Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Niet
Label: ZKP RTV Slovenija
Release: 2015
Length: 37:02
Rating: 4/5
New Niet. Fourteen new tracks and an album called »V bližini ljudi«. It picks up the story where »Trinajst« left off. »V bližini ljudi« holds on to all the signature traits of its predecessor, as well as the recognizable musical vision the band has stuck to in its new era. There’s the classic punk attitude, thickened with atmosphere and the familiar melancholy of dark vistas from a (even cinematic) drama theater, backed up by smart, biting lyrics and a distinct feel for the big musical note, which gives Niet’s music, and the new album too, a fresh dose of huge catchiness and that proverbial instant appeal.
Alongside the content of the new album, which delivers everything that makes Niet Niet (for modern times), the band decided to shake up the recording process itself. This time around they didn’t invite their “secret sixth member”, the grand old man of the Slovenian rock scene and a member of the mighty Buldožer, Borut Činč. The arrangements are completely stripped down and direct. Front and center is a wall of guitar riffs wrapped around yet another more-than-impressive, deeply lived-in vocal performance from Borut Marolt. You’ll look for keyboards in vain this time. The sound is biting and direct, the exasperation is cranked up and emphasized, and so is the final tally of noise, i.e. unleashed decibels. So Niet now “rumble” harder, and they’ve coughed up a tougher rock album with that classic punkish, disillusioned attitude that has no time for planting flowers, once again looking more directly back to the early days of their career. In a way, they’ve gone back to the cradle where the (original) sin was conceived.
The band has scattered a dozen impressive guitar phrases, none of which stray from the Niet tradition. Most of the songs run at a mid-tempo (Oprosti mi, V bližini ljudi, Rad imam dež, Vidim rdeče,..) up to a faster pace, like Vse je zaman or Pejt že stran, though the title of fastest song on the album goes to the unmistakably punk “mocker” Nebo nad Ljubljano, which lasts barely a minute. The punkish attitude is of course present at every turn and once again “crossed” with the infectious musical value of the lead motifs. From the opening title track to both radio singles Ogledalo and Mislila sva, da nama bo uspelo (Marolt’s recital in the verse is once again full of fire), to O, gospod, o, gospa and so on. The axiom “less is more” works in the band’s approach, and on the new album it once again works more than optimally. One of the best-working combinations of rock abandon and musical note comes in the song Ona ne spi (revolucija). It’s a track adapting verses from a poem by the Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert, similar to Oprosti mi, which is a new adaptation of the lyrics of an original poem by the French poet François Villon (Niet pulled off a similar move (in Janez Menart’s translation) on the album »Rokovnjači« and the song Balada za obešence).
With the mid-tempo rhythm and similar riff-driven approach to the lead motifs, you’ll find plenty of compositional similarities between the songs. The band simply moves along a proven expressive path that defines its musical dossier and character, and it certainly doesn’t stray from it. The verses of Rad imam dež and Oprosti mi, for example, are similar. But that’s Niet for you, and you shouldn’t tamper with their recognizable musical character. In the thick riff wall of the mid-tempo songs there’s plenty of room for expression, which Niet often fill with melodic bass lines. At those points the bass guitar takes over the lead melody (Oprosti mi).
»V bližini ljudi« is, in its expression (smart lyrics and musical shaping), also a genuine new socially critical reflection of the glitz and misery of the findings of the brave new world that we, as Slovenian citizens, sank into up to our necks, irreversibly, long ago. So the album delivers the proven quality of the distinctive musical path of the one and only Niet. It brings a pile of new songs which, given their worth and the band’s typical musical character, will soon grow into crowd favorites at their gigs.
Line-up
Borut Marolt – vocals, backing vocals
Igor Dernovšek – guitar, vocals on track no. 13, backing vocals
Robert Likar – guitar, backing vocals
Janez Brezigar – bass guitar, backing vocals
Tomaž Bergant “Breht” – drums
Production
Žare Pak
Track list
1. V bližini ljudi
2. Pejt že stran
3. Rad imam dež
4. Mislila sva, da nama bo uspelo
5. Ogledalo
6. Oprosti mi
7. Vse je zaman
8. O, gospod, o, gospa
9. Nebo nad Ljubljano
10. V stanju zanikanja
11. Vidim rdeče
12. Ona ne spi (revolucija)
13. Žiletka
14. Slike z vašega pogreba
