Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Prismojeni profesorji bluesa
Label: Self-released
Release: 2016
Running time: 79:32
Rating: 5/5
These days it’s hard to picture a crew in Slovenia with this kind of unity, camaraderie, mutual trust, singular focus on original musical vision, and the creativity that flows from all of it, the way it works in Prismojeni profesorji bluesa.
The quartet only showed up on the scene a few years ago, even though they spent a long time in their »secret lairs« practicing, practicing and just practicing. Grinding away and honing most of their command of their instruments. Then out of nowhere they struck from anonymity like a bolt from the blue, rattling off a series of unbelievably convincing shows, crowned with an unbelievable passion for playing and performing music. Both covers and their own original material. At every gig the band sweated buckets, gave their absolute maximum, and won over the hearts of the crowd with heartfelt sincerity, and the crowd adopted them as their own in no time. That’s how the spirit of a live attraction soaked into the band’s essence, and it started opening doors for the guys to clubs, and to all the bigger and more important concert stages too. More than deserved. Prismojeni profesorji bluesa are seriously hard workers who know that justified success comes only from dedication and a lot of effort. This almost »blood« brotherhood of the quartet is also where the meaningful title of their studio debut »Familiy« comes from.
The album’s twelve tracks make a real pocket encyclopedia of blues music, with the guys touching on practically every corner of this famous genre. In fact, with all the ideas bursting out and the potent urge to prove themselves that the guys’ studio debut radiates, it’s hard to keep up. The debut shows the completely natural maturing of the quartet’s individual members, as well as the band’s completely natural musical evolution. That’s the kind of originality, or creative self-grown quality, comparable to the enthusiasm of the natural talents who got rock music on its feet many decades ago. Once an automatic musical element, it’s now badly endangered by the destructive corporatism of a boundlessly greedy and insatiable music industry.
To keep it short. All twelve tracks (not counting the “intro” and “outro”) by these four »wonder boys« come across, first and foremost, as wildly branching, lively, and varied in their ideas. Even though the album stays firmly within the blues genre the whole time, it reaches that variety with feather-light ease. The guys use as many as three lead vocalists on the album, and they’re sensibly distributed across the tracks according to how well each one fits. If Julijan’s voice suits the songs that flirt with the legacy of the British »white blues boom« of the sixties, the throaty, manly Zlatko comes close even to the soulful grandeur of Black performers and to the pioneering spirit that points toward the Mississippi Delta blues, while the manly, macho Miha rides somewhere along the middle line between the two. All three vocalists are superbly equipped with a command of English, the metrics are flawless, and any random listener of “Family” wouldn’t for a second think that Prismojeni profesorji bluesa aren’t an American or Anglo-Saxon band. Only the band’s name is Slovenian. It’s not just the vocalists’ charisma, but also the exceptionally sensual and deeply felt instrumental performance, where Miha’s always high-energy harmonica often takes over the role of the vocals, and the endless weaving of solo adventures between Julijan’s guitar and Miha’s harmonica, while in the transitions the noisy rhythmic kinetics of Zlatko and bassist Miha don’t lag behind in the slightest, keeping the listener at a high pitch of tension over how things will unexpectedly unfold. Everything on the album feels completely natural, subtly arranged, bathed in compatible arrangements and strokes of sincere heartfelt warmth that win you over instantly. Whether you’re a blues fan or not doesn’t even matter anymore. The fire they show is what buys the audience’s goodwill. And that’s really what counts.
The guys are fans of the old school of British blues acts, from Cream to Nine Below Zero, Fleetwood Mac’s »Peter Green era«, Ten Years After, John Mayall And the Bluesbreakers, and it’s also instantly clear that guitar master Julijan, “chiseled” with filigree-like finesse, has studied every one of Jimi Hendrix’s tricks down to the last detail. Woven into this colorful conglomerate are moments that also nod to inspiration from the contributions of unforgettable blues masters Albert King, Alisson Luther, and Freddie King, so there’s no shortage of »fingerpicking« either! Parallels with Chet Atkins’ instrumentals are possible. In short, the album »Family« is a tough bone to gnaw on. Packed with information delivered with incredible creative sensibility and sensual charge.
Even though blues is at its core music that expresses suffering, and musicians in it love to keep »complaining« about the hardships of everyday life, Prismojeni profesorji bluesa turn the whole story onto the lucid side of the self-parody coin and beat grumpiness with a glow of optimism, which suits the quartet’s completely unburdened and potently bubbling silliness, as embodied by the album »Family«. An album of exceptional charisma, an album where the guys aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel, yet an album that irrevocably charms, not only thanks to its flawless performance but also its heartfelt warmth and the fire they bring to approaching music. An album lost in time and space, and an album that surprises at every step. An album filled with unbridled energetic voltage, where only one thing prevails. A sincere love of music that you’re devoted to and that you create and perform. An album that, as far as production goes, caught the primal moment of retro sound from the good old days, when recording tape was used and you had to know how to nail a track on the first try. An album that grabs you with that (today) rare feeling that it’s driven by the bare instinct of highly sensitive musical souls.
Prismojeni profesorji bluesa are a band that, immodestly put, was born to rule the stages of the international scene and to win over and charm the rest of the world with its music.
Prismojeni profesorji bluesa – Ragin’ Mad:
Lineup
Miha Erič – vocals, harmonica
Julijan Erič – vocals, guitar
Zlatko Đogič – vocals, drums
Miha Ribarič – bass guitar
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Borut Činč – Hammond organ
Andrej Tomazin – percussion
Domen Gracej – trumpet
Jasna Kmetec – saxophone
Production
Borut Činč
Track list
1. Intro
2. Race Me Down the Street
3. Cold Sweat
4. Ragin’ Mad
5. Big City Woman
6. Buzzaround
7. Why I Sing the Blues
8. Truck Driver
9. Keep On Groovin’
10. Run Hilda
11. Down Behind the Gates
12. Cryin’ Shame
13. Party Time
14. Outro
