Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Kino Šiška / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 04.11.2009
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: €0.00 (free entry)
With a live broadcast from Ljubljana’s Kino Šiška, Radio Slovenija’s second program, Val 202, presented the live compilation CD “VAL 09 – Imamo dobro glasbo”, keeping alive the tradition of the first edition of its kind from last year. The whole point of this collection of 15 tracks, picked from a basket into which no fewer than 140 different acts tossed their songs, is to remind everyone that Slovenia has good music! It matters even more that Val 202 is the one holding all the strings here, since it’s still the most listened-to radio frequency in Slovenia. It’s worth pointing out something even the deafest listener can hardly miss: this is a radio program whose content is served up by excellent music connoisseurs, analysts and reviewers. In an age of hyperplasia of independent radio stations, whose mostly shallow, undefined “mush of everything” (read: playlist) pulls listeners further away from the definition of a “healthy, middle-of-the-road music offering”, these professional music journalists and experts are the last “healthy, uncut root” in the Slovenian radio landscape.
After the press conference, run by the jury — that is, the people responsible for shaping the content of the new compilation CD, Andrej Karoli, Jernej Vene, Igor Bašin and Jure Longyka — which gave a tight introduction to the disc, we were all invited upstairs in Kino Šiška, where we could see for ourselves how some of the up-and-coming Slovenian acts that define the new “Val 09” CD hold up on stage.
Our host Jure Longyka, aka Paolo Maldini (ex-FC Milan) — check the hairdo — led us, eager as we were, with practiced ease from band to band as they took the stage. First to wake up the crowd in the hall were MC Laren. They contributed the song Delfina to the “Val 09” CD, and they played it for the audience too, among other things. A multi-member lineup cultivating flirty, temperamental rock with a strong emphasis on rhythmic, danceable impulses, funk foundations included, they’re definitely a nice addition to the Slovenian scene. Richly structured arrangements written for a classic rock quartet, to which MC Laren add horns (trumpet, saxophone) and multi-part vocals combining lead male and female voices, grabbed enough attention. The band is really nicely tight and looks totally confident on stage. Of course, the players are still young and… The musical character is tailored to the development that can steer the band in the future, to enrich their stage presence especially at the points that call for more mischief, cheekiness, even impudence and arrogance, sexual flirting. That will of course come with maturing. So a bit more polishing on a more provocatively eye-catching stage get-up, plus more variety, dynamics and liveliness as a result of polishing the stage performances themselves, could really “push” the band forward!
Second on stage came the trio of Katarina Juvančič, Dejan Lapanja and special guest Andraž Mazi on acoustic slide guitar. Katarina Juvančič and Dejan Lapanja contributed to “Val 09” probably the biggest musical departure among the compilation’s 15 tracks, titled Uej Uej (Magdalenca). It got a “stripped-down” treatment, with a special country touch brought in mainly by Andraž on banjo. A completely re-dressed, seriously restructured song suggests that these three musicians on stage can absorb a wide musical spectrum that knows no limits, and instead wisely (modestly and unobtrusively — which is the whole point!) follow the basic principle: “I do whatever I feel like!” In the given moment. In its original version on the CD, the song works as a blend of the chants of the Idrija lace-makers, into which “Pero Gnus” snuck in with his out-of-tune guitar of excessive “falconing”, and that’s exactly what gives it its distinctive stamp on the compilation. Andraž Mazi, who looks like a sidekick of Captain Beefhart and the independent musical self-made man Bonnie “Prince” Billy, brought a hugely interesting character to the songs with his slide. The Slovenian folk song “Je pa davi slan’ca pala” worked especially vividly, provocatively, in an almost bluesy take from all three players.
We leaned into some rock-punk suspension when three lads from the band “Adijo kultura” took the stage. A fairly static performance at first, they kicked off with the song Sneg, which is on the “Val 09” compilation, and then really spread out on stage, as if they’d heard my wishes. Actually, Sneg isn’t a song that shows the band’s true face; for the rest of their set they sounded considerably less ear-friendly than in Sneg, and quite convincingly undermined the foundations of the “urban culture” of the Kino Šiška space, which is supposedly the point of the band’s name itself (and from that I infer their basic motive). The band, from Hotedrščica near Logatec, wrapped up their set with a “probable” title (I didn’t manage to pin down the exact one), Ovce, which cleverly took the cookie-cutter phrase about the airheaded nobodies where the majority “blissed-out mob” belongs, wallowing in abundance and prosperity, sacrificing the individual’s own identity for the common good, and “beheaded” it in punk language. Convincing provocation! Fair enough!
Feedback from Tolmin belong to the range of Slovenian bands who cultivate their expression on a jazz-rock fusion foundation. The very song Zbogom, which got them onto the “Val 09” CD, is in this respect the most “removed”, or put differently, defines the band’s broader musical nature “less typically”. Judging by what I heard — and I was listening to them for the first time in my life — I can conclude that Feedback are a more ear-accessible outfit, leaning on combining jazz on one side with rock on the other. That gives them a real cue for wider recognition on the Slovenian music scene. The band is active and super vital! Two days ago they released a hot new studio effort titled “Pro mehanika” (2009). For average ears, Feedback are exactly the right spot between sweet agreeableness and exploratory musical playfulness!
They closed out the colorful evening with special “secret” guests Stranci, who appeared on last year’s first edition of the compilation, “Val 08”, with the song Rdeča raketa. Sadly, the aftermath of partying with Porcupine Tree in the same venue the day before left yours truly with serious damage to the brain’s CPU, so at this point I said goodnight and sped off into the black night toward a warm, safe bed. Still, nobody doubted for a second that partying with Stranci would have been well worth the trip and that their raunchy set would have been a blast.
One more note. It doesn’t even matter whether the jury had a hand in this too or not, but the bands that performed sit on the compilation album in track positions 1 (MC Laren), 2 (Katarina Juvančič & Dejan Lapanja), 14 (Adijo kultura) and 15 (Feedback). So, the first two and the last two tracks on the CD. These four acts neatly captured the essence of the current range of genres the Slovenian music scene has to offer, a scene we hope will in the future take over and shape a healthy, middle-of-the-road mainstream of Slovenian popular rock music, and not just the healthy character of the Val 202 radio program!
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photo Gallery
