Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Bernays Propaganda
Label: Moonlee Records
Release: 2010
Length: 39:12
Rating: 3/5
Bernays Propaganda is a virus of revolution that has illegally burrowed its way into the most famous work by the mass manipulator of our age, Edward L. Bernays. The quartet took more than just its name from him: it keeps rolling on vehemently, with zero creative restraint, exposing the conspiracy of “Propaganda”! The guys and the girl are now offering us their second studio record, which follows their debut “Happiness Machines” (2009) after a gap of just over a year.
On it, the Macedonian indie rock outfit keeps diligently to the style it defined with that debut. It’s a thrilling combination of the post-punk wave, whose roots lie in the eighties, laid over light but solid, punchy rhythms that’ll have you swaying along on the dance floor without much effort. Bernays Propaganda have thus managed to earn the label of one-of-a-kind, instantly recognizable.
The core element of their music, the thing that makes it feel like we’re hearing something fresh and different the whole way through, is the voice of singer Kristina Gorovska. On the new album, too, she keeps that appealing mix of “dollish fierceness” while casually spitting out dictates of biting slogans, which the album is chock-full of. The clipped singing, often repetitive, combined with accentuated, concise — almost danceable — rhythmic moves (with a thick, voluminous kick drum) and a thoroughly minimalist guitar approach, adds a touch of the hypnotic.
Still, it feels like with the new album Bernays Propaganda can’t deliver the same varied insight on the songwriting and artistic side as they did with the debut ” Happiness Machines”. The songs sound much more alike and don’t reach the level of motif variety that the predecessor pulled off. On top of that, on “My Personal Holiday” we get a move that isn’t the happiest one in Bernays Propaganda’s case. The band decided to deliver three songs (My Perosnal Holiday, Blackmail, VIP In Paradise) in English. In doing so, all three lost that spark of excitement and difference that’s crowned by the excellent, effective engraving of the Macedonian language in the band’s own idiom. Furthermore, the male vocal in the song Ovaj den da pomine has a rather annoying, grating effect that needlessly pulls attention away from the otherwise dominant and wonderfully fitting vocal approach of Kristina Gorovska — not just in this song, but across the whole material of the new record.
The record’s highlights are the opener Namesti frizuru i gladuvaj (Fix Your Hair and Starve), the especially sped-up Preziveav (I Survived) with its colorful twist of atmosphere in a major-key chorus, the welcome release of the album’s energetic tension in the calmer Se plasam od lugje (I’m Afraid of People), and the closing, slowed-down Koga e dovolno (When Enough Is Enough), which burns brightest in its gloomy mood. That last song especially highlights the eighties post-punk element, where the bass guitar typically carries the main melody of the leading motifs. With this dramatic track the album wraps up in an effective manner, putting on display all of Bernays Propaganda’s most important ingredients, the ones responsible for the artistic uniqueness of their music. Once again Kristina’s vocals are put to skillful use, this time with the singer tapping an uncharacteristically deep register of her voice, which strengthens the distinctiveness of the song itself. The result is an intense finish to the album.
With “My Personal Holiday” the band has further cemented its unique sonic and stylistic independence, even though the new album serves up less vivid artistic content than its predecessor “Happiness Machiness”. Let’s hope the band stops experimenting with English in the future, because moves like that take away the authenticity, distinctiveness, recognizability and appeal that are crowned by the effective use of the Macedonian language in this band’s one-of-a-kind sermon.
Lineup
Kristina Gorovska – vocals
Vasko Atanasoski – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Nenad Trifunovski – bass guitar
Dzano Kuč – drums
Production
Nenad Trifunovski
Track list
1. Namesti frizuru i gladuvaj
2. Buldožer
3. Ovoj den da pomine
4. My Personal Holiday
5. Preživeav
6. Se plašam od lugje
7. Blackmail
8. VIP In Paradise
9. Koga e dovolno
