Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Various Artists
Label: ZARŠ Records
Release: 2017
Length: 58:28
Rating: 3.5/5
Klubski maraton 2017 is back in a fresh edition, introducing six new acts from the Slovenian rock underground, and once again it hasn’t forgotten to put the nerves of every listener of this compilation through a few »stressful« endurance tests. This time around, too, the compilation doesn’t shy away from showcasing newly discovered electronic »manipulators« of the most bizarre origins.
Right from the first band, 7AM, from Dravograd, it’s all DIY self-production: garage-y, totally unpolished live sound and simple »rolling around« in single-line musical expanses of a few trivially solvable tonal motifs, which throw up associations with the post-punk / dark rock era of the eighties, when bands like The Cure etc. were hot… Played »in one take« with no overdubs, plenty of racket. Raw and real. On this compilation, 7AM are the act closest to the punk rock tradition. The vocals are »unmuted«, almost feminine. A surprising drive that gratefully jolts the listener awake in the opening stretch of the compilation.
We move from the northeast into the Savinja Valley. Bine, a guy from Mozirje, serves up a series of DIY electronic manipulations with unusual content, honestly hard to describe. Structures of bizarre synthesized sounds, where sometimes you can’t tell whether they’re coming from the gurgling of shifting matter through Mozirje’s meteoric and fecal channels of the public sewer system, or whether the guy is trying to saw something up with a rusty fox tail. Utterly bizarre and extremely minimalist. But get ready for a series of sonic-electronic scraps that sound unconventional enough and will definitely entertain you too.
If you haven’t been lynched yet, Lynch will take care of it. A heavy-thundering quartet that dusts off muffled, faraway-gazing guitar riffs over a stiff, stare-into-the-distance, sluggish rhythmic grind that nevertheless noisily gnaws at the sonic ether. Everything in half-tones, with a vocal like a howling jackal that leans on traditional Balkan chants in its melody and, of course, its lyrics, the kind of thing that could land you in some Šar Mountains shepherd’s hut. A bit of post-rock culture gets grafted onto all this rudimentariness, and otherwise the guys cunningly fill the possible »emptiness« of the sound picture with microphonics that would also come in handy in some noise punk expanses. Lynch deliver a special and interesting alt-shmalt rumbling and droning, with a downright annoying vocal theater. The guys clearly love writing long compositions, which hints at the rawness of both tracks on this compilation.
Neseseri kakalulu are a band with an unbelievably funny name, and this writer even managed to catch them on stage before the compilation came out. It was in the lobby of Hotel Cerkno, as part of this year’s Jazz Cerkno festival. An all-instrumental nonet spread across the expanses of the Ajdovščina valley, they can boast a fun charm full of lucidity in their playing, which mostly stares into the elements of SKA/funk music. Extra percussion reinforces the rhythmic foundation and can even stir up a distant flirtation with salsa. With the word SKA, it’s clear the band has a strong horn section. A group with a bright future. Optimism bubbles out of the nonet, and the guys also offer some jazzy content and never fall into the arms of any bizarre experimentalism. Of the bands on this compilation, Neseseri kakalulu are the ones most comfortably settled in terms of genre.
SsmKOSK, a project fronted by Blaž Blažič, serves up a real sonic chaos of glued-together assorted sound effects, extremely lucid sounds. It’s a wild, unbridled manipulation of a bunch of ideas that flow into one another spontaneously, without any serious compositional plan. The recipe, then, is the shock of the unexpected. What SsmKOSK deliver is something on the very edge of what you can still call music. It’s psychedelic electronic racket, completely fragmented and disconnected. Music for thick-skinned listeners who don’t jump aside the moment they run into something unheard and unknown. Nervous, no doubt about it. Like letting a kid loose in the cupboard with the dishes and letting them fling them around however they please.
Luckily, the compilation gets its »seriousness« back right at its tail end, courtesy of the duo Styröfoam, who offer an unusual eclectic mix of electronic and natural sounds (semi-acoustic guitar), with a pleasant vocal woven into the form of the songs, one that’s thoroughly exploratory in its melodies, which brings a nice dose of spontaneity and a moment of the unexpected into the delivery. Musically exploring bass lines skillfully fill the background of the sound picture, at moments even getting funky, while the music even flirts with a touch of RIO elements. Had it not been so simply structured rhythmically, it would have the potential to go progressive or even avant-garde, but we can label an alt band like this with the prefix art right away. Styröfoam are an unusual pair of musical visionaries, and let’s hope this duo grows into something more. The second track, Moonmiles, serves up unconventional vistas of a dreamy psychedelic cabaret. The potential is there, and the compilation closes with this band remarkably well.
Tracklist
1. KM 17 Popotnica 00:59
2. 7AM – Tricks (02:42)
3. 7AM – Pigpower (01:34)
4. Bine – Neizračunljiva škoda (02:22)
5. Bine – 2144 (01:45)
6. Lynch – Oro zatvorenih očiju (06:59)
7. Lynch – Qatar National Handball Team (03:16)
8. Nesesari Kakalulu – Na sprehodu (05:12)
9. Nesesari Kakalulu – Umpah (06:37)
10. SsmKOSK – Masovka na Savi (05:14)
11. SsmKOSK – Za vedno naše gradbišče (05:13)
12. Styröfoam – Cosmonaught (04:33)
13. Styröfoam – Moonmiles (04:23)
