Year: 2023
Label: Bat-Cave Productions
Rating: 7,9 / 10
I came across the BELGRADO band while surfing Discogs, and it immediately hooked me. This is a very distinctive formation: BELGRADO live in Catalonia, but there are guys with British names in the line-up, as well as a female vocalist (plus) who sings in Polish (a huge plus!).
Throughout its discography, which began in 2011, BELGRADO gradually drifted from an anxious and emotional sound with distorted guitars and elements of punk rock to more adult music. It should be noted that the band has always sounded incredibly authentic, as it retained all the features of the sound of the style chosen for a particular album. Simply put, BELGRADO's recordings sounded crisp, like old vinyl.
On "Intra Apogeum" BELGRADO, I'm not afraid of this statement, made a huge leap, showing their maturity and maybe even elitism. All the noise, yelling, and funny social(istic) lyrics about Pałac Kultury are in the past. "Intra Apogeum" is cold, precise, dreamy post-punk, as it should be. I would like to note that this style variation is more about romance and old aesthetics, rather than about silent grey houses and the dullness of living in (post-)soviet pandemonium. Compared to previous recordings, the music has become noticeably simpler on a compositional level, in the sense that everything optional has been removed from it. Those elements umysłuthat remained are placed with surgical precision. Every beat on the drum, every touch on the bass guitar string, every press on the synthesizer key - everything sounds accentuated and meaningful.
Thus BELGRADO managed to create several super hits. The most powerful of them got the video clips that you can see above. There are two or three tracks that are not the most outstanding, which drift in an incomprehensible direction from a firmly defined center. This spoils the overall impression quite a lot, because the best songs on the album are so amazing that everything that turned out to be weaker starts to sound almost offensive. Like, why they couldn't do everything equally perfect! Although I do not rule out that over time these songs can grow on me, as it happened with HÄNDE. One way or another, "Intra Apogeum" turned out to be a great album, which has its gloss and a top-notch creative level. Yesterday's punks finally lost their piss-soaked vests and started drinking latte macchiato instead of strong "Karpackie". Because high culture, after all, is a serious fucking thing!
