By Keith Walsh
Slovenian electro rock trio KONTRADIKSHN are no strangers to darkness. Since bursting out onto the scene in 2016 with their debut album Reframing, the trio of Petar Stojanović (vocals, guitar, synth) Anže Kump (drums) and, Matej Plešej (guitars and synths) the trio have specialized in songs about societal evils and relationships gone wrong. And while Reframing set a new standard for commercial synthpop from Slovenia, 2023’s Ahead Of Ourselves presents an even punkier electronic edge.
On the new track and video for “Vesolje posodil kolegu” KONTRADIKSHN tell a tale of betrayal and harm. Described by Stojanović as a story in reverse, the video finds him incapacitated. Translated to English, the title is “I Lent The Universe To A Friend.”
It’s their first song released in the Slovenian language rather than English.
“Vesolje Posodil Kolegu” is a bubbling hard synth banger, with intensely percolating analog synths, powerful beats and rageful vocals, while the video shows Stojanović after tragedy strikes, and then before. As he explains the story to me:
“(It’s about) what happens when friendly relationships aren’t genuine – that’s what the story of this song tells – when we prioritize others over ourselves and lose ourselves in the process. It gnaws at us like a worm in the head, sometimes without being able to get rid of it. And in the end, we realize that we’re to blame because we allowed it.” Petar Stojanović of KONTRADIKSHN
As the video opens, the protagonist is completely incapacitated. Then the story goes backwards to prior events. As Stojanović explains: “The background of the story is based on the author’s past, when they lent a part of themselves to someone who unfortunately didn’t turn out to be a sincere friend, quite the opposite. Nowadays, the world leads to a situation where a person is to blame for allowing others to exploit them. And here’s the mark – that the person is too good.”
Stojanović continues: “’We’re never here” in the chorus refers to other individuals in the author’s life who can’t understand this. ‘Just tell me finally, what’s going on?’ refers to the ambiguity in this specific matter.”
Despite all this darkness and sadness, the overall message is instructive. Stojanović explains: “Our first song in Slovenian should help everyone not to condemn themselves for their sincere kindness to insincere individuals who let them down, but rather to withdraw from them without feeling guilty and surround themselves with genuine and true friends.”
Stojanović tells me about the new album in the works, estimating there’s another five to nine months left before completion: “According to lyrics its gonna be Slovenian or English, actually maybe Serbo-Croatian. I dont really know. Pieces are gonna fall together somehow. They always do.”
https://www.synthbeat.com/2023/02/16/kontradikshn-combats-oppression-with-energetic-ahead-of-ourselves/Kontradikshn dot com
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“Reframing” Review On Synthbeat
“Ahead Of Ourselves” Review on Synthbeat
