Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Dan D
Label: ZKP RTV Slovenija
Released: 2015
Length: 32:15
Rating: 4/5
After six years, Dan D are back with new original material, gathered into a new full-length studio album. Dan D are a band of big talents and rich experience. These seasoned musicians never leave anything to chance, and their own records have always served up musical reading matter of full-blooded, tangible substance. As authentic as it gets. And Dan D have always gotten there through a healthy evolutionary path and artistic maturing.
Let’s clear up the gist of the new Dan D story right at the start! What we have here is only the first half of the album »DNA D«, with the second coming out on November 1, 2015. Anyone who picks up the physical version will quickly notice there’s room in the package for one more CD, which they’ll have to wait a little for! So we’re reviewing only the first half of the album! That’s a somewhat thankless job, since after November 1, 2015 this album will absolutely have to be heard in full. First the first CD and then the second, so the whole point can really kick in at full blast!
After the more than lovely success of the Tiho tour, which gave birth to the album »Tiho« (2013), where the guys stripped down their classic material and dressed it in a completely different arrangement outfit, with spoons, ladles, scrapers and so on taking center stage…, the band decided on a new, radical move. Dan D have always been famous for sparkling ideas when it comes to picking new artistic directions. So for the album »DNA D« they pulled a few very pleasant surprises out of their sleeve too, keeping the band’s musical dossier full of character and freshness. The band turned to the very origin of rock’n’roll. To the original information. To whatever it is that, in the living world, generates the string of information gathered in the molecule of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which brings us provocatively into the realm of molecular genetics. Is rock’n’roll hereditary? Passed down from generation to generation? Is there a record of it somewhere in our alleles? The foundation sits exactly there. That’s indisputable.
So Dan D approached the new material in a very basic way. With 11 tracks there’s barely half an hour of music. Without overly »prettifying« the lead motifs, »DNA D« has no room for the »friendly« poetry we’re used to from the forever »endearingly melancholic« Tokac either. What we got on »DNA D« was already »quietly« hinted at by the new material Dan D played on the Tiho tour, with the new songs Rekli so, Kamn and Čuti se kot konec sveta. The latter grew into Kozlam on the new album, while Rekli so grew into Kurbin sin. Enough prettifying — even Tokac has finally shown his angry punk teeth! The basic axiom of rock’n’roll is also healthy provocation, satire and parody, spiced with a good dose of black humor. At just the right moment there’s the shock therapy generated by healthy provocation, which every rocker uses to settle scores with the stuffy, rigid world of taboos. That’s the original core of rock’n’roll. Not long ago Mi2 hit hard with the album »Čista jeba«, and now Dan D have opened their album with Kozlam and backed up that sweet introductory perversion with its even sweeter follow-up, Kurbin sin.
With »DNA D«, Dan D have thus come down from the »heavens« onto solid, real ground! The ground of rock’n’roll in its original form, which they tackle 100% the Dan D way. So what does the new record bring? Kozlam is a track driven by a classic guitar riff, in the spirit of AC/DC. Yes, you read that right. For this song Dan D invited into the studio Gregor Skočir (Big Foot Mama), Tone Kregar (Mi2), Jernej Dirnbek (MI2), Tomi Meglič (Siddharta) and Borut Marolt (Niet) to howl out the punchy hard rock opening mass together with Tokac on vocals. The lucid lyrics of this stormy opener carry performing power and passion. Kurbin sin injects a dose of artistry into the punk character, the poetry keeps its lasting dose of mockery, and the Dan D sound takes on the likable contours of something like The Ramones or Billy Idol’s early work. Brat moj turns the album’s energy upside down; in production and approach Tokac is schizophrenically alienated, as if his sermon were coming from another galaxy, an extraterrestrial vocal. A disco-ish rhythm and the punky jangle of guitars team up with keyboards to explore parallels with the old school of »new wave«, from when punk started hanging out with electronics. Hlapec is a typical Slovenian punk rock number, Tokac comes in sharp and nasal here too, and in another story the song could just as well have been adopted by Niet. Stripped down and without any complication, but considerably faster, the guys repeat that kind of story later with the song Odrešitev. The rock-flavored crankiness of the album’s opening stretch is eased by the shy but tickling SKA tease Mama ne dovoli. Sonca dva brings the band’s refined compositional side very close. Although a disco-ish rhythm is used again, fitted out with a smeared jangle of chords, Tokac’s vocal flexibility (full of sensitivity) is guided by minimalist tricks on the keyboards which, precisely thanks to the effective use of the »less is more« axiom, add an important element to the song’s mood. In this track Dan D also develop optimal musicality. Zdaj gre zares is an interesting »hybrid«. It opens with a classic old-school guitar riff, which then picks up a dirty punk infectiousness. Keeping it company are the new wave keyboards of the early eighties. As if The Cult were trying to play Deep Purple (I know, mentioning the latter sounds almost blasphemous) and stole the synthesizers from early Simple Minds. The comparisons are deliberately bizarre caricatures, so you can better face the basic structure of the song beforehand (before you hear it yourself), which nonetheless resounds with everything recognizably Dan D-ish! A smashingly successful experiment. For the finale, the album »hides« a cover of Niet’s song Lep dan za smrt, which suits Tokac’s vocal color incredibly well.
The first part of the DNA D story has thus been a pleasant surprise and a shock. It’s a mile away from the album »Ura leta za ekstravagantne ptice« (2009), yet it’s marked all over by that strictly recognizable Dan D approach. All the more interesting, then, to hear what comes next. We’re counting on a sequel full of Dan D’s bold artistic self-provocation, which has always been driven, in a free-spirited way, by a healthy, spontaneous and unobtrusive developmental urge toward creating original, homegrown work.
Lineup
Tomislav Jovanović (Tokac) – guitar, vocals
Marko Turk (Tučo) – guitar
Boštjan Grubar (Bošti) – keyboards
Nikola Sekulović – bass guitar
Dušan Obradinović (Obra) – drums
Production
Žarko Pak
Tracklist
1. Kozlam
2. Kurbin sin
3. Brat moj
4. Hlapec
5. Mama ne dovoli
6. Odrešitev
7. Ona sanja
8. Solze iz neba
9. Sonca dva
10. Zdaj gre zares
11. …
