Label: Celinka Records
Release date: 01.06.2015
Album length: 33.11
Production: Igor Vuk & Gregor Zemljič
Genre: Alternative Rock
If you rotate crops on a field by switching the vegetables you plant in each cycle, repeat the cycle every three years, and leave the field unworked in the final year so it can recover, that’s a three-year crop rotation with fallow. Or so I’d say. I’m no farmer and hardly a relevant source here, but I hope these notes, filed away in my brain’s processor since elementary school and history class, are still more or less right.
Natriletno kolobarjenje s praho is a project by theater director, actor, author, translator and performer (also vocalist) Jure Novak and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Uroš Buh. So the two of them rotate crops in exemplary fashion. Effectively, too. In 2013 they won the Golden Kanta, first prize, at the KantFest festival in Ruše, which earned them a recording day at Studio 22 of Maribor’s RTV.
One recites, declaims, the other kicks up a racket. Either way, NL3 are an absolute oddity on the Slovenian musical-theatrical scene. There’s nowhere to pigeonhole them. Even though “Natriletno kolobarjenje s praho” has traces inspired by cabaret-chanson theater, the thing is decisively far from the approaches of, say, Same Babe. And because they’re a duo, and because of their effective use of the minimalist axiom “less is more”, you can’t really lump the project in with alternative rock acts either (Incurabili, Alli Strings Detached etc…), even though the album will land squarely with fans of the Slovenian rock underground as well as fans of singer-songwriter music, since the poetry carries an exceptionally strong message.
The record simply doesn’t let you catch your breath. It’s a work that dissects the psyche of the average Slovenian Joe and Jane with striking authenticity. It’s hard to get as close to the core of Slovenianness as this record does. Jure Novak is an outstanding interpreter, throwing himself into roles without restraint and bridging them with the chameleon act of a thousand faces. In fact, his declamation, the recitation, which swings from schizophrenic outbursts of frenetic shouting (Čakam organe) to caressing whispers and even vocal melody, is, at both extremes of his delivery, the core of this record’s swagger.
“Natriletno kolobarjenje s praho” carries real traces of avant-garde music. Anyone familiar with the life and work of acts like NLP (Na lepem prijazni) or even Buldožer will prick up their ears. Even though the music is cut from entirely different cloth, the moods are very close to those comparisons. Amid Novak’s seething, caustic delivery and the nervous rage of Buh’s guitar riffs, things can calm right down in the next moment, yet Novak never stops “provoking”. He clings effectively to the element of theatrical escalation (with gradation) and gradually leads the poetry to a crescendo. He pulls it off with feather-light ease, and in the closer Ženske this “provoking” of his is especially fascinating.
The record bursts with energy. Given the irony and sarcasm, which are in no short supply, it’s clear the album is draped in black thoughts and feelings. It stems from the inner feelings of an individual, but it’s also armed to the teeth with social criticism! The album’s key track is definitely Šef in akt. It makes you laugh to tears while not skimping for a second on the bitter sting of everyday reality, which fills the everyman of the Valley of St. Florian with anxiety. So that’s what it looks like? Slovenian “morbidity” in 2015! And Natriletno kolobarjenje s praho is its supremely authentic imprint. A gutsy experiment that is provocative throughout, hits straight and head-on, and is unbridled in its truthfulness. Right to the core of every one of us. A people’s album, then, that will be rotating crops in the folds of your brain for a good while!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 8.5 / 10
Tracklist:
1. Na pavzi
2. Presežna vrednost bivanja
3. Iščem čakam
4. Šef in akt
5. Čakam organe
6. Dnevnik nedni
7. Moja ulica
8. Ženske
Lineup:
Jure Novak – lyrics, vocals
Uroš Buh – guitar, percussion, vocals
