Label: Self-released
Release date: 2015
Production: Dejan Radičevič
Album length: 36.43 min
Genre: Blues / Rock
El Kachon, a band from Dolenjske Toplice, are back on the scene after a good two years with a new, and overall second, studio album called »Permanently Lubricated Nuts«. On the new record the band keeps following the visionary musical direction laid out on their excellent studio debut »In The Bush« (2013).
Right on the debut, El Kachon made it clear that this is a band that’s something very special for the Slovenian music scene, practically lost in time and space. A young outfit made up of experienced, talented musical souls, drawing inspiration from the blues rock legacy of the sixties and seventies, but also happy to flirt with the punchy bounce of robust rock’n’roll, or to skillfully shoe-horn a funk element under their rhythms.
»Permanently Lubricated Nuts« keeps deepening and shaping the very face and spirit of the band. On top of that, the band builds a densely packed soundscape of mature, skilled arrangements. The building blocks of the sound float in just the right balance. Even within the arrangements, no single instrument grabs the lead or pushes itself into the focus of the music. That belongs to the lead vocals, which El Kachon once again share among the band members, though the female voice stands out again, the one that belongs to Tina. There’s a noticeable shift toward streamlined arrangements. Toward even more concise, compact songs. Hence the feeling that the new album is more “vocal” than its predecessor, even more musical.
Once again you can feel distant influences of bands like Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gov`t Mule, Tedeschi Trucks Band,… but then, as mentioned, the band keeps effectively deepening its recognizable sound with the new album too. The rhythm section is active (inventive in its solutions all the way through) and dynamic, often layered and spiced up with extra percussion, just like on the studio debut. The guitars bring the basic musical blanket, but in the instrumental passages the finesse and refinement of the maestro Tomi Perinčič sparkles again. With his deft solo seasoning and a delivery of countless guitar embellishments draped over the lead phrases, he effectively livens up the otherwise predictable format of the songs themselves. His stylistic contribution in many ways decides what El Kachon’s music looks like. All the keyboards, except the piano that Neisha contributed to the fourth track A Drop of Moonshine, were played this time by the excellent Serbian musician Nenad Patković, otherwise the guitarist of the Novi Sad band Šinobusi. Mostly in a velvety warm manner, imitating the sound of Hammond organs and “old-school” electric pianos. Given that El Kachon and Šinobusi have been friends for years, bringing in Patković to help out on the album turned out to be a kind of logical move, since a musician who’s been connected with the band for a long time could feel exactly what the band wants and demands from him.
Judging by the last two new videos and new singles for the songs Klic and Ples zagrnjenih zaves, and the announcement that El Kachon will release a new album this year (at least that could be read from the promo texts of the Celinka label), it’s not hard to suspect that the band has an ace up its sleeve: a complete reworking of this album into Slovenian, in effect a kind of re-release. These two songs (Slovenian versions of the English ones found on the album »Permanently Lubricated Nuts«) also hint at a certain amount of tinkering with the existing arrangements of the songs on »Permanently Lubricated Nuts«, which is logical and, with moves like this, not just desirable but downright required. So what the third album as a whole will bring remains guesswork, but it will get its answer this year. A reissue of »Permanently Lubricated Nuts« in a Slovenian version is obviously on the horizon.
El Kachon don’t surprise anymore with »Permanently Lubricated Nuts«. With the new album they’re cementing their recognizable position on the Slovenian music ground, one the band already won, boldly and bravely, with their debut. With their recognizability and distinctiveness, El Kachon therefore keep excellently filling the genre gaps of the Slovenian music scene. And they do it with real quality.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 8.0 / 10
Track list:
1. Call
2. Strawberry Blonde
3. Mr. Brown
4. A Drop of Moonshine
5. Took Too Much
6. Love for a Dime
7. Harry Balls
8. Home
9. Funny Stories
10. Say What You Mean
Lineup:
Tina Gerbec Radaković – vocals
Tomi Perinčič – guitar, vocals
Andrej Barbič “Krt” – guitar, vocals, harmonica
Dejan Gerbec Radaković “Sondža” – bass guitar
Žiga Dobravc – drums, vocals
Primož Malenšek “PimpS” – percussion
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Nenad Patković – keyboards on tracks 1-3 and 5-10
Neža Buh “Neisha” – keyboards, vocal arrangements on track 4
Mitja Novak – lap steel on tracks 2, 4, and 10
