Label: Self-released
Release year: 2016
Production: Borut Činč
Album length: 79:32
Rating: 10 / 10
These days it’s hard to picture a Slovenian lineup with this kind of unity, camaraderie, mutual trust, single-minded focus on its own musical vision and the creativity that follows from it, the way Prismojeni profesorji bluesa have it.
The quartet only showed up on the scene a few years ago, even though they’d spent ages in their “secret lairs” practicing, practicing and practicing some more. Grinding and polishing their command of their instruments. Then they suddenly burst out of anonymity like a bolt from the blue, rattling off a string of incredibly convincing shows, crowned with an incredible passion for playing and performing music. Covers and their own original material alike. Every gig, the band sweated buckets, gave their absolute maximum and, with heartfelt sincerity, won over the hearts of the crowd too, who adopted them as their own in no time. That’s how the spirit of a live attraction soaked into the band’s very essence, and it started opening doors for the guys to club stages, and to all the bigger and more important venues as well. More than deserved. Prismojeni profesorji bluesa are seriously hard workers who know that the only thing that guarantees well-earned success is dedication and big effort. That almost “blood” brotherhood of the quartet is also where the meaningful title of their studio debut “Familiy” comes from.
This twelve-track album is a real little world encyclopedia of blues music, with the guys touching on practically every corner of this legendary genre. In fact, with all the creative zeal and the potent urge to prove themselves that the guys’ studio debut radiates, it’s honestly hard to keep up. The debut reflects the totally natural maturing of the individual members of the quartet, as well as the band’s totally natural musical evolution. It’s that originality, that homegrown creative spirit, comparable to the enthusiasm of the natural talents who got rock music on its feet many decades ago. Once a spontaneous element of music, but today, thanks to the destructive corporatism of an endlessly greedy and insatiable music industry, it’s seriously endangered.
To cut a long story short: all twelve tracks (not counting the “intro” and “outro”) by these four “wonder boys” come across, first and foremost, as incredibly rich in ideas, varied and diverse. Even though the album stays in blues territory the whole time, it hits that variety with effortless ease. The guys use no fewer than three lead vocalists on the album, smartly assigning them to individual tracks according to how well their styles fit. Julijan’s voice suits the tracks that flirt with the legacy of the British “white blues boom” of the sixties, Zlatko’s throaty, manly growl even gets close to the soulful greatness of black artists and to the pioneering spirit that points toward the Mississippi Delta blues, while Miha’s macho swagger rides somewhere along the middle line between the two. All three vocalists have an excellent command of English, the meter is flawless, and any listener of “Family” won’t think for a second that Prismojeni profesorji bvluesa aren’t an American or Anglo-Saxon band. The only Slovenian thing about them is the band’s name. And it’s not just the charisma of the vocals but also the incredibly soulful, deeply felt instrumental performance: Miha’s ever high-energy harmonica often takes over the role of the vocals, and there’s an endless weaving of solo adventures between Julijan’s guitar and Miha’s harmonica, while in the transitions the noisy rhythmic drive of Zlatko and bassist Miha doesn’t lag behind in the slightest, keeping the listener in constant suspense over where things might go next. Everything on the album feels completely natural, subtly arranged, bathed in the glow of well-matched arrangements and in strokes of honest warmth that win you over instantly. Whether you’re a blues fan or not doesn’t even matter anymore. It’s the glow they show that buys the audience’s affection. And that’s really what counts.
The guys are fans of the old school of British blues bands, from Cream to Nine Below Zero, Fleetwood Mac’s “Peter Green era”, Ten Years After, John Mayall And the Bluesbreakers, and at the same time it’s instantly clear that guitar master Julijan, “chiseled” with filigree-like, fine-tuned precision, has studied every trick of the legendary Jimi Hendrix down to the last detail. Woven into this colorful conglomerate are moments that also wink at the inspiration drawn from the contributions of unforgettable blues masters Albert King, Luther Allison and Freddie King, so there’s no shortage of fingerpicking either! Parallels can be drawn with the instrumentals of Chet Atkins. In short, the album “Family” is a tough bone to gnaw on. Packed with information delivered with incredible creative sensitivity and sensual charge.
Although blues is at its core music that expresses suffering, and its musicians love to keep “complaining” about the hardships of everyday life, Prismojeni profesorji bluesa flip the whole story onto the lucid side of the self-parody coin and beat grumpiness with a glow of optimism, which fits right in with the quartet’s carefree, potently bubbling silliness, as embodied by the album “Family”. An album of exceptional charisma, an album where the guys may not be reinventing the wheel, yet an album that irreversibly charms, not only thanks to its flawless performance but also to the heart and glow with which they approach the music. An album lost in time and space, and an album that surprises you at every turn. An album filled with unbridled energy voltage, where only one thing prevails. Sincere love for the music you devote yourself to, create and perform. An album that, as far as production goes, caught the primal moment of retro sound from the good old days, when they used recording tape and you had to be able to nail a song on the first take. An album that gives you that (nowadays) rare feeling of being driven by the raw instinct of highly sensitive musical souls.
Not to be immodest on their behalf, but Prismojeni profesorji bluesa are a band born to rule the stages of the international scene and win over the rest of the world with their music.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Intro
2. Race Me Down the Street
3. Cold Sweat
4. Ragin’ Mad
5. Big City Woman
6. Buzzaround
7. Why I Sing the Blues
8. Truck Driver
9. Keep On Groovin’
10. Run Hilda
11. Down Behind the Gates
12. Cryin’ Shame
13. Party Time
14. Outro
Line-up:
Miha Erič – vocals, harmonica
Julijan Erič – vocals, guitar
Zlatko Đogič – vocals, drums
Miha Ribarič – bass guitar
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Borut Činč – Hammond organ
Andrej Tomazin – percussion
Domen Gracej – trumpet
Jasna Kmetec – saxophone
