Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Co.Da
Label: Self-released
Release: 2013
Runtime: 11:35
Rating: 2.5/5
Alternative rock that reeks of conventional likability is a thing that splits the waters among fans of music you rarely hear on the radio, and there are few acts that can live up to Beethoven’s concept of musicians as begetters of divine children and heralds of pure inspiration. Still, it doesn’t pay to write off everything the overproduced garages of Slovenia and Europe have to offer, and let’s not forget the other side of the great Atlantic either. This time I’ll stay closer to our Alpine neck of the woods and offer a verdict or two on the second record from Ljubljana’s Co.Da, who after two years of hard graft have delivered their second EP, Force That Threads The Water. Can it lift the musical quality a step or two beyond their firstborn EP, Dawn Of The Black? I wouldn’t hand down an instant verdict.
In these recent times of self-production and self-promotion, Slovenian creativity is often challenged by quality comparisons that we can pull out of the arsenal of the nineties and the turn of the millennium. I compared the first record to names like SOAD, Alice In Chains and whatever else, and expecting a further escalation of heavy-sound fever, I held on to high standards and got a record that’s structurally quite similar to the offerings of Audioslave. But instead of repeating the rhythms and melodies of Revelations, a completely different spectrum of listening saturation opens up this time. Co.Da are a bunch of creative minds who’ve been experimenting with sound and rhythm for almost half a decade, yet after the likes of Sheeva, Highway, Tito In Ekšn and similar moments of commercial groping, Co.Da remain a pretty big unknown on the Slovenian music sky for now. And this time, after the raw first start, it’s time to filter out the excess and lay down new musical postulates. If you got used to higher-octane guitars and rawer diction on the first record, which still didn’t sink too deep into a guttural metal routine, the second record might be an easier shock to the system, even a minor cold shower, because Co.Da have reconceptualized their expression. The record is much more commercially minded, much softer and much less progressive than I’d hoped.
Four tracks in one package open up with the quite promising Prelude. Soft guitar contours and dreamy fractals of echo from fingers touching strings organically pry apart dark clouds, gentle and soft like groping rays of spring sunshine. After an overture of rising emotion I’d have expected a more explosive ride down the slide, but Stone is instead a more mainstream string of verses and choruses that sadly doesn’t squeeze out that extra drop of inner fire. Damjan’s vocals come off rather soft and cuddly, while the guitars, though polished, buffed and strategically placed, are a bit too staged. It’s precisely this overthinking that keeps the young quintet’s talent from shining in full. After the sounds of the Ljubljana collective Dirtswitch shook me up, I expected an upgrade from Co.Da’s waters too, but I stayed on the shores of sonic disappointment. Stone ends too early and without a real climax, and the far more melodic These Cold Roses doesn’t give the whole thing the breakthrough it needs to shift into a higher gear. I’d praise the pedantic meter of the guitars, bass and somewhat less adventurous drums (the latter could have used more oomph and muscle), but the HIM-style dreamy vocals lack enough substance for me to fully surrender to the sonic flood of good ideas. The Tide had already pulled something like that on me… Three quarters in, we still need the cherry on top. On the closing track, the title card Force That Threads The Water, you can feel a bit more rawness, but the production’s scalpel, filters and selection have trimmed away every bit of rawness, ugliness and excess fat from the recording, the very things that could have made the product even better.
Don’t get me wrong – Co.Da are good, highly distinctive musical talents who know how to write songs and know their craft, but this time there’s a gram of courage missing, the kind that would have let me fully believe in the force that parts the oceans. The guitars are the strongest part of the record, but the whole dance is too bogged down in form and sadly not adventurous enough. There’s no element of surprise, and everything unfolds with a touch too much predictability. Despite the balance and the damn good articulation, a lot is left unsung and way too »safe«, and the second EP ends up too bland and lukewarm. I console myself with the thought that this is just a moment of weakness and that after this musical cramp we’ll soon get a ten-meter wave of sound and daring that sweeps away all expectations and brutally knocks this sweet aftertaste of the conventional out of our mouths. Considering the extensive catalog of what they’ve already recorded and played, Co.Da undoubtedly have it in them, but this time the hurricane of emotion sadly skirted my listening shore and only lightly grazed it. The sea stayed only slightly rippled, and Moses didn’t split the mass in two. I hope next time there’s more decisiveness, unruliness and adventure, and instead of alchemical dosing of grams of purified distortion there’s more brutal magic at work, even at the cost of the record never getting played on commercial radio stations …
Lineup
Aleš Hrastnik – drums
Damjan Šaršanski – vocals
Edi Biscone – guitar
Matej Krč – guitar
Uroš Dobčnik – bass
Production
Edi Biscone
Track List
- Prelude
- Stone
- These Cold Roses
- Force That Threads The Water
