MIMO 7 - Surka and Bamwise - Night of Surprise and Sorcery

It is often said that one should approach life with open heart and without expectations - experiencing happenings instead of fulfilling prejudice. This sounds rational enough but I'm still wary of instant wisdom like this - how exactly do you approach something with no expectations?

Surprises come in various containers.

One of such containers was yesterday's MIMO. As you all already know MIMO or Media Inventory of Music Originals is a music enthusiast project in Zagreb that brings forth Croatian most original quality music through the (back) door of Croatian mainstream media. It happens every second Friday that they arrange concerts in MSU (Museum of Contemporary Art) Gorgona hall that are transmitted by online streaming on the Internet, broadcasted on Croatian Radio Sljeme and can be viewed and listened to live at Gorgona hall. I am almost home team for MIMO and someone would think that I know everything there is to know about it - but one would be surprised almost as I was yesterday.

It was better than card tricks and more pleasurable then getting biggest box of magic tricks for your birthday.

Ladies and gentleman - Ante Prgin Surka!

 Even when you know there's gonna be a magic act you cannot help but hang your jaw in awe!

This is a magician of highest order, arch-chancellor of applies physics, eight son of eight son, incarnation of magic - a sorcerer!

MIMO hostess Jelena Balent gave a brief introduction and Surka went on stage and thanked her and said: "Now I don't have to explain it a bit - you said it all." and he begun with his craft. Surka is a musician described by his musician friends as "Rhythm machine, injection of adrenaline." and he is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and music innovator. Even if you know what he does and how he works it does not take away but adds to the magic of the fourth dimension - time. His music comes together in front of the audience's eyes and it is patched together from different sounds and beats and loops and he thinks it up and decides and plans and implements and makes music from scratch right there in front of the audience and it is wonderful and alive and dancing and completely new and damn pinnacle of sound engineering. I've seen it and I have a hard time believing it and I think I'm gonna go and see him play again whenever he'll be in town. Until then do check out his YouTube collection of live videos.


On some songs he had help from female string quartet and I found out later chatting with the organizers that this is just a recent development and that they just started to play together and I am impressed over the legal limit. I can hardly wait when MIMO videos will be uploaded to see and hear and be amazed again and again and keep your eyes on MIMO Facebook page so you can check it out too.

And then there were Bamwise...

... 6 musicians and one visual artist got together on this project that sounds and plays so professionally - effortless, liquid, relaxed - it is hard to believe they get so little mainstream media space. Dub/Reggae really is not my cup of tea as I find it extremely difficult to listen to it for prolonged periods of time while my music experiencing is not being facilitated by alternative states of consciousness but I suppose I could work on it by listening more of it at home so it becomes more familiar.

Their visual expressions were lovely, hypnotic and somehow really connected to the music and musically they were excellent with crystal clear sound (Gorgona hall acoustics just wonderfully accentuated it) and impressive taste of professional skill not spoiled by over-satiety of routine.

I was especially moved and overjoyed with a fact that I see few of band members regularly on various gigs and I even think their bass is sound-master in Attack! where I go to most of my punk gigs and this is a kind of "secret" I did not see coming. Heartwarming and intellectually stimulating - my favorite experience blend.

You can sample their music here, on their Myspace page and if you're up for more fun take care to attend last MIMO of the spring season, on June 7th 2013 at Gorgona hall of MSU Zagreb.

See you there!

Kreso i Kisele Kise, Cirkus and Officer Down @KSET 20Jan2012

I lived in Rijeka when I was in college. It was a great cultural shock for me moving from Zagreb to Rijeka. In positive sense.

You see, I was always more or less unwilling to conform and it often meant I spent a lot of time surrounded with punk and HC crowd. In Zagreb pressure to conform is great and mentality even now small-town and narrow minded (although Zagreb is by far biggest city in Croatia and also capital) leading to punks being beastly fierce, unforgiving and over-the-top in need of visual cues of belonging. When I moved to Rijeka I was, all of the sudden, surrounded with alternative dress-codes and lifestyles of all kinds and that was so usual, so nonchalant, so accepted as normal and so un-weird it was mainstream.

And that same sense of relaxed normalcy overpowered my weary soul when I arrived to KSET last night to see Kreso i Kisele Kise, Cirkus and Officer Down.

Usually early, watching musicians go through sound checks and crowd gather, I was reminded of that very shock and the sense of being at home I always had in Rijeka and from there it only got better.

CiRKUS from Poreč were first on stage and they made for one great show...

... both with their music and being funniest live act I have ever seen. Their front-man was talking all the time and he was so unusually candid that everything they did was regarded benevolent and funny - including few awkward jokes and side-show their nauseous guitarist had during the performance. Reggae really is not high on my list of preferred musical styles but it was sheer pleasure to listen to them play - relaxed, vivacious, auditory attractive, direct.

Next ones up were my primary point of interest: Kreso i Kisele Kise (Kreso and Acid Rains)...

... and they were utterly fantastic! There is very small selection of things more beautiful to me than than to see people that were up until ten minutes ago blending mimicricly with the audience all of the sudden climbing onto stage in wigs, skirts and flower-design long-johns. They played all of my favorites (Odmor-Stan, Zamet me Zove, Babo! Babo! Ugrizo me jež!) and then some and they had absolutely wicked collection of props doing this including feather boa, sprays and paper fireworks. I laughed so hard I lost my voice and I danced and enjoyed this gig immensely.

And if all that was not enough there was another band after KKK's: Officer Down...

... who were promoting their new album "Fušeri uzvraćaju udarac" and who have a cutest girl ever with wonderful singing voice among their midst. I almost felt sorry for them when they were going up stage as the night was not very young at that point and two bands have already shaken the crowd up but all my concern proved to be in vain as the audience had indeed brought their dancing shoes and goodwill with them and they sang with and danced and drank and enjoyed themselves.

I do not think I ever saw so many females like there were last night in KSET nor so overwhelming female to male ratio at any concert whatsoever. And most certainly I never did see women sing so passionately any song with any topic as they sang Rakija (distilled strong spirits, Schnaps) last night.

Great performances, great concert night and great night out.