Label: ZKP RTV Slovenija
Release year: 2008
Production: Avtomobili
Album length: 68.35 min
Genre: Art Rock / Pop
Studio 14 rarely lets a Slovenian act slip by, as long as they’ve brushed up against the airwaves even a little in their career, without offering them a gig. Nova Gorica’s Avtomobili, one of the most refined art pop rock bands Slovenia has produced in their era, played there in the spring of 2008, in a show that walked through the band’s musical evolution in chronological order over just under 70 minutes. “Nothing more,” as they like to say modestly themselves, “than an innocent radio exercise” of running through fifteen songs.
The music of Avtomobili is recognized as a timeless artistic body of work, an outstanding creative achievement of the strictly profiled art partnership of the Vuksanovič brothers, and over the band’s long-lived career it has sent plenty of evergreens out over the airwaves that ring in our ears every single day. Through the years, as we might meaningfully put it.
The albums from 1984 to 2006, to run through them quickly: “Mjesec je opet pun” (1984), Dugo toplo ljeto (1985), Krenimo (1987), Mraz (1992), Skozi leta (1994), Navaden dan (1997), Enakonočje (2000) and Mesta železniških postaj (2006). Their most recognizable moments are packed into a tight grip of just under seventy minutes. What’s striking is how far Avtomobili have pushed their artistic development. That shows most on the oldest songs, like Ona nosi uniformu and Prljavi jezik. The latter gets a proper jazz contour, and at the same time introduces the audience to the compact presence of new guitarist Boštjan Andrejc “Bushy”, who as the band’s new permanent member had to suddenly jump into Alan Jakin’s shoes, which many guitarists would find far too loose a fit.
Shortly after the release of the album “Mesta železniških postaj”, the band successfully integrated “Bushy” into the lineup. His painless fit was surely helped by this guitarist’s rich experience, which comes from his many years in Night Jump, where he had to build on a layered, multi-faceted guitar language. And that’s exactly the kind of guitarist you need for the diversity that defines Avtomobili’s musical legacy. With “Bushy”, Avtomobili also gained in the arrangement of vocal harmonies. “Bushy” is, after all, a very good vocalist too, which the band naturally exploits skillfully to fill the available space between Marko’s verses (Enakonočje, Drugačno nebo), and Bushy also frequently “doubles” (read: duplicates) Marko on the choruses, thickening the harmony of the stage numbers themselves.
The renewed Avtomobili sounded far more structurally varied, warm and lively on stage in 2008. Marko Vuksanovič’s move to (exclusively) vocal duties freed up another spot in the lineup, and David Šuligoj took it. With Šuligoj’s arrival, the rise in melody in the bass lines and in dynamics is more noticeable than ever, which brings the band’s art element out in even more impressive fashion. With “Bushy’s” guitar language skillfully implanted in an ever-reliable dialogue with Mirko Vuksanovič, one of the pillars of Avtomobili, on keyboards, the art exposé in the band’s pop rock sermon has never sounded so soft, supple, seductive and sensual. The renewed Avtomobili’s performing power is crowned by the exceptional ballad Hvala za pisma, which is a highlight of the concert all by itself. The chemical intensity of the building blocks of the recording “Klub klubov” would never ignite with such a full yield without Marko Vuksanovič’s unique vocal approach and the unique timbre of his voice. A warm, caressingly velvety confession, it adapts with effective flexibility and masterfully brings the sensitive character of the lyrics to life. We’re once again at songs like Hvala za pisma, which Gorica comes within a hair of, and it’s precisely in these especially sophisticated moments that Marko’s unique, always pleasantly tangible vocal character, with its highly contagious reach, creeps intensely under your skin.
Here are the evergreens Sama, Ljubezen, Skozi leta, Gospodar, with special guest of the evening Zoran Predin, who in a symbolic way returns the favor to Avtomobili, Enkrat v življenju,… They don’t let you breathe in all the vibration that this unique document of the club scene gives off, in a tiny packed room of 140 heads.
Four years after the Studio 14 show, Avtomobili released the album “Pozna pomlad” (2012) and celebrated the event with a concert marking the band’s 30th anniversary at Cankarjev dom, with special guests, in a completely different setting, in a once again packed Linhartova dvorana. Let’s hope the release of “Klub klubov” will also be enriched by a recording from Cankarjev dom, since it would be interesting to compare the further growth in the content of the band’s evergreens, as well as the continued artistic maturing, which the songs on the new album “Pozna pomlad” offer as proof.
So Avtomobili are a band raised on the radio. The cover of the album “Klub klubov” carries symbolic value, in fact. It illustrates the collaboration between Val 202 and the band itself. The cover art shows a rustic model of a radio, with the band members perched on it in their stage commitment. It’s about the mutual growth of two partners, once again, meaningfully: “Skozi leta”.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 8.0 / 10
Tracklist:
1. Mjesec je opet pun
2. Ona nosi uniformu
3. Prljvi jezik
4. Sama
5. Enkrat v življenju
6. Ljubezen
7. V mrzlih dvoranah
8. Gospodar
9. Skozi leta
10 Argenitna
11. Hvala za pisma
12. Navaden dan
13. Enakonočje
14. Gorica
15. Drugačno nebo
Lineup:
Marko Vuksanovič – vocals
Mirko Vuksanovič – keyboards
Boštjan Andrejc “Bushy” – guitar
David Šuligoj – bass guitar
Marko Lasič – drums
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Zoran Predin – vocals on track no. 8
