Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Ljubljanski Grad / Slovenia
Concert date: 07.06.2018
Attendance: 120
And so it goes. The year turns, and the Godi Bodi festival comes around again. The eleventh time in a row. The famous event run under the wing of the Celinka label, who once again this May treated us to a voluptuous bundle of new releases. A package of new albums from the new and old faces of the Slovenian scene. So once more we’re talking, strictly, about the musical artistry of Slovenia in 2018.
In terms of the lineup, day one belonged to Šlajn, Buh and Nula Kelvina. All three bands presented new albums. Buh and Šlajn both gave birth to self-titled debuts, though each is built around a core of seasoned, battle-hardened musicians, while Nula Kelvina, who haven’t needed a proper introduction for ages, put out their fourth studio album this year.
Šlajn, fronted by three guys from Cerknica and Dravlje native Gašper Kržmanc, who created the bulk of the music on the studio debut »Šlajn« and also recorded and produced it, have pulled off an interesting musical mix, leaning hard on country. Melodies of infectious charm. Flirting with pop rhetoric and stock tunes brewed up in the geographic space of Slovenia. With a dash of cabaret, a really small dash. Playful, mischievous, fun little songs with no particular deep philosophical bite, which develop superbly under the direction of vocalist Saša Kovačevič. A slightly nasal voice, which fits the country way of singing and is definitely very pleasant. The guys approached the performance a bit shyly, probably a sign that they still lack some stage mileage, meaning the weaving of chemistry between them, and with it a bit more conviction. Still, they polished the show as they went, getting more and more confident from minute to minute. The crowd was behind them the whole time, there were a few sound hiccups, but nothing terrible. It was precisely that constant support that gave them wings, so they loosened up and delivered more »hunger« and »aggression«. Šlajn na suhem the »second« time, at the end of the set, sounded significantly different from the »first« time, when they played it right at the start of the show. Significantly more decisive and self-assured. The album »Šlajn« is something you have to check out. It’s a special thing, which also means the band itself is very special on the Slovenian music scene and worth your attention.
Buh is a band whose main driving force is the experienced Uroš Buh, a man we also know from the interesting band Relight and the provocative project N3L. Around him he has gathered a crew of musicians who also play on his studio debut »Buh«. Uroš Buh is an exceptionally experienced musician with a seasoned musical vision, who knows exactly what he wants and what he wants to express. He finds his way around different genres very well and clearly understands how they melt into one another. The result is an exceptionally high-quality, original record with a recognizable musical artistry. Buh enchants especially with his falsetto, which even someone like Steven Wilson would gladly listen to, particularly when it’s colored with sonic pastels courtesy of the piercing, hugely distinctive guitar playing of Mario Babojelić, a master of sonic manipulation, with woven-in »Gilmour-isms« that conjure up »transcendence«, »cerebrality« and mysticism, putting you in a state where reason switches off and slowly carries your world away, out of reality. Vibrant atmospheres, in other words. Since Uroš is a perfectionist, he of course dressed the vocal lines up with harmonies. Metod Banko and Višnja Fičor took care of those on stage, while the rhythm duo of Vid and Jošt Drašler is in any case a winning poker hand of aces. All of this was held together with deft and delicate hands, under curtains of keyboard lines, by keyboardist Ambrož Božiček. An exceptionally strong live performance. Distinctive. You can feel the mileage, the experience and the versatility. Perfect perception. The band breathes as one. A group of people and a creation of sounds like this demand extremely fine mutual calibration, and that’s hard, big work. There were no flubs to be spotted during the show, only the vocal harmonies drifted off the ideal pitch a few times, which was probably down to the sound problems. Buh is excellent and the debut should thrill you, provided there’s at least a speck of a music gourmet in you. The band is a peculiar mix of alternative rock elements and melodic pop catchiness, with occasional flirting with the blues woven in very skillfully, and as said, there’s a constant moment of expressive originality that’s rounded off by the label »art«, with an internalized pinch of »Floydian and Steven Wilsonian« psychedelic, dreamy sweetness. Let’s hope the band doesn’t stop here and that Uroš Buh keeps this momentum with a crew like this and carries it into the future with a new studio story.
And for the big finale, Nula Kelvina. A proper parade of clowning and mischief was on the cards, the kind always delivered on stage by the brilliant Marko Boh, the main visionary and driving engine of the band, and his gang of extremely kinetic and musically well-rounded collaborators: the full-of-pedantry Klemen Kotar (bass guitar), Gašper Kržmanc (guitar) and Miha Kržmanc (drums). But that’s not the end of the story. Nula Kelvina have grown into a quintet, and the fifth spot was filled by Ana Marija Mitič, the media-exposed girl everyone knows, who fully justified all her distinctiveness and infectiousness by joining Nula Kelvina. She studied piano, so she took a lot of the load off Marko several times during the show, and she also stepped quite worthily into the vocal role that Aleksandra Ilijevski (Pliš) filled occasionally some time ago, to be precise during the promotion of the album »Levak na luni«.
With Ana Marija on board, a band that was already sharp-tongued got even more so. Well, Nula Kelvina’s set also couldn’t dodge the sound hiccups. Boh’s piano in particular, and the accordion too, often lacked a proper »boost« and got lost in building the sonic landscape. Gašper, who swapped the Telecaster he’d used during the Šlajn set for a Suhr guitar for the occasion, amazed a few times with his masterstrokes, when in the middle of a solo he completely changed the sound and sequence of the notes played, and with it the emotional character, which in turn shifted the mood of the song itself. A chapter of his own is of course the ever cheerful and smiling Klemen Kotar, who entertained with his »shortened« bass, coaxing warmth out of its piercingly low lines. And then there’s the born stage actor Marko Boh, who, especially in the second half, shook off a feeling of scatteredness and maybe pressure, which could have been a result of the early trouble with the sound. So Marko, especially in the second half, blew up again in full, and with his hilarious humor and theater fired up the crowd wholeheartedly. Pse na vrvice! Probably the band’s most marketable song so far. The entire album »Kdo za vraga so?« and a cherry-picked selection of songs from the band’s previous three albums. During the show the band also gave away new CDs to anyone who was first to answer a given question correctly. So we got a music quiz too.
Great in every respect. Your reviewer did nostalgically miss the premises of Hostel Celica, but oh well. We had a blast. Day one turned out nicely, I’d only have wished for more people in the crowd instead of a good 100 or so, but anyway, big respect to the Godi Bodi festival team and boss Janez Dovč for their wholehearted resilience and faith in the magic of music, and for all the good work with which, in these hard times for Slovenian culture and art, they keep the flag flying for music by Slovenian artists of expressive originality, homegrown artistry and highly refined emotional aesthetics. I believe Friday and Saturday, under the festival’s direction, were just as fully musically fascinating. May it stay that way. Meanwhile, a new Saturday trip abroad was already waiting for us, to the concert of Djabe with special guest Steve Hackett, the highly esteemed pioneer of guitar playing.
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