Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Vibesonic Jam
Label: Self-released
Release: 2009
Length: 37:52
Rating: 4/5
Vibesonic Jam, a band that grew out of the ruins of Ptuj’s Sleazy Snails and consists of the trio of guitarist Zlatko Kuret, drummer Milan Murko and bassist Bernard Pintar, is a real breath of fresh air on the Slovenian rock horizon. The album “Egotrip” is a tough nut to crack, and its content isn’t as easy as it sounds on first listen. Clearly, years of experience have to pay off properly somewhere, someday, once and for all. The band and its album “Egotrip” probably can’t exactly boast of being built on a big budget, but in its sheer musical communicativeness it carries a lovely expressive richness that surprises and thrills like crazy.
If you know what the new studio effort of the freshly reincarnated Jesenice natives Game Over, titled “Eclectic” (2007), is like, then there’s no way your curiosity won’t lead you to “Egotrip” too. Vibesonic Jam and Game Over are of course two totally different stories, comparable only on one single count: neither limits itself by genre. But each grasps and fulfills that vision in its own way, by its own principles. Thank God. If only there were more such brave and intelligent bands in Slovenia, but as it is, we look for them today like a needle in a haystack. Usually this is the path of old tomcats who burned out on rock from their wild teenage days but have been rehabilitated, when a full view of the broad musical horizon finally opens up to them.
What we have in front of us, then, is the creation of a highly vibrant mood, stuffed with a dark connotation, yet with a tight, lively and raw production. A combination of sturdy rumbling and droning, let’s just say it straight, guitar blasting, leaning heavily on wah-wah riding, coexists in harmonious contrast with a pronounced rhythm section. The bass line is wound up toxic, cutting like the laser of Skywalker’s lightsaber as it pierces through the sonic picture of the album “Egotrip”. As for the drums, we’re facing an interesting combination of classic drumming, rhythm patterns coming from a machine, and added percussion whacking. The active rhythm line is what brings the album and the songs a much-needed dose of theater and dynamics, because the distorted, boulder-like guitar riffing sounds one-dimensional through the album, to a degree almost punk-like in its stubbornness. But since Vibesonic Jam aren’t musicians who would settle for just anything, they of course add extra sonic loops and widen the sound spectrum with curtains of synths, and they do it very wisely, following their primary instincts.
Across 37 minutes and eight lively instrumental tracks, Vibesonic Jam don’t stop for a second. The album is packed with blasting and dynamic, active crashing of percussion and drums. Where the riff hangs rigidly motionless, the active bass line cuts through the monotony, using the space to lay down a melody and keep the dynamic unfolding of the songs upright.
True, there are only 37 minutes of music on the album, but there’s plenty of message packed into it, so “Egotrip” can be a real musical adventure for all music gourmets, a special world you’ll be exploring for a long time. At the same time, I want to stress that the album’s vibe is totally its own. I’d say that, thinking of Game Over’s latest effort “Eclectic”, as a strictly instrumental album, “Egotrip” also breathes totally Slovenian, which means I can’t find any parallel with this kind of experimental albums from the alternative rock underground abroad. I’d like to suggest that “Egotrip” is interesting both for those of you who love the blasting and for those who are drawn to sonic emulation, even if you don’t have a genius à la Living Colour or even Faith No More and beyond in front of you. It might even draw fans of jazz rock fusion, although believe me, not a single line on the album is measured out in a jazzy way. Country Jam is a hugely welcome mid-album change of pace that you’ll especially enjoy when Vibesonic Jam cast their spell with accelerated, swaggering instrumental riding, the white-hot live jam pulse of the studio. The album really does work “like a live jam” captured on a studio recording. The track Psychedelic Gallery is certainly the one that stands out by miles on the album in atmospheric terms, in sheer expressive conviction. It’s also the album’s darkest track, with the most appealing contrasts created by the instrumental elements on it. It opens with a slowly rolling, lazily sleepy rhythm, where the riff echoes superbly through launched-out reverbs and where a veil of synths constantly takes care of that dramatic three-dimensional picture of this almost esoteric moment of the record. The active bass line once again eats its way into this rigid form, dynamically shaking up the track’s structure. The drums keep sounding truly alive and create a witty contrasting collage through full-bodied swings. A touch of unpredictability and spontaneity is a given for “Egotrip”.
“Egotrip” is an album that is far from going straight into your ears on first go. It needs more time to settle and lie down in your ears, but once its vibe finally clicks with any listener’s perception, it’s a sure bet that will serve you a heaping helping of this unique, one-of-a-kind rock vibe.
On the title track the band floods the sonic picture with a kingdom of sound loops, basic rhythms and sub-rhythms of extra percussion, which brings an additional dose of liveliness to the album, and the expressive impression of this band’s intellect just keeps on thrilling. Psychedelic Gallery and Egotrip back to back are the peak of the album “Egotrip”. They have the biggest moments of exploratory drifting, moments of unpredictability, multilayered movement of constant gestures of motif and atmospheric twisting. Lucky Luke (the album’s second country attack, as only Vibesonic Jam understand it, of course) is placed near the end of the album in a thoroughly well-thought-out way, a less-than-two-minute goof that effectively relieves and relaxes the album’s dark atmosphere in its closing stretch.
What we have in front of us, then, is progressive, advanced rock fusion, with no limits and no hang-ups about what anyone does in the music world, where, why or how. Vibesonic Jam’s multifaceted view of the musical world is an extraordinary gain both for the Slovenian music scene and for the world at large, even though the modest Ptuj trio probably never thought of anything like that when it decided to release “Egotrip”.
Lineup
Zlatko Kuret – guitar, guitar loops
Bernard Pintar – bass guitar, synthesizers, programming
Milan Murko – drums, drum machine
Production
Vibesonic Jam
Tracklist
1. Sonic Intro
2. Spanish Fly
3. Speed
4. Extasy
5. Country Jam
6. Psychedelic Gallery
7. Egotrip
8. Lucky Luke
