Self-released
Release date: 10.04.2020 (digital) / 24.04.2020 (vinyl)
Production: El Kachon & Robert Oven
Album length: 42.18 min (digital)
Genre: Art Blues Rock
Rating: 10 / 10
Seven years ago, the album »In The Bush« came out. It was the superb studio debut of the Dolenjska band El Kachon, and with it a wind blew through the Slovenian rock scene like nothing we’d had here before. With their presence and that debut, El Kachon delivered the missing piece of the Slovenian musical-genre mosaic. When the blues sings and weeps for you, and in all its honesty and artistic freshness gives you goosebumps!
Seven years later, the band, who already proved with their debut that they’re an incredibly talented crew, and then again through the next two albums »Permanently Lubricated Nuts« (2015) and »Svet dovoljenih laži« (2016), has slowly ridden in with their fourth, »Mi nismo«, leaving no doubt that El Kachon are among the busiest rock bands in Slovenia. Positively busy, that is. Meaning the results are consistently top quality. Especially given that they mostly fight their way through on their own. Persistence always pays off, even if you have to wear your fingers raw to earn the reward, but it’s worth it. The band put out »Mi nismo« on vinyl. Needless to add, they financed the project entirely by themselves.
So »Mi nismo« is an album that, in terms of production, composition and arrangement, is the most defined and detailed of all the El Kachon albums released to date. With it the band took on a new artistic challenge and came out of the adventure victorious. They’ve hit a new point of maturity in their artistry. A higher level of artistry. The band established its style and sound long ago, but there’s something extra. The new album has ten tracks, each its own special story, differing from one another in the variety of their ideas and their creative freshness, while still staying girded from head to toe in the band’s recognizable artistic signature. That variety between tracks has never been so pronounced.
El Kachon are extremely hard to pin down stylistically. The starting point is, first and foremost, blues, but the band flirts across genres with incredible skill, working into the arrangements now a nod to the very essence of rock’n’roll (Mi nismo), now radio-friendly art pop (Osvobojena – it doesn’t escape a pinch of surf), then in the next step it beckons toward funk flirtation (S poljubom izdana) and even hints of reggae (Domov in its closing section), and of course there’s some sympathy for punk too (Ivan), or, to put it more precisely and in a more sophisticated way, alternative rock. The common denominator is blues, but the spices of genre elasticity give it the artistic wings of something unique and musically homegrown, if not a whole kind of eclecticism, by which you recognize El Kachon instantly.
So! El Kachon are a seriously seasoned and experienced sextet! Yes. No longer five, but six! The “lost and found son” PimpS has returned, once upon a time a member of »Od Franclna možgani«. We’ll come back to PimpS. El Kachon are perfectionists. When you watch them on stage, you feel it right away. But beyond being perfectionists, the more important realization is that they’re boundless hedonists, and everything we hear and see from them is crafted not just with exceptional feel, but with sensual passion and an avalanche of emotion. And in that they act as one, as a sextet. That’s why they so effortlessly and instantly touch every single heart.
They’ve never knocked on the door of the radio airwaves as insistently as with »Mi nismo«. The opener Osvobojena immediately brings one of the album’s highlights. It’s an insanely infectious track. Musical and greedily, potently buoyant. A great opening catalyst. Really a very simple song, but one where vocalist Tina Gerbec instantly lights up (she takes the focus) with her vocal charisma, into which she keeps slipping, in just the right places, a bit of Aretha Franklin’s repertoire (the next track, Peti greh, amplifies that feeling). Tina reigns on, especially in the songs that, like the opener, have the potential to take over the radio frequencies, like Ivan (dedicated to Feo), and above all S poljubom izdana, a composition akin to the opening Osvobojena. The girl rules with her playful mischief, her penetrating power, which she carries effortlessly through every register, and her inner passion. Over the years Tina has grown into an exceptional singer, and she delivers that on »Mi nismo«. It must be added that, in terms of lyric writing too, El Kachon have outdone their previous three albums with »Mi nismo«.
The title track deserves to be declared one of the most ambitious pieces on the new album and perhaps even its artistic peak, even though Domov successfully tries to “steal” that pedigree. A cheeky, boyish number riding on Sondža’s wound-up, rattling, rolling bass. The build-up through the motifs is extraordinary, with several motif jumps as well as transitional embellishments, and it counts as the boldest composition on the album in terms of artistic daring. Lyrics included, and they’re a fine fit! A didgeridoo is added in this track. Pay attention to the incredible modulation in the mid-eight passage, where the band even conjures up vistas of prog. We saw that mostly on the first album. As a representation of the band’s music, the title track is a perfect example where you find all the elements in one place, and it captures the aura of El Kachon in 2020 in the most elegant and direct way. The track climbs from circle to circle toward a theatrical (closing) crescendo that hits its emotional peak right at the end. A brilliant composition and surely one of the best the band has made in its career. Peti greh? Want more danceability, even with a rhythm that evokes hand claps? After Osvobojena, it’s the track Peti greh that pours on the fire of musical hunger.
