Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Nula Kelvina
Label: Celinka
Release: 2011
Rating: 4/5
Nula Kelvina, a trio of broad-minded thinkers, bring us their studio debut “Možgani na paši”, yet another musical odyssey into a realm of vividly sophisticated, juicily abundant mockery of everything that the human body and the little soul trapped inside it take in, and that the natural-science “sages” have been teaching us since time immemorial (let’s say warning us!) is called reality (without mentioning that, in the sublunary scheme of things, it’s a tiny, cheaply sold piece of hot air). Packaged, in other words, in a pure-blooded sermon of Slovenian origin. Of music, poetry and visuals.
A blend of the smoky, old-timer spirit of New York clubs from the Prohibition era and cabaret chanson-singing, wittily backed by an active dialogue on the basic line of the fully organic sound of bass, drums and keyboards, which twirl through the simple and predictable legacy of jazz, blues, swing and even country, infused with the melos of lead melodies, as dictated by the energy of the “radiance” of existing on the map of the Slovenian hen, is “merely” a stable and above all loyal “crutch” for the deeply perceptive, jokingly sarcastic delivery of poetry, richly peppered with the sparkle of quips on love, sociology and ego-trip themes alike. From the inconsolable truth-teller Oto Pestner to the good old drinking wolf Janez Bončina Benč, there’s something here for everyone to make you prick up your ears.
If, on the cover of a Laibach album years ago, you had to guess under which sheep’s fleece the “Volk” was hiding, then the “sheep-philic” Nula Kelvina have gone for a “Zappa-esque” approach to the visual optimization of their music, as their musical-expressive intellect demands, or let’s say rather their artistic instinct. Picture an ad for laundry detergent with a bacteriologically spotless meadow whose uniform sterility could work at best as a golf course. On a pasture soaked in pesticides (the Slovenian origin is given away by Triglav in the background), little clouds of sheep wander innocently, and they’re nothing other than the washed brains of the “mob”. Caught in the act of performing the necessary, meaning the most primitive, life functions. Nothing more is in store for them, because their brains have been scrubbed clean. When it’s laundry day, go with Nula Kelvina.
Since there’s no point looking for Einstein’s theory of relativity in a musical sermon, Nula Kelvina naturally put the bulk of their preaching intellect into the poetry. And at a time when our poor nation, punished for every crooked fart, desperately needs that kind of artistic reflection. This newly discovered amusement park doesn’t, at bottom, reinvent the wheel. With its sermon, it slots into a landscape of similar delivery of high-profile, brainy content of eternal buffoonery, from Magnifico to Slon in sadež. All Nula Kelvina have done is come up with one more formula for redefining that content. A formula that gives them a special place in the Slovenian musical mosaic. And that’s what counts.
You’ll have no trouble sending your brains out to pasture, because Nula Kelvina’s music is simple and reliably accessible. A wittily cheeky weave of the archaic stew of musical genres described above sticks to the form of a crafted melody in the lead motifs throughout, while the lion’s share of attention naturally goes first and foremost to the preacher’s voice of Marko Boh, for whom, in caricaturing most of Marko’s vocal delivery, I can with an easy conscience borrow the tried-and-tested label my RockLine colleague Peter Podbrežnik uses when he describes Van Der Graaf Generator’s genius Peter Hammill as the “mouthy doctor”. The resemblance between the two is more than a coincidence, and both are, of course, very mouthy.
Special thanks also go to the label Celinka, whose presence makes it possible to bring the “mob” closer to bands full of authorial insight and expressive definition, finished one-of-a-kind acts, which today is more the exception than the rule. Especially when you add the phony caricaturing of the Slovenian music scene by hollow but commercially backed and forced media, who, on orders from the grey eminences, fixate on the yellow headlines and needlessly stick their noses into musical content too. We Slovenes are excellent musicians, artists and creators. There are far more of us than five. And the album “Možgani na paši” is a gem that the label Celinka found at the right moment, in the right place. A must-check. The most authentic point of Slovenianness in poetry and music. Do your laundry with Nula Kelvina, so your brains flash as brightly as they possibly can!
Line-up
Marko Boh – vocals, keyboards
Klemen Kotar – bass guitar, saxophone, flute, rattles, backing vocals
Jure Rozman – drums, backing vocals
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Gašper Kržmanc – guitar, backing vocals
Production
Gašper Kržmanc & Nula Kelvina
Track list
1. Nisem še vrgel
2. Možgani na paši
3. V sanje se prebudim
4. Brez ljubezni
5. Pupa
6. Kdo ve
7. Lenuh
8. Igra brez meja
9. Tko kul
10. Škripnu lep
