Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Various Artists
Label: Društvo kočevskih glasbenikov
Release: 2016
Rating: 4/5
Why not, if you can? Kočevje špila is »Ubrano« this time around. Last year it was »Zastonj« (much like what the RockLine crew does), this year it’s »Ubrano« (much like our team). This is already the fifth consecutive installment in the yearly »Kočevje špila« series, kept going year after year by the Kočevje Musicians’ Association. The main activists show no sign of running out of steam, and that fight of theirs makes up for everything. The compilation’s mission is to deliver a new yearly Kočevje music almanac, a cross-section of the local musical pulse that is open across genres and, of course, gives priority to original work by artists from the Kočevje corner of the country.
Most of the artists are old acquaintances from previous »Kočevje špila« compilations, and that means we can follow the character of one artist’s songs over the years, and with it, indirectly, their evolutionary path and artistic reach, a reflection of each artist’s musical vision. Above all, the spark and openness of individual minds, behind which the hope always smolders anew (call it an illusion if you like) that their artistry will bring a “musical revolution” or its rebirth.
The new Kočevje špila compilation »Ubrano« isn’t just a pulse check on the musical creativity of the Kočevje region. It’s an honest mirror and imprint of a state of mind and consciousness. It’s an intuitive, emotional response to the stimuli of a not exactly rosy life in the new times, as the artists of this region experience it. They have to survive in a cruel world of injustice and moral atrophy, in a country where boundless pettiness, fear of “otherness” and good old Cankar-style bullying long ago got not just a passport and citizenship, but a throne, put there by us (or maybe just by me and you).
»Ubrano« once again delivers genre variety, and the individual artists can sensibly be sorted into genre factions. The singer-songwriter side stays strong (almost proverbially so) this time too, represented by Gaber Brin, Urška Bakovič, Ida Aupič, Pavle Benič and Matthias & The band. There are new moments of more pronounced flirting with pop (Static, Joe Kroshner ft. Urška Bakovič, Vocabella, and Zapušanci too), the (over)due jazz rock fusion of the instrumental “shredders” 4 Dementions (the second half of Eva’s Journey plays like a kind of tribute to Frank Zappa), and a fresh moment of dabbling in electronic music in the “breakbeat” escapade by Extended Veins (the song Break Fast). The artistic aesthetic of the alternative rock spheres isn’t neglected either, especially the down-to-earth punk rock that we Slovenes have always had a good handle on and understood, and consequently always woven into rock’n’roll in our own peculiar way. Staying with the latter, the melodic HC punks All On To Me make their debut on the compilation (in a manner we’ve heard before) with Like It Matters, followed by the much more stripped-down, rudimentary and classically punk rock-minded Teta iz Kanade by Ausländer Trio. Then, somewhere toward the end of the compilation, Sintetika come in with a restless, uncompromisingly jagged punk rock assault in the song Nasilje, in which you can pick out the seeds of metal phrasing.
Gaber Brin remains incredibly penetrating. With his famous nasal, manly, mid-to-low register vocal color, he brings the compilation a signature “desperado” closer in Psalm 151 – Uvertura. Brin is once again extremely convincing, strong poetics included. Gaber, for crying out loud, put out a new album in this lifetime. Ida Aupič, a singer with a nicely “cultivated” alto voice, presents herself this time with the melancholic, dreamy Nekaj. Maybe adding vocal harmonies in future arrangement tricks would fill out the sonic space more effectively, since there’s still some room left in it. Otherwise it’s a perfectly lovely little song. Then there’s the legendary singer-songwriter voice Pavle Benič, armed with the oldest acoustic guitar the Kočevje region has to offer, and the short, concise confessional Potop. His tuned strings obey him far better this time.
