"Kredenc Kopců" by Flavigula is intriguing and annoying and exactly what it claims to be (i.e. experimental/weird). I love it and I hate it and I love it. I get a strong sense of everything being exactly as intended.
The band name, "Flavigula", means "yellow" in Latin and the album title, "Kredenc Kopců", could mean "sideboard of the hills"(?), but could also mean whatever the opposite of a "hilly sideboard" might be (a middle-most valley stool?). Musically, I would call it mostly psychedelic rock opera atmospheres, heavy with unknown meanings, but sometimes also recognizable beats, melodies, or repetitions (if only briefly (for example in "At Taa Ag")). Other times, it's just super ambient (for example in "Oration 1" (partly)).
Briefly going through their other work, vocals seem rare, but when used they sing in either English or… a language. Same thing for this release, but with slightly more vocal work than usual(?), and also comes with vocoder(?), throat singing(?), contemporary singsongy speech operetta stuff, and vocal samples, plus various electronic sound effects and a small dog and things cut-up into little pieces ("just like regular chickens").
First time I attempted a listen, I wasn't ready and stopped. Then, a few days later, I returned and listened to the whole album. I even started to vibe with it. Some things just really take time to get ready for. You have to pick the right time. The reward comes later—although, admittedly, this was a challenge to review, not only because I don't know… a language, but also because there's so much to… digest (;). My initial notes were messy. It took me a sleepless night of tossing and turning to get ready for the writ(h)ing. My second impression? I still love it and hate it and love it, but more.
I don't know what language they sing in (other than English). Looking at the written lyrics, it looks Eastern European, maybe Czech (which would make sense, since the album was partly recorded in Prague). Google Translate can't identify it and even if Czech seems to give some results, some of the time, GT still chokes on many words. I get the impression that someone who doesn't know the language listened to the vocals and then tried to transcribe them. Other times, it all feels like a totally made-up language (which would also make sense). Sometimes, it even sounds like Portuguese or Portuguese (as spoken in Brazil), but without actually being Portuguese or Portuguese (as spoken in Brazil). It's just the way the vocalist… vocalizes that makes it sound like it could have been (for example in "Malý Brožka Byl Chirurg"). Google Translate kind of sucks at times.
First track, "Fek Sikul Isiz Hal Joz", put me off the first time I listened. The vocals were just so disparate from the instrumentals. When the vocals first entered, I was just like "walter white…‽" (biting my lower lip with a full set of front teeth). Second time I listened, I was more like "yeah this makes perfect sense actually I have no idea why". The bass or baritone vocals (and later also tenor from the same person?) sounds like the singsongy kind of speech that might appear in some very modern operetta by a contemporary 20th-century composer known only by other contemporary 20th-century composers. Also, is that Morse code in the intro? Certainly sounds like it (yup, it starts with "holit an", so most likely the lyrics duplicated in Morse). Later, you get what sounds like throat singing (or a "transcendental sound vibration")?
"Malý Brožka Byl Chirurg" : samples of someone doing the dishes? At least it sounds like water splashing inside a medium-sized container limited by some thin material picking up the frequencies of the water. Yes, the frequencies of the water. Or maybe they were all sitting in the smallest bathtub while recording‽ This wouldn't surprise me at all. :)
"Namodralý Opar": Vocoder? Voicebox?
"Dilerněku, Květ Vadne": samples in English. Other language. Some of the vocal samples sound like coming from some language tutorial or lesson, where clarity and clear diction is considered important. Heavy bass.
"Nolju Tafiz": Indian influences? Otherwise, the full album is mostly rooted in Western traditions, I think, recorded the rain mainly in Spain, but also the US, Canada, Germany, and Czech Republic.
The written lyrics from "Malý Brožka Repriza":
Mrzutí hlemýždi \\ Lezou, lezou \\ Bezhlavý nádražák \\ Stojí, stojí, mlčí \\ Přejetí hlemýždi \\ Leží, leží, rozmačkaně \\ Bezhlavý nádražak \\ Stojí a zírá na ně
translates as the following (from Czech by Google Translate):
Grumpy snails \\ They climb, they climb \\ Headless station wagon \\ He stands, he stands, he is silent \\ Snail swipe \\ Lying, lying, squished \\ Headless train station \\ He stands and stares at them
So, is this really a song about grumpy snails visiting a headless train station while someone is staring at them? Yes? Maybe? No? Makes as much sense as anything else it could be about: flying carrots, nachos in your armpit, carefully balancing an oven mitten on your head (which I do sometimes when cooking, because why not), or, I don't know, a cloud wearing pants? Reading the band's various musings explains little—as expected? It all kind of reads like a poem by Majakovskij—or something. Note to self: "Don't listen to it with your brain, listen to it with your spleen!" The purification of your blood improves.
Excerpt from written lyrics in English from "At Taa Ag":
And he devised a scheme \\ To electrify his oven \\ Before its time \\ A guest suggested \\ That he not change \\ And that man's glove lies at the bottom of a lake
If you like avant-garde stuff—or like to use the word "avant-garde" even when not applicable—you will love this and hate it and love it. If you like their other work, you will probably like this too. If you don't like their other work, chances are you won't like this either. Give it time, though. Don't give up on the first try. Also, knowing… a language might help—or not. It's all an annoying wonderful adventure in isms yet to be named.
Meta-note: If you read this far (and didn't just skip to the end), chances are you would also not at all mind hearing more about hilly sideboards and middle-most valley stools, so why not give it a listen‽
