Artist: Krema
Label: Self-released
Released: 2008
Rating: 3/5
Krema? The Slovenian version of Cream, those British white bluesmen from the late sixties? Nope. Just four Slovenian guys with a totally different musical message. The debut “In naj traja…” is a very cautious, middle-of-the-road album. The band serves up 12 tracks, with a production that pushes the guitars noticeably to the front, but built on simple, formulaic, predictable pop themes that stick in your ear right away.
Despite the general genericness, the whole thing is top quality, and we’re dealing with a band of four excellent, seasoned musicians, even though this is only the debut. The vocals are powerful, polished and convincing in every register, no matter what “heights” they pick, with an innate feel for carrying a melody through the way the voice is shaped. The special spice that keeps the listener’s attention on this album is the guitar work. Across 12 tracks it manages to create clear variety between the basic motifs it builds and the core guitar phrases, which get a sparkling lift from nicely shaped, crisp solo spots. Just as contrasty and distinct in the production, the bass adds a generous helping of melody and, with it, dynamics to the songs, backed up by the ever-reliable drumming of Roman Milavec, who is also a member of the far more notorious The Drinkers. In short, what we have here is a high-quality pop rock to hard rock album of Slovenian origin, objectively comparable only to similar stuff coming out of the Šentflorjan valley and nowhere else.
Since we’re staying within our home country, we can nudge up against bands that go for this middle-of-the-road sound, bring a commendable amount of quality, and are still very interesting despite their own generic approach, such as Supernova. “In naj traja…” also brings to mind RattleSnake’s rather neat debut “Razvoj vrste”, except that Krema are even more clearly defined musically, their musical figures even more refined in terms of melody, and the same goes for the album’s higher production dynamics. So “less is more”, but that “less” is cunningly refined. These guys clearly have a longer musical mileage behind them than you could guess from the mere fact that this is only their studio debut.
The album opens with the fast-pulsing hard rocker Črni napadalec, carried by a forward-pushed guitar riff, with a polished, nicely laid-out and melodically coherent guitar solo. Through the next tracks the guys cruise along very slyly and successfully in a pop/hard rock groove and keep the album extremely interesting, with motifs where the “less is more” trump card stands out, especially in songs like Črni Peter and In naj traja. In the middle of the album the guys step on the gas again with Se zgodi, which could just as well have sat right at the start of the tracklist. A hard rock riff then floods the album with Povodni mož, which with a sharper production could have summoned the deeds of someone like Bon Jovi. The band is very tight rhythmically, and Nikoli končana zgodba is especially triumphant in that department, with the volume of the bass line and its melodic quality doing a lot for the track’s polished look. In Slovenska vas, the opening guitar motif suspiciously echoes the album opener Črni napadalec, but this is one of the darker moments on the album, a mood piece where the band finally takes a bit more room to experiment, which is only welcome. All the attention in it, though, goes to the instrumental middle section, with a prominent solo spot and a sensible dose of note sequences that successfully hold that dark atmosphere, and the deliberately “old-timey” but warm sound of Hammond keys gives it a special touch.
The feel for compactness, high dynamics and the colorful flow between two basic moods (pre-chorus and chorus) is something the band combines most successfully, out of all the tracks on the album, in Misliš da ne vem, an excellent example of high-quality songwriting that’s also very radio-friendly, peaking in a dramatically melodic and highly singable chorus. Suženj občutka doesn’t lower this high level of musically picturesque simplicity near the end of the album at all, and as a differently profiled, easygoing hard rock story it keeps the album energetic, vivid, dynamically flowing and, as such, a high-quality product of the kind that Slovenia, lacking a healthy middle “mainstream” pop rock core, is chronically short of. In that respect Krema are an exceptional find, a serious potential builder of that core in the future, which we can only hope will start taking shape here as soon as possible. It’s high time for its healthy realization.
Lineup
Janez Marinč Johnny – vocals
Peter Zajc – guitar
Dejan Markič – bass
Roman Milavec – drums
Production
Krema
Tracklist
1. Črni napadalec
2. Egotrip
3. Črni Peter
4. Rojen za umret
5. In naj traja
6. Se zgodi
7. Povodni mož
8. Nikoli končana zgodba
9. Slovenska vas
10. Mala igrača
11. Misliš da ne vem
12. Suženj občutka
