Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Dandelion Children
Label: Self-released
Release: 2012
Duration: 46:40
Rating: 4/5
Dandelion Children are back with their fifth album. Fifth in five years. So no point wasting words on this trio’s hyperactivity. Dandelion Chidlren are today considered one of the more interesting garage rock bands in Slovenia, standing out with their distinctive way of expressing themselves. Both through the peculiar musical jigsaw puzzle their sound delivers, and through the fact that they’re actually building their name and recognition completely independently, on their own. So they’re developing and maturing artistically in a thoroughly healthy way. The way most bands on the planet used to, up until the first half of the nineties. Dandelion Children have just calmly waited for their moment. This year they finally got it. Here’s the new album, and on top of that they’ve been picked to play the prestigious Exit 2012 festival in Novi Sad (Serbia). No connections, no bribes — chosen by the main jury of the »Slovenski teden glasbe« competition, out of 15 bands.
On their fifth album, Dandelion Children serve up quite a few novelties in their sound. First off, this is the most controlled album the band has released so far, and also the most »mellow« — or let’s say, more dynamic. In the sound production as well as in the arrangements themselves. Of course, there’s no fear of the band’s trademarks getting lost along the way. Dandelion Children have kept their garage noise, it’s just that at times it’s not as in-your-face as before. The great combo of the lead vocalist’s »Cobain-like destructiveness and wry lucidity« is still here, and so is the generous dose of unpredictability in the trio’s playing.
Simple as that. The band has learned a huge amount over the years. The chemistry has deepened, there’s gig mileage aplenty, and the lineup has firmed up especially in its technical command of the instruments. »Dandelion Children so pičke« proves that Dandelion Children play better today than ever. The track Poisoned, where the band builds the atmosphere step by step, serves up a layering of guitars in the arrangement that we’ve never heard from Dandelion Children before. The same goes for Ne Maki ga (what on earth did the former The Drinkers singer ever do to them?), which Dandelion Children already released on the album »Dandeloid« (2010), only in this new version it has far more contrast in the sound production. Ne Maki ga offers more classically cut elements in the melody when it comes to the choice of guitar ornaments, and last but not least, the same goes for the album’s opening track Let Go, Forget, which is packed with interesting solutions, like the dissonant guitar effect in the intro (before the verse) and even a guitar harmony stacked on top of the lead phrase in the outro. Barely Curious surprises with an almost disco-funk rhythm worked in toward the end, while Dandelion Children’s image keeps its clenched-teeth bite and all of its expressive credibility intact.
Even though the album no longer has any tracks flirting with the blues, which had been a constant until now, and even though the reggae and ska shuffles are only a barely noticeable shade (the opening Let Go, Forget), the band has audibly progressed in crafting arrangements that give the new album plenty of tangible expressive substance and rich musical content too. Another novelty is the spotlight on tracks with acoustic (guitar) arrangements, like 1:31 and A Little Prayer Maybe?, while with the opening riff in Burned In My Soul, Barely Curious, as well as the (intro »Nirvana-ism« – bass line and vocal) of That Color, the trio eyes up the elements of stoner music from the likes of The Clutch or Quens Of The Stone Age.
Jure has kept a vocal approach that deepens the touch of lucid schizoid madness. There’s no shortage of this quirk in his vocal character on the album, and it especially comes to the surface in tracks like Reaction in a Dream and Little Craig James, which preserves and strengthens the special charisma of the band’s musical substance. The band keeps this well-honed lucid element going on the album through the arrangements themselves too, which applies to, say, the track 1:31 as well.
Anyone who feels Dandelion Children delivered too little noise and fury this time around has a hidden (twelfth) track, 11:40 long. An unpolished studio jam with a piercingly unbridled vocal assault from Jure holds and delivers the most directness and that searing garage liveliness embodied by the band’s previous albums.
»Dandelion Chidlren so pičke« proves that the band is standing on the threshold of stylistic change. It’s a different album, the most sonically contrasted so far, and the same goes for the dynamism of the arrangement structures within individual tracks. The fact is, the band has grown. Technically, in terms of performance, and in terms of artistic maturing itself. It has upgraded its knack for solving arrangement puzzles.
And there’s supposedly already enough new material, right after the release of »Dandelion Chidlren so pičke«, for two more studio albums. »Dandelion Children so pičke« also came together over the longest interval since its predecessor »Dandeloid«, which was two years. Doesn’t sound like much, but for Dandelion Children’s productivity that’s a lot. The band has reportedly already sealed a new partnership. This time with Peter Dekleva, who is supposedly going to produce their next studio effort. That fact alone speaks in favor of the predictions of new musical horizons opening up for the band. »Dandelion Children so pičke« successfully keeps the band’s homegrown, genuine, honest face and serves as the base platform for a stylistic turning point. There’s no arguing with the talent and the constantly high inspiration of this trio, who are developing healthily and growing in their musical craft, so it’ll be interesting to watch where Dandelion Children go next.
Lineup
Jure – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards
Anže – guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals
Katja – drums
Production
Damjan Lebeničnik & Dandelion Children
Tracklist
1. Let go, Forget
2. That Color
3. Little Craig James
4. Reaction In A Dream
5. 1:31
6. Burned In My Soul
7. Barely Curious
8. Poisoned
9. A Little Prayer Maybe?
10. Ne Maki ga
11. Make Believe