Speaking of blues, toward the end of the album the spotlight moves to those minutes found in the tracks Tam, kjer raste blues and the lap steel-adorned Krog, when the colorful and unique Tomi Perinčič steps into the center of the musical merry-go-round. A guitarist like no other. Yes. The Allman Brothers and the Tedeschi Trucks Band become fleeting associations, especially with the slide guitar in the closing Krog, where Tomi even plays a bit of “to the roots bluesy” rhetoric, while in the song Potencialni ljubimci he conjures up guitar adventures that would make even Derek Trucks prick up his ears.
The sound is warm, velvety, organic, alive, and radiates the sextet’s incredible chemistry and unity. But watch out. As you know, vinyl has limited space on each side. So the digital and vinyl versions of, say, Domov differ slightly at the end. Domov will be, along with the title track, one of the most interesting songs on the album for more demanding listeners. It’s also the longest track, and yet. Still not long enough. The needle on the vinyl jumps abruptly in the middle of the “fade out,” just as the guitar hasn’t finished everything it had in mind. So yes. Because of the limited playing time on vinyl, certain cuts to the running time had to be made. The digital version of Domov feels more rounded and is longer.
There’s no doubt that Krt provides the higher decibel levels, as well as more rock punch and instant musical contagiousness. Krt is direct in his actions and adds a pinch of alternative rock charisma to the band, even if it’s subtly slipped in! On the other side there’s the incredibly refined, soft guitar charmer Tomi Perinčič, who keeps winning you over with his moaning, bluesy twang. The interplay of Krt’s and Tomi’s guitars is a trademark you won’t find anywhere else. A guitar interweaving all its own. Two guitarists different in style and approach who, in that original difference, constantly and brilliantly understand and sense each other. And let no one say this band ever lacked real chemistry. The chemistry of a team that breathes as one, driven by genuine sincerity and authenticity.
But this essay isn’t over yet. The rhythm section. Sondža stands out in contrast, constantly and exceptionally active in unleashing musicality and refined tricks, with rhythm in his blood. He can be devastatingly penetrating, or immensely sentimental, filigree-sensual and soft. But the rhythm section would never have been this strong this time if PimpS hadn’t rejoined the band. PimpS works as an equal link in creating the sound of this album, and his percussion is everywhere. On that count alone El Kachon are one of a kind. Žiga Dobravc’s solid, powerful rhythms gain, with PimpS, a rainbow quality that was missed on the previous album! PimpS adds exceptional liveliness, dynamics, glow and gallop. Not just to the rhythm, but to the band’s whole sound and style. When you compare the band’s work without PimpS to the new album, you instantly conclude that PimpS is simply a link that has to be part of the El Kachon crew. May it stay that way going forward, because his presence cements the band’s eclectic stance.
»Mi nismo« is, as said, the best El Kachon album released to date. A sextet of outstanding musical characters, delivering an extraordinary blend of full-blooded emotion, passion, brilliant creative freshness and eclecticism that’s rooted in traditional blues rock, yet with a streak of provocative experimentation, reaching a whole new kind of eclecticism and uniqueness. Given the unsuspected talent of both the individuals and the whole crew, it’s a bold presumption that this isn’t yet the creative peak of the band’s career. El Kachon can reach even higher. It’s true, though, that with »Mi nismo« the band has made a fantastic art blues rock album with no equal in Slovenia, so the challenge of topping it with a more mature follow-up will be all the greater. The band could rest on these laurels, but that would by no means be good for them. So, an album you absolutely have to check out and add to the music collection of your household.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Osvobojena (Andrej Barbič / Andrej Barbič)
2. Peti greh (Tomi Perinčič / Tomi Perinčič)
3. Potencialni ljubimci (Tina Gerbec Radaković / Tina Gerbec Radakovič)
4. Song zate (Tina Gerbec Radaković / Tina Gerbec Radakovič)
5. Domov (Tomi Perinčič / Tomi Perinčič)
6. Ivan (Ivan Volarič Feo, Tomi Perinčič / Tomi Perinčič)
7. S poljubom izdana (Tomi Perinčič / Tomi Perinčič)
8. Mi nismo (Andrej Barbič / Andrej Barbič)
9. Tam, kjer raste blues (Tomi Perinčič / Tomi Perinčič)
10. Krog (Tomi Perinčič / Tomi Perinčič)
Line-up:
Tina Gerbec Radaković – vocals, backing vocals
Andrej Barbič Krt – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, harmonica
Sondža – bass
Tomi Perinčič – vocals, electric and slide guitar, lap steel
Žiga Dobravc – drums
Primož Malenšek PimpS – percussion
Guest musicians:
Nenad Patković (Šinobusi) – Hammond organ on “”Potencialni ljubimci”
Robert Oven – didgeridoo, backing vocals
