By Keith Walsh
In the last few days of 2018, Slovenia’s dark wave techno group Kontradikshn released an intriguing, though cynical, new single, “Tell Me Why You’re So Messed Up.” As counterintuitive as it may seem, this new tune does not represent the direction the band will take on their new album which they began recording today.
The trio are putting all their talents into surpassing the intense energy of their 2016 debut, “Reframing” which established them as innovators in the industrial genre. As Stojanović recently explained to me: “We really want to make a f$%ing great second album, so for that we are gonna try a totally different approach to producing and recording than what we are familiar with until now.”
The passionate track is visceral in all the right ways; the tempo is slower than typical dance music; combined with Petar Stojanović’s agitated voice and lyrics that demand an answer to the uneasiness and worries of our present age, the effect is unnerving but cathartic. But don’t just take my word for it:
Future Sounds
It’s never a good idea to try and predict what an album will sound like based on a single –and in fact, as Stojanović messaged me later in the same day this post was originally published, “Tell Me Why You’re So Messed Up” is a standalone single that won’t be part of the band’s upcoming album. Stojanović explains that the foundational tracks of the song were recorded in Spring of 2017, while the vocals were tracked in December 2018. “We already have played this song for two years now, and many visitors to our gigs came to us to ask about it. So in the end we released it because we waited too long, and some people asked for it.”
In this most recent message, Stojanović also told me that work on the new album is ongoing, and the results could be quite different than this single. “The new approach starts now, actually right at this moment we are gonna start recording, live from the chambers.” Stojanović gave me some good info about this “new approach” in a message last September., when he wrote: “I just want us to go back to the basics and play….to just f%^$ing wake up our inner children…I need this and we need this and our music needs this.” The chambers he refers to is a cellar that’s been converted to a rehearsal and recording space.
Formed in 2010 and featuring Stojanović on guitars, synths and vocals, Matej Plešej on guitars and synths, and Anže Kump on drums and percussion, Kontradikshn have already proven themselves, not only with their debut album and also by getting the word out with live shows around Europe in the past couple of years. They get college airplay, mostly in Slovenia, and their music certainly is commercial enough to reach many more fans. And that may just be a matter of getting the support of a motivated label behind them.
Stay tuned for more music from Slovenia in 2019….
https://kontradikshn.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Kontradikshn/
