Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Šank Rock
Label: Dallas Records
Released: 2015
Length: 39:43
Rating: 4/5
The reunion of Šank Rock is one of the biggest events to shake up the Slovenian rock scene last year. With returning guitarist Bor Zuljan and a refreshed line-up rounded out by drummer Roman Ratej and keyboardist Sašo Gačnik, the band played their first show in four years in 2014 at the festival Pivo in cvetje in Laško. Clearly, Laško is a second home for our tough Velenje boys. From the Laško beer to the festival and, last but not least, the Laško brewery, which put up a nice chunk of financial and promotional backing for the new concert campaign and for the release of the new studio record too. So here we are: »Restart«.
Even though Šank Rock promised a new album, it’s hard to argue that »Restart« is a proper new full-length studio album. It’s more of an EP. It carries four new tracks (»Restart«, »Ni sreče brez rock’n’rolla«, »Vse bo dobro« and »Ljubezen, resnica, življenje«) and six re-recorded Šank Rock classics. In cases like this, an EP puts the new songs first and then lines up the re-recorded older tracks after them. So »Restart« is more of a compilation of sorts, one that announces the band’s reactivation in an artistic sense too. Šank Rock simply had to put out a new studio record. This one or another. The stages are calling them again, the line-up is different, the energy and the chemistry are new. The guys are bursting with hunger to play live, and the good news is that new original material is in the works too.
»Senca sebe« (2007) was a great album. A different album. On it the band showed a lot of artistic maturity. The four new tracks that »Restart« delivers, though, are a blast back to the turn of the eighties into the nineties. The first of them, Restart, is a song that could have landed on that album I just mentioned without much trouble. It has a seriously catchy chorus that will grow into a fan favorite and a must-play at their shows over this very summer’s run of concerts. The band has injected the new songs with that swaggering, cocky mischief typical of the cheekiness of the »golden era« albums, while also beefing up the element that »calls for a party«. Šank Rock have always been the band whose music, first and foremost, gave the crowd a reason for a good party. The new songs carry that almost over-the-top positive vibe, and with it Šank Rock are living a new youthful renaissance in their mature years. Apparently they never really aged, or couldn’t even if they tried. So the new songs fit naturally with the rest of the material, which is made up of the band’s by-now-folk-anthem hits.
The makeover of the classics came with a few refreshes. The first is the production, which deepens the contrasts between the building blocks of the sound. Everything is crystal clear and distinct, so the sound breathes with pronounced, lively and organic dynamics. That goes especially for the keyboards, where the band deftly swaps the glittering eighties synth sounds for something close to Hammond organs (Laški pir) or a classic piano (Maček). Otherwise, the refreshed versions of the beloved Šank Rock anthems don’t stray far from the originals. Zuljan blows you away again, his famous solos have of course been upgraded artistically, Cveto’s bass in the production, with its fat kick-drum thump, digs deep and rattles once more, while Matjaž’s vocals are even more mature, velvety and refined, as the album Senca sebe (2007) already proved. What does that mean? Evolution, knowledge, experience and years of mileage dictate the realization that all three musicians have become even more accomplished and polished in their expression and in their craft. That’s logical progress. In the studio the guys approached the work with just the right amount of production fine-tuning, which vividly captures the state of mind and spirit of the reactivated band in 2015.
»Restart« is a record that brings Šank Rock back among the living not just on paper and through live shows, but in the sense of reactivated original artistry too. It’s a record that absolutely everyone needs to get before heading out to one of their spring-summer gigs this year. The first chance for that will of course be May 5, 2015 at Križanke in Ljubljana. Those of us who are a bit pickier music grumblers, myself included, are still waiting for a proper new full-length studio album with up to ten new original songs. But first, let’s see how the story of the rejuvenated Velenje stallions unfolds over the next half year. If all this positive energy of bubbling, freshly re-established chemistry keeps building and growing, there’s no reason for it to go any other way.
And here’s the official announcement from Šank Rock on how to get your hands on the »Restart« disc:
»You’ll be able to get this disc with the purchase of an exclusive Laško beer pack (six-pack), which goes on sale from May at the same price as a “regular six-pack”. All the dates and places of our “Zlatorogove Turneje Ponosa” will also be printed on this pack, and the first show will of course be at Križanke on May 5!«
Line-up
Matjaž Jelen – vocals
Bor Zuljan – guitar
Sašo Gačnik – keyboards
Cveto Polak – bass guitar
Roma Ratej – drums
Production
Bor Zuljan
Tracklist
1. Laški pir
2. Restart
3. Pravljica o mavričnih ljudeh
4. Ni sreče brez R’n’R
5. Radio
6. Ker te ljubim
7. Vse bo dobro
8. Lahka dama
9. Maček
10. Ljubezen, resnica, življenje
