Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Smaal Tokk
Label: Celinka
Release: 2017
Duration: 40:24
Rating: 4.5/5
Want to find out who’s going to »serve up the monads, pack the bales and break the eggs« for whom?
Two years ago, a pretty wild album landed on the Slovenian music scene, and its special blend was a guaranteed, gorgeous shake-up of the occasional stuffiness that the rigidity and stiffness of »genre-ing« tends to breed in Slovenia. Call it staked-out genre loyalty: the kind its creators are doomed to, and in which they love to stay (unknowingly) comfortably settled, year after year, on every newly released album.
Smaal Tokk, though, is the name of a creative variable! The result is something special, and a enrichment of music culture in Slovenia. The debut »Unotisto« confirmed it, and the new »Sindrom drugega albuma« confirms it again. You won’t miss the laughs (with the »till you cry« option) while listening to »Sindrom druge plošče« either. Smaal Tokk is once again endlessly entertaining. With his second album he’s turning into a sort of distant little cousin of Montenegro’s Rambo Amadeus, even a “great-great-great-(grand)son” of Fran Milčinski Ježek. His poetry is remarkably sharp, witty, dark, and endlessly fun, but this superb language doctor and true buzzing, gadfly chatterbox, who speaks throughout in an authentic Gorišká dialect, exposes nothing but the cruel everyday world into which the little guy has been shoved. In fact, he portrays, in a wildly bizarre and caricatured way, the whole absurdity of a two-thousand-year-old system of »appropriation, control, domination« that we put up with, dressed up, of course, in the extreme language of preacherly lucidity, where the boundless expanse of the kingdom called »black humor« reigns. So, since we’re mentioning Rambo Amadeus, anyone drawn to the timeless humor of that unique, unforgettable, and brilliant observer of the melting yellow snow, Frank Zappa, absolutely has to check out the vibe of »Sindrom druge plošče« too. It’s not far from bizarre, and maybe all it’s missing is a small dose of slapstick humor.
Smaal Tokk couldn’t have found more fitting collaborators for what he does. The core of the supporting crew stays unchanged on the »two-fingered« successor to »Unotisto« too. The main composer and arranger this time around is, once again, the versatile and incredibly sharp Klemen Kotar (music was also contributed by Enos Kugler, Gašper Kržmanc and Marko Boh). So, once more, members of Nula Kelvin play on the album: alongside Kotar, guitarist Gašper Kržmanc and keyboardist Marko Boh. So it’s no surprise that many of the arrangements on »Sindrom druge plošče« could easily serve as a starting point for compositions by the gang in the well-known Nula Kelvin crew.
So. Beer-hall poetry in rhythm, or rhythm in poetry (?), or how else to put it? The quick-fire verbal rambling, or rhythmic spoken-word dictation, works brilliantly this time too. The foundation for Smaal Tokk’s preaching is arrangements of a colorful mix of jazz, funky groove, cabaret chanson, urban pop, the obligatory rock’n’roll,… Following the model of servility toward American masters, there’s a brilliantly effective fusion of country and Slovenian folk music in the burlesque Domovina, where Slovenia is not only »pretty as a piglet«, but also like its president’s hairdo. The instrumentalists find plenty of room in the background for mischievously exploratory, mostly jazzy variations that aren’t »painful« to the ear and make an easily digestible dish for the casual, less demanding listener. Throughout, they hold up a pleasant and cheeky backdrop for the front-and-center Smaal Tokk, who delivers that »cerebral, delightful delirium« to every music lover who cares about poetry with brains and high-penetrating intellect, carried by constant teasing grimacing and boundless goofy jabbing, which doesn’t even spare the tragicomedy of the Slovenian political circus.
Supposedly there was no serious plan for a second album at first, but here it is! »Sindrom druge plošče«, then. Get to know it. A must, if you don’t know the album »Unotisto«, and the sooner the better. There’s really no difference in quality between the two albums. On the new album, Smaal Tokk has by no means run out of preacherly dynamite. What’s more, he deepens and widens it as he leads us into his world, where his hidden muse Radmila is always at his side. With this kind of repertoire, Smaal Tokk could perform alongside some »stand up« comedian, and alongside Magnifico he could headline any festival program. No joke, this is an album that, like one of those old-school Alan Ford comic issues, will keep cracking you up and putting you in a good mood. Even though its starting point is painting the cruel reality of everyday life, “Sindrom druge plošče” is an album of supple, clever silliness and cheerfulness, the kind our music scene has always been desperately short on from Slovenian artists.
Smaal Tokk – Profesjonalci (official audio):
Lineup
Smaal Tokk – vocals
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Marko Boh – keyboards, backing vocals
Klemen Kotar – bass guitar, electric guitar, lap steel guitar, keyboards, clarinet, flute, saxophone, backing vocals
Gašper Kržmanc – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Enos Kugler – drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, trumpet
Marko Boh – piano, keyboards, backing vocals
Blažka Oberstar – backing vocals
Ana Šimenc – backing vocals
Production
Klemen Kotar
Track list
1. Mucki, srčki, risanke an sladoled
2. En in edini
3. Praznična
4. Rumeni tisk
5. Interludij v € molu
6. Domoljubna
7. Radmila
8. Profesjonalci
9. Z jajci
10. Zaposlovalna
11. Šivi
12. Nedeljski bluz
13. Kvota
14. Gangsta suita
