Label: Moonlee Records
Release date: December 4, 2020
Production: Uroš Milkić (co-producers: Nikola Mijušković & Boško Mijušković)
EP length: 17.15 min
Genre: Alternative Rock / Noise Rock / Stoner Rock / Post Punk
Rating: 8.5/10
Gazorpazorp? Whose brainchild is that now? Well, it’s that made-up planet in the Andromeda constellation, among other things populated by female reproductive robots, where an absolute matriarchy rules the social order, where the Gazorpian women have totally subjugated the Gazorpian men and shoved them out of the newly established society. Honestly, it’s a dystopian world worthy of at least a director whose imagination hits the level of something like a Devin Townsend universe.
But Gazorpazorp isn’t just a planet from the American sci-fi animated show (for adults) “Rick And Morty” – it’s also a Serbian alternative rock band from Belgrade. They got going five years ago and last December dropped their second EP, on the Slovenian indie label Moonlee Records. It’s called “Od vazduha i sunca”.
Yet another thoroughly original story, built on the legacy of the rich alternative rock pulse of the Balkan peninsula, which always radiates its own peculiar energy. The band’s second EP goes all in on their mother tongue, Serbian. That’s the little element on the scales that almost always tips the balance when it comes to getting noticed and building your own musical ID card. It goes for all the newly formed “tribal communities” that once lived side by side on the soil of the shared Yugoslav state. Gazorpazorp are one more band fermented in the cauldron of that rich, diverse and utterly unique division of alternative rock, the kind you can only find in the geographic neck of the woods just mentioned
Let’s get this out of the way right now: Gazorpazorp are excellent musicians, and they approach crafting alternative rock with a marked pragmatism and a highly intelligent flexibility in the solutions they pick for the arrangements of this EP’s five tracks. Sure, the band’s expression is direct, simple, elementary, even rudimentary, but the lads are remarkably skilled at dressing up phrases and transitions with pure minimalist tricks that nevertheless pump a ton of substance into the character of the songs. Whether it’s the explosive, nicely seasoned drum fills, or a single sneaky note on the keys in the outro of the opener Ne bojim se, not to mention the cunningly slipped-in guitar flourishes, which don’t shy away from some deliberate dissonance either.
Contrary to its title, the intro Ne bojim se feels more paranoid and distrustful as it gnaws its way through a piercingly arrogant punk rock racket. At the same time, it highlights the band’s core drive for concrete musicality, moving within a framework of predictable chord combinations, yet plenty happens inside that template to confirm that this is a bunch of musicians who not only know exactly what they’re aiming for creatively, but are also excellent instrumentalists. Vratimo nežnost u grad is a track that, especially in its first half, picks up some of that eighties vibe, when alternative rock in the former shared country caught the bug from the then commercially popular wave of post punk bands.
The soundscape is skillfully filled out. At times the band builds a dense sonic backdrop of bristling, avalanche-like guitars that likes to tip over into the vast territory of howling noise junk. This sonic mantra is painted especially by Tango, whose transitions are expertly riddled with explosive snare rolls, and by El Matador, which is a blast above all for its cunning fusion of flamenco melos seeds into the otherwise garage-y punk chirping. The instrumental Outro could make a perfect closing soundtrack for some Balkan western with a dramatic ending. This very track underlines that Gazorpazorp are an exceptionally strong collective on the instrumental side. The song keeps evolving and rolling through different moods, and the drama-theater buildup is also sustained by the transformation of several lead motifs strung together within the track.
The second EP proves that Gazorpazorp have matured a little more and offer an even more grown-up level of arranging, especially in terms of achieving a greater variety across the new original tracks. Given the artistic concept, this approach to this kind of alternative rock offers more options for development. It’s clear that Gazorpazorp, even judging only by the contents of the EP “Od vazduha i sunca”, are oddballs of their own kind, and for that reason alone they deserve plenty of attention in the future too. The substance of this EP hints that the band could pleasantly surprise us again down the road.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Ne bojim se (03:19)
2. Vratimo nežnost u grad (03:22)
3. Tango (03:16)
4. El Matador (02:46)
5. Outro (04:22)
Lineup:
Jasmin Rastić – guitar, vocals
Damjan Nedelkov – guitar
Miloš Đerković – bass
Nikola Bajčetić – drums
