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DESPONDANCING
(ROCK & POP - Petr Korál)
Is this The Dark Core, or Gothic Noise, or Minimalist Metal? The Joy Division crossbred with the Ministry and the Sonic Youth? Certainly not. Every attempt to slot the Despondancing’s music into a compartment is lagging because their music is exclusive enough that its very essence bucks any categorization, particularly one which would box it in.
The original work with the guitar sound, an unusually poetic conception of drums, and the suggestive vocals, all these together co-create, in the final effect, an extraordinarily impressive music which reaches somewhere into those darkest, remotest corners of the human brain rather than just going only skin deep. Yes, Despondancing are quite dark, gloomy, and mysterious, but at the same time they’re not scowling hard and hardcore-like (for example, the songs Killer and Machines) and here and there the pleasantly harmonious lines surface up from within the massive sound matter as for example in the song Walking. It is there and also in another song Jungle that, as sure as the day is long, the exotic sounds of ethnic music occur simultaneously, adding another dimension to Despondancing’s production as do the disturbing English lyrics with the adequate measure of abstraction and a distinct, psychological charge. All of that acts somewhat impersonally but still, as I said before, with a singular urgency and persuasiveness. Despondancing will suck you into their music and spit you out exhausted but somewhat enriched by the end of the recording. Despondancing’s CD has for me, as the author of this article, become one of the most convincing debuts on the Czech scene of the last year, and had it not come out just before Christmas, it would have most likely appeared in my annual tips.
DESPONDANCING
(AUDIOVIDEO REVUE - Veronika Handlířová)
The debut album by Despondancing from Vimperk ought to deserve increased attention of all those who cry over the decline of the contemporary Czech scene. It is not that our country is some extremely fertile breeding ground for young exceptional musicians, but we have to admit that besides the more massively popular and at the same time quality bands like Buty, Alice, or Hudba Praha, there is a plethora of not as well publicly known but still more interesting ensembles who preserve our self-confidence. Despondancing have had their place among these alternative bands for some time now, producing dark, icily precise music of a singly bleak, depressing mood. With a coldly depersonalized arrangements and the atmosphere of charismatic vocals, they achieve a single majestic pathos similar to the American God Machine or to some of the descendants of EBM (who, however, for the most part help themselves using computers).
It would not make any sense to speak of Despondancing as of god knows how original and innovative affair, but perhaps it is something when -- of all things right there on the debut album -- you can feel a clear outlook, a musical aptitude and sensibility for new compositions, and their own character. Despondancing are playing in the first league by right.
DESPONDANCING
(ROCK REPORT 2/96 - Jan Ernest)
(Despondancing are launching their tour)
Prague/Brno: The concert tour of the band Despondancing will be launched with the premiere showing of their videosong ”Killer” and the concert at the Prague rock club Bunkr tonight after nine. The group released their debut CD in English a few weeks ago on the Brno Indies label. The band from Vimperk who advanced to the semifinals of Marlboro Rock-in and the New Rock Generation competition last year, are considered by the publisher Miloš Gruber very original, independently from their success in competitions.
Rock musicians from Despondancing chose Roman Holý as their producer and recorded with him a very hard, nonetheless intelligent music, which, although anchored somewhere in the Zeppelin's 70s, sounds very contemporary and varied. The album is framed by two versions of the song Jungle Passion. This song, particularly its version concluding the CD, is reminiscent of an contemporaneously fresh work which was shown two years ago with ethnically roused up parts by the former members of the Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in their old song Kashmir. Despondancing's tour will continue starting March 7, (when the group will take part in the Prague Drop-in Festival) with 20 concerts in various Czech towns, and will last until mid-May - for example on March 30th they appear in Plzeň, on April 6th in Ostrava, and on April 11th in Brno.
DESPONDANCING
(????? - Josef Brožík)
This is an interesting and somewhat mysterious band. I’ve heard their name for the first time in Trutnov about seven months ago where I also had the opportunity to see their performance. After that, they disappeared again. I have not learned much about this band from their CD booklet either, and I do not know whether what goes on here is the case of ”the imaging incognito underground” or of exaggerated modesty. I’d like to know something more about this band, but after all that is not really substantial here. The main thing is the fact that their CD is not empty and their lyrics have not been forgotten. But let us get to the heart of the matter. Despondancing are my personal discovery of our 1995 home scene. I do not think I have heard anything like that yet. Despondancing’s music is highly emotive; though we do not find faster passages in their CD, we can feel a great deal of tension there which every now and then explodes into our ears in the form of distorted guitars and increased intensity of vocals. Since I do not really find a comparison or a classification to characterize Despondancing’s work, let me use a seemingly absurd collocation of words ”free, tense, guitar, melancholy rock”. Interesting is also their non-traditional use of percussion instruments which in many parts cover whole melodies. The lyrics written by Monika Němcová and Mark Grein harmonize perfectly with the atmosphere of the music and serve to complete the painting of emotions which Despondancing’s music evokes. Vanity, loneliness, doubts, guilt, indecipherability of problems, all that gave the impulse to the despondent dancing -- DESPONDANCING.
