Label: Celinka Records
Production: Orkestrada
Album length: 50:04
Rating: 9.0 / 10
Orkestrada are a crew that has been active since 2010. In 2011 they put out their debut album “Spusti” on ZARŠ. Seven years went by in the blink of an eye, and now that debut has a younger brother and studio successor called “Utrip”. Just a glance at the tracklist, a mere eight songs but a hefty 50 minutes of music, hints that this is a band that loves to experiment, both sonically and stylistically. Compared to the promising debut, which signaled the octet’s huge potential, Orkestrada have taken a noticeable step forward on the new album, in a self-evolving blossoming of artistic expression. They’ve stretched and loosened up the compositional structures even further, and these deliver a unique, one-of-a-kind and instantly recognizable musical matter of the strictest art paradigm.
The band fuses multiple genres into one unique musical jigsaw puzzle. That fusion is wonderfully vivid (rich in motifs), and the album’s carefree experimenting is bold, which makes it thoroughly out of the ordinary. That’s why “Utrip” feels considerably more special and glows, if it doesn’t outright surprise, with a clearly perceptible intensity and an expressive free spirit that the somewhat cautious debut never managed to develop back then. “Utrip” is a one-of-a-kind blend, a musical adventure in the form of a refined picture book that combines elements of alternative rock, jazz, folk, cabaret, pop and soul, as well as classical music (thanks to the variety the flute brings to the album) and even blues (Blažena). Given that vocalist Rada Kikelj Drašler wrote all the lyrics, poetry that is, and also strikes a hugely dominant pose in delivering them vocally, the album carries a strong singer-songwriter character through and through.
Vid Drašler’s tightly dynamic, constantly probing drums and percussion, warm, organic and intense, sound provocatively jazzy throughout. The instrumentalists are jazz-schooled, and the alternative-rock contour is clearly audible all the way through. The opener Zvonec signals it right away, and the next track, Neurje, especially so, hinting at the multilayered musical vision of the people in this crew. Of all the album’s tracks, Neurje is the one that looks for the most effective hookup with radio stations. It’s the most nicely calibrated art-rock blend of the band’s homegrown arranging aesthetic, which bridges (seeming) genre barriers with feather-light ease. The lead motif is concise, punchy (if the guitar were made a bit more “bristly” sonically and a tenor sax added for support, it would almost sound King Crimson-esque) and distinctive, and it lodges in your ears in no time. The song as a whole carries an alt-art-rock sheen and sounds dark, yet it gets into radio rotation without a hitch. Utrip and Blažena then reveal an exceptional softness and fine mechanics in all of the album’s building blocks, with the vocals out front, of course. Orkestrada tease throughout by speaking with great distinctiveness while developing sturdy motifs that keep the material accessible to the listener. That balance is hard to strike. You’re either too shallow in expression or too heavy, but with Orkestrada there’s no fear of that, because they cruise in the ideal middle lane. That means the quintet carried out its mission on “Utrip” with outstanding excellence in composing and arranging.
The vocals of Rada Kikelj Drašler are an absolutely special story within everything “Utrip” has to offer. The singer has an exceptionally colorful palette of vocal expression up her sleeve. She’s a chameleon. She can be totally pop-friendly, or eccentric, even lucid. That’s why her voice would work really well in an alternative-rock setting too. The vocals can sound eccentric, and they often deliberately introduce a feeling of dissonant lines. There’s actually vocal experimenting in abundance throughout, and Rada often uses it to cast herself in the role of an “extra instrument”.
The song Tajkuni sounds chilling, and in its second half a “planted” Latin rhythm steers it into a completely different mood. Here the instruments commit especially hard to the vocals’ extremely powerful, confessional character. Your “blood freezes in your veins” as the verses’ messages “grab” you so well, in a vocal interpretation whose opening bite shakes you hard as it dictates with the full force of impetuous authority.
The building blocks of the sound, that is guitar, flute, double bass and drums, coexist in an exceptionally dynamic and always harmonious dialogue of playing. They develop a symbiotic relationship and, besides all the cores and sturdy motifs the compositions carry anyway, open up plenty of space for one another to stretch out fully in their solo excursions. The instrumentation builds an eclectic sound, but that element would by no means be so noticeable without the contribution of Rada Kikelj Drašler’s incredibly distinctive, piercing and thoroughly polished vocals. In the second half of Gumb in košček sanj (it’s two songs merged into “one”, since the refreshed Košček sanj already appeared on the debut) she gives the poetry such a special vocal character that it probably also reflects an inspiration drawn from the late singer of The Cranberries, Dolores O’Riordan. Gumb in košček sanj is the integral track, but not because it’s the longest. Simply because it brings together, in the most successful way, everything Orkestrada had achieved artistically up to 2018. “Utrip” in miniature, in other words.
The last two songs release the “tension” (or the pronounced artistic “seriousness”) of the album, which peaks in the dark Tajkuni. First comes the instrumental, jazzily light, laid-back and playful Mala zvezda, followed by the closer Proslava za deseti rojstni dan, which speaks in a cheeky and even mischievous voice, with the vocals once again used as an extra instrument in improvisation.
“Utrip” counts as one of the best releases, or full-length studio achievements, to come out in Slovenia this year. Plain and simple. It sounds distinctly its own, carries an eclectic contour, and comes across as daring and brave, since it doesn’t hold back from the challenges of experimenting and trying things out (fusing, too). At the same time it bears the clearly crafted character of the musical vision of the five members of the crew, led by the distinctive, incredibly piercing Rada Kikelj Drašler on vocals.
Let me finally cut this essay short, because it’s getting too long. What we have here is a thoroughly “tricked-out” and expressively “slammin'” art rock album, so you absolutely have to check it out. Especially if you’re after the unusual. Slovenia has plenty of it, but it’s hard to find, because sadly it’s often hidden, chronically and unfairly underfed by the media, and the ministry in charge of musical art (culture, that is) in this homeland of ours usually treats it, knowingly, in a totally stepmotherly way. But that’s another story.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Zvonec
2. Neurje
3. Blažena
4. Gumb in košček sanj
5. Tajkuni
6. Mala zvezda
7. Proslava za 10. rojstni dan
Lineup:
Rada Kikelj Drašler – poetry, vocals
Asja Grauf – flute
Boštjan Franetič – electric guitar
Thierno Diallo – double bass
Vid Drašler – drums
