Album length: 38:33
Production: Maras Tomaž Mot & Mike Poole
Release date: 2017
Label: Nika Records
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Rating: 9.0/10
Drevored are a rock band from the Dolenjska region, based in Novo mesto. Seven years after their debut studio album “Dekade,” the band is back with its follow-up, “Na zahod.” That’s a hefty gap between albums, but the real story is yet to come. The band actually formed way back in 1979, yet thanks to a twist of circumstances they never managed to get an album out until 2010. They wrapped up their first era in 1989, reactivated in 2008, and finally put out that debut.
Its predecessor “Dekade” presents Drevored as a quartet with a clearly crafted musical focus, one that chases sonic perfection, and that organic flexibility, softness and analog warmth so often missing among “too-easily-satisfied” Slovenian acts: a consistently three-dimensional, dynamically lively soundscape in which the pastel building blocks of the sonic picture flow freely into one another and coexist in remarkable balance. Since “Dekade” collects songs written over a span of 31 years, it’s an extremely mature and polished achievement. Compositionally and content-wise, from head to toe. Melancholic rock’n’roll, with the undeniable charm of pop catchiness and pinches of blues eroticism, speaking to you through the pleasant vocals of Dušan Prosinečki. “Dolenjska-style.” Although the artistic dividing lines between Dan D and Drevored are clear, the melancholy both bands serve up on record is occasionally very similar. And “Na zahod” continues the musical story of its predecessor in every sonic and compositional respect of the band’s musical vision.
“Na zahod” shamelessly announces, too, that Drevored have always been artistically enamored with bands like Eagles, and you can also pick up traces of southern rock acts such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot or The Outlaws. Simple as that. First and foremost, the kinship is in the sound of the guitars in the production and the tantalizing decoration of the melodies with multi-part vocal harmonies (which has always been an extremely demanding element for Slovenes, and few are up to it). And also when you look at how the compositions are put together. Especially when the album reaches songs like Vlak, Motel and Amerika, where the band’s strength in terms of sensual sophistication of layered arrangements is revealed even more. The sound is built on an accompaniment combining semi-acoustic and acoustic guitar tones, with a noticeable “jangle” moment standing out, a melodically dynamic and prominent bass line, solid rhythmic structures, and here and there an atmosphere boosted by the warm, chocolatey sound of Hammond organs. The band also understands very well what graduated build-ups of mood in songs are all about (Kdo ukradel mi je zvezde). And above it all, of course, Dušan’s gorgeous vocals keep pleasantly addressing the listener, right at the focal point of the Drevored story. He is constantly devoted to a full-blooded, lived-through vocal interpretation.
When you listen to “Na zahod,” you’ll run into an interesting phenomenon. The closer the album gets to the end, the more it grabs you and the more intensely it speaks to you. Especially in the run of four consecutive songs: Vlak, Motel, Zunaj pada sneg and the closing Amerika. The band has also detailed the mid-eight passages with exceptional skill, where a song often drifts into a melody modulation, then fluidly steers the development of the composition back to the final chorus, or pre-chorus.
I mentioned that Drevored are also masters at creating multi-part vocal harmonies. In the arrangements they place them into the compositions with incredible skill, which strengthens the vibrant moods of the songs. “Na zahod” is an album into which they managed to pour a touch of mysticism, too. The opener Ona mirno spi points to it right away. It’s a song that departs from the rest of the album both in its rhythmic key and in the very melos of its lead phrases. With its “slipped-in” Celtic melos, it speaks to the listener in a solemnly mystical mood. On Ptice letijo v neznano, they hop on the current fashionable train of “indie pop rock rhetoric,” though such labels are a bit thankless in Drevored’s case. What we have here is a classic rock album with a refined pop seasoning and accentuated moments of southern rock and a bluesy itch. In other words, the principle of musical composition typical of the front line of Slovenian rock in the late seventies and eighties. In new times, of course, but artistically mature and polished.
Yes. “Na zahod” is an extremely good album. And it grows on your heart gradually, more and more with every spin in the CD player. Its strength, or rather its optimization of the “less is more” axiom, is outstanding. Full, sensual. The album offers a pile of potential hits, especially if this were the eighties. The songs practically compete over which one will steal the spotlight, especially when you run into a composition like Kdo ukradel mi je zvezde. An outstanding evergreen hit candidate (provided, of course, we were living the eighties all over again today).
Drevored can’t exactly boast a rich discography. But both “Dekade” and now “Na zahod,” one after the other, demonstrate the incredible compositional power, or rather the songwriting talent, of Dušan Prosinečki (Tomaž Zorko also contributed two original songs), as well as the multilayered musical polish of a quartet that subordinates everything to the elemental focal point of achieving sonic perfection and seductive musical value. “Na zahod” is a lesson for every Slovenian act eagerly knocking on the door of the middle of the road. In this respect, Drevored should be one of the pillars of healthy mainstream (pop) rock in Slovenia, and let’s hope the national radio frequencies give them that recognition. The author of this review, meanwhile, can’t stop wondering how Dušan Prosinečki’s finely honed and soulful “songwriter” talent remains, to this day, such a well-guarded musical secret in Slovenia.
Even though the year has barely begun, “Na zahod” is one of the first contenders for the best Slovenian rock’n’roll album of 2017! And yes, we want more, even if another decade goes by! What matters is substance, and in that department Drevored can’t and won’t disappoint.
One more thing. Minor, but still. The poetry, that is, the message of this album’s poetry, ties into the fact that the young generation of Slovenes is once again facing the search for happiness in life “in the West.” So? History teaches us nothing. This isn’t the first generation of Slovenes to do it, and obviously not the last. A journey west, including to the North American continent, in search of opportunity. No, the album isn’t conceptual, but you can pick up a red thread of a traceable message running through the songs.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Ona mirno spi
2. Smo le ljudje
3. Nasvidenje v naslednji vojni
4. Kdo ukradel mi je zvezde
5. Moje stopinje
6. Ptice letijo v neznano
7. Zares
8. Vlak
9. Motel
10. Zunaj pada sneg
11. Amerika
Lineup:
Dušan Prosinečki – vocals, guitar
Tomaž Zorko – guitar. vocals
Andrej Zupančič – bass guitar
Alen Tibiljaš – drums
