Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Mr. VonTone
Label: 57 Records
Released: 2010
Length: 24:49
Rating: 4.7/5
Having already confidently welcomed the local scene a few times in a thoroughly renewed and purified form, I’ve watched the home-grown alternative start to wake up and become a fine example of cosmopolitan perfection. Whether or not everyone likes it, the increasingly polished local production feats from the fingers of Moveknowledgement, Leaf Fat, Srečna Mladina, Psycho-Path and a whole palette of an ever more numerous legion of ever more accomplished alternative acts have all done their part. Mr. VonTone, in their initiation ritual and in filling your brain synapses with articulate sounds and noise, reach for a cherry-picked selection of sounds from mostly foreign scenes. DEMO sets high production standards already with the opening track Waterfall , where flirting with the legacy of Patton’s pop phase in Faith No More and the post-grunge era of the alternative revival is the guiding maxim of the creative process. The feeling of resemblance to Leaf Fat’s work is therefore somewhat subtle. The songs are structured, and even though Mr. VonTone straight away blow way past the usual five-minute song and bombard you with seven minutes of music, what you hear is far from boring for even a single moment. The original modern rock of this Ljubljana quartet, who share a rehearsal space with another outstanding discovery of this year, Grrizli Madams, is utterly perfect and catchy. This barefoot new freaky smelly vibe is followed by more of the same in the track Monsters. The soundscapes are woven in a way quite similar to what you feel while listening to Fair To Midland, as the fragile, crystal-clear vocals are in perfect harmony and balance with the ruffled-up band, which is far from any notion of purism, and in every respect manages much more than just escaping the isolation of a garage or a fallout shelter, and can quite naturally become the next big thing, the next big discovery of some slightly more progressive music radio editor. Mr. VonTone leave nothing to sheer chance. Following that key, and the whispering of your pleasure, the closing act of this phenomenal first contact with the virus of hedonistic musicality from Mr. VonTone comes with the closing vignettes, the tracks A Warm Welcome To Progress and Lavender. The final verdict is natural and utterly unfaked.
Alternative outpourings of poppiness can usually be too sweet and unbelievable to stay in your veins for long without causing chronic failure of some vital masculine organ. Not this time! I’m not exactly a fan of Incubus, but the best of what I can find in their work is reflected in the playful images of this condensed EP, which qualitatively outclasses a great number of records released this year, both at home and abroad. The various fragmented images can be glued together into something of their own, even if so associatively tied to a sea of bands you’ve heard. You can’t not talk about the big influences, but this time you can rest assured that what you hear has been tailored into something completely original, and flirting with the catchy isn’t a crime yet. Mr. VonTone are musical rhapsodes, aiming at audiophiles and at alternative fans open to novelty alike. These youngsters are not something that should be a mere one-day wonder, and no, they’re not milk-toothed rookies, they know where and how to hit you so you stop resisting needlessly. After the last effects-saturated farewell and the final fading of the last sounds, I was left completely captivated and above all hungry for a bigger dose of this kind of music. A smile of happiness and delight stayed on my lips, and I voluntarily inscribed one more local band in my heart and mind, one I’ll have to catch live very soon. There’s no doubting the quality, the only question left is when and how the musical enigma called Mr. VonTone can take us to an even higher plateau of feeling. Until then, the Demo remains part of my necessary daily ritual and of the (ab)use of my home CD player. Mr. VonTone are the next big thing, and you’d be a fool to deliberately overlook them, miss them or get yourself vaccinated for immunity against them!
Lineup
Medo VonTone – vocals
Krejzer VonTone – bass
Slacker VonTone – drums
Tratnik VonTone – guitar
Production
Peter Žerovnik & Mr. VonTone
Tracklist
1. Waterfall
2. Monsters
3. A Warm Welcome To Progress
4. Lavender
