Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Goragorja
Label: Self-released
Release: 2017
Runtime: 27:54
Rating: 4/5
This time it’s Goriška Brda that’s waking up. Up there in the hill country, thunder rolled and Goragorja stirred, an all-instrumental trio from the village of Dobrovo who, right as 2017 rang in, gave birth to their studio debut, titled »Ulkus«. So. That cover isn’t Goriška lace, it’s a stomach wall eaten away by excess stomach acid, covered in bloody sores, a.k.a. ulcers. What causes this (stomach) »Ulkus« is a reflection of ambitious sincerity. A trio of friends nurtures it devotedly, reading each other effectively as a team and boldly talking things out in dialogues of musical expression.
A humble beginning, in the spirit of D.I.Y. creation, but, as mentioned, sincere. What the album »Ulkus« embodies is really a modern kind of jam from a new musical generation, in the vein of the young guard. These guys cultivate a raw, garage-rattling, live sound, laid down as a »recording« on the first try. Like a gig played in the studio, presumably, most likely right in a living room. The guys approach the work with huge enthusiasm and guts. They’re just starting out, so the budget coffers are mostly empty, which they make up for with the allure of a strictly independent musical stance and loads of resourcefulness, since they’ve got to stand their ground somehow. They’ve gone to great lengths, too: their debut is self-released and came out in physical form, on a CD with a silver base (not greenish!!!) that holds the audio.
Goragorja are an interesting band. Given the sheer rudimentary sound and the »abrasion« that an unadulterated, primal, raw onslaught of noise and distortion inflicts on the mechanoreceptor hairs of any ear’s cochlea, Goragorja definitely carry an alternative-rock engraving. Given the three-headed live jam captured over five tracks, where the lead motifs are caught in multiple repetitions, we can of course also pin the labels post-rock through post-metal and even post-HC on the approach. Depending on how a composition develops and what its main phrases are. The guys know that, with the limits of their instrumentation, the songs have to be shaken up properly, so within the lead motifs they slip in rhythmic shifts in the phrasing of the lead melodies. In that respect the guitar also occasionally calms its distorted rage when it moves to cleaner tones, which can be thickened with reverb or backed by a wah-wah pedal. A single track can capture the culmination of the genre elements described above, as the opener Žleht žlahta already shows.
Ulkus« is, overall, a gloomy piece of work. On the debut the band shows an enviable level of tightness and mutual calibration, and the trio also strikes a balanced placement of the instruments in the compositions, though it’s clear the guitar occasionally dominates the other two when its sound hyperplastically spreads into a massive wall of sound (the closing section of Prvi greh).
Goragorja are interesting for anyone looking for musical oddness, even bizarreness. In terms of energy and vibe, you can draw parallels with other Slovenian bands, like Vibesonic Jam, Dubzilla, Koromač, and also Broken Lock. These are certainly acts with sharply recognizable musical characters and genre dividing lines. But the vibe is gloomy, garage-live, and sounds homey for our corner of the world, so these bands carry over to each other compatibly at any moment on (potential) shared bills.
»Ulkus« is a lovely cornerstone in the discography of a new band that’s genre-unburdened, makes music with all its elemental sincerity and truthfulness, and consequently manages to develop its own musical recipe and character from the very first steps. At the same time, thanks to its artistic freedom from baggage, »Ulkus« is wide open to reshaping and upgrading the sound and style down the road. So. Where Goragorja will soar to next can’t be predicted, and that’s exactly what makes their next steps all the more interesting.
Goragorja – Prvi greh (official audio):
Line-up
Sergej Pojavnik – guitar
Andraž Zlobec – bass guitar
Tomaž Abram – drums
Production
Goragorja
Tracklist
1. Žleht žlahta (05:13)
2. Prvi greh (06:19)
3. Stalna terapija (05:34)
4. Močerad (07:53)
5. Outro (03:29)
