Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Vlasta Popić
Label: Moonlee Records
Release: 2015
Length: 37:34
Rating: 4/5
The alternative rock underground knows no bottom and no borders. Croatian sonic terrorists Vlasta Popič are striking for the second time, with their second studio album, called »Kvadrat«. The band, active since 2007, has been a pretty regular gig guest in our dens over the past few years. Their convincing shows definitely left a strong mark and won them plenty of sympathy among fans of uncompromising garage din and racket that cooks up one hell of a sonic mess. Around the same time, another band shook the walls of the Slovenian club scene good and proper a few times, indirectly making it easier for Vlasta Popič to get the doors of that scene open. That’s Serbia’s Repetitor, with whom Vlasta Popič share quite a few sonic and stylistic similarities.
Vlasta Popič remain a trio on the new album. Vocals are still split between singer and drummer Tena Rak and singer and guitarist Ivan Ščapec, who recently welcomed new bassist Dimitrij Petrović into the ranks. The musical direction on the new album is a natural continuation of the EP »Najjača ultimativna mašina za ubijanje« and the studio debut »Za očnjake«, released in 2012.
Vlasta Popič keep building on a total minimalism of notes. The phrases are often stretched out and repetitive, especially in the closing parts. Definitely punk, but with an enormous dose of noise grime. Among Slovenian bands cultivating a similar style, we could pick Nikki Louder. On »Kvadrat« the band sounds like it’s up on a concert stage. Chances are that for the most part, this album was actually recorded that way too. First take. Songs played on the first try and laid straight onto the recording tape. No makeup, no kitsch whatsoever. Smeared, grimy guitar phrases combined with relentlessly furious drumming, glued together with a perfectly matched hardener of thick, voluminous, rattling bass lines that also fill the available space very effectively with the occasional burst of higher melodic splatter.
Vlasta Popič don’t know the first thing about overcomplicating stuff. They get to the point right away, directly, and the way the three building blocks click together is downright fascinating. The furious, disillusioned vocals of the wild Tena Rak give the band’s dossier an extra element of one-of-a-kind recognizability. Short and sharp. No hide-and-seek, straight in the teeth. Vlasta Popič are a band delivering a wholeheartedly honest product, with the huge gloomy heft of a unique folded-up punk rock, pinned on one side to noise and on the other, thanks to the occasional multiple repetition of bizarrely minimized phrases, to an element of post rock. The droning, heavily overdriven guitar sound creates a chunky sonic backdrop that also exploits a considerable dose of dissonance.
Vlasta Popič are definitely interesting alternative rock oddballs, whose adrenaline boiling in the bloodstream is a quickly contagious disease that should delight just about every follower of underground music. Vlasta Popič couldn’t care less about trends, norms, and rules! The band has only one guiding principle. Be honest with yourself and with the things you do in life. The album »Kvadrat« defines the band’s musical dossier even more sharply and, in doing so, cements its position as a one-of-a-kind sonic usurper in the underground music world of the Balkan region.
Lineup
Tena Rak – drums, vocals
Ivan Ščapec – guitar, vocals
Dimitrij Petrović – bass guitar
Production
Hrvoje Nikšić
Tracklist
1. Tržište
2. Ako nisam dobra
3. Szeged
4. Slijepa naša (Mržnja)
5. Maštanje
6. Dolje
7. Ataksija
8. O vodi
9. Nervozno se sanjari
