Self-released
Release date: 31. 1. 2020
Production: Matej Gobec
Album length: 28.37 min
Genre: Rock/Alternative Rock/Pop Rock
Rating: 8.0/10
Klon are yet another new homegrown rock outfit, this one hailing from the Savinja corner of Slovenia, Celje to be exact. The quartet is made up of four enviably skilled musicians who, judging at least by the musical substance of their debut »1«, already boast a wealth of experience and compositional maturity.
The studio debut has just eight tracks and under half an hour of music, so you could almost take it for a kind of EP, but still. Sure, there are eight songs, but then Deep Purple’s »Machine Head«, for example, has only seven. So what? Quality matters, not quantity. If you’ve mastered the songwriting axiom that “less is more”, then when it comes to keeping things lean you’ve already done the main part of your job as an author.
Klon are typical rock representatives of the geographic spot that Slovenia occupies. Not in terms of what the band’s name means, but because the combination of the Slovenian language, vocal metrics and the resulting development of the vocal melodies gives off that impression pretty much automatically.
The opening, wake-up-call Osamljen volk hints at what I wrote in the intro of this review: this is a crew of musicians who are technically well-honed, and given the predictable melody of this short but soul-soothing major-key optimism, it’s the rhythm section’s contribution, especially the witty drumming, that grabs the listener’s attention and pulls them into the album. With the wound-up Bam! Bam! Bam!, the album finally takes a run-up and takes off on the wings of a higher dose of adrenaline rush. It erupts with just the right measure of skilled rock’n’roll know-how, where rebellious fury shakes hands with a pleasing helping of garage-punk firing-up, even though the phrasing is built throughout on the emphasis of rock and roll’s »groove« kinetics. The band is still searching for itself, mind you. To a degree it’s trying its hand at songwriting that would open the doors to radio airplay, which the album’s later tracks Iskra and Dlan v dlan show in particular. The very fact that those two sit at positions 3 and 4 noticeably calms down the middle of the album. Lining up tracks like that isn’t the most optimal idea. Things get dragged back under the wing of distorted string radiance once again by Sistemski heroj. A stripped-down classic rock’n’roll grip adorned with a garage outline and more stallion testosterone. Naboj, which follows, keeps up that brand of rock’n’roll preaching, with the lead guitar phrase drawing more inspiration from a mix of the legacy of the old hard rock school with a pinch of blues rhetoric. A ni tako then steers the album into mid-tempo. It stands on a classically minimalist sequence of chords and brings an eyeful of alternative rock attitude to the album, effectively seasoned with a pop hairdo in the form of a musically very agreeable chorus melody. An approach that the far better-known Siddharta pull off very well too. Ni sonca na spregled is an acoustic ballad colored with guitar chord (stereo chorus) ornaments. It closes the album. Its purpose is, of course, to give the record more arrangement and idea variety. But it doesn’t leave much of an impression.
That these guys are no greenhorns, but individually musicians with fully formed characters, is also hinted at by the witty, intelligent and mature lyrics, which are mostly socially critical and take on hypocrisy, quasi-moralism and the dishonesty of the brave new world head-on and with no holding back. Then again, on a track like Dlan v dlan there are a few minutes left for romance too.
There are reservations. First things first, the band will have to decide where it’s heading: more rock abrasiveness, or pop »schlager« territory. The very use and implantation of the Slovenian language has always been a hugely delicate matter when it comes to rock, and metal too. At its core it brings a restrictive factor for developing the musicality within the songs. Here too the album has some untapped possibilities for a bigger musical payoff, though there’s no doubt Klon will polish that element in the future. Besides, the band shows a great deal of studio and arrangement commitment, having also worked in more detail on coloring and contrasting the lead vocal and adding vocal harmonies to it.
The band has put together eight varied songs with commitment and drive that represent its essence. That means this isn’t imitation; the band is working to build on its own musical record, which it still has to hone. It’s precisely the experimenting across spheres that stretch from stripped-down rock’n’roll (Bam! Bam! Bam!, Naboj, Sistemski heroj), through alternative-rock ideas »mildly sweetened« with levers of pop (A ni tako), to calming pop-ballad moments (Iskra, Dlan v dlan), that hints at the band testing different expressive niches within its musical vision. The doors are wide open. Klon don’t lack daring or zeal. As said. A varied opening career step from a band that approaches its goals with the required fire. The album »1« is a bold introduction to a new musical story and a solid foundation on which the band can keep chiseling out its musical identity.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Osamljen volk
2. Bam! Bam! Bam!
3. Iskra
4. Dlan v dlan (Fantastika)
5. Sistemski heroj
6. Naboj
7. A ni tako
8. Ni sonca na spregled
Line-up:
Gregor Videc – vocals, guitar
Goran Koražija – guitar, backing vocals
Luka Vinko – bass guitar, backing vocals
Urban Krč – drums
