Artist: Feedback
Label: Self-released
Release date: 2009
Rating: 3.8/5
After taking quite a while to put out their first studio album, Feedback have now started torpedoing us with at least one album a year. So toward the end of 2009, their third record, pro mehanika, saw the light of day. Musically, the guiding principle hasn’t changed much since Od blizu. Feedback still swear by the legacy of classic jazz rock with hints of blues, the way you could hear it around forty years ago. This time they also toy with certain elements of hard rock, and as always, there’s a flirtation with prog lurking in the background. In short, they’re banking on the old magic, which we’re used to from them by now, but the question is whether they managed to keep the whole album at the same compositional level as its predecessors.
Even the album’s name suggests an even more professional approach and an even tighter record, but in the end it turns out to be the exact opposite. Feedback are a band that doesn’t let itself be distracted by a variety of influences and walks a clearly marked artistic path. They more or less set that course for themselves from the very start. But that’s exactly what holds them back. As long as the songs were more polished, it wasn’t an obstacle, but with the bigger focus on free-flowing jamming, the holes, or rather the shortcomings, in their ambitions start to show, and those ambitions are almost too simple. I constantly get the feeling they’ve got a lot more irons in the fire than we’ve seen so far.
On the one hand, you could praise Feedback for sticking to their artistic vision, but on the other, it’s not smart to cling to the same old thing like a drunk hugging a fence. Across three albums, there’s only a minimal number of changes sonically, and stylistically it’s all the same as before. Their efforts are still commendable, especially since the Slovenian scene is desperately short on bands like this, but they could spice things up a bit and enrich what they offer. More rhythm changes within the songs themselves would be welcome, and the compositions are also too loose and “psychedelic”.
Their sound is, all things considered, ideal for music connoisseurs. They play to the soul of the nostalgics, rounding it all off with music that’s frenetic at times and more meditative at others. The music is always warm, and it wraps around you like a soft blanket while you sit by a crackling fireplace. In that respect, it’s undoubtedly a worthy successor to the previous two albums, which maybe weren’t quite so thoroughly saturated with guitar bravura.
Pro mehanika is once again an excellently played album, with a heap of rich, warm sounds that fill your head to the brim. This time too, a lot rests on the shoulders of guitarist Matej Magajne and keyboardist Miloš Leban, who trade off in the soloist roles, and the main star, as always, with his unusual approach to playing and almost transcendental inspiration, comes out to be Magajne, who sometimes really overdoes the soloing. The man definitely has plenty to lean on and clearly has a free hand in the band, but for the good of the music it might sometimes really be wise to pull in the reins and not let the guitar run too wild. That’s just the nature of this kind of music, where you have to let loose, but even there you sometimes have to respect the “less is more” principle. Leban shows far more delicacy in his star moments, and with his rich electric piano and organ sound he always stays focused and considerate of the big picture of the composition. The rhythm section again works as a kind of connective tissue, but with the heavier guitar explosions, its short reach shows.
Feedback stay true to their roots. They’re still anchored deep in the sixties and seventies, and their music is permeated by a sense of melody and an improvisational bent. Even though in the past they leaned more toward disciplined music, this time they give in more to their love of soloing (especially when it comes to guitar). There’s nothing wrong with that. Personally, I prefer a somewhat more polished approach and would rather see the improvisations at gigs, but I’m sure plenty of people will be even happier with this record than with the previous ones, since the scales have tipped the other way this time, and that suits some folks just fine.
Line-up
Matej Magajne – guitar
Miloš Leban – organ, Rhodes
Andrej Maver – drums
Andrej Klavžar – bass
Production
Feedback
Tracklist
1. Srečanje – 03:07
2. Kolovratenje – 03:41
3. Novi vinodolsky – 04:13
4. Snežne meduze – 03:58
5. Sok zemlje – 04:08
6. Reci klaža! Klaža. – 08:51
7. Laboratorij – 02:28
8. Zob časa – 07:49
