Short Reviews [Dragan Kalinovic - 2019 - "Serbona"]

According to his Bandcamp page, “This ancient dude makes music. After the recording, he forgets how he played it. That's why he never does concerts.” Kalinovic is primarily a guitarist, and I can see he has released a few albums on his own label, with this one being released in 2019. Dragan has told me the album is named after an ancient Serbian goddess, and that he played all the instruments apart from a few guest appearances. Although recorded at home the overall sound is good, but one feels there is a lack of focus and it is hard to discern an overall direction for the music. Although the drums are very good (they certainly do not sound programmed, if they are, he has done a heck of a job), this album is all about the electric guitar which is a combination of incredibly tight and deliberately sloppy. It is front and centre, with keyboards being utilised just really to provide something for the guitar to be put against. But although he is a good player, the lack of focus means the music is all over the place, almost in a jam band style which one can forgive if a band are playing live together, but when it has been created by a single musician one expects a little more in terms of quality control. I would be interested in hearing Dragan in a band setting, where he is able to bounce ideas off others, but with a lack of direction I actually found this quite hard to listen to although there are some incredibly interesting moments and sections within the album as a whole.