Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Martin Ramoveš Band
Label: ZARŠ Records
Released: year
Running time: 46:12
Rating: 4/5
Martin Ramoveš Band are back with their new album »Nesojeni kavboji« (“Unlucky Cowboys”), arriving at just the right time in just the right place. Martin is not only a musical visionary but also carries serious talent as a painter, and for this record he came up with something pretty special: he released the album as a comic book. A hand-drawn comic. The artwork, the music and the poetry are all Martin’s own, in one piece. A fact that, right from the get-go, makes it clear you can’t get any closer to the real message of a release like this.
Martin Ramoveš is vaccinated against conformism, against imitation. In fact, »Nesojeni kavboji« keeps laughing at it, subtly, the whole way through! The album is a story of its own, full of fully formed charisma and, because of that, tangible and unique artistic value from start to finish. As for the music, the title alone says it all. It’s about watching the identity (and mission) of the little guy sink, swallowed by a mass dancing to the notes of the conspiratorial thoughts of Big Brother’s “indifference”. It draws on the traditional sense of melody from Slovenia’s alternative rock underground, typical of the Slovenian territory, and blends it effectively with the core expressive platform of blues, tasty rock ‘n’ roll excursions (Zlo dirigira) and a few extra touches (the harmonica in the arrangements of several tracks) that easily conjure up, before your eyes, parched plains under a fading dusk sky over the Wild West. A smoky saloon with haze you could cut with a knife, the smell of gunpowder from a shootout still biting at your nostrils, pistol barrels still hot, the bartender pouring the seventh round of whiskey… Translate those images to the Slovenian countryside and a thrilling film of a »Slovenian Wild West« starts unspooling in front of you. The main character’s doom is inevitable in this story too. The sense of cynicism running through this Slovenian record is a typical constant, really a natural, if not downright obligatory, part of this kind of approach. Those feelings pulse vividly and realistically, and with convincing expression they instantly grab the full attention of any music listener.
»Nesojeni kavboji« has no close stylistic relatives in the Slovenian music scene, though distant ones are possible. Years ago Robert Jukič tried his hand very effectively at a similar stylistic challenge with the album »Dobrote iz skrinje zarote«, which was followed by his live album »Kramp«. »Nesojeni kavboji« is honest and has a welcome rawness; it effectively keeps up an added touch of desperado griminess that blends beautifully with the familiar melancholy of blues aesthetics. That works especially well in the »sneaking simmer« of the erotic blues »waltzes« Rep, Črna kava and Radosti ni, or in the album’s final requiem, Obala obljuba, tucked right at the end, mystical, gazing inward and even seasoned with a hint of psychedelia.
The social critique really strings together the world of an observer watching hordes of conformists whose basic life goal is the fight for the highest possible status in society. A robbed moral compass and emotional and spiritual crippling are the real companions in this milieu, and the story of the »Unlucky Cowboys« doesn’t escape that either. Everything you’ve grabbed and all the misery you’ve caused on Earth in your boundless hunger for material comfort will be damned when she taps you on the shoulder, the one who balances the left and right sides of the equation of your life: Death (Zemlja te ne rabi). An album of honest, rebellious revolt!
The crew has made an album of remarkable organic vitality and meaty sound. Martin builds on the beefy sonic response of the guitar and the solid rhythmic structures with a piercing, manly voice. There are plenty of moments on the album where a more sophisticated approach takes the lead, like the slowed-down polka jab, a big reality-show mirror held up to Slovenian society, in the song Zemlja te ne rabi. Here Martin sings disillusioned, the backing vocal harmony colors him with deliberate dissonance, and woven through it all is a nicely blended rhetoric of organic guitar ornaments. Exactly what the amplification of the message needs.
The added value of »Nesojeni kavboji« also lies in the convincing sense of the band’s 100% focus on vividly highlighting and amplifying the key points of the message, even through the occasional bizarrely lucid result, like the song Zgodbica, the album’s standout moment, which in its caustic mockery even ties in with the legacy of the brilliant figure and work of the one-of-a-kind Buldožer. This album really does pulse with emotion and sounds so alive, as if it had been played in the studio like a live show. Even though it’s a studio record, it’s easy to hear the exceptional coherence of the performance, as well as the chemistry between the members of the lineup!
All you cosmopolitans (sober and drunk) of the Šentflorjan valley! Welcome to the realm of yet another colorful reflection on the state of our society, not just in 2014, but over the last 20 years. An album of polished style and execution, rich in message, whose caustic roughness and »desperado alter blues« charisma will sound awfully familiar to you.
Lineup
Martin Ramoveš – vocals, guitar
Julijan Erič – guitar
Žiga Lovšin – keyboards
Miha Erič – harmonica
Marko Petrič – bass guitar, backing vocals
Luka Drobnič – drums
Production
Borut Činč
Track list
1. Nesojeni kavboji
2. Sprememba klime
3. Rep
4. Zlo dirigira
5. Radosti ni
6. Tiha voda utopljencev
7. Zemlja te ne rabi
8. Zgodbica
9. Črna kava
10. Obala obljuba
