Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Na lepem prijazni
Label: Nika Records
Release: 2017
Duration: 53:58
Rating: 5/5
NLP, or in full »Na lepem prijazni”, are today considered veterans of the Slovenian rock scene. In their early days they planted themselves somewhere in the Slovenian alternative rock underground, but they have always packed their vocabulary with experimental musical excesses, building colorful bridges between genres that set them apart artistically from their contemporaries. They have always flirted with jazz too, stirring up traces of avant-garde musical horizons. What NLP made way back when is almost impossible to get hold of today. Except in some musical »antiquarian bookshop«. In 1993 the old material came out on the CD »What A Time To Make A Fool Of You«, which collected the studio debut plus an EP. In 2005 came the album »Potaplja se raj«, by which point the band had renamed itself NLPM (Na lepem prijazni mutant), and then eight years later another one, »Tudi če se vrnemo še kdaj«, which was also the swan song of one of the band’s integral members, Andrej Trobentar. He left the group afterwards, so today the only original member still in the lineup is guitarist and artist Vojko Aleksič.
»Tudi če se vrnemo nazaj« is a kind of transitional album (let’s be honest, which one isn’t? It’s just that the artistic thread is a bit obscured by the huge gaps of time between NLP releases). It’s on this album that the actor Ludvik Bagari shows up for the first time, and with his expanded storytelling variety act he takes on such an integral role on »Srceder«.
»Srceder« is a melodramatic album. So. There’s a story behind it, told wonderfully well, and at times downright madly, by Ludvik Bagari. He relives it and leaps from role to role without compromise, pulling it off masterfully and with a whole lot of featherlight ease. Theater is tailor-made for him. The way he brings passion and emotion to life is outstanding and gives »Srceder« a unique character, or rather, deepens that uniqueness considerably. What we hear musically on »Srceder« is (quietly) what you’d expect. Especially if you know the earlier musical exploits of this band, in many ways »obscure« on the Slovenian scene. If you know Rambo Amadeus, or Slovenia’s Buldožer, you absolutely have to add the »words« Frank and Zappa. By the way, Činč makes his mark on Srceder with the Hammond (Dracula Blues). The track Zarotitveni frape, which is a funk jam, would fit in without any trouble on one of the later Buldožer albums. Mood swings and upheavals are everywhere on this wildly ambitious concept album. The spirit of Frank Zappa is summoned especially by the guitar playing in the track Pot zaklada. On top of all that, you have to mention the biting, tangible alternative rock element running through the album, and NLP attack with it more sharply very early on, with the track Žrtev. It brings a sudden and strikingly aesthetic switch of atmosphere, directed in a »Sherlock Holmes meets Povratak Odpisanih« style, where real, spine-chilling terror of high tension comes to life, enough to make even Edgar Alan Poe flinch (the »reprise« comes later with Tri kraljeve žene). In the sprawling improvisations you can definitely pick out elements of jazz, and on the other side fleeting outlines of cabaret, and the band doesn’t shy away from excursions into blues territory either (Dracula blues). The track Vojna delivers an even more radical dose of punk witchcraft, while the album closes with a romantic epilogue, spiked with teasing reggae rhythms in Ljubila in ubila. Vojskovodja Wolf is a solemnly gloomy march wrapped in Russian melos, while the track Sveža kri revives the good old days of jazz and funk rock fusion. In short. The mood switches come at every step. In every respect, though, »Srceder« is at the end of the day a rock album. One of exceptional fusion and open mind, that refuses to recognize any limits on expression. You could call it a one-of-a-kind art rock product too!
»Srceder« is an exceptional album that, in its ambition, makes no secret of its artistic courage and daring. It’s the musical and artistic standout of this year, as far as album releases in the Slovenian geographical space go. The record shows the outstanding musical talent of the players in the new lineup, where experience, inventiveness and playful sparkle coexist in an excellent dialogue of full-blooded complementing. The album couldn’t be more Slovenian if it tried. It’s stuffed with tragedy, and also with black, almost »Alan Ford-style« humor. You know how it is. In Slovenian literature or on the silver screen, the hero has to end up dead, or at the very least miserably impoverished and ruined. The story is bizarre, grotesque, not infrequently even absurd, with blood spilled in every act, caused by the hunger for a good payday as Kovač and Angela offer their srceder to various clients, and it allegorically sparkles with the tattered state of mind, amorality and emotional numbness of the »modern« society of the brave, mad new world we slave for.
Even though the material must have taken a long time to come together, it was definitely mostly played »in one take«. Musically, »Srceder« sounds incredibly organic. It’s performed tightly and in tune. The interplay of guitars, keyboards, piano, Hammond and all the other additions (winds, harmonica), plus the warmth of those thick low tones, works perfectly. Like a concert played in one piece. This is a hugely loosened-up album genre-wise, where a sense of the spontaneous and unexpected lurks for the listener almost at every step. With his storytelling Bagari really chains the listener to the record, and the whole essence of »Srceder« simply shocks and shakes you, and that shaken feeling doesn’t fade when the album ends. On later listens there’s less of that »post-shock«, since the album is also stuffed with lucidity and infectious black humor that make listening a lot of fun, even though, as said, this is a musical horror story. Full of mocking and obscene character. Here you have Jesus, Dracula, the Ruler, the Court Jester, the butcher and a few others, all of whom long ago swapped their callings for total debauchery, which adds one more allegorical sketch of moral devaluation and corruption in the Valley of St. Florian in A.D. 2017!
The album »Srceder« simply has to come alive on stage. And not just as a regular gig, but by combining a concert with a proper theater production. »Srceder« is actually meant for exactly that. Let’s hope NLP manage to put together a whole string, a series of such shows across Slovenia. This is an artistic work that every one of you simply has to experience. It will shock you either way. Positively or negatively. That doesn’t matter at all, it’s not the point. That’s the fact of the temptation, when out of nowhere and totally »unexpectedly« you slam into a thoroughly unusual musical body! As such, in its unusualness, it truly moves and shakes you and emotionally awakens every last carefully hidden and “sleeping” corner of your souls. This time you’ll be trembling and chattering your teeth like crazy.
Lineup
Ludvik Bagari – vocals, recitations
Vojko Aleksić – guitar
Jan Jarni – guitar
Andjelko Knežević – backing vocals
Nuša Ofentavšek – backing vocals
Darko Hočevar – bass guitar
Luka Kuhar – drums, percussion
Žiga Fabbro – saxophone
David Jarni – trumpet
Borut Činč – keyboards
Irena Preda – soprano
Miha Renčelj – piano
Luka Einfalt – euphonium
Miha Erić – harmonica
Production
Jurij Toni
Tracklist
1. Kovačija
2. Žrtev
3. Pot zaklada
4. Zarotitveni frape
5. Tri kraljeve žene
6. Vojskovodja Wolf
7. Povorka, srh in mrk
7. Sveža kri
8. Dracula blues
9. Srceder v roki
10. Vojna
11. Ljubila in ubila
