Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Balladero
Label: Self-released
Released: 2012
Length: 60:17
Rating: 4.5/5
Balladero is none other than Dominik Bagola, drummer of the currently dormant eclectic Prekmurje alternative outfit Psych- Path. »Club Deuce« is his solo studio debut, and the name Balladero fits the album’s character perfectly. The record is dreamy, loaded with melancholy, a mild erotic temptation, yet at the same time mysticism and an all-embracing intimacy, full of sensual, deeply personal confession.
Dominik undoubtedly passed his own »little musical final exam«« during his stint with Psycho-Path, who quietly wound down their activities in 2009. »The Ass Soul of Psycho-Path«, their fifth studio album, is to this day the most daring in pushing the creative envelope, reaching for both musical experimentation and eclecticism. Working with the seasoned Florida producer Bobby MaCintyre, a former member of The Twilight Singers who has also worked with the likes of Bad Brains, Jimmy Girl, Lucinda Williams and Mark Lanegan, played one of the key roles in Dominik Bagola’s growth as a musician (especially over the last few years). Dominik carried that friendship with MaCintyre over to his solo studio debut, and MaCintyre helped him shape the album’s sonic identity, as well as contributing arrangements and playing a whole heap of instruments.
This time Dominik Bagola steps into the center of the story as lead vocalist, and on top of the vocals he makes sure the classic piano remains the backbone of the sound throughout. Dominik isn’t known as a vocalist with technical brilliance and/or a polished, trained voice. He doesn’t need one. He has a distinctive vocal color, which gives his delivery the real charm of a fully formed character you can almost touch. The songs are cut, one after another, at a mid-tempo pace. Around the piano come string arrangements (cello, violins), xylophones (metal, wooden), organ, plus the obligatory accompaniment of »clean-sounding« guitar and rhythm section. In such surroundings the piano sounds almost »Cave-esque«, which underlines a melody soaked in melancholy, as dictated by Dominik’s dreamy, just-shy-enough, yet sensitively confessional voice. The backdrop is entirely organic, and the landscape built from these stacked elements is exceptionally lush, colorfully varied and put to full use. If we’re looking for the moment where the intensity of the personal confession is especially pronounced on the album, it’s the song Long Distance To Ruin.
A welcome move that further shakes up the album’s picture, lifts its dynamic flow and reveals the full reach of its captured moods is the inclusion of female vocals. Jadranka Juras’s voice fits wonderfully into Dominik’s arrangement in the duet Če bi, and Melanija Fabičič’s voice in Monsters is right up there too, conjuring a completely new experience on the album.
The melodies of classically cut lines, where the melancholy of the Prekmurje wind from icy Pannonian nights reigns shamelessly, are often backed by gentle detours into bluesy turns, and the figuration of the songs and their lead motifs carries plenty of openings that practically beg for jazz improvisation to develop. But it never happens. Dominik Bagola insists on total cohesion, commanded by the lead vocals and the central role of the piano. The musicians approach the backdrops with sophistication, where the laid-down building blocks communicate beautifully with one another and coexist in a well-contrasted setting of full harmony, with organic, living, dynamic sound production. In this sophisticated character, a teasing sensuality comes powerfully to the surface. The more gently you interpret a motif or vocal line, the more intensely the act comes across and, in turn, touches the listener. And that’s exactly the album’s big strength, because this element is strongly emphasized on it. That’s why »Club Deuce« is so authentic in its idiom, down-to-earth, tangible in substance, and in terms of artistry stands completely on its own. Mirror See is one of the album’s oddities, its melody carrying a touch of Prekmurje pastoral skillfully woven into the song. That echoes even more intensely in the closing instrumental Prekmurska, where it’s not hard to pick out a few Gypsy ornaments, too.
Dominik Bagola’s seasoned hand shows in the arrangements of the album’s closing stretches, where the piano in the accompaniment lines dissonantly slips away from the vocal lines, dramatizing the mood and in fact leading the songs to their final climax. Dream Come Lie, for one, is certainly not ashamed of such qualities. The verse melody in Lioness unintentionally pulls toward the kind of vocal lines Steve »H« Hogarth likes to borrow in today’s Marillion (note the verse: »What it is… Is what you get«).»Club Deuce« is an album full of unpretentious, short but punchy tricks. Its strength isn’t in showing off chops, but in the cunning, multifaceted blending of individual sound building blocks into an exceptionally enjoyable, always listener-friendly organic musical picture book, graced with a unique artistic character. A perfectly symbiotic mix, using that short punchiness on a »less is more« principle to great effect, is struck by the album’s longest track, Superbomber, which can’t bore you for a second and wins you over especially with its dramatic »crescendo« at the end.
Comparisons with Vladek aren’t exactly on the mark, but the geographic origin of the two musicians is certainly something that links them in some way in how they deliver their music. So this album should also be interesting to anyone devoted to the persona and work of Vlado Kreslin. Kranj’s The Tide are another such group, walking a hard-to-follow line of eclecticism, working under a slogan of strictly combining organic collages, and fascinating with their uniqueness. Those of you who know The Tide will also find plenty of reasons to enjoy listening to »Club Deuce«. »Club Deuce« is a deeply confessional, sensitively rich album that won’t tolerate casual listening, but will undoubtedly reward every music gourmet looking for something with special character! “Club Deuce” is a genuine herald of the buzzword “independent rock”!
Line-up
Dominik Bagola – vocals, piano, drums, percussion, Hammond, xylophone,
Bobby MaCintyre – drums, backing vocals, percussion, xylophone, guitar, cello
Shane Soloski – bass guitar
Lorenzo Corti – guitar
Iztok Rodež – guitar
Sašo Benko – guitar
Aljoša Bagola – keyboards
Jure Bergant – double bass
Luka Ščavničar – bass guitar
Samo Budna – violin
Matej Šavel – drums
Tanja RAvljen – vocals
Jadranka Juras – vocals
Melanija Fabičič – vocals
Lina Rahne – vocals
Production
Bobby MaCintyre
Tracklist
1. Pawnshop
2. I Guess
3. Dream Come Lie
4. Lioness
5. Shadow Street
6. Shallow Creeks
7. Če bi
8. Monsters
9. Mirror See
10. Long Distance To Ruin
11. Superbomber
12. Prekmurska
