one of the most resonant Slovenian album releases of the year.
And last but not least. Finally a Slovenian album whose cover isn’t black, white, gray or a combination of all three, which is otherwise our eternal mantra, but is adorned by a gorgeous, colorful motif with an unconcealed message that embodies the times we live in. In numb calm, we admire all the beauty of the dystopian collapse of the world.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Silent
2. 19 Years
3. Moviestar
4. Beautiful Distractions
5. Yellow Pill
6. Family
7. Empty Bottles
8. Interlude
9. White Dove
10. Outro
Lineup:
Saša Vipotnik – vocals
Mario Babojelič – guitar, keyboards, drum programming
Erik Marenče – piano, keyboards
Dejan Slak – bass guitar, bass synthesizer
Marko Grubar – drums
Guest musicians:
Jernej Kržič – bass guitar, bass synthesizer on tracks 3 and 4
Igor Matkovič – trumpet on tracks 8 and 9
Boštjan Gradišek – drums on track 4
Dorian Granda – drums on track 3
Peter Jenko – synthesizers on tracks 3 and 4
