Label: Moonlee Records
Release date: June 18, 2021
Production: Uroš Milkić
Album length: 32.58 min
Genre: Alternative Rock / Post Punk / Indie
Rating: 9.0/10
Lelee are yet another seriously interesting and offbeat alternative rock outfit, joining the roster of the no less interesting and independent label Moonlee Records, which specializes in finding and looking after independent bands with an alternative rock streak, mostly coming from the geographic area and roots of the former shared country of Yugoslavia.
It’s a trio based in Ljubljana, though the crew is a mix from all corners. Vocalist and bassist Jelena Rusjan, whom many of us know from the current incarnation of the legendary Borghesia as well as from Trus!, is originally from Belgrade, guitarist Damjan Manevski comes from North Macedonia, and drummer Jan Kmet is a homegrown boy. So, a seriously interesting combination that also generates a distinctive, self-grown musical dossier, which is documented on their studio debut “Čuka bija pumpa”.
Lelee are very musical. And as a trio, they’re exactly what every trio needs and what we want from a real rock trio. They give off a feeling of wildness and lack of restraint, even though at first blush they sound tamed and even reined in. Still, you quickly pick up on that spark of Balkan potency, generated by a colorfully mixed musical DNA. You feel that wildness, that restlessness, which always bursts out in situations like this and fills bands from this part of the world with a sense of homegrown originality. Jelena’s lead vocals, Jan’s monolithic, firmly pouting drums, backed by piercing bass lines and Damjan’s busy, at times “Cure-style” guitar, point to influences from the legacy of the old Yugoslav school of post punk and new wave. At the same time, the band carries an inner indie charisma that comes through clearly across the whole album.
The band is also open to all kinds of artistic challenges. And that’s very good. The same goes for nurturing their confessional side and artistic evolution going forward. They bare their arrangements now and then with synthesizers (Kopnež, Srce), and on the track Ništavilo they bring in a saxophone at just the right moment and in just the right place, which slots into the nature of the compositions very pleasingly. Ništavilo is one of the most interesting compositions on the album, a really special one, a kind of artistic detour, and the pop art aesthetic elements are even more intensified in this track. Not even David Bowie would have been ashamed of them back when he was writing “Aladdin Sane”.
The opening and closing stretches are the most ‘revved-up’ parts of the album, which is expected and welcome for the alternative rock genre. In terms of speed, the closing Generacija XYZ veers off most clearly, digging and undermining the ground beneath your feet with thunderously accelerated slaps and angrier vocals, which gives the tune a garage-y punk rock character. Otherwise, the band can also go ‘artish’. The substance of the songs is a seriously interesting and colorful indie pop and post punk rock picture book, and especially in the slower parts, thanks to the production of Jelena Rusjan’s vocals, which at times have a ‘stoned-dreamy’ quality (intensified by pastel synthesizers) and address you as if coming from the beyond (Kopnež), along with the aforementioned monolithic rhythmic figures, it evokes in such moments a certain ‘trippiness’, even a light veil of psychedelia.
The guitar covers a lot of ground. Even though it stays faithful to a clean tone. Along the way it develops a nostalgic “jangle” ring, which pals up fantastically with the thick bass lines and simple, direct rhythms. Put simply, the trio has laid out its energy lines excellently in the creative triangle of a classic rock trio, and in the compositions, both in arrangement and performance, it has filled and used the space that opens up in the realms of this kind of alternative rock soundscape with great boldness and effectiveness.
Lelee are oddballs. They’re developing a musical nature all their own, one that’s special and yet feels as natural as breathing oxygen to anyone from around here. And we all understand that kind of musical character, everyone with roots in southeastern Europe, or rather the western and central Balkan region. So Lelee are a combo worth the full attention of connoisseurs and students of art-minded alternative rock prose with a mandatory touch of confessional unconventionality.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Izvan sebe (3:39)
2. Fasciniran (sum od mnogu lugje) (3:15)
3. Ništavilo (3:16)
4. Čudo (4:18)
5. Kratkog daha (2:48)
6. Poželuvam (5:15)
7. Srce (3:20)
8. Kopnež (5:10)
9. Generacija XYZ (2:53)
Lineup:
Jelena Rusjan – bass, vocals
Damjan Manevski – guitar, backing vocals
Jan Kmet – drums
Guest musicians:
Blaž Gracar – synthesizers on track no. 8
Andrej Fon – saxophone on track no. 3
Uroš Milkić – synthesizers on track no. 7, backing vocals on tracks no. 3 and 9
