Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Don Mentony Band
Label: Self-released
Release: 2014
Rating: 4/5
On the Slovenian music scene, Don Mentony Band are pretty much the rock’n’roll folk tale (and legend). One of the most authentic musical stories about rock ‘n’ roll to spring up in Slovenia in the late eighties, with a string of studio albums and a handful of juicy tracks that became full-on national hits! In 2000 came one more record, »Dobr se mi dogaja«, and then the band went into a long hibernation. Way too long. Then somewhere around 2008 they rose from the dead and started playing gigs again in a thoroughly refreshed lineup. Under the leadership, of course, of the irreplaceable, ultimate figure that is Janez Zmazek Žan. The fruit of the reactivation was a double live document released by RTV ZKP Slovenija in 2010, called »The Best Of Živo«.
Žan had clearly found a winning formula for the rejuvenated Don Mentony Band, and with it he started writing new original material too. In May 2013 the band stepped onto the stage of Dom kulture in Kamnik and played the new material in full, live. Not only that. Did they record it too? And the result? A recording of all the new material, played in a single take, became the new studio album titled »Zajeban dan«. Zmazek is a seasoned musical rascal, and it’s hard to hide anything from him. The man has been musically active since the early seventies, when he played with Borut Činč in Jaguar, then joined Buldožerji in the eighties, helped out Vlado Kreslin, and finally “found himself” in Don Mentony Band. And »Zajeban dan« isn’t entirely Buldožerji-innocent. Besides Žan’s proverbial (and very real) knack for needling, which always fit so perfectly with the character and work of one of the sharpest bands of the Slovenian rock era, the new Don Mentony Band track Vraga naj te vzame even features the illustrious Boris Bele himself on backing vocals.
Zmazek has put together a gang for the new Don Mentony Band that’s hungry for validation and, most importantly, packed with hugely talented musical aces. Žan and Luka Vehar create the contrast you want in how they approach the guitar. You recognize Žan by his musicality. The man needs just a sliver of the right space to drop a few notes in the right spot, and that’s it, he’s won! He’s got a magic touch that he’s nurtured over his career into a clearly recognizable charisma. Vehar, on the other hand, brings more softness, more technical polish. That contrast makes for a great interplay in the solos, fascinating in a full-blooded dose! The novelty is the accordion. Not keyboards, but accordion! We know Žan for his biting sarcasm. The man definitely hasn’t forgotten how to write lyrics “off the cuff”, no sugarcoating! What he feels, he says straight out, as the man himself puts it. What you see is what you get. No hide-and-seek here. That’s exactly why his sarcasm has always hit so hard: he always dared to say out loud what most people are thinking but would rather keep to themselves. This time again, the basic themes of Žan’s poetry are handing out lessons to women and sketching the state of being an observer of Slovenian society in 2013. It’s full of confessions about personal delusions, temptations, and juicy man-woman games. Which is exactly what rock ‘n’ roll needs, and what it was actually made for. A quiet rebel, devoted to following his own instincts. If you save your own integrity before the grayness of conformity swallows you up, you’ve done the essential thing, and if you also seduce some filly who likes to listen to your fairy tales along the way, then you’re a total winner!
That’s more or less how the story plays out on the album »Zajeban dan« too. Žan’s rough, low-pitched vocal is, in its grumbling, once again authentically cynical, yet through that cynicism you feel flashes of melancholy, which fits his innate sense of musicality in the song structures. That musicality has occasionally leaned decidedly toward blues and rhythm ‘n’ blues, which goes hand in hand with the message in the verses! And it remains a constant. On »Zajeban dan« too! Žan stays mocking, generally funny, needling, endlessly playful, despite the fact that his figure is placed at the center of a drama theater in which, one way or another, as the hero of the story, he ends up doomed (Bela črta, Ne grem se več). Throughout, though, it stays clear that in these seemingly “innocent jokes” of his there’s still damn too much truth!
The songs are built on four, five chords! Everything is stripped down as far as it’ll go. This is a loose, relaxed album, full of short, punchy, but consistently well-measured moves and actions. That’s what Žan has always been famous for, as one of the most interesting and also most competent rock ‘n’ roll songwriters in Slovenia. The teasing growl of a cunning old fox keeps its youthful fire and drive despite the vocal expression maturing. The flame isn’t dying, and that’s the essence! Alongside the vocals, the crew co-creates a superb sonic punch, masterfully carried over from the stage through the production and thus authentically preserved on this record. The interweaving of building blocks and contrasts in the chunky sound works thrillingly. Dorič’s accordion brings (quite unobtrusively) that authentic gleam of melody that tells you instantly that »Zajeban dan« is an album brewed on the sunny side of the Alps.
All of you looking for a simple, off-the-cuff, thoroughly confessional dossier of purebred rock ‘n’ roll bitterness with the occasional bluesy gaze, welcome home! Žan and company have made a strong album of twelve songs whose quality never wavers. Most of the tracks rest on mid-tempo rhythmic solutions, here and there a waltz sneaks onto the album (Pravljičar), and elsewhere they warble more rockingly (Mojster Povše). »Zajeban dan« is an album that the mass of true-believer rockers and every last fan of this band will take to their hearts fast. After 14 years of relentless thirst, you’re finally going to drink deep from the big-hearted musical well of this record!
Lineup
Janez Zmazek “Žan” – guitar, vocals
Luka Vehar – guitar
Boštjan Dorič – accordion
Klemen Teran – bass guitar, backing vocals
Žiga Kožar – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Robert Oven – backing vocals on tracks 1 and 6
Boris Bele – vocals on track 5
Mitja Kavčič – Hammond organ on tracks 4 and 10
Production
Tomaž Maras – Mot (Mix & Mastering)
Track list
1. Zajeban dan (3:53)
2. Ne grem se več (3:42)
3. Lahko si za, lahko si proti (3:06)
4. Mojca (3:59)
5. Vrag naj te vzame (3:16)
6. Pravljičar (2:50)
7. Neprijetna situacija (2:52)
8. Jaz nisem (2:41)
9. Saj je vseeno (4:08)
10. Bela črta (3:16)
11. Gospa Lepota ih gospod Denar (3:06)
12. Mojster Povše (2:22)