From singer-songwriters on to the pop-tinged part of the compilation. Joe Kroshner (it’s hard to say outright that he’s a kind of Kočevje Mistermarsh) is a man who understands very well how to synthesize electronic sound pastels backed by flirty dance rhythms. His new song Ljubim gets its vocal stamp from Urška Baković. The song goes straight for the favor of radio frequencies. A very strong moment on the new compilation in this respect is also Izi by Static, with its tastefully sophisticated “funk groove” makeup and the expressive reach of lead (female) vocalist Jasmina Movrin. Toward the tail end of the compilation, we can put the song Le poljub, directed by Vocabella, in the same category. Someone like Ditka Haberl could join in as a special guest vocalist without any trouble, and the parallels with the legacy of the Slovenian popevka of the seventies are far from negligible (Pepel in kri). This time the compilation is closed out by Zapušanci. They opened the previous one, they close this one, and they do it with the song Žeja. Don’t worry, it’s no parody of The Drinkers, but a song that delivers the only real moment of some extra goofiness and a polished party label, even though the hero of the lyrics (in the typical Slovenian manner) is once again cast into suffering (»…o ta prekleta žeja«). Imagine Janko Ropret (the rhythmic structure of Žeja, the color of the lead vocal in the verse, the accordion standing in for the harmonica, all recall Ropret’s Orglice) and Melanholiki (the integration of the winds) trying to put one track together. Mischievous, fun, yet at the same time tragicomic, Žeja delivers a hearty finish to this compilation. This song really should get spun more often on Val 202.
Then there are the “oddballs” on the compilation, who also belong to their own separate genre frames. Back again are the razor-sharp thrash groove metallers Nčodnč with the song Downrise, where you can’t miss the influence of Sepultura (the guitar phrase, the rhythm in the verse), followed by a melodically soaring chorus. With In the City, Ram Session keep up the aesthetic of the retro-sounding psychedelic hard rock culture of the seventies, while Kosmate dlesni, a band with one of the most original names around, once again can’t be pinned down anywhere. Their new song WTF, a loaded “groove cross over” projectile, evokes the bygone restless days of Beastie Boys (the verse excellently delivered in an annoyingly screeching freestyle manner), and the chorus even shoots off toward the spheres of Rage Against The Machine. In short, it’s the moment of the album that is sure to surprise you most. This is a band to keep your eye on at all times, because for the third time they surprise with a completely different statement of musical character. And last but not least, the SKA standouts Sell Out are back with a new dedication to the genre, the song Fly With Me. This is a band that never disappoints in its stance, sound, arrangements, production and execution, and this time is no different.
So, what’s left in the end? Once again, wonderful feelings about a total of eighteen tracks in tune. “Ubrano” (In Tune), then, just as the title of this compilation commands. The “Kočevje špila” project persists and defies the odds for the fifth year in a row. That’s something not even Val 202’s “Imamo dobro glasbo” project managed, since the money for it ran out in the financial outlook, all the way up to the state budget. But the die-hard people of Kočevje, unlike the soft, dishonorably globalized Slovenian capital and its surroundings, in a fight for survival and for preserving their own identity, raised on the hard crust of bread, keep charging ahead at full strength. Over the years the ties have grown into a real movement, as we noted last year and the year before. The region is on its creative feet! All that’s missing are studio albums from the individual players on all these compilations, following the example of the excellent album by Jaguar Februar titled “Lepa embalaža, pokvajena vsebina” from 2015. Let’s hope the municipality of Kočevje, as a partner in this project, throws in another coin or two in the future, since the Ministry of Culture keeps playing the stepmother.
You can listen to the whole “Kočevje špila – Ubrano” compilation HERE!
Ram Session – In The City:
Gaber Brin – Psalm 151 – Uvertura:
Urška Bakovič – Ples v temi:
Tracklist
1. 4 Dementions – Eva’s Journey
2. All On To Me – Like It Matters
3. Auslánder Trio – Teta iz Kanade
4. Extended Veins – Break Fast
5. Gaber Brin – Psalm 151 – Uvertura
6. Ida Aupič – Nekaj
7. Joe Kroshner ft. Urška Bakovič – Ljubim
8. Kosmate dlesni – WTF
9. Matthias & Band – Dekle z zlatimi lasmi
10. Nčodnč – Downrise
11. Pavle Benič – Potop
12. Ram Session – In the City
13. Sell Out – Fly With Me
14. Sintetika – Nasilje
15. Static – Izi
16. Urška Bakovič – Ples v temi
17. Vocabella – Le poljub
18. Zapušanci – Žeja
