Artist: Buldogi
Label: Radio Študent
Released: 2011
Duration: 41:16
Rating: 3/5
The wave of Slovenian punk revivals just won’t die down, and plenty of old frontliners have stepped back onto stages and into studios to redo or build on their past work.
First and foremost, it’s about documenting legendary, landmark moments in the history of Slovenian popular music, recording 30-year-old material with technology we could only dream of back then… but a big question remains: what next?
You can stop at that first step (like Kuzle), or you can decide it’s fun to play together again and get back on stage, and that you’ve still got something to say (like Niet), at least enough to record an album of brand-new material.
That’s what Buldogi decided, and they’ve given us their record, titled Ni lepo. The title already says a lot, contrasting with the title of the 1983 compilation Lepo je…, which featured three Buldogi songs. In both cases, the continuation of the title would of course be the name of that well-known little tune …v naši domovini biti mlad.
If the compilation’s creators were wittily sarcastic, Buldogi mean it seriously!
The opener Dvigni glavo kicks off with a punch, a catchy guitar riff, and a chorus that will surely get hands and heads up live. The follow-ups, Svetilnik stoletja and Kolk rabš?, serve up a lyrical pattern that drags through the whole record like a tapeworm: ranting and cursing at the “tycoons,” “the pigs who keep all the profit,” and basically everyone above the “ordinary folks.”
Sure, I nod along, plenty of things are going seriously wrong in this chicken coop of ours… but I’m not exactly thrilled by choruses like: “nobody will save you… the pits aren’t deep enough, there won’t be enough rope, bullets are too expensive and the hellhole is full anyway.”
Sorry, peers, that doesn’t sound like punk, more like bickering at the bar!
The self-ironic Mi smo (Legende) is the album’s high point, a proper punk anthem in the style of what we expect from punk legends, with the right dose of sarcasm, healthy mockery, and social criticism.
The musical side of the album Ni lepo… tries to be pretty varied: the first four songs sound punchy, the guitars growl, the vocals spit all over the place, punk the way it should be.
The rest of the album, though, sounds like a pile of filler, long-winded, empty ballads, and forced ska/reggae insertions. The most distracting are the arrangements, which use keyboards to try to fill the emptiness but sound stale and cheesy.
The production, by Franci Rainer and RV Maček, is polished and set up for a “Radio friendly” sound, with emphasized rhythm and vocals and (on the faster songs) nicely sawing guitars, which still get pushed too far to the side.
Witty, subtle, and at the same time sharply socially critical lyrics were the pinnacle of Slovenian punk in its golden age. Buldogi’s new record sticks to that line only on that last count and despite four perfectly decent songs, it delivers too little to even come close to the creative charge that the Moste-bred “Legends” knew how to unleash back when they were still lads.
Hoping that Buldogi gather enough ideas and energy for a punchier third record, I tell them, comrade to comrade: punks stay punks… even if Ni lepo.
Lineup
RV Maček – vocals, guitar
Damo Zorc – vocals
Rok Zupan – guitar, backing vocals
Janez Fifolt – bass guitar, backing vocals
Blaž Grm – drums, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals
Production
Franci Rainer & RV Maček
Track list
1. Dvign glavo
2. Svetilnik stoletja
3. Kolk rabš?
4. Mi smo (Legende)
5. Ta ptič
6. Suicid
7. Globalna štala
8. Pajčevina
9. Dramilo
10. Oda revežu
11. Vége
