Artist: Various Artists
Label: RTV Slovenija
Release: 2008
Runtime: 66:00
Rating: 4/5
Interesting little thing. A release made in a spirit of goodwill and support. Hugely positive in every respect, and it was high time. We’re talking about the compilation “Val 08 – imamo dobro glasbo!”, put out by the illustrious Val 202 itself, honestly one of the few real Slovenian radio frequencies that still spins a repertoire of healthy musical taste for Slovenes these days, and that also has genuinely educated music editors to go with it. So it’s not just about money, but also deep knowledge and experience. In short, a guarantee of quality and its continuity that Slovenes can trust, and that in today’s turbo flood of music radio stations still keeps its own recognizable face!
With this CD, Val 202 showed its support for some Slovenian acts who have real musical talent and potential in their own artistic expression. A whopping 154 acts answered the call, and a jury of well-known radio voices, made up of Andrej Karoli, Igor Bašin, Jure Longyka and Jernej Vene, had to pick from a total of 228 submissions. In their comments they said it wasn’t hard at all, and that before spinning the entries they deliberately didn’t read the names of the acts, so nobody would get favored. Of course, the curation stayed within the genre range that Val 202 listeners will recognize too. Despite the stylistically colorful lineup, you obviously won’t find any heavy metal assault, melodic hard rock, or free-spirited avant-garde art and prog experiments. Most of the tracks move within the rough range of pop (with various genre admixtures), a hunt for alt grooves in modern rock clothing, and they couldn’t dodge a couple of rap blooms either.
The person who gets this thing in their hands is confused at first when told to boil down a few impressions of it. Should I be rating the jury’s judging, or just rating the music? How do you keep the wolf fed and the goat whole?
The jury’s work deserves praise in any case. The running order of the tracks on the compilation is cleverly put together and flows beautifully in the CD player. It feels relaxing, tailor-made for listening in practically any everyday situation. On Christmas evenings, as well as during the soul-crushing wait in the morning traffic jam, snaking like a long serpent along Ljubljana’s arterial roads (Am I really such a weirdo that I still haven’t learned to enjoy that?). The compilation has a nice dose of dynamics, which comes at the expense of the high genre diversity of the individual acts.
When you go through the compilation track by track like this, it’s not hard to spot a few general truths about the Slovenian music scene. We Slovenes are excellent musicians. But it still happens that we’re too often not original or distinctive enough. Overburdened by the legacy of the greats, especially the inventors of rock.
The album opens with a reaction to the revived Niet of Celje’s Stranci, which gets rescued from “worn-out” territory mostly by a jittery, “Cure-style” vocal. A similar reflection on the popularity of certain acts on the Slovenian scene, only this time aiming at Dan D, comes next in Pridi spet nazaj by Superlizo, which gets finished off at the end by a yearning to find the right “tone” in the legacy of Pearl Jam. Another parody of popularity, this time chasing the impulses of Da Phenomena, was also caught by Dom za sanje with the track TV Shop Show. The funk disco pop catchiness DiFaso serve up with a Neishevsky-style vocal doesn’t hide how chewed-over it all is either. Orkester družinska sreča, with the relaxed, breezy little number Zato te varam, especially after the added keyboard sound, reminds you of The Pretenders and their Back on the Chain Gang. Here come the typical “non-Slovenes” Bitch Boys with yet another typical surfer, Hit’ N’ Run, quite a quality one at that, which livens up the compilation even more. The Hand try to be current by crossing the booze-broken stance of The Pouges with the terrace-chant topicality of Kaiser Chiefs, but “Slovenianness” is once again sacrificed in the process.
Among the tracks that smell “special” and spark enough interest through their “otherness”, the compilation’s standouts include, for example, Jacuzzy & Sausages with the track Čeveljaza, a refined combination of a polished “Zeppelin-style” backing laid under a fun vocal delivery of the verses. The instrumental 11 by Plueg is also interesting for the repetition of its basic motif, offset by a graded build-up of atmosphere. But put it next to the achievement “Ecletric” by the Jesenice band Game Over, and it quickly fizzles into the already-heard average. Among the more interesting things on this compilation is also the track Črne strani by Matej Krajnc. It’s a typical Slovenian “wrist-slasher”, with a striking vocal that will definitely meet with just two extremes of reaction from listeners! The “love it” or “hate it” kind. There’s no middle road, because of the vocal’s specificity as well as the interpretation. Be sure to check it out! Go.Be, with the track XP, carry on the legacy of Lačni Franz for a new Slovenian era. It doesn’t get more Slovenian than this. “”Singer-songwriter-sounding” O-di-di by X-Muse, an organic collage of sounds flirting with jazz and ethno touches of the “French” accordion, comes across as soaringly Slovenian, old-school traditional, no doubt about it. Another standout on the compilation for its (lead melodies) is Antitransform by singer-songwriter Žiga Bižal. For the finale there’s the sad, mystically murmuring instrumental Zeleni ples, driven by Balkan rhythms, over which winds an interweaving of lead melodies from the central violin of the Macedonian performer Gligor Kondovski, phenomenally woven into the fullness of the chosen arrangements.
With this compilation, Val 202 captured the territory of healthy “mainstream” that, after the media silencing of Atomic Harmonic, Freddi Mueller, Čuki and so on… has finally started taking shape here too. Of course, we can’t expect Val 202 to start spinning heavy metal or hard rock, because then the radio could rename itself in a heartbeat. But someone else could take that on by putting out similar compilations.
This compilation is hugely important on the Slovenian scene. It meets one of the basic needs of today’s crazy times, when in all the euphoria of everyday pressure over the battle for your own existence, you can barely find time to breathe. Bringing good music closer to Slovenian listeners and opening the door for musical talent in the battle for recognizable expression. The compilation “imamo dobro glasbo – Val 08” is a reflection of the current state of Slovenian pop “mainstream” music, its pulse.Val 202 has authority in our country, it has trust, it has tradition. It’s the herald of how Slovenia perceives music. Let’s hope this project becomes an annual tradition, and that on the flip side it serves as a model for other similar media that deal with presenting music to listeners every day, so they take on something similar. If there’s money. Well, and knowledge too.
Track list
1. Rdeča raketa (Stranci)
2. Čeveljaza (Jacuzzy & Sausages)
3. Hip hop united (I. Vanish)
4. 11 (Plueg)
5. Pride spet nazaj? (Superlizo)
6. Črne strani (Matej Kranjc)
7. XP (Go.Be)
8. Si to ti (Aynee)
9. Zato te varam (Orkester družinska sreča)
10. Hit’n’run (Bitch Boys)
11. Saturday (The Hand)
12. Tv Shop Show (Dom za sanje)
13. Gospod je prezaseden (Zlatko)
14. Kaj skrivaš (DiFaso)
15. Eno piko zmage (Ela Banda)
16. O-di-di (X-Muza)
17. Antitransform (Žiga Bižal)
18. Zeleni pas (Gligor Kondovski)
