Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Dan D
Label: ZKP RTV Slovenija
Release: 2009
Rating: 3/5
Dan D, ah, you eternally melancholy Slovenian rock teddy bears. Four albums in 12 years, so on average one release every three years. Fitting, then, that the fifth one is finally a live album! And how did it all play out? The 37 years Val 202 racked up, going by its ID number, boiled down to the radio station itself proposing that this year it set Dan D “the symphonic way” too. Who on earth would turn down an offer like that?
And so it happened. The date was September 13, 2009. The Križanke date was sold out two weeks before the show, so the guys “tacked on” another one right behind it, on September 14, 2009. Still, the first date is the one that matters to us, because that’s when the TV cameras were pointed at the band and the RTV Slovenija Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David de Villiers. Dan D make no secret of how happy they are with their current studio album “Ura letenja za ekstravagantne ptice” (2009). They clearly, visibly love playing its songs on stage, so they decided to devote the bulk of their hour-and-three-quarters-long Križanke set to running through the new album, with a dash of mega-hits from its predecessor “Katere barve je tvoj dan?” (2004) thrown in. For a modest fee, a helping hand with the orchestral arrangements, written just for this occasion, came from Dan D rock, Primož Grašič, Rok Golob, Milko Lazar, Aleš Avbelj and Neisha.
To spice the whole thing up a bit and take it up a notch in the spectacle department, the Dan D boys invite, as special guests of the evening, a bunch of more or less familiar musical faces such as Tomi M., Ditka Haberl, Borut Marolt, Gal and Severa Gjurin, Polona Kasal and Grant Austin. Now there’s really no way anything can go wrong.
We’re looking at a one-of-a-kind experience, the kind every Dan D fan will be forging into the stars forever and ever. The clever arrangements add a new musical dimension to the “sad teddy bears'” otherwise friendly, mainstream rock template, the kind that can artfully wheedle a sugar cube out of even the most narrow-minded stiff with a single look. In other words, Dan D are the Slovenian boys who are allowed to be rockers and are embraced by the Slovenian masses. And they market that diligently. And rightly so.
Listening to the live CD, there’s honestly nothing to nitpick. Everything sounds a shade more refined, juicy and intense, and above all it successfully captures that sense of ceremony that reigned in Križanke that evening. There’s a noticeable jump in atmosphere, though, especially when Ditka Haberl’s vocals show up on stage for Sirena. The sound of the live recording is excellent, even if at moments Tokac’s one-dimensional way of delivering the verses gets lost in the dynamics of the production, with the symphonic arrangements almost stealing the spotlight from him in places. That’s also the only minor gripe.
The audio recording is somewhat shortened. Logical. A CD fits barely 80 minutes of music. In its own way that makes the wait easier for the impatient, who don’t have to sit through the bagpipe intro and instead get Dan D jumping into action very quickly on the audio disc. Rožice. The symphony orchestra, together with the bagpipes and Tokac’s sad vocals, builds the solemnity step by step, and Tokac still likes to flag his social status with the line: “Thanks for everything. We’re doing great!” As mentioned, in the new setups these songs take on, the peak of the concert is Sirena as performed by Ditka Haberl, who with charisma and deeply felt delivery of the verses, in the famous charm of a one-of-a-kind performance, literally gobbles up all the other guests of the evening. After her, Le naprej also ignites with its sentiment and yearning melodies of traveling toward a new time. But the audience, packed in as Križanke was, doesn’t raise much of a ruckus, right up until the evergreen Čas, when it loudly comes alive and joins in on the verses with gusto. Čas is the second high point of this disc. Tiho works excellently, especially in the chorus, where the message of the verses gets extra emphasis from the shouty, throaty approach of Borut Marolt’s (Niet) manly vocals. The high spirits building toward the end of the concert are kept up by the newer song Put slonova, which stands out with its rich arrangements. Somewhere around 1 minute 34 seconds it gets caught in a “performance” of a “sinusoidal, high-pitched sound of a few-(milli)second repetition”. It doesn’t feel organic and surely strayed onto the recording from some mobile phone or similar marvel, those infallible achievements of humanity’s new era. Despite the remark, it isn’t distracting, in fact it’s even kind of fun.
The magnificently built-up finale through Put slonova is topped by the expected performance of Voda with Tomi M. on vocals. Comparing the stamps the guests put on the individual songs, apart from the hard-to-match Ditka Haberl and the surprisingly spot-on Borut Marolt, he walks away with the most credibility! In short, summa summarum. Excellent sound, excellent performance, excellent coexistence between the symphony orchestra, Dan D and, last but not least, the audience! Mission accomplished!
