Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Sintetika
Label: Self-released
Release: 2017
Length: 39:55
Rating: 4/5
Slovenia needs catharsis. Kočevje HC/Punk Rock trio Sintetika has known that for a good while too, and this April they dropped a studio album with exactly that title. The band, active since 2007, recorded the album way back in 2014, then (somewhat unexpectedly) disappeared into a long stretch of mixing and mastering to get the final sound they were after. So what can you say about it? Simple. These are the kind of albums you want to hear more of. Genre pigeonholing doesn’t even matter here; what counts is the level of the artist’s expressive honesty. Real, piercing, perceptive honesty, that is. Heart, in other words. And Sintetika carries heart and authenticity in abundance, in the artistry of their own particular dossier! So it’s not hard to conclude that roughly 40 minutes of purely biting blasting and hurling of aggressive gestures is a real overhaul of solidly tangible musical substance and huge expressive conviction.
What puts Sintetika in a special spot is that they don’t build their tracks out of cheerful, carefree ring-around-the-rosy major-chord stuff, like a heap of trendy new-wave hc punk shorts-wearing bands who are obligatorily topped off with McDonalds caps. Instead, the songs are dramatized with unsweetened musicality and uncompromisingly destructive nihilism, with acrid guitar phrases, from beneath which all the rhythmic fury rolls out and from which the rattling, fat bass drum sticks out like crazy! A piercing, striking, wildly stretched and fired-up vocal, socially critical lyrics that call it like it is and lay bare the numb, cold, nature-alienated, emotionally and spiritually impoverished state of mind of “civilized society” in the year (oh, of our Lord) 2017, where values and morals were trampled into the ground ages ago and the watchful eye of Big Brother “pulls” mostly nothing but bad character traits out of the human being (even supports and rewards them). Sintetika sincerely, in the spirit of total realism, slams the environment they live in, as well as that brave new world (of 2017)!
The Kočevje rock scene can boast a solid bundle of bands reaching for alternative-rock uncompromisingness. Alongside Sintetika there’s Pankeroschi, then Jaguar Februar, Charlie Butter Fly, and still Nčodnč too, although on their latest album the latter are noticeably eyeing up some thrash metal action. You won’t find a single pinch of gloss, kitsch or makeup in any of these bands! What they share is biting cynicism and a certain perceptible energetic vibration that characterizes the Kočevje-Kolpa geographic region and is typical of it. That means uniqueness, homegrown-ness and, to a degree, self-made originality of musical artistry that comes to life only in this region. That of course goes for the album »Katarza.si« as well. These bands also stick together, know each other and have been friends for years. Not least, the producer of this album is the Nčodnč drummer Gašper Oražem – Gagi, who knows how to breathe the much-needed liveliness and garage noise into a record like this. Sintetika recorded the album in one go, like a live gig in the studio. That’s how albums like this get made.
Riffs that are distinct and stamped with character, no overcomplicating, not a hint of dodging around. Straight into the teeth and forehead! With fury and unbridled vehemence. Tracks between two and three minutes long, cut short and to the point. In what they have to say, they get straight to the heart of it. The »Katarza.si« that greets you with Aristotle in a spacesuit is a must. One way or another. The system will collapse one way or another. A new one will be born, with humans or without. Completely different in any case. Sintetika is rebellion, is rage, is a genuine imprint and mirror of the state of this society of “colorless prisoners” of the system and “democratic absurdity”. It is a verdict and a condemnation of its downfall.
You can stream the album »Katarza.si« through the band’s bandcamp profile, and if you manage to get your hands on a physical copy, two additional tracks are waiting on it as a reward, namely Neoliberalci and Odnosi, which came out on the compilations Kočevje špila. If you’re looking for boiling, bitter hc/punk rock energy, you’ll find that the album »Katarza.si« by Kočevje’s Sintetika is one of the most convincing in that category, and not just this year, but within the last few years on the Slovenian music scene.
Sintetika – “Katarza.si” (full album):
Lineup
Tomaž Kovačič – Kova – drums
Ivan Margan – Ive – guitar, vocals
Zoran Štamfelj – Zoko – bass guitar, vocals
Production
Gašper Oražem
Track list
1. Vsak za svojo rit
2. Bogi ti
3. Muč
4. Krediti
5. Hišice
6. Nazaj v depresijo
7. Nedeljski sprehod
8. Nasilje
9. Super Sick
10. Superheroj
11. Pik zigmar
12. Žalujemo
13. Odnosi*
14. Neoliberalci*
* … bonus tracks on the physical CD
