Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: BRO
Label: Kurz CPZ
Release: 2009
Runtime: 47:05
Rating: 4/5
Going by the cover of this album, my first thought was that it was a “best of” Jure Košir. Okay, seriously now? Everybody loses their innocence at least once in life. If you hadn’t, everyone would think you were a weirdo. And those who live life permanently in “high gear” (if not “top gear”) get deflowered several times over. That goes for everyone in Mate Brodar’s corner, who just put out his first solo studio album, and for me too, since that very same kid has put me in the spot of reviewing, for the first time in my life, an album whose songs are rooted in reggae. But no worries. This one has a happy ending.
Mate Brodar hardly needs an introduction. For his debut brainchild “Serious Reggae Deviations” he shortened his name to BRO for the project and launched himself into the world of his own songwriting, which is neither Da Phenomenon, nor Tinkara’s band, nor Magnifico’s sidekick gig. Brodar’s big strength, besides the basic gifts of musical talent laid in his cradle and the stage presence that comes with it, is his remarkable receptiveness, his knack for perceiving and “self-consuming” the diverse musical genres of this planet.
The album title couldn’t be more fitting, because it makes clear that this is a record that leans on reggae the whole way through, while tossing a whole bunch of different spices into that same reggae: insights from quality pop rock, jazz, a sweetener of soul and R&B, dub, detours into rock, and at one point he even catches a mild metal detonation.
The opener, This B Song (of the Towell Stealaz), starts out dark and enigmatic, backed by a reggae beat, of course, with dub echoes and welcome doses of ornamental trumpet sighs. It’s the longest track on the album, almost seven and a half minutes, but it flies by in a blink. After six minutes, and a wittily woven guitar passage, the track actually manages to bring the album fully home, as its sound finally becomes completely natural (organic). Next up are two tracks with real hit single potential. Universe, the first of the pair, has a positively easygoing character and finally lets the album fully loosen up. That feeling sticks around when the next one, U Got 2 Steal The Towel, rolls in. BRO shows his devotion to the Cuban revolution with Guantanamo Bay, a witty take on probably the best-known Cuban patriotic song, Guantanamera. Here the guy steps on the gas, the track runs at an accelerated reggae tempo, and then comes a vivid, dramatic turn with a proper heavy metal riff that brings a moment of spontaneity and shock effect. A great trick, especially since it fits perfectly with the sweetness of the first half of the song. The album’s less interesting moment is Loodown Stealah, though Mate saves the situation with his richly branching vocal approach.
The strength of this album lies in the fact that BRO knew exactly what he wanted all along. His moves are short, to the point, and streamlined to the max. He plays the “less is more” card very skillfully, turning it to his advantage the whole way and keeping the expressive power of each track intact. What’s more, he actually boosts it. The more stripped down the instrumental backing is, or almost reduced to just a “beat”, the more he leans on the colorful use of BRO’s vocal skills, which doesn’t rule out rich multi-voice arrangements in the choruses. Knowledge, experience, and going with the feeling coexist on this album very happily and effectively.
The second half of the album is a notch better than the first. Nuff Respect works with an unpredictable opening development, like a riddle that piques your interest all over again. A welcome lift in dynamics comes from the jazz-minded guitar solo flourishes. That feeling carries on into Shell, which is different in expression, but the role of the guitar from the previous track is taken over by the trumpet this time. Surprisespring keeps holding nothing back in the dynamically branching musical dialogue between BRO and the listener, and the real treat here is the escalation of the trumpet’s outgoing solo figures, which drink from the inspiration of Miles Davis’s pioneering work.
The album’s main dessert is saved for the finale with Lines In The Sand. Like most tracks on the album, it has an exceptional flow in how the basic motifs that drive the song coexist. On this album it’s the most melancholic piece. In the first part, the softly laid-back arrangement of the musical backing further highlights BRO’s strength as an interpreter. The track is convincing thanks to the especially successful emphasis on the sensuality of the vocal. When Lines In The Sand spills over into fully instrumental communication between its building blocks, they steer the album into a necessary dramatic finish and so deliver, definitively, one of the album’s peaks.
Whatever the analysis in the “few” paragraphs above, BRO is the central figure of everything that goes on here. Everything stands and falls with his vocals. He’s a masterful interpreter who slips skillfully into any given situation and adapts to it. He’s convincing from the get-go simply because his singing has a recognizable vocal color that gives the musician his own expressive identity. His range is set a bit higher, with a shrill closing contour that gives him just that recognizable face. The guy has an innate feel with which he deftly bends and shapes verses in a soul and R&B manner. That breathes in the necessary dynamics and the basic source of expressive energy that drives the cogs of the songs.
You could sum up “Serious Reggae Deviations” as the point of a bold experiment that managed to fuse the spirit of the all-Slovenian folk pulse with reggae, as well as other musical elements, into a special musical mix that definitely has the potential to win over Slovenian crowds. True, we Slovenes can’t brag about any special support for reggae, perhaps precisely because Slovenian bands that tried their hand at this genre fell into genericness, so at first glance you could say BRO has to look for his bread with it abroad. But the very axiom of the captured all-Slovenian pulse of this nation’s spirit (to put it in farmer’s terms: “Slovenes dig reggae!”), which wraps like a veil around the basic structure of the songs, brings important points on the basis of which Slovenian audiences too could take the album with open arms. Personally, I predict success for it, if only for the special charisma, the recognizable charm, and the colorfully contrasting structure that creates a story of nine tight, motif-compact, self-contained units. Those units add up to an incredibly listenable, easygoing, relaxed album, which at the same time proves that it’s the fruit of authorship by BRO’s high-quality musical talent and his studio helpers. Generic? Borrowed ideas? Not this time. What we have here is a seriously high-quality musical product with a face all its own!
Lineup
BRO – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, programming
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Tadej Košir – guitar solo on tracks 6 and 7
Igor Matkovič – trumpet on tracks 1, 7, 8
Jošt Drašler – bass guitar on tracks 2 and 7
Jure Rozman – drums
Production
Iztok Turk
Tracklist
1. This B The Song (Of The Towel Stealaz)
2. Universe
3. U Got 2 Steal The Towel
4. Guantanamo Bay
5. Loodown Stealah
6. Nuff Respect
7. Shell
8. Surprisespring
9. Lines In The Sand