DESPONDANCING
(????? - Ivan Hartman)
”Will they find a publisher”, I asked myself once, pondering Despondancing’s demo CD. Today I can shout enthusiastically -- ”They have!” -- and with gusto put on their brand new CD for the umpteenth time. Believe me, the CD has turned out well. The atmosphere breathing out of the recording is exactly the same as it is during their live performances. Despondancing play in a dark and gloomy way but they neither mourn not drag on depressingly. An enormous amount of power and energy is hiding there under a shell. Even in slow pieces like ”Walking” you can feel a certain tension. Of course, it would be a mistake to presume that this recording is only a studio equivalent of an ordinary concert. Thanks to Roman Holý’s production (at least I hope that it is his work) most of the compositions have gained in colorfulness which in places may be due to the occasional, sharp guitar sounds. And the final song Jungle which is a kind of ”ethno-mix” of the introductory Jungle Passion? That is a delicacy in itself -- an exceptional recording of a personable band! Only a frighteningly few like these come out.
Ivan Hartman
DESPONDANCING JSOU NA ALBU SUVERÉNNÍ
(MF DNES 16.2.1996 - Alex Švamberk)
Quite a few domestic albums, sometimes even those by the experienced bands, give a vague and timorous impression, as if during the recording the musicians got suddenly frightened by something or another, or, as if something had drained off their energy. The more surprising is the selfconfidence radiating from the debut album by Despondancing from Vimperk, released by a Brno firm Indies.
The band managed to avoid the studio snags; they were not lured by all its technical possibilities, and they did not try to enrich their arrangements at any cost. The energy and rawness of their dark rock have been preserved. The only thing they had emphasized in the studio is the quality of sound in order to bring out the booming rhythm of the drums, the piercing guitar, and the compelling vocals. Despondancing's recording can thus withstand the comparison to the similar bands abroad.
It is possible to reproach the band for being influenced by the Joy Division or the earlier Cure and particularly by the Killing Joke, but this fact does not detract from the quality and the value of their album. Despondancing have found their own conception in the given style in which they alternate between melancholy and anger, vanity and the determination to carry on with fighting their feelings of being individuals who are beaten down by the society. In addition, their closing song with hypnotic African rhythms by percussions further indicates the possibility of development.
DESPONDANCING
(SPARK - Aleš Materna)
Brno firm Indies is up and coming in the world. After releasing the bands like „Mad House Chicago I.R.A.“, and ”Jolly Joker and PBU” it is now giving us another one of the interesting young bands, the Despondancing.
How is one to describe their music? It is not simple at all. At times you can hear there the influences of the Cure, Adam Ant, Nitzerr Ebb or early Ministry, at other times their songs may seem expressly meditative; you will also hear there some oriental elements, even new age, and I could go on. It is quite a good goulash, isn‘t it? Nevertheless, each of the ten compositions on this CD is linked with the others first and foremost by the distinct vocals of Jiří Kotlík, who plays the bass guitar and is also the leader of the band. Important however, for the overall sound of the band, is mainly the guitar which has the necessary drive and is technically accomplished. Still, its sound could be much better, but that is more a matter for the sound management and the band's producer who in this case is Roman Holý. I really like the varied percussions, plus the whole recording is interestingly mixed. The all-English lyrics, and the interesting themes worthy of our attention and stimulating our imagination and fantasy also belong among the important elements in the creative works of this band. The recording impresses me much more through its listening aspect than it does for example through its dancing element, a situation which can be completely different at concerts.
My only reservation concerns the English pronunciation, which is a bit rough, even though I do not insist that it is actually bad. Nonetheless, it is too literary and with a poor accent, so that immediately a listener senses the singer is not very good at English. But this may be improved.
At any rate, this one is a debut very well done. It is a very original music, which is hard to slot into just any compartment and that is a good sign. Let everyone make up their mind about it.
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