Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Poltrona Express
Label: Celinka
Release: 2016
Duration: 48:33
Rating: 3.5/5
Poltrona Express is a band based in the Cerkno and Tolmin corner of Slovenia. Five seasoned musicians bound by plenty of friendship, and Poltrona Express have shared a quintet lineup since 2007. The band cultivates a relaxed, even easygoing, extremely musical and subtly played stylistic sound, rustically belted with the rhetoric of classic rock elements, laced with touches of blues and jazz, while the rhythmic texture of some tracks carries a pinch of funk.
Imagine adding a vocalist to the Tolmin band Feedback. The sound production alone is very close to that comparison. The sonic picture is soaked in an organic, warm tone. It sounds alive and wonderfully pleasant to the ears, almost analog. The band uses instruments of rustic origin, led by a Hammond organ and a Leslie amp, as well as an electric Rhodes synthesizer.
Poltrona Express live in a language of playful variability. They get an immense kick out of playing. They approach the songs honestly and unfiltered. You can feel all of it instantly. Despite the liveliness of the tracks, they keep the structure of the songs themselves compact, even if there’s still a bit of arranging naivety to be heard, but that has to be part of the healthy evolution of any group. So following musicality comes first, and they liven it up with real skill, by implanting colorful bits of improvisational wit, or by subtly decorating the lead motifs with extra harmonies. The dialogue between keyboardist Žiga and guitarist Matej keeps the album’s development highly dynamic and forms the core of the greatest expressive interest that the group’s musical dossier delivers. Tomaž Lapanja’s vocal, in places a little shy but otherwise warm and pleasant, and which could bring more decisiveness and edge to the tracks, doesn’t really take a dominant role in the songs’ makeup. They’re so full of movement that the contribution of the instrumental section pushes the vocal into a subordinate position. A band of refined musicians, who over the years of playing together have developed a real working chemistry of tuning in to one another, recorded the songs mostly in the first take, in the manner of a live performance. The guys can easily afford that. At any moment. They’re that good.
»Zaženi nov dan« is a pleasant album that speaks to the listener “quietly,” unobtrusively and with zero pretension. You can draw parallels with the look and work of old-school bands from the recent history of Slovenian rock, like September. Groups like Poltorna Express are extremely rare on our turf today, and they represent an interesting moment of revival of the once hugely popular genre fusion of the sixties and seventies, especially when we’re talking about blending rock with blues and jazz, to which you add an adventurous, exploratory note of the progressive. No particular musical revolution as far as songwriting innovation goes, but faithfully following a musical vision throughout, which highlights a note of heartfelt sincerity, and that’s enough to make this record convincing.
Lineup
Tomaž Lapanja – vocals, harmonica
Matej Magajne – guitar
Matija Purgar – bass guitar
Žiga Kovačič – Hammond organ, electric piano, synthesizer
Alen Bogataj – drums, percussion
Production
Dejan Lapanja & Poltrona Express
Tracklist
1. Budalo za budalo
2. Mravljice
3. Zaženi nov dan
4. Križanka
5. Še pasebnu u sabuota
6. Kontrolor usode
7. V neznano
8. Me ne zanima
9. Messed and confused
10. Magnet za vse probleme
