Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Demolition Group
Label: Sintetic Production
Release: 2015
Length: 54:08
Rating: 4.5/5
And here it is: the 14th album already from one of the most carefully guarded secrets of the Slovenian musical underground. The one-of-a-kind welders of first-rate rock, subtly infused with a touch of experimental excess. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you »Zlagano sonce«, by Brežice’s own Demolition Group. A band that took its first steps as songwriters deep in the eighties of the last century boasts a maturity and charisma today that has no equal. But these modest guys never shout it from the rooftops. Nobody’s like them, and they don’t resemble anybody even a little. »Zlagano sonce« is really a continuation of the story of its excellent predecessor »Planet starcev« (2011). A change in the lineup and in the album’s sound comes with a new guitarist. That role in Demolition Group now belongs to Matija Lapuh!
The 11 tracks offer a glimpse of yet another perfect eclectic musical achievement and a trip into an attractive musical fabric that keeps the timelessness and evergreen quality of the band’s musical ID card, its life and work. You don’t know where to even start describing the new record, its substance is that tangibly strong. information.
The building blocks of the sound are exactly where they should be. Goran Šalamon keeps up his landmark vocals , which make every hair on your skin stand up as he fights his way through the poetry with intense passion. Sparkling, always bitter but remarkably intelligent poetry is one of the main aces that put Demolition Group in a special place on the Slovenian rock map. »Planet starcev« attacked the destructive neoliberalism we all bow to as slaves, while »Zlagano sonce« deals with the psyche of the individual who, as a prisoner of this destructive system, is falling apart spiritually and emotionally. The songs come alive with such realness that the very same truthfulness pecks the eyes out of even the blindest blind man who won’t, doesn’t want to, or is afraid to see it. Biting, piercing, rough, disillusioned, broken, but also tender, deep and velvety. Goran is a one-of-a-kind vocal charisma! The band’s other shaman, an essential building block of its eclecticism, is Jože Pegam’s saxophone. At moments it works as the band’s »second voice«, and its priority is to reinforce and double Mitja Lapuh’s guitar phrases, except that Jože’s lines of course meander off into free-spirited fields of improvisation that never lose the thread of the musically sculpted forms of the compositions. Van Der Graaf Generator and King Crimson realized and tasted the expressive power of the saxophone as an instrument long ago. Demolition Group know this very well too. The sax doesn’t »shred« the songs; it amplifies, nurtures and fertilizes the feelings of black eroticism, whose main initiator is Goran.
On »Zlagano sonce« Demolition Group serve up a new eclectic mix of elements of blues, funk, jazz, punk and metal. All of it is brilliantly blended in compositions that at the same time develop remarkable musicality. The album is incredibly listenable. Rhythmically, everything about this band is crystal clear. The rhythm section keeps up an extremely eruptive dynamism and expressive variety (the bass lines are especially adventurous) and creates a colorful, contrasting »framework« into which the hyperplastic riffs of Matija Lapuh’s massive wall of sound are woven. In the quiet moments Demolition Grioup show their fragility, their vulnerability. One of those especially moving moments is the track Včasih tko, which in vibe fleetingly and innocently recalls, »at first listen«, the Red Hot Chili Peppers classic Under the Bridge. The album is nicely balanced with crushers and moments of sonic tenderness and subtle fine-tuning. Emotions and passions boil and pound on all cylinders of the band’s sixteen-cylinder engine! The track Tesnoba, strah in cvetoče polje is an example of artistic brilliance in composing and flawless placement of all the building blocks of the sonic picture, showing off all five of them (with interwoven guitar and sax solos, rattling bass lines and crushing drum transitions) at the peak of their musicianship. »Groove« is another name for Demolition Group!
There are no quality dips between the tracks, and you’ll have to find your own favorites. The new album is fresh proof of the incredible creative freshness and evergreen creativity that clings to the band even into its mature years and never lets up. A masterpiece and surely a contender for one of the best rock albums that have been (and will be) released in 2015 on the Slovenian music scene!
Lineup
Goran Šalamon – vocals
Jože Pegam – saxophones
Matija Lapuh – guitar
Tomi Gregel – bass
Ivica Gregel – drums
Matjaž Pegam – sound
Production
Demolition Group
Tracklist
1. Kapital
2. Lažje je imeti psa
3. Kaplja
4. Dan brez
5. 99
6. Včasih tko
7. Slab gospodar
8. Da bi bil iskren
9. Tesnoba, strah in cvetoče polje
10. Zate ker smem
11. Zlagano sonce
12. Funkscape*
13. Metro*
*… bonus tracks
