Artist: Res Nullius
Label: Self-released
Release: 2011
Running time: 40:49
Rating: 4.5/5
Res Nullius made us wait a long seven lean years for their new record, so I eagerly slid the black disc with its simple red typography into its narrow little slot.
One listen was enough to convince me that the masters from Velenje are still in a category all their own.
They open without compromise, with vocals, a bristling guitar and a greasy, rock-solid rhythm section… and they don’t let up, down to the last note, the last gasp.
The title track hits first, in the best dirty rock’n’roll manner, with a flowing guitar riff and a catchy chorus. But this is no instant-hit trifle: the lyrics are sharply critical, and Res Nullius hiss out their fury honestly and uncompromisingly.
Then the boys slip the leash in the rowdy boogie Krvavi kolaž, a sharp retort to a world of manipulation and the forced sameness of thought and behavior in modern humanity.
In V vagonu raztrganih duš the band leads us to the album’s peak, a track that carries the whole record with its relentlessly pounding, upright rock’n’roll, arrogant swagger in a seemingly hopeless situation, one the lyrics drop us into as they take us somewhere south, halfway to freedom…
Next up is Rock’n’roll, a dirty specimen of the genre named in the title; the lyrics and the punchy delivery take us, short and sweet, across a thundering, distorted bed of guitars, spiced up with some piano pounding.
Nikoli ne govori ničesar o men is a dirty ballad, worn down to its bare bones: ultra-dynamic guitar work and a slightly cynical vocal that, with surprising vulnerability, tell the story of yet another unhappy love in the manner of the greatest blues masters from the delta of that great American river.
Grbavi klovn also kicks off with a bluesy intro, a self-ironic ode to weariness that clatters its way to the end in a garage-ragged rhythm&blues style.
Plenty of artists strain to show through engaged, socially critical lyrics that they care about what’s going on around them, but in Izkrivljene ravnine Zoran Benčič delivers the message subtly, ironically, and still painfully sharp. The song is undeniably the album’s next peak, with a pulsing rhythm section and a guitar that masterfully stacks chord on chord all the way to the final wah-wah catharsis.
Đoni is the one everybody runs away from… the rocker bearing his name is the album’s weakest song, sounding somehow watered down next to the rest, maybe thanks to the acoustic rhythm guitar.
Toward the end of the album Res Nullius take us dancing with a little sister, the prima ballerina. Plešem s krvavimi podplati is a naughty, slightly arrogant chant, with a solid groove and lovely guitar work.
The record closes with yet another excellent blues: Ej, Compaņero, with intimate harmonica accompaniment and wittily sarcastic lyrics on the circle of life. The vocal performance peaks once more, as Benčič turns sarcastic weariness into a real masterpiece.
The energy this seasoned Velenje foursome unleashes on the new record is simply unbelievable, whether it’s a high-voltage rocker or a dirty, intimate blues, and the cherry on top is that producer Žare Pak caught the primal soul of a rock’n’roll band at the Pavarotti studio in Mostar, a band with nothing to hide and even less to lose, doing what it does best!
Res Nullius sound like they played the whole record live, in one take, with no electronics, no dozens of overdubbed guitars and vocals, no special guests, unlike plenty of polished quasi-rockers.
You really can’t discover new universes in basic blues/boogie/rock’n’roll; the charm is in the accents, the tiny flashes, the screams, the seemingly sloppily played riffs that manage to jolt the listener’s ears and mind awake again and again.
All this and more Res Nullius selflessly serve up in the ten songs of the record Prekletih bazar, which I can unhesitatingly declare the most likely contender for album of the year on the 2011 Slovenian rock scene!
Lineup
Zoran Benčič – vocals
Boštjan Senegačnik – guitar, piano, harmonica
Boštjan Časl – bass guitar
Janez Marin – drums
Production
Žare Pak
Tracklist
1. Prekletih bazar
2. Krvavi kolaž
3. V vagonu raztrganih duš
4. Rock’n’roll
5. Nikomur ne govori ničesar o men
6. Grbavi klovn
7. Izkrivljene ravnine
8. Đoni
9. Plešem s krvavimi podplati
10. Ej, CompaŠ
