English translation by Vladimir Pavić and Vladimir Petković – thanks!
Play, sing, think, write, love, practice, chase, work, live, eat, worry, dream, talk, hang out, play, fix, play, love, play, work, play, have a fit, work, dream, save up, spend, worry, play, love, play, furnish, go mad, borrow, be happy, play, travel, pay back, travel, borrow, travel, worry, work, play, play, practice, play, write, think… and so on. Sometimes at the end of it all there is ‘’something’’, sometimes this something is mostly nothing. But this “nothing” is more than the most of us do during our lifetime. Music is music, it will change someone’s life; to others it will be just another topic to show how much they hate everything.
Andrija Spičanović and Stevan Ćirović released their first studio album ‘’More’’ as VVhile on November 8th. They had been recording it for a long time, all alone in their improvised home studio, with the assistance of producer Filip Vlatković. Fascinating artwork was done by Emir Šehanović Esh. You will listen to ‘’More’’ or you won’t, the choice is only yours and I have no intention of persuading anybody if they won’t do it.
“More’’ is for me an ideal connection with music from the time of my first serious listening experience, buying my first Sub Pop singles, first attendance of ‘’home’’ concerts at the end of my secondary school, listening to SST bands and this new do-it-yourself age in which the band pushes itself forward, books its own concerts, records its own songs and albums and lives an “online life” with all of its fans as if they were all members of a certain (often) dysfunctional family.
At the same time “More’’ is modern and stuck in some “other nineties”. The walk from “Nobody Knows” to “New Gaze” lasts 46 minute and when it ends, repeat is the only choice.
Passionate visitors of their (rare) Belgrade concerts know most of their songs in some form or another. The songs have been changing constantly and thoroughly. ‘’Nobody Knows’’ has been an opening song for While concerts for a long time, and this signal for alert from the start will remain in your consciousness while you are listening to all of their songs. It seems as though in ‘’While Things’’ Panda Bear resolves to take over Jane’s Addiction, single ‘’Wrong Face Wrong Palm” looks for its own path, seeks communication, seeks love although She does everything to make it impossible.
“Soon Is Never” is distorted Balearic conformism to non-conformism. ‘’Move On’’ is guitar tour de force that somehow blends Joe Jackson, Wedding Present and Sebadoh through its line “There’s no such a thing as the perfect goodbye”.
“Change” is the song that stops time for a few seconds, long enough to make up its mind whether it wants to start a new life with you, treading the paths that are full of difficult moments. Some of these paths are made of ‘’baby stones’’, and some of them will be filled with holes. ‘’My More’’ is a scream that we usually let out under the surface of water, so that no one hears us or it is a scream we let out into a pillow. ‘’Pilot’’ shows the strength of words that we speak that no one listens anymore, since people are more fascinated by package than the substance, ‘’Unacceptable’’ deserves to be played on rotation for days in the heads of everyone who think that Washington was or has been the centre of the music world for long, and rightfully so. And then comes ‘’New Gaze’’…
Can you hear yourself when you’re alone?
Everything begins as you can expect, with seduction of Interpol-like rhythm and Broken Social Scene nonchalance, with the sound carpet of Beach House, and it moves like that nicely and for a long time… Up until the moment when drums and guitar decide to transcend the lyrics to a higher level, to the level of an anthem. Anthem of all outsiders, all stubborn people and loners ready for love and change, ready to risk and fail, happy to be a part of whatever inspires or leads them further ahead. And it leads them only ahead, without looking back over their shoulders or without rewinding their mistakes from the past. A new gaze. A new day is born.
We touched we stared we wanted to be amazed
But nothing ever smells forever.
Every man is an island, and I want to believe that every island has the right to choose how to sink. I choose to sink deep into the ocean of melodic noise and to emerge reborn, brave and rested; and with a new view on the world around me. In an avalanche of disappointments, music can still offer that feeling, and it is up to us whether we choose to accept that gift. And gifts are everywhere around us, almost every week someone ‘’new’’ appears. Whatever you choose – you won’t make a mistake.
“More” is “name your price” download on bandcamp, or you can pre-order transparent orange vinyl, coming out in February 2015. Pre-order special price includes worldwide free shipping, immediate free download and some little extras. For more info, please write at vvhile@gmail.com.
