Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Demolition Group
Label: Sintetic Production
Released: 2012
Runtime: 62:17 + 54:29
Rating: 4.8/5
When people ask me which band from our neck of the woods owns the lion’s share of my heart, the answer has been clear, loud and honest since I was a kid: »Demolition Group!«. This Brežice collective of alternative heavyweights, with their unmistakable melancholic sentiment and an edge that’s even sharper, lodged itself in my heart through outstanding albums and outstanding gigs alike. Those shows were always a special celebration, the kind where the best memories and, above all, outstanding music get woven. And it’s hard to ignore that thirty years have passed since the band’s first steps. It’s hard to ignore that these turbulent times brought changes, molting, that some important building blocks of the band left, and that the band, wanting to survive and live and breathe with full lungs, went looking for the best alternatives. And it’s hard to ignore that, despite everything, the gem still shines as one of the rare wonders in the Slovenian musical sky, which mostly swears allegiance to commercial fodder. Demolition Group are a band with a backbone, a stance all their own and a gift for survival, and after three decades they prove it for the first time with their first officially released double live album, Na živo!
Live albums were the fad of the eighties and early nineties, and since Demolition Group skipped the trends of the day, Na živo is not just an outstanding document that completes the sonic mosaic of their discography. It’s also an experiment and an invitation, one that will no doubt lure into the live fold everyone who has, by some strange coincidence, managed to miss their shows to this day. After the excellent Planet starcev, which, after a decade away from stages, studios and the general consciousness, thoroughly sated the hunger for higher standards in homegrown music, came a string of outstanding gigs. One of them was the show at the Maribor club Štuk, where on December 9, 2011 Demolition Group decided to immortalize their work and catch, with no polish and no overdubs, a moment of their astral voyage through the blackness of space. The first disc kicks off by unrolling the loudest aces of the latest record. Gospodar is the right opener, iconoclastically sweeping away all expectations and pouring a lungful of fire-purified air into your chest. Proof that Demolition Group run like a well-oiled live machine is right here. The communication between the outstanding, charismatic vocalist Goran Šalamon and an equally outstanding and indispensable band is uncompromising and wordless. The compact, relentless drive of Bojan Fifnja’s wonderfully playful and artistic distorted guitars is superbly complemented by the poisonously good tone of the tenor sax in Jože Pegam’s hands, which sounds unmistakable. The band’s unique signature is rounded off by the rhythm section of the outstanding Gregel brothers: Ivica works the drums, while the equally outstanding Tomi matches the appetites of old fans who were used to Nikola Sekulović in the past. The record proves that Demolition Group have developed a new chemistry and that, years of service notwithstanding, they’re still hungry and capable of putting on a great show. The banter with the crowd is homey and never overdone, and the music… Nimam rad Boga continues the superb flight along a parabola of fiery passion, and the run is nicely rounded out, in line with the latest record’s own path, by the track Stokrat. The resemblance to the studio record is only skin-deep, because under the stage lights Demolition Group spew out even more energy and fire. No flubs, and the sound is sharp, crystal clear and worth every second of your attention. After Romantika, which sounds like an addendum to the story of the written-off (the rhythmic intro always reminds me of Povratak otpisanih …), comes a short leap into the past.
Dež is a song that, 14 years after the release of the album Neovangelij, has become an evergreen of Slovenian music – also thanks to the unforgettable contribution of the first lady of Slovenian music, Helena Blagne. This time the sentimental fragility is carved out and strained solely through the heart filter of a quintet (pardon – sextet) of masculine sentimentalists. After a more resolute start it’s time to calm down, though the smell of adrenaline and sweat doesn’t go anywhere. The title track of the second-to-last record, Bič, Luč & Upanje, sends the heartbeat back into the higher revs. Bojan allows himself a bit of artistic freedom, while the rest of the band steel-facedly follow their inner tempo and the passionate fractals of suggested commands of liberation. We’re all our own whips, lights and bearers of hope, my friends! With Amerika we return to the record of records – the album Deep True Love – and even with your senses somewhat dulled, Demolition Group manage to carry into the shelter of your living room those few tons of arguments that will make your foot start tapping all by itself and your body shake with the urge to move! The solo spot from the outstanding drummer Ivica Gregel adds extra value to the track, and Demolition Group confirm that when it comes to hiring, they don’t do half-measures or mediocrity! The free form leaves room to imprint the inspiration of the moment, and musicians of their caliber have no shortage of that. The dark Neovangelij pearl DAF also slots compactly into the jigsaw of sound and the band’s testosterone-fueled, convincing power, while with Planet starcev the Brežice landing party returns to more recent times. After this melancholic return to the Planet starcev album, Še in več slips into the slightly shuffled sequence, and the previously interrupted linear flight is continued by the dynamic Kriv sem za vse and the dance number Kak dan, which plays with the jazzy form of club improvisation and the brighter contours of the reborn soul rotors of Demolition Group. Goran pours out his heart’s nectar through rasping vocal cords, and the tireless collective of fellow conspirators and co-creators of this outstanding Maribor show, despite the fact that an hour of the gig has gone by without a single break, sounds damn fresh and not the least bit worn. And we’re only halfway through the record!
