Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Šinobusi
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2013
Running time: 50:35
Rating: 5/5
Šinobusi – the name comes from a diesel passenger railcar (no separate locomotive) that was built back in Yugoslav times at the Goša factory in Serbia, and which in Slovenia you can only catch a glimpse of today in Metlika, when it rolls in from Karlovac in Croatia. They’re an old-school rock band from Novi Sad. Right before the end of last year, around Christmas to be exact, Šinobusi released their fourth studio album, titled »Nebo od skaja« (translated, »Sky Made of Rock«). If we dig into the title a bit more, Serbs “according to Vuk Karadžić” write and read the English word for sky, »sky«, as »skaj«, so there’s an alternative reading of the title too, but I’ll leave that one for you to explore. It sounds rather psychedelic, just like the album itself in places.
The band is by no means a newcomer to the scene. They’ve been around for thirteen years and have over 300 gigs behind them, which is an enviable feat for a band that’s been pushed into a situation where it has to keep coming up with new survival strategies on the scene. These are seasoned cats who gradually and naturally grew from a modest acoustic trio devoted to playing blues standards into a top-notch blues rock quintet with exceptional songwriting power.
The album »Nebo od skaja« carries fourteen original songs. It’s the band’s first album without a single cover, and its character is darker and more brooding than its predecessors. Šinobusi weave plenty of musical elements into their retro sound. The basic starting point remains blues music, but what’s interesting is the realization that the band’s evolution has meant the blues characteristics are blending ever more splendidly with other genre spheres of music, so the blues format itself can be masterfully veiled in the compositions and only comes through in the listening in the “background”. Nebo od skaja confirms the remarkable maturing of the band’s creative arranging profile, and once again proves how strong the lyricists in the lineup are, since their poetry, combined with clearly defined arrangements and a subtle play of metaphors, reaches an exceptional depth of meaning. One of the most strikingly truthful lyrics, wrapped in the character of a wisely chosen metaphor, is carried on the album by the song Ćorav sokak.
On the album »Nebo od skaja« everything is right where it belongs. The retro sound is once again masterfully dressed up by superb production that has kept all the dynamics of living, organic sonic warmth, and I’ll venture to say the band recorded the album in the studio the way you’d play a live show, judging by the atmospheric hunger they achieve, built on honesty as the guarantee of an authentic outpouring of emotion and passion. The layered sound is so sincere that the album may well have been recorded in analog. The style of Šinobusi simply demands that approach. If you want to nail the authenticity and that unforgettable charm of the pioneers of rock culture at the turn of the sixties into the seventies, you record everything in one take and, if possible, in analog. And that takes a lot of guts.
Milan Korać’s vocal is the first element of Šinobusi’s music that deeply touches the listener. His voice has tonal qualities that can bring a touch of psychedelia into the character of the songs, which was the musical trend of the late sixties, when bands like The Moody Blues and Procol Harum emerged. The melodic fullness of the album »Nebo od skaja« is so well exploited within the blues foundations it’s built on that nods to the sound and style of old-school hard rock bands like Uriah Heep become possible, especially thanks to the thick curtains of Hammond organ accompaniment in the background (the opener Vazduh, then Skačem visoko), as well as to Wishbone Ash, thanks to Milan Korać’s “velvety” caressing vocal, which, especially with generous support from acoustic backing, at times draws on the tonal shades of Martin Turner’s voice (the songs Kuća ljubavi, Ponekad). There are moments where the riff can come through more strongly than in the opening Vazduh, or Ko zna, and the band further stirs up the album’s content by integrating two polished instrumentals, Noonism and the closing Odlazak. Those last two simply confirm an exceptional “jam session” reach and top-notch tightness through the effective chemistry among the band members. A hint of surf rock sneaks into the song Potera. We also run into moments on the album that, in some other time 40 years ago, would have been guaranteed airplay in the rotation of radio stations, like Naš dan, with perfectly arranged female vocal harmonies that color the space between the verses of the main male vocal. Above all, though, thanks to the lyrics as well as the occasional solutions in the search for leading melodic forms, the chemistry of Šinobusi can be compared to the retro sound of seventies Yu rock bands such as, among others, the good old Korni Grupa, YU Grupa, Atomsko sklonište and/or Smak. The recreation of this retro nostalgic vibe is deepened by a strong organic blend of acoustic arrangements with which Šinobusi thicken their expressive sound. And that’s not all. They also fill out the leading motifs with harmonica.
»Nebo od skaja« is an album of 14 clearly defined tracks from head to toe. Šinobusi cultivate a distinctive musical nature of their own kind of adventure, gazing deep into retro nostalgia, while at the same time reaching exceptional songwriting maturity and, most importantly of all, a uniquely self-grown expression of their own musical craft. If you’re into the progressive rock that flourished across the former shared republic in the seventies, or into the pioneering hard rock bands of Great Britain, like Wishbone Ash, Uriah Heep and Procol Harum, then what the album »Nebo od skaja« has to offer won’t just thrill you, it will simply, in a single word, enchant you. The album comes within a hair’s breadth of recreating the authentic pulse of the exploratory pioneering spirit of seventies rock vibes, which in the hands of Šinobusi manifests in a completely original way. A gorgeous album lost in time and space, confirming that Šinobusi, as a band, have come close to the very zenith of their songwriting and music-making, so if they manage to keep up this creative charge, we can rightly expect many more magnificent original creations from them in the future.
The Slovenian answer in this day and age could be sought in the band El Kachon. Both bands are firmly fixated on the elemental heritage of blues music, yet each has moved toward its own expressive musical branch, so this highly compatible combination of the two could well carve out a joint tour of the Balkans.
Lineup
Milan Korać – vocals, guitar
Nenad Patković – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Stefan Stefanović – harmonica
Predrag Dmitrović – bass guitar
Đorđe Bubnjević – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Jelena Bračika – backing vocals on track no. 4
Maja Matić – backing vocals on tracks no. 4 and 11
Dragana Keller – backing vocals on tracks no. 4 and 6
Production
Darko Varga
Track list
1. Vazduh
2. Kuća ljubavi
3. Bio sam tu
4. Naš dan
5. Skačem visoko
6. Greed
7. Iz drugog ugla
8. Potera
9. Ćorav sokak
10. Noonism
11. Ko zna
12. Ponekad
13. Lion’s Garden
14. Odlazak
