Artist: ChillOut
Label: Self-released
Release: 2009
Length: 13:21
Rating: 3/5
ChillOut are rock newcomers from Jesenice. Nice to see the rock tradition isn’t dying out in this corner of Gorenjska. The band has been around since 2008, and half the quartet hasn’t even racked up 40 years between them to this day. “If You Can” is an EP of a good 13 minutes that really captures the early-career pulse of these youngsters. The three tracks deliver a tougher form of rock, built on melodic foundations that draw on the legacy of the classic school rooted in the seventies. With their chosen arrangement solutions, all three tracks hint at some possible directions their musical core could take in the future.
You can see it sparkle in the lead motifs themselves, and even more so in the solo work of both guitarists. The first track, You Should Know, serves up a classic, simple riff that the guys drive along on a classic rock’ n roll template. Full-on rock, call it heavy rock or just hard rock to keep it simple. Already in the bouncy You Should Know the guys show they’ve got a feel for compact musical shape and for putting the heads and tails of a song in the right place. So the verse-chorus link holds a common thread. Cohesion is guaranteed by well-judged, sensibly crafted transitions. That’s very good.
Especially convincing is the heart of ChillOut’s songwriting: the instrumental middle sections, which are the most interesting thing on this EP and show most directly that ChillOut are guys with the real rock feel. The solos are structured in the classic manner. They’re something that could have blown in from the listening shelf of bands like Schenker-era U.F.O. Classic melody-shaping in the solos leads the way, but faint traces of a distant, expressive blues aren’t entirely hidden.
The track Men’ sede, with lyrics in Slovenian (more on the fun side), suggests the guys are still searching. There’s nothing wrong with the song, in case anyone thought that, quite the opposite! What I meant to say is that the moment Slovenian lyrics come into play, the vocal takes on an alternative character, and so does the song itself, gaining bluntness, banality and rock looseness. In this swing of trends, its melodic character of course suffers the most. Even though the rhythmic texture is hard-rock colored, the bass line runs alongside it with a seriously nice, active and melodically lively line. At the same time, it’s interesting that as the melodic component is preserved, the bass becomes more and more important. That’s why the band could go further with “modern” blurred production touches, and with a bigger, more declared sound of distorted full-on rocking, toward a simpler form of alternative rock with a strong melodic component.
The track Daydream shows this flirtation most clearly with the elements staked out by the pioneering bands of the seventies (the calm first part of the song), while the riff attack of the wound-up instrumental (middle) section evokes primordial forms of what in 1980 they called N.W.O.B.H.M. (a proper middle-section riff gallop). That calm part, over which the opening three-voice guitar harmony is laid, carries a whiff of Wishbone Ash from the first half of the seventies, which even the thinner, neotenic vocal fans along.
The vocal still holds some reserve, as the last track in particular suggests. You can feel it lacks experience, since in the melody of the verses it could often have found a more elegant solution (more precision!), but you have to keep in mind that this is the voice of a 19-year-old whose lung capacity is still on the rise. Urban is first and foremost a guitarist. And a good guitarist, with talent and a real feel for melody. But it’s not out of the question that he can’t take his current vocal range to a higher level in the future. With Jure he forms a boldly well-oiled duo right from the start, proving in the riffing and in the transitions of the instrumental middle sections that a real bond of perception has already been woven between them, one that will surely be built up, strengthened and more clearly defined in the future. At 5 minutes and 44 seconds, in the outro solo, before the closing slowdown of Daydream, a “small” wrong note sneaks in, but that doesn’t diminish the real qualities (as described) that the talent of this guitar duo possesses. There’s no doubt that, through gathering experience, it can grow in expressive power and unfold into a real rock machine.
All things considered, ChillOut’s energy should appeal to listeners who are close to the energy of the album “911” by Lady’s First (2006). I’m only talking about the final vibe. Not the style, not the sound. Of course, this is a completely different production, with a lot less aggression than on Lady’s First’s debut. The production effectively highlights the work of the guitar riffs, double harmonies and guitar solos. The bass line is distinct and has some kick. Some room for improvement is hidden in the rather thin drums, which could take up more volume and depth, which would further widen the range of the captured spectrum of the sound picture itself.
ChillOut are a band of talent with the real potential to develop into a clearly defined rock body. With clear and convincing musical essence and magic. The cues point toward an alternative rock character (Men’ sede), or toward deepening the classic hard rock dynamic (You Should Know). With regard to the latter, the sound could be further refined with keyboards (which the guys already hinted at in Daydream), with a resulting livening up of the arrangements themselves, as well as the possibility of placing even greater expressive hardness in the direction of melodically ossified forms of heavy metal. Your world is at your fingertips, guys! Decide which path you’ll take.
Lineup
Urban Kolbl – vocals, guitar, synthesizer, flute
Jure Jamnik – guitar, backing vocals
Martin Kolbl – bass guitar
Matej Šranc – drums
Production
ChillOut & Domen “Dyz” Justin
Track list
1. You Should Know
2. Men’ sede
3. Daydream