The second disc is far more retrospective than the first half. After the organic call to animal procreation with Ljubiva za svet, in which the salvation of this damn sad little scrap of the universe, this tiny planet in a sea of blackness, is sought through the good old redeeming act of exchanging bodily fluids, Demolition Group add with Nujno ni that there are no obligations. Or are there? Movement and dynamics are a must, because the sped-up version of the last track from the latest record is exactly the reason for a leap into a wonderful past. The Rammstein-style stampede is continued by the opening track of the album Neovangelij, Crackhead. The suspense of the first bars dissolves and flares up in a high-octane gasification of kerosene fumes, while the tenderness of Gram offers fewer shockwaves to the crowd and to the listeners of this outstanding record. A soul substrate, a light in the darkness of tears, a gram of salvation is at least a moment of resistance against the inevitable cataclysm, and in their own melancholic, listenable way Demolition Group are so damn relevant that they’ll wake up anyone who listens to the lyrics for even a second. U tvojim očima is just the fuse for a sentimental smolder here, while the gastarbeiter anthem Japanci (rade za nas) is merely an instant dose of fun and release over punk rhythms, giving the whole thing an even more evergreen flavor. Mučnina, the extended version of the opening parable from the second-to-last record, is a moment for unwinding and opening chakras, and the build-up technique gives the architecture of the music an even more immanent undertone, so natural is the continuation as well. The key to happy worlds was put into the hands of musical shamans, and Neovangelij once again iconoclastically sweeps away all the imposed programming commands of politics, the media and ossified habits. Demolition Group are rebels with a cause, and as apostles of articulate noise and provocative slogans they sow the grain of the finest sentiments among the masses like Grohar’s sowers. Včasih tudi drugi is already one of the holiest moments of the best record in their discography anyway (tastes differ, but I swear by it and bleed for the bars of Neovangelij), and the deeply felt performance continues with the beautifully sentimental softness of Mesečina. The depth of heartfelt love and falling in love was built into the mental spectrum through the conceptual design of the record Deep True Love, and the quintet returns to it with its heartfelt helmsman (sorry, sextet, so as not to forget the rider of sound and mastermind of business Matjaž Pegam!) with Like Night Before. After a lightspeed-fast overture the band plays around with Nirvana, and the cherry on top of this outstanding gig and outstanding document of times past is the indispensable Zucco.
Zucco is not dead, my friends, and Demolition Group are not to be written off! The men from Brežice are stronger than Chuck Norris and louder than all the raging, overinflated posers. Demolition Group are a band without whom the Slovenian sky would be damn empty and plenty of juicy things would go unsaid. Na živo is an experiment that needs no cosmetics or additives, because everything that gives the band such outstanding shine, beauty, passionate animal magnetism and a taste of perfection is right here! Demolition Group are unstoppable and indestructible, and after three decades the wait has paid off in the best possible way – with a record that will nicely initiate you into the show of the European capital of rock’n’roll, alternative culture and elite excellence, all of which is embodied by this very Brežice collective of musical masterminds. The record is an absolute must, so good you could spread it on your bread, and your presence at their next gigs goes without saying!
Lineup
Goran Šalamon – vocals
Bojan Fifnja – guitar
Ivica Gregel – drums
Tomi Gregel – bass, vocals
Jože Pegam – tenor sax, vocals
Matjaž Pegam – sound, finances, personnel
Production
Demolition Group
Tracklist
CD 1:
- Gospodar
- Nimam rad Boga
- Dan dolgih sanj
- Stokrat
- Nisva tu
- Romantika
- Dež
- Bič, luč in upanje
- Amerika
- DAF
- Planet starcev
- Še in več
- Kriv sem za vse
- Kak dan
CD 2:
- Ljubiva za svet
- Nujno ni
- Crackhead
- Gram
- U tvojim očima
- Japanci (rade za nas)
- Mučnina
- Neovangelij
- Včasih tudi drugi
- Mesečina
- Like Night Before
- Nirvana
- Zucco
