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Recording:
  pilotinstaller  
 
Artist:
  NON FINIRe mai  
 
Label:
  self-released  
 
Release Date:
  late 2002  
 
Reviewed by:
  Malimus  
         
 
Rating:
   
         
 
Review:
 

Let us posit a guy. For the sake of argument, we will assume this guy lives in Slovenia. Slovenia. Just above Italy. No, you’re thinking of Slovakia. That’s on the other side of Austria and Hungary. Slovenia is right on the northeastern Italian border.

No, I have no idea where it came from. I assume it was one of those countries that just sort of popped up out of nowhere during the 90s. We had the stock market boom; Europe had countries popping up willy-nilly.

Look, it’s not important. Or maybe it is. I don’t really know how important it is, it’s just that for the sake of our little experiment here we’re going to need to imagine a man living in Slovenia. His name is Ales. No, with an ess, not an ex. I don’t know. He didn’t mention a last name. Wait, there’s a poorly translated review on his website that says his last name is Uratnik. So, it’s Ales Uratnik. Are we good through this point? Right, a guy named Ales Uratnik who lives in Slovenia.

Good. This is where it gets weird. –er. Weird-er.

Let’s say Ales is in Slovenia, and he’s a musician. (For kicks we can say he’s a graphic designer as well, but we’re not even going to try to flush that bit out today.) He’s a Slovenian musician. He was in bands all throughout the 90s. Metal bands. Thrash metal. Okay, you’re going to have to work with me here. Thrash metal was a lot bigger in central Europe than it was in the States. Ales’ band actually played a gig with Motorhead. I don’t care what part of Western Civilization you’re living in; playing with Lemmy is pretty goddamned cool. Ales’ band was booked to play with Fugazi too, but there was some drama involving the bassist and they had to cancel that. They were, apparently, a very good Slovenian thrash metal band.

I can’t say for certain how good they were, because I’ve never actually heard bad Slovenian thrash metal, much less good Slovenian thrash metal. And to top it all off, I’ve never heard anything by Ales’ particular Slovenian thrash metal band either, so I really have no clue. But they fucking played with Motorhead, so there must be something there, right?

Okay, we’re getting off track. This is all setup. Ales doesn’t even play thrash metal any more. No, that was the past. He used to play thrash metal, but that was so 1995, okay? Now he’s an electronic musician. Right. It plays in with the whole graphic designer bit, if you see the connection. Computers. It’s all about computers.

Okay, so our guy Ales, former thrash metal champ and graduate of the Lemmy Kilmister school of kick-ass, is now making electronica. In Slovenia. Right. I told you it was going to get weirder. Now here’s the kicker:

He sent us a promo.

God, the internet so fucking rocks! We got a promo, from a former Slovenian thrash metal guy currently releasing D.I.Y. electronica out of said country, all because we put this silly little site up a few years ago. How fucking cool is that?! This promo is called Pilotinstaller. It comes with a graphics executable too.

Okay, maybe I’m more excited about things like this than you, the reader, might be. But geez! I’m getting mail from countries I have to look up on Mapquest. That just giggles me to no end. And to just ice the cake perfectly, the music is actually pretty damned interesting. Now, fair warning requires that I point out that “interesting” does not necessarily equate with “poppy”, “melodic” or “easy to dance to”, though elements of the disc can be described with any of those words except “poppy.” Of course, the album also includes live flute performances. And improvised vocal arrangements by people named Polona Dovzan and Darja Drobnic. I think I once played a dwarven fighter named Drobnic, but I digress.

On the whole it is, how to say… otherwise. It’s not what I’d call drone. It’s not what I’d call IDM. It’s not really what I’d call electronica or techno. I don’t know what to call it, really. Maybe we should just call it Slovenian, addendum that it is good and interesting, and leave it at that.

But if we did that we would be failing to mention the Dismemberment Plan cover. And we really should mention the Dismemberment Plan cover. Because, you know, it’s there, on the album. Track 10. What Do You Want Me To Say? From Emergency and I. And it provides a familiar, if also completely alien, bridge by which to span the gap from wherever you are to Slovenia. So we really should mention the Dismemberment Plan cover.

So this is what we’re positing here. A Slovenian guy named Ales Uratnik, formerly of Slovenian thrash metal band that played with Motorhead, currently making electronica that defies convenient classification; that defies even my usually convenient centrifuge analogies. That’s what we’re dealing with. Track two opens with a pretty plucked, almost-classical guitar riff. Track 10 is an eye-opening cover of a D-Plan song. Track 11 doesn’t sound completely unlike an update of The Scorpions. You may take it from here.

 
         
 
Related Links:
 

NON FIRIRe mai's website, where you can order this disc if you are interested.

 
         

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