Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Vatra
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2011
Runtime: 34:58
Rating: 4/5
The Zagreb-Virovitica crew is back on the scene after three years with their seventh studio album, “Ima li budnih?” (in English: “Is Anybody Awake?”). Let’s get one thing straight right away. Vatra are a seasoned band, active since the mid-nineties, and with every studio album they’ve taken another step forward in their artistic growth.
The previous album, “Sputnik”, brought a leap to a new level of maturity. Even though it’s still packed with Vatra’s energetic “rock O`strela”, it boasts the most polished production of the band’s career, plus arrangements that hint at the maturity that comes with the years and hard-won experience. Of course, that album still doesn’t hide the band’s deep flirtation with party rock. With it, Vatra were aiming for success, for winning over a wider listener base in Croatia. You’ll say: “Wow, what a revelation”, right? They’ve been trying to do that since forever. Still. “Sputnik” carried by far the biggest potential for the band to finally outgrow the cursed sentence of being “that little local band” from Virovitica (even though they’ve been “relocated” to Zagreb for quite a few years now). But obviously, it didn’t work out this time.
The new album is a surprise. Vatra have turned inward on it. They’ve clearly had enough of chasing hits. They told themselves they’d make an eclectic album. And “Ima Li budnih?” is a move into art rock. It’s an excellent album, where the production duo of Jura Ferina and Pavle Miholjević, carried over from the previous album “Sputnik”, gets fully capitalized on in a new sphere of arranging.
A little sabotage from a band nobody saw coming! You don’t have to turn in the direction your own signpost pointed to earlier. “Ima li budnih?” has a dark yet sensitive, yearning vibe. Not a single track feels cheeky or bounces along in rock n` roll rhythm. This time the band put absolutely all their chips on atmosphere. And on that mission they fully delivered. The production sounds organic and full, which makes the music feel incredibly real in terms of the message it conveys. Above all, there’s a clear contrast of warm low end, which basically forms the framework of the wall of sound, where widely ringing organic chords are placed. The simple keyboard motifs matter hugely too, drawing inspiration from the synthesizer sounds that post-punkers used back in the day, and that goes for some bands from the territory of the late Yugoslavia as well, like the bands of the third Rijeka wave or EKV. The keyboard arrangements in this newly found vision feel much more tangible and take the lead in creating the dark mood.
This time the band masterfully handled the gradual build-up of moods as the songs develop. We’re talking short, sly little minimalist tricks, to which the atmosphere in this kind of alternative rock setting reacts sensitively, and under the guidance of these minimal “corrections” it grows into a new mood. The choruses take over in the songs, since they always carry a solemn, melancholic tune with a seductive melody, where Ivan Dečak’s vocals also add real emotional weight to the peaks of the songs. The songs thus carry a clear contrast in the shocking mood swing as the verse turns into the chorus. Kamikaze and, right after it, Limunova kora follow each other in just such a manner. The band’s artistic growth is illustrated especially vividly by Plima adreanlina, where they build on a simple but effective combination of a synthesizer pattern and a piano melody. It’s an elemental approach, no overcomplicating, and into it slips a tasteful duet between Vatra singer Ivan Dečak and the legendary Damir Urban (Urban & 4, ex-Laufer)! The soundscape of minimalist tricks, with its well-tuned synth sampling set in a contrastingly prominent embrace of a warm, rhythmic post-punk framework, hits especially hard in the closing Tremolo, which was also released as a single.
The strongest song on the album, though, is without a doubt Mašine. Despite the band’s “fiery” name, the energy of the album is intensely cold, icy, gloomy, and in Mašine that chill digs into the listener’s bones especially deep. It’s Mašine that pulls off a combination of rebellious verses that paint, with strong impact, the “dehumanization” of society today, as we actually turn into machines (with a battery shelf life), following the “invisible” instructions of Masonic executioners (the point of the movie “The Matrix” is a nice parallel). This is exactly where the aforementioned mood build-up works wonders, based on the finely tuned layering of short but concise sound patterns. The song peaks in the instrumental outro, where a “howling” pattern is planted in the background of the sonic picture, and in its eeriness it recalls the distorted howling of the wind. Or the fictitious calling of machines, let your imagination guide you. Mašine is the moment on the album that will freeze the blood in your veins too!
The new musical direction has paid off. Vatra draw inspiration from the art-smart intelligence of eighties post-punk, dressed up in the fashionable, trendy reach of today’s alternative rock production (U2, Coldplay, Snow Patrol,…). They aren’t looking for a hit. They’re looking for eclecticism. And that’s exactly the right path to success. “Ima li budnih?” is a sensitive, deeply felt art alter rock album without a shred of pretentiousness. With it, the band has stepped onto a new path of musical transition. The chosen vision gives the band plenty of cues for the future and room for artistic development, without ever having to sacrifice even a shred of their own idiom. Quite the opposite. It can only deepen, level up and grow richer. Richer in its own characteristic artistic stance. With the release of “Ima li budnih?”, Vatra have definitely not said their last word in terms of development.
Lineup
Ivan Dečak – vocals, guitar
Robert Kelemen – guitar
Irena Celio-Cega – keyboards, backing vocals
Boris Gudlin – bass guitar
Mario Robert Kasumović – drums
Damir Urban – vocals (on track no. 4)
Production
Jura Ferina & Pavle Miholjević
Tracklist
1. Ima li budnih
2. Kamikaze
3. Limunova kora
4. Plima adrenalina
5. Beduini
6. Vojska od terakote
7. Mašine
8. Oproštaj
9. Tremolo
