Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Ludovik Material
Label: Kapa Records
Release: 2012
Running time: 34:57
Rating: 3.5/5
Yet another totally unhinged lineup, a trio from Slovenia to be exact, though one that spreads its vibe toward the south of the Balkan peninsula, comes together this time under the name Ludovik Material. Alternative rock is so unusually appealing precisely because its wide, loose, carefree genre label knows how to shock you just when you least expect it.
Ludovik Material are manipulative sonic provocateurs who build on a dark, musty atmosphere that a sunbeam can barely squeeze through. Let’s just say Ludovik Material are fully committed to presenting their character in a distinctly gloomy light. A light of unusual fusion between organic and electronic musical elements. Commanding this combination at every turn is an authoritative, dictating female voice, at times even puffed-up, arrogant and downright crude, accusing. Piercing, at times almost chilling screaming is anything but foreign to it. Tina Perić is a master of true vocal excess, and she cashes in on her talent to the max. She can sound sweetly inviting, and in the next instant she dooms you with her icy, spine-chilling accent, like a storm in a teacup. Tina knows no mercy. And it’s exactly this at times completely alienated female voice, with its wormwood bitterness, that pulls you in most tantalizingly. This multifaceted use of vocals creates real sonic terror on the album. For an authentic feeling of a wild ride with a one-way ticket to the »underground« of musical eclecticism, Ludovik Material couldn’t have found a better solution on the vocal front.
Programmed sampling builds repetitive sonic loops that often work as an undercurrent, over which the basic rhythm, built from flesh and bone (real drums), settles in. The band fills the available space with a smeared, thick wall of guitar phrases, which are a bit sly in the production and, unlike the punchy front line (rhythm and vocals), hit you from the second line of battle. Still, their effect in co-creating the hypnosis is no less. Ludovik Material are, in other words, an extremely effective anesthetic.
If the intro, the only instrumental number, felt a touch post-rock in its energy, structure and hypnotic mood, the title track Passion In Red, coming right after it, puts things in their place. The album’s hardest-hitting song, also thanks to the spotlight on its guitar riff, could, with a bit more exposed guitar edge, work as a hybrid cousin of bands from the industrial metal camp. There are even hints of digital hardcore on the album. Heart For Sale, one of the most dynamic tracks with its many faces, brilliantly fuses some hard-to-bridge gaps between genres. Guitar and basic rhythm build the opening on doom metal parallels, while the vocal delivery and programmed sampling carry the song onward into a whole new dimension of musical adventure.
Even though the band builds on the principle of minimalism, they deliver it with a clearly defined character that’s hard to find parallels for. Ludovik Material are seasoned with bizarreness as well as cynicism. Definitely not an easy bone to gnaw on. Only for those with the thickest skin and those drawn to the moment of genuine musical provocation, of in-your-face teasing with a shock-theater element, powered by the imposing vocal parade of Serbian singer Tina Perić.
»Passion For Red« presents Ludovik Material as an act with an already fully formed character: an eclectic blend of classic organic sonic cues and manipulative doses of electronics. An extremely dark band. Only the most stubborn music gourmets will manage to reach the bottom of this crafted abyss of hopelessness and blasphemy, but you’ll quickly realize that »Passion For Red« holds plenty of witty ideas and provocative musical solutions, which gives the band lots of usable starting points to widen their creative reach of musical eclecticism even further in the future.
Lineup
Tina Perić – vocals, tambourine
Matija Dolenc – electronics, guitar, lute
Jernej Koren – drums
Production
Matija Dolenc
Track list
1. Intro
2. Passion For Red
3. Made In
4. Almighty
5. Večerni program
6. Gun
7. Come
8. Heart For Sale
9. Kraljević Marko
