Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: StrojMachine
Label: Self-released
Release: 2009
Length: 20:41
Rating: 3.6/5
The fourteen-piece organism of Laško outfit Strojmachine is a genetically complete whole that carries on the conceptual blueprint and builds on what was the essence of The Stroj. After ten years of coexisting and being musical outsiders on the home and global scene, the metal conglomerate of the original lineup fell apart. So some of them, including the founders and self-proclaimed owners of the old band’s conceptual heart, Primož Oberžan and Aleksij Kobal, publicly sent The Stroj off to the scrapyard and the junk room of history in the spring of 2006.
Way too soon, because most of the original machine decided to keep the creative flight going and write the next chapter of the story. After The Stroj records that dove into industrial sounds on Ventilator, Gremo! and Cona, they decided to change their approach: to offer the wider masses a visually appealing but sonically merciless rhythmic showdown, and to find a distinctive place for melodies and harmonies you could whistle along to and that would stick in your subconscious more easily. The »culprits« behind the new musical creation are Sonja Dernjač, Janez Levec, Miha Markošek, Bojan Krhlanko, Črt Lipovšek, Sašo Kotnik, Aldo Ivančič, Jurij Šuhel, Marko Jurkošek, Anže Kristan, Jaka Berger, Kristian Puckmeister, Jure Najdič, Kristjan Vidner and Matjaž Madjar. The new core distanced itself from the past and, in the words of Strojmachine’s new bandleader, flushed out the creative valves. The only requirement for joining the musical provocation was a sense for music, a love of rhythm, and physical contact between the people bolted into the framework of the newly built machine and an audience with faith in ultimate victory. These self-taught builders of music went looking, in sweat and with blisters, for a way to reconceptualize what’s already been seen and heard. The organ is the realized dream of a gigantic fantasy machine that, with compressor lungs, spreads the sonic horizons of a musical-rhythmic epic across hypnotically vast, boundless expanses. A 100-liter compressor with a final power of 9 bars squeezes air into the pipes and, via the suction cups of a milking machine, completes the complex whole of a modern-day machine for casting out your inner musical demons. As they like to say themselves, this mutant between a rocket launcher and Frankenstein’s resurrection table produces a sound worthy of Metropolis’s cathedral. Rounded out with the Harfa, a percussive version of the bass guitar powered by a Nissan engine, plus the Vigvig and other »nonexistent« instruments, they gave birth to their debut, the album Vacuum, which adds melody and harmonies to the rhythm, something the original The Stroj hardly knew. From Latvia, Belgium, Estonia and Montenegro, they’ve also worked their way into Slovenia’s musical subconscious. Among other things, they played the Statehood Day celebration, the main event for the 50th anniversary of RTV Slovenija, roared through the Ljubljana Marathon, and played a crowd of buzzworthy club shows. The spectacle stays, with light effects, pyrotechnics and spatial manipulation of the classic performance space as part of the package. Strojmachine flipped the bird to any compromise of their rock-solid stance, said a stubborn no to conventionalism and to cloning music and musicians, and lit a spark of hope in the current airless void of the local scene.
When the old principles fall apart, what’s left is a rebirth into something new. Vacuum, the short-format debut of the fourteen-piece Styrian offshoot of The Stroj, is proof that progression doesn’t have to mean pushing for even more extreme unlistenability, and it’s a melodic upgrade of the audiovisual provocation we were used to in the past. They stay strictly true to the DIY (do it yourself) principle and bolt the megalomaniac lungs of an analog organ onto the metal constructions. The new organic core is a hypnotic mix of rhythm and shameless flirting with melodies you’ll actually remember. The analog, hypnotic address of the mechanical dub of the track ‘Let’s Went’ has become a regular on Radio Študent’s playlist. The mini album only lacks a bit more material to chew on. The void of the universe in the musical hereafter is thus filling up, with quality and promise, with sweat, dance rhythms and a refreshed principle that upgrades the old lineup’s visual appeal on the sonic side. How big the actual leap or difference is, is a matter of personal judgment; more than any revolutionary new spirit, what counts here is that enough creative hunger, disobedience and revolt has broken through the critical mass, which means we’ll definitely be hearing more from StrojMachine, and we’ll gladly listen to what they do!
Lineup
STROJMACHINE:
Sonja Dernjač, Sašo Kotnik, Aldo Ivančič, Marko Jurkošek, Črt Lipovšek, Jurij Šuhel, Janez Levec, Jaka Berger, Miha Markošek, Anže Kristan, Bojan Krhlanko, Jure Najdič, Miha Klančnik, Primož Malenšek, Davorin Štorgelj, Blaž Senica, Kristjan Vidner
Production
Aldo Ivančič
Track list
1. Let’s Went
2. Vacuum
3. D.B.D.A.
4. Let’s Went (remix)
