Label: Samo Records
Release date: March 2019
Production: Samo Šalamon
Genre: free jazz / avant-garde
Rating: 9.0 / 10
Rotten GirlZ is a fresh, fascinating and thoroughly one-of-a-kind adventure, born from the inexhaustible mind of Slovenian musical wunderkind Samo Šalamon. It’s a special bond between free jazz and, as the album title tells you, the schizophrenic excesses of bizarre, in-your-face simplicity that in the second half of the seventies “tore down the ordinary,” which capital then sold to the masses in a cunning way as “punk.” Artistically, the story of Rotten GirlZ sits somewhere in between, which means we’re once again facing a truly singular musical achievement. Recorded the way a live quartet performance would be. “In one take”!
A quick run through the four players and it’s not hard to conclude that they know each other well. Never mind that together they’ve only made the debut, “Punk You”. Samo Šalamon and Achille Succi are old acquaintances from joint free-jazz ventures, drummer Bojan Krhlanko and Šalamon play together in Brest, and vocalist Eva Poženel and Bojan Krhlanko play together in Kukushai, the band of the outstanding keyboardist Rok Zalokar.
This time Samo Šalamon dutifully sticks to the electric bass guitar (he contrasts parts of the songs with additional programmed loops), while Achille (as proven) blows alto sax and bass clarinet. The crew explodes right out of the gate in free-jazz directions, but after a few seconds of (deliberately triggered) chaos that throws you straight into shock (a hypnotic wake-up call for the listener), they quickly calibrate and snap into form. That’s the track Ego Trip, which then alternates vividly between those two approaches and immediately makes it very clear what to expect from the substance of the whole record.
Eva Poženel’s vocals function as an additional instrument on the album and in the songs. In the alternation between directly played sections, where Bojan holds down the “straight” rhythmic structures familiar from rock (and punk, of course), Achille keeps a clear form, while also bringing a bunch of solutions drawn from the treasure chest of “Ornettisms.” That form is then virtuously smashed up by Eva’s occasional vocal excess, delivered with a signature, potently vehement swing and completely untamed. Eva also develops melodies and bizarre phrases that arise spontaneously, and the crew comes across at moments even as lucid, mocking and cheeky. Eva provides the avant-garde undertone, and in her bizarreness she drives the tracks to frenetic outbursts that make you wonder more than once whether anything like that can even be wrung out of a human body. In everything she does, Eva reacts spontaneously and unpredictably. That’s the nature of the songs, too, even though we’re constantly talking about a peculiar collision of firmly formatted structures and free jazz.
Samo Šalamon also often latches onto double-stop hammering, which gets even more “thickness” and sonic volume out of the bass, and gives Rotten Gorlz an extra contrast of character. Exactly what Lemmy did all along in Motörhead. I’m singling out the iron chancellor on purpose, because Rotten GirlZ, in pulling their structures toward the direct, naked (punk) rock stance of unbridled racket, keep pleasantly surprising the listener across the whole album. A very important factor in all of this is Achille Succi, who maintains the balance between tangible, formatted substance and improvisational inserts as he occasionally charges deeper into free-jazz territory. In this free-spirited jazz environment, Poženel’s vocal outbursts couldn’t fit any better than they do. Like I said, instincts are lurking deep here. Intuition and, of course, the sensory awareness between the musicians stand front and center. Along with a concise “leveling” that’s needed, naturally, so there aren’t too many avant-garde escapes and it doesn’t tip into chaos (the “empire of polyphonies”), but the opposite. So that the album carries a constantly appealing feeling that chaos is close, but won’t happen.
Rotten GrilZ thus deliver with “Punk You” a unique approach to fusing jazz and rock, and without a guitar! The racket from the other instruments (even the vocals work here in an “instrumental” capacity) is more than enough! Of course, the scales tip toward jazzy free-spiritedness throughout, but the album (especially thanks to the integration of Eva Poženel) also leans into avant-garde territory, theatrical all the way, even bizarre at moments, yet unpredictable throughout, and, what matters most, completely unusual and eclectic, special and one of a kind. For Samo Šalamon it’s yet another hugely successful mission of experimental musical “Samo-provocativeness,” powered by the forever sparkling mind of this artist.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Ego Trip
2. My Furry Little Friend
3. Mr. Stewie
4. Gotta Love
5. Home
8. Punk’d
9. Mind Fuck
10. Motions of Tenderness
11. Soft Paw
12. Black Saturday
Line-up:
Eva Poženel – vocals (1-4, 7)
Achille Succi – alto sax, bass clarinet
Samo Salamon – electric bass, sound loops
Bojan Krhlanko – drums
