Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Trium
Label: Self-released
Release: 2017
Duration: 44:25
Rating: 3.5/5
Trium is a new band of seasoned musicians. »Puzzle« is the group’s studio debut, delivering the kind of musical statement typical of the era when Slovenian mid-wave music was being composed in the eighties. So, if I may be a bit blunt, that approach sounds "past its prime" today, and yet it’s also a genuine imprint of how music was perceived by exactly the generation behind the trio Trium. But that’s by no means where the story ends.
The ten songs are cooked up following the usual recipe of chasing high musical catchiness that grabs you the moment you hit play, while the band also strives for a refined sonic aesthetic of evenly distributing the building blocks of the sound picture, a kind of sonic symbiosis, if you will. The album can boast very good production, it breathes lively, dynamic, organic and »three-dimensional«. The male vocal is the weak link in the story, but it’s skillfully propped up by layers of extra vocal harmonies, including some male-female vocal duets.
Don’t go looking for a musical revolution here, but this is a record that’s a lovely nostalgic trip back to some distant times, when the world was a lot less broken and cruel, when there was more bubbling optimism and hope on the planet and, last but not least, real, openly declared love. That’s why the album »Puzzle« also expresses a fair bit of poetic »naivety«, or let’s rather say »sincere vulnerability« in the lyrics themselves, which lean mostly on, oh, you guessed it, love themes.
»Trium« know what atmosphere is. They’re also really good at arranging mid-eight passages, where they effectively flip the mood and know how to dramatize it. That’s hugely welcome because, let’s be honest, the compositions mostly rest on trivially solvable chord progressions, but despite that the band slips in the odd art modulation, planting an unexpected chord, which is a very welcome shake-up of the general compositional predictability.
The album carries a considerable measure of heart and dedication that the musicians poured into their effort. You can feel on the record that they sweated over a great many details in the sound and the arrangements. And that earns them a winning poker hand of aces. The guys know exactly what they’re doing. The album is also permeated by an exceptionally crafty blend of acoustics and studio-calibrated distortion (rock moves). No hide-and-seek here. The band also delivered some really skillful arranging in terms of adding a velvety layer of keyboards, with some flirting with that Hammond sound along the way. The song that conjures up the essence of the lineup, the essence of the album, is the longest one on the record. That’s the track Naj srce govori, where the whole Trium dossier is gathered in one wonderfully fitting place. If you want an instant insight into what Trium bring to the table, spin this one first; its closing stretch also carries a bit of Latin sentiment.
If this were the eighties, Trium might have landed themselves a pop-rock evergreen with this album. As it is, »Puzzle«, just like the album title hints, is a very clever foldout, a jigsaw of countless tiny arrangement details that build up the dossier of ten tracks.These stick to the tried-and-true musical recipe of the experienced tightrope walking of seasoned musical tomcats, who will knock on the souls of the older generation with their retro-nostalgic romanticism, especially the generation that has by now firmly wandered into Abraham’s years and is slowly approaching the completion of its sixth decade of life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQvCEAuxkfQ
Lineup
Roman Nussdorfer – guitar, backing vocals
Matjaž Mikac – bass guitar
Sine Videčnik – vocals, guitar
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Matevž Goršič – keyboards
Nik Lovše – bass guitar
Gašper Obšteter – drums
Nika Kodrič – backing vocals
Production
Matevž Goršič
Track list
1. Puzzle
2. Nič takega
3. Upati zaman
4. V nedeljo zvečer
5. Privlačiš me
6. Naj srce govori
7. Spomini
8. Potrebujem te
9. Tam zunaj
10. V glavi
