Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Žen
Label: Moonlee Records
Released: 2017
Rating: 4.5/5
Žen are an all-female alternative rock outfit formed in 2009 in Zagreb. In 2013 and 2015 the trio put out two albums on the Austrian indie label Unrecords, the studio debut »I onda je sve počelo« and »Jantar«. At the end of this past November, a third album followed them both: »Sunčani ljudi«, released as a joint effort between Moonlee Records, Unrecods and Vox Project!
These girls are not messing around. They know exactly what they’re doing and what they want. Their musical vision is clearly defined and focused, dead set on the target! From the very start, the quartet has cultivated an eclectic blend of psychedelia and post-rock esotericism that easily seduces the listener, leads them by the hand and carries them off to a world beyond the real. The music feels cerebral, trippy, and the structure of the compositions rests on a cunning weave of multiple sonic layers, vibrating in an excellent, incredibly patient, if not downright symbiotic dialogue of hypnotic motivic repetitions. There’s a lot of »playing« with the »faders«, meaning the band sticks with a single motif for several minutes at a time, letting its sonic intensity either swell or gradually settle, graded by mood. The whole record is built on undulation, on a constant gentle warping of the lead motif (creating a sense of dissonance), and on top of that the band adds, with tremendous skill, decorative drapes of yearning synth curtains. That last element is somehow inherited from, or is an imprint of, the typical sound culture of the eighties, when post-punk appeared and shook up the development options of the alternative rock genre with its avant-garde streak. Yes. There’s a touch of shoegaze here, some rediscovered new-wave vibration of sonic experimentalism, carried over from the visionary work of pioneering acts from Killing Joke to Siouxsie and the Banshees to My Bloody Valentine. The most interesting example of this collision is the song Opet Gange, which even has a whiff of the melos of traditional folk tunes from the lands south of the Kolpa. It’s an incredibly successful blend of shoegaze, post-rock and, as mentioned, some vocal lines drawing on the melos of folk melodies. So yes, there’s a folk element here too. The song Sonična taktika is a mix of space psychedelia propped up by frothing guitar phrasing, wrapped in a dreamily hollow, »extraterrestrial« female vocal that even reaches toward the outlines of the sonic experimental daring of the likes of Hawkwind.
So with this album you’ll be floating the whole time, and if you haven’t left the ground by then, the post-rock extravagance of the closing Tijelo zna will definitely peel you off it. A very important element, one that opens up new moods and horizons of hypnotic intoxication in the post-rock expression, is the interplay of three female voices, which address the listener in a dreamy, almost tender way, while being masterfully arranged and, sonically of course, »affected«. Through their aesthetic use, Žen fill out the overall sonic picture of this record extremely effectively. The vocals flutter in the musical ether like a spiderweb in a soothing gust of wind, stirring up an absolute craving to affirm the freedom-loving, truth-loving sincerity and authenticity with which the quartet Žen approaches everything on this record! It’s not short on heart, it’s not short on creative fire either, and it carries a palpable DIY ethos and vibe.
Žen are masters of sudden atmospheric twists and turns. If the wall of sound in the song Pusti me da hodam is built mostly from keyboards and synth lines, the instrumental Jugomental steps into the spotlight next with a pleasantly »fat« guitar riff, which is of course carefully and lovingly backed in the background by decorative synth curtains. The new soundscape creates a new mood, and the sonic layers softly melt into one another and join up, like delicate watercolor pastels caught in the fusion of constantly feeling perception and contemplation.
The band is almost more instrumental than vocal. At least that’s the feeling Žen’s music conjures up in the listener. The group often uses the vocals as an extra instrument that deepens the solemn, dreamy atmosphere of the album, even though the poetry, written in Croatian, is concise and full of meaning. It just steps into the background. Or rather, it works »secondarily«.
The verdict? An absolute genre oddity, with compact eclecticism. With their third album, Žen effectively cement their homegrown character and the artistic stance of true alternative rock self-starters. Easily the band’s most mature achievement to date.
Žen – Sonična taktika (official video)
Line-up
Eva Badanjak – guitar, synthesizers, vocals
Sara Ercegović – drums, synthesizers, vocals
Ivona Ivković – bass guitar, synthesizers, vocals
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Jovana Lukić – vocals on track no. 4
Lana Hosni – vocals on track no. 4
Production
Žen
Track list
1. A gdje su staze? (04:06)
2. Pusti me da hodam (05:34)
3. Jugomenta (l04:21)
4. Četiri tri pet dva (05:48)
5. Opet gange (04:37)
6. Sonična taktika (03:49)
7. Tijelo zna (05:46)
8. Lov na crne tipke (08:09)