Including a DVD in this release is definitely a welcome move, and buyers will reach for it all the more eagerly since for a solid price of 12.99€ they get two whole discs of material. The DVD contains the complete recording. The bagpipe intro is there in full, uncut, you get a performance of Za naju punca, which is missing from the audio disc, and the end of the event is extended too, with the band just not wanting to say goodbye to the audience. That said, the DVD is the thing that rather tastelessly, and not infrequently, ruins the nice impressions gained from listening to the audio disc. It proves that Dan D are a terribly static and boring band on stage. They don’t put much into their look either. You don’t expect miracles, but just Tokac being tied down, strapped to a guitar and a mic stand, adds a lot to that feeling of staticness. But that’s true of every band with a singer/guitarist combo in the lineup, something you just accept. What feels awkward this time, though, is the lack of space, since the orchestra took up most of the stage. So Dan D were crammed onto the upper “podium,” raised above the whole Križanke situation but pushed into the background and thus considerably far from the audience. They do strum two songs in an acoustic setup and make their way along a corridor to the edge of the stage, right up to the audience, but those moments are too few. Maybe it wouldn’t be dumb to consider flipping things around in situations like this in the future.
The band up front and the orchestra in the back. I don’t know Križanke’s acoustic characteristics, nor what such a flip in the sound layout would bring in a case like this, but with today’s modern technology just about any manipulation of sound is possible, so the sound engineers would surely have mastered this situation too.
The final product itself, the way the shots are stitched together, doesn’t reach real dynamics and liveliness. The shots repeat far too often. So you’ll witness numerous appearances of a dandy with a little moustache and a violin in his hands, which gives the feeling that he’s the central figure of the event rather than the performance by Dan D. You’ll also miss more shots aimed at the band itself. Especially at the other members, with the exception of Tokac, who as the vocalist still draws enough camera attention.
Anyone who was at Križanke that day could spot in the background a big film screen with an interesting visualization, a clever and colorful direction of selected central motifs or shots. Combining the live footage with the shots on the screen in the background would have further underlined and magnified the mood of individual songs, and the DVD would have developed even more dynamic liveliness and deepened the feelings. Some of the shots on the screen are downright excellent (especially the shot with the climber in Le naprej, etc…), but sadly they aren’t used to their full potential and shown to the casual viewer of this DVD.
To wrap up, I’d sum it up like this: the audio disc is full of virtues, while the DVD carries some reservations and doesn’t live up to expectations. Still, overall it’s a hugely successful release, an excellent move that made it possible to immortalize this unique event, which means a lot to a band like Dan D and further cements its high-ranking place among the other Slovenian acts. The collision of rock, as Dan D understand it, with symphonic arrangements works successfully across the board. The release achieved its purpose. In its search for authenticity it fully and satisfactorily captured the meaning of this event, a one-off for the band.
Line-up
Tomislav Jovanović (Tokac) – guitar, vocals
Marko Turk (Tučo) – guitar
Boštjan Grubar (Bošti) – keyboards
Nikola Sekulović – bass guitar
Dušan Obradinović (Obra) – drums
RTV Slovenija Symphony Orchestra conducted by David de Villiers
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Grant Austin – bagpipes (track no. 1)
Polona Kasal – vocals (track no. 5)
Ditka Haberl – vocals (track no. 10)
Severa Gjurin – vocals (track no. 12)
Gal Gjurin – piano (track no. 12)
Borut Marolt – vocals (track no. 15)
Tomi M. – vocals (track no. 17)
Production
Žiga Stanič, Žarko Pak
Track list
CD:
1. Rožice
2. Jutranja
3. Moj problem
4. Halo
5. Roke gostja
6. Love song
7. Google me
8. Novo sonce
9. San San
10. Sirena
11. Le naprej
12. Sla
13. Tomi, čuvaj se
14. Čas
15. Tiho
16. Put slonova
17. Voda
18. Čakamo
DVD:
1. Rožice
2. Jutranja
3. Moj problem
4. Halo
5. Roke gostja
6. Love song
7. Google me
8. Novo sonce
9. San San
10. Sirena
11. Le naprej
12. Sla
13. Tomi, čuvaj se
14. Za naju punca
15. Čas
16. Tiho
17. Put slonova
18. Voda
19. Čakamo
