Klubski Maraton 16

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Artist: Various Artists
Label: ZARŠ Records
Release: 2016
Length: 55:53
Rating: 3.5/5

This year’s Klubski Maraton 16 compilation is a bit different from what we usually expect, the kind Radio Študent’s label dishes out every year. Then again, which one isn’t? That’s the whole charm and point of showcasing young, fresh, up-and-coming and above all unestablished Slovenian acts.  Fair warning, though: this year’s compilation gathers more electronic music under its roof than ever before. So among the classic rock bands, where you’d normally expect guitar, bass, drums and vocals to share one big conversation, this time we only run into Blue Town’s Radio, who show up with the tracks  The Storm Is Gonna End and Ain’t Nobodys Business as a band playing garage rock’n’roll with partly retro-sounding premises, but above all it just sounds garage, first and foremost. A demo, plain and simple. Raw, with a pinch of blues rhetoric, stripped down and served naked on a platter. May the future be kind to them as they hone their own original material. The second act that still fits the usual »expected template« is singer-songwriter Miha Peterlič, with a modern urban sound, who sketches and strings together snapshots of today’s student defiance and survival in the morally plundered bowels of the Slovenian capital. No holds barred. Voice, guitar. Very genuine, no overthinking and not a hint of flirting with the world of experimentalism. Almost bizarrely simple, but precisely because of that all the more effective. Unpolished and primordial.

Let’s step into the world of electronic music. Here comes the first DIY act already: Gašper Torkar. A collision of alienated, psychedelic-transcendental and utterly otherworldly sounds, steeped in dark esotericism and built on a bizarrely jagged sonic dialogue between guitar and synthesizers. It’s a weave of single-line guitar playing wrapped in curtains of synth, which give both tracks the depth they need. An ambient voyage through an interesting, unusual dialogue between programming and unpretentious electric guitar melodies.

Neo Pogo are a purebred electronic outfit. A three-piece laying out a soft-sounding musical landscape, gazing into electronic IDM pastels. This is strictly ambient sailing through trippy states, which only ignites to the fullest when you catch them live. The band also brings visualization tech into its live shows, which magnifies the ambient, mood-driven states behind the curtain of the arrangements even further.

Memowu are a duo. A female vocal and instrumental backing built on simple beats and synth blankets, with a »constantly searching« female voice sunk deep inside. Probably the most interesting act on this compilation, another DIY master by the name of Jan Brišar who works under the artist alias Noč, serves up a seriously fascinating collision of gloomy ambient electronic vistas, to which he adds outlines of guitar distortion, simple riffs and, you won’t believe it, an incredible »growl«, or rather rasping, that doesn’t sound organic at all anymore, and it takes you a good while to actually recognize it as a »growl« in the classic sense of the word. It feels like wind mixed with acid rain, rising over the scorched ruins of perfect post-apocalyptic vistas after the last great war between man and machine. The machines won, of course.

»Klubski Maraton 16« keeps its mission alive, then. It surprises and delivers a heap of fun musical discoveries growing independently and organically in the Slovenian music underground! 

Tracklist

1. KM16 – Popotnica (01:22)
2. Blue Town’s Radio – The Storm Is Gonna End (02:48)
3. Gašper Torkar – April in Snow (07:50)
4. NeoPogo – P0L1 (03:34)
5. Memowu – Toros (03:35)
6. Miha Peterlič – Reciklaža (03:05)
7. Noč – This Inward Howl (05:15)
8. Miha Peterlič – Relief (03:27)
9. Noč – Swallow This Fire (07:20)
10. Blue Town’s Radio – Ain’t Nobody’s Business (02:45)
11. Gašper Torkar – Tyrell’s (07:06)
12. NeoPogo – FeS2 (05:02)
13. Memowu – Ciao (02:39)