• avant-folk
• Croatia
• experimental
• Klinika Denisa Kataneca
• Noise
• progressive
• shoegaze

Published on 26/04/2022 11:00 am

Balkan Express is back on track after the Easter break. Today, we’re making a stop in Croatia. The country’s capital Zagreb is home to a host of great bands, including the most excellent Klinika Denisa Kataneca (Denis Katanec Clinic), the ongoing project by the prolific singer/songwriter Denis Katanec.

Denis Katanec is the type of a musician who for more than a decade has transcends usual genre definitions. And Denis Katanec Clinic follows that same non-definition. The closest we can possibly come to an actual description would be a melange of noise, psychedelic avant-folk, shoegaze, and pop with occasional bouts of experimental music.

Great from the start

Klinika Denisa Kataneca came about in 2016. Their debut album titled Nitka Zorja (The Thread of Dawn) earned them rave reviews and set the tone for their follow-up work. Critics marveled at how the album seamlessly switched the mood from track to track, filling the listener with exuberance and existential dread at the same time. That’s Balkan progressive music for you.

After the success of their first album, Klinika Denisa Kataneca took their sweet time to release anything else. But in 2019 they did manage to squeeze out an EP titled Rode. Even though the record contained only five tunes, it was quickly billed as one of the best releases in Croatia that year. For a reason, as it turned out.

Klinika Denisa Kataneca are a four-member act. Leading the band is, obviously, singer/songwriter and guitarist Denis Katanec. Supporting him on vocals and electric guitar is Brane Norac, while Karlo Cmrk and Vinko Vujec are on bass and percussion respectively. Between them, they’ve got decades of experience, which they put to good use on stages big and small.

New album in the works

Last year, literally in the middle of the pandemic, Klinika Denisa Kataneca released their second album, titled Jada Jada. It is essentially an upgraded version of their EP. Still, the critics and fans were equally excited. So much so that they didn’t mind hearing a couple of old tracks again, and selected the album as their top pick on various radio station and music websites across the region. But while the fans were still enjoying the 2021 album Jada Jada, Klinika Denisa Kataneca were already busy putting together a follow-up album. To announce the still-untitled work, they released a new single as little as two weeks ago.

That’s all the time we have for today. Check out Big Foot Mama on Youtube, Bandcamp, and wherever you get your music from. Balkan Express will be back next week.

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Balkan Express takes weekly trips into contemporary musical production of, you guessed it, the Balkans. Forget gusle and tamburice, this show is about rock, pop and a sense of humour. Well, at least there’s guitars. On air most Tuesdays in a new-and-improved time-slot at 1100 hrs. Usually. Your train conductor is Aljaž (aka @pengovsky) who once did the world a solid and decided never to sing again in public. Which is why he ended up doing radio.