Label: Nika Records
Release date: 31.05.2018
Production: Matej Pečaver
Album length: 35:50
Rating: 8.5 / 10
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Imset are a quartet from Domžale who, after a long stretch of racking up miles, breaking the ice on the local club scene and conquering other stages where they opened for bigger acts (Bijelo dugme), have finally given birth to their studio debut, “Persona”. The intro is deliberately written this way to hint right away that Imset have plenty of miles on the clock and that “Persona” was a long time simmering and being polished. The result is an extremely bold debut that the band can, quite simply, be very proud of, and one that throws the doors wide open for a push into the league of the more prominent domestic pop and rock acts.
Yep. Comparisons to Siddharta, fair or not. “Here we go again,” the band probably thinks. They’ve followed them since the very beginning. Perhaps precisely under the weight of that fact, Imset didn’t rush their studio debut, and instead nurtured the songs patiently, through arrangement and fine-tuning of the details, all the way to expressive perfection. That patience brought them so much artistic growth that they gradually managed to develop a recognizable voice of their own, which is hugely important for a band putting out a studio debut. Probably the most important thing of all. The compass is set, the musical vision too, and the debut is a successful affirmation of that and a solid foundation the band can keep building on. “Persona” is an album that we’d generally file under alternative rock “of Slovenian geographic origin”, but it carries a distinctly pop musicality, armed as it is with infectious melodies and a pile of tasteful sampling and multicolored keyboard arrangements. The album has a fully formed charge of bombast (pomposity – pomp), which hits its emotional peaks in ultra-catchy chorus melodies. The keyboards add an almost fleeting pinch of “gothic” (in sound and arrangements they could just as well show up in some Finnish power metal band with a female mezzo-soprano front and center), which goes hand in hand with the melancholic and mildly dark character of the album.
True, the band does recall Siddharta (Vedno, the chorus melody of opener Dej povej), because judging by Jaka Peterka’s vocal approach, it’s clear he listened to a ton of Siddharta as a “kid” (in his vocal delivery he doesn’t use slang as heavily as his idol does). On the other hand, “Persona” develops enough expressive elements, which Imset have packaged in a way that evokes a sense of individuality and recognizability. And that’s the crux, and a very important fact, with which the band successfully builds its distinctive musical ID card already with the studio debut. The guitars are much less spiky in the production than, say, on Siddharta’s records, which leaves quite a lot of room for keyboard arrangements as well as orchestral elements (e.g. Feniks). Imset fill a lot of the expressive space in the songs very effectively with “rustling” keyboard arrangements. The ballad Sanjam boasts a really pleasing and well-judged duet with Alya. The variety of ideas from track to track is noticeable, and the album gallops along at a high dynamic pace, kept upright by a saturated, atmospheric blackness.
Interestingly, you don’t miss solos at all. The composing recipe and the nature of the arranging simply don’t call for them. The album’s expressive focus lies elsewhere. Everything is subordinate to creating gripping mood contrasts and pompous melodic hookiness. The band also understands what building atmosphere toward a chorus crescendo is all about. They don’t “rush into” the choruses too fast. The compositions are often backed up with pre-choruses too, which strengthens the gradual build of the moods. There are quite a few songs on the album that deserve some radio airplay. The first is definitely Kralj, the second Dej povej, and later Sanjam. There are several favorites that’ll keep you warm, especially in the first half of the album. With this debut, Imset will win themselves a solid base of listeners, especially if they get serious backing from the media (particularly electronic media and radio).
“Persona” appeals in a pleasing way, and on the album Imset present themselves as aesthetic tightrope walkers who successfully stride along the (proven-to-ignite) Slovenian school of alt rock typicality. Much like people always like to write about Siddharta, Imset can hardly sound more Slovenian either. “Persona” carries a bunch of excellent growth shoots for the future and guarantees the band will reach its artistic zenith along a healthy path of self-evolution. The thing is, Imset have, at their expressive core, absorbed the legacy of the fashionable aesthetic of Slovenian alt pop-rock culture extremely well. That’s the launchpad for the band. Let’s wait and see what the future brings.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Dej povej
2. Kralj
3. Na glas
4. Jadrava
5. Vedno
6. Sanjam ft. Alya
7. Naprej
8. REM
9. Feniks
10. Nomad
Lineup:
Jaka Peterka – vocals, guitar
Dejan Macura – keyboards
Jaka Ažman – bass guitar
Blaž Horvat – drums
Guest musician:
Ema Krebs – backing vocals on the track “Nomad”
