Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Tabu
Label: Universal Music Group
Release: 2013
Length: 21:06
Rating: 4/5
Fancy some baked, crispy gilt-head bream (Sparus auratus) straight from the Adriatic? Preferably enriched with mercury and a pinch of radioactive caesium? »Hvala za ribe« is a mini record, a so-called EP, by Tabu, who are celebrating 15 years together with it. It’s the prelude to the new studio album the band will release next year.
This year Tabu signed a deal with Universal Music Group. Not a bad send-off, that. Congrats to the band! Tabu have always been the real deal of Slovenian art pop, »par excellence«. Everything they touch carries a recognizable, tangible musical substance, marked by remarkable determination in their musical vision and a clear definition of a tangible compositional figure. This is a band that knows how to combine melodic catchiness with the lively art structure of many short but concise strokes, filigree-measured, yet always building a wonderful musical body as a whole. No less, no more. That’s the delicate point where a flexible fusion of a grabby melody rests on a seasoned art form, where every trace of the superficial, shallow, frivolous or naive gag is carefully eliminated.
The EP »Hvala za ribe« comes with an updated production. It’s chasing fashionable trends nicely. The title track, in its rhythm and the very structure of how the composition develops, chases a kindred new song at number 3 on this EP called Male vojne, and both of them imitate, in a similar manner, the song Moje luči, with which Tabu entered EMI 2011. In the structure of the lead rhythm, as well as the structure of the song. Despite the pop structure, both songs, Hvala za ribe as well as Male vojne, capture a gentle veil of alt rock contours. Both tracks have a pronounced mood-driven crescendo in the chorus, where Tina’s centrally placed vocal is backed by an excellent symbiosis of many building blocks of a multilayered sonic landscape of accompaniment (including programming and sampling, as well as a clearly rock-forward guitar sound). Tina Marinšek’s vocal would work great in some indie rock sphere (even if she tried herself out as a solo artist). It can be charmingly »hoarsely tinted«, even shy, yet at the same time gently »teasing«. And that same voice has the desirable flexibility, too. When a song needs to be carried gradually toward a chorus crescendo, Tina swings decisively and energetically toward the dominant pose of a full-blooded, melodically colored payoff. Exactly what Tabu need. The added decorative guitar »layers« give off an »U2-ish« vibe, which, on top of Tina Marinšek’s vocal formatting described above, deepens the occasional gentle alt rock veil of both songs. Art, then! You can feel that Tabu are a generation that most likely spent their teenage years in the eighties. The songs Male vojne and Hvala za ribe contain noticeable influences of the »new wave pop« sound of eighties bands like Duran Duran, Ultravox, O.M.D. Tabu come across here like a mini orchestra, with the structure resting on a dance rhythm and the vocal carrying that true tightrope-walker feel, so that not for a second does the song come off shallow or dumbly naive.
After the »cheeky rascal«, the unbridled and playful lead track of the EP, »Hvala za ribe«, comes the restrained Nekoč nekje, which is richly beefed up with an organic sound and effectively discharges the electrified atmosphere of the opener. There’s a bit of mystique hiding in the chorus, and in the song you can spot the band’s tendency to perhaps get closer to the single Poljubljena with it. The song Junfer is, judging by the title alone, »rascal-ish« in attitude, sharply etched in organic color shades, toppled by acoustics, and a hugely likeable dixie blues rhythm that stirs up a feeling of abandon in the song. Once again Tina Marinšek’s vocal is the main carrier of the charisma that drives the track.
A moment ago I let slip something about the song Moje luči. Given the compositions Hvala za ribe and Male vojne, the band’s decision to add Moje luči to this EP, the song they entered the EMA 2011 competition with, is hardly surprising! It fits this EP like a glove. At the end we come across the English version of the single Hvala za ribe, which we can read as a kind of logical test move. It’s really that old »feeling-it-out« trick, to see how foreigners bite at your bait. I believe the Slovenian melos, together with the lyrics, is such a pronounced and dominant carrier of Tabu’s very identity that they don’t even need to dream of commercial testing abroad at the cost of sacrificing the presence that the use of the Slovenian language guarantees and secures in the very essence of the band.
We can say that Tabu are a band that, alongside the somewhat “grayed” and less active Panda these days, gratefully fills that spot on the Slovenian mainstream scene that delivers tangible musical intellect in pop rock culture. A compositional art intelligence that stems from a multilayered understanding of music, yet keeps a virtuous melodic appeal for the body and soul of any music consumer.
The EP “Hvala za ribe” is thus proof that the high-profile art prism of this respected pop rock outfit remains a constant of quality, which bodes well for what we’re waiting for. That is a new studio album, which Tabu are announcing for the first half of next year. The EP »Hvala za ribe« is therefore a more than successful opening »teaser« that will help you wait out the band’s new studio album more easily!
Lineup
Tina Marinšek – vocals
Tomaž Trop – guitar
Aleš Beriša – keyboards
Iztok Melanšek – bass guitar
Primož Štorman – drums
Production
Žarko Pak
Tracklist
1. Hvala za ribe
2. Nekoč nekje
3. Male vojne
4. Junfer
5. Moje luči
6. Thanks For The Fish (bonus)
