Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: MI2
Label: ZKP RTV Slovenija
Release: 2014
Duration: 43:45
Rating: 4.5/5
Four years after their last studio record »Rokenrol« (2010), they’re back on the scene with a vividly titled new studio effort. Mi2: makers of horned-Rogaška rock n’ roll. Mi2 are a people’s band, the kind that knows best how to package the recipe for Slovenian rock ‘n’ roll (in music and poetry) in a way the crowd on the street can identify with. The little guy. The most exploited class. The majority (sadly). The topicality of the band’s preachy message gives it extra weight. On the new album, the socially critical engagement of the poetry strings together a few more virtuous projectiles that hit dead straight with their direct glow and all the force of great truthfulness. If anyone’s a master of packing the Slovenian language into rhyme and musical value, the way verses can wring it out, it’s definitely Mi2. That flattering label covers every ingredient in the Mi2 dossier, whose authenticity of message “knocks the ground out from under” any listener and sets off a cascade of emotions! That’s what counts. And if the crowd identifies with that, then you’re a bona fide people’s musician and performer, the kind whose songs become folk songs. The album »Čista jeba« is yet another document that will further cement the band’s status as hugely beloved among the citizens of our republic.
The poetry of »Čista jeba« remains a constant of Mi2. Through their recognizable manner of wry, goofy sarcasm, weighed down with moments of heartfelt depth (Visoka pesem, Strel v koleno, Beli grad), they keep a firm bond with the typical character traits of the average resident of the Šentflorjan valley. The new album is a new macramé of eleven stories that Mi2, as sensitive observers of reality, have strung onto tape over the past four years. Kregar and Dimek remain convincingly expressive lyricists. On the title track the band used the contrast between the two lead vocals and merged them into an effective duet full of lucid mockery. Their preacherly language is truthful throughout, direct, yet in spots garnished just right with a lucid wit and a potent dose of black humor from the boys from the banks of the Sotla. The album has quite a few moments that will catch on with the crowds in no time and join the band’s iron repertoire of folk evergreens. We can instantly put all four already released singles in that company: the title track, then the tragic, for Mi2 unusually dark but superbly produced Hči vaškega učitelja, then the defiantly mocking yet wake-up-call punk rock anthem Vstati inu obstati, as well as the more intimate, inward-looking, blues-seasoned Stara duša, which has a serious rival on the album in the blues waltz Beli grad. The song SMS, in its musicality, would work great with orchestral arrangements too.
Drago Popovič Popi, the man behind the great sonic appeal of this record, has once again done outstanding work. The album has a lively, organic »feel« that combines the sharply contrasting elements of garage bite (Moje muze, Heroji srednjega razreda, Vstati inu obstati) and the compact warmth of low tones, which luxuriate especially in the sonically sophisticated (more inward-looking) moments. Kregar ripens like old wine. His »velvety«, warm-cored, low-to-mid male vocal once again doesn’t hide a mild, occasional kinship with Zoran Predin. The guy stays passionate and deeply invested in delivering messages that come alive so sincerely and authentically. »Čista jeba« is a thematically varied record shaped by eleven compositions with polished arrangements. Its emotional peak comes right at the close, with the markedly nostalgic, yearning Visoka pesem, which works like a kind of requiem. For anyone in this country. A sea of squandered chances, all the trains have left, the soul would, but the body can’t anymore. We had our victories, we had our defeats.By the end there’s a zero on both sides of the equation. Balance, great peace, which comes only once. When the soul can leave. The poetry wakes the dead man and takes him back to childhood. Back to the embryo. The song’s story can be understood as a short film that plays out in your head in the final moments before the lady with the scythe carries you off to the other world. It’s a brilliantly packaged Dimek song full of nostalgic tangibility. In its emotional depth, this melancholic, deeply felt song has quite a few parallels with the excellent classic Zbudi me za prvi maj, and as the moving peak of »Čista jeba« it also closes the new album.
Clearly, the band’s working biorhythm, with four years between studio albums, is just right for hitting an artistic and expressive optimum. »Čista jeba« is simply a new document that has effectively caught up with its older studio siblings. There isn’t a bad moment on it, the production is excellent, it has an exceptional touch of compositional polish, and it confirms the great artistic maturity of a band full of experience, along with its firm stride along the lines of a well-crafted musical vision, with which Mi2 once again reach the power of great expressive charisma. As piercing as they come!
Lineup
Tone Kregar – Tonč – vocals
Jernej Dirnbek – Dimek – guitar, vocals
Egon Herman – Srajca – guitar
Robert Novak – Flik – bass guitar
Igor Peter Orač – Mali – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Boštjan Imenšek – guitar
Davor Klarič – keyboards
Miha Gorše – slide guitar, accordion, keyboards
Production
Drago Popovič Popi
Tracklist
1. Heroji srednjega razreda
2. Čista jeba
3. Strel v koleno
4. Moje muze
5. SMS
6. Stara duša
7. Vstati in obstati
8. Ljubi dve
9. Beli grad
10. Hči vaškega učitelja
11. Visoka pesem
