Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/788859
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2017 30 This Week TEODOR RELJIC MOST of us will have landmark gigs to look back on after we go through our teens and early adult life – and those who keep up the good fight will observe no age-cap on this experience – and for local music aficionados, Brikkuni tend to serve as use- ful benchmarks in this regard. For myself, it was the 2008 launch of their debut full-length album Kuntrabanda! that sealed it – turning the darkened techno party venue of Liquid Club, San Ġwann into a bright, rollicking party that took me back, in turn, to my days of attend- ing punk rock concerts at the now- forgotten venue of Strings in Baħar ic-Ċagħaq. There are various factors we can unpick when it comes to trying to un- derstand the popularity and appeal of Brikkuni; domed as the band's appeal may be by their inextricable links to what we could consider the Maltese 'indie' scene, despite their lack of af- filiation to and preciousness about pursing any artsy or underground cred. There's the fact that they're one of the first bands to really make singing in Maltese 'cool' in a way our genera- tion has never really felt before, and that has since been taken up by other bands coming from a similar musical milieu so that, thankfully, it has been woven into the fabric of the local mu- sical scene to ensure it's no longer a novelty. But there's also the fact that their 'folk- rock-pop' mish-mash gave way to some very appealing and gig-friendly songs that were both anecdotal and topical. The band's loose approach to genre (to say nothing of its ever-shifting and generous line-up of musicians) ensured that their 'protest' songs spoke to a wider audience than, say, the punk rockers where you'd more traditionally find this strand being expressed, and the band never took itself seriously enough to be crusading all the way. Taking Kuntrabanda! as some kind of blueprint, you'll find quietly angry songs about humanitarian injustice ('L-Assedju iż-Żghir') alongside fun tracks about ec- centric fixtures in the indie scene ('Gadazz Ġiljan') and impressionistic and amusing portraits of grotty 'locals' ('Il-Bar ta' Taħt Il-Knisja'). Former Brikkuni keyboard- ist Danjeli penned the inimitable piece of dark whimsy 'Iz-Żuffjett', and then the de- but album was rounded off with the more straightforward anthems – this would be the punk rock strand – of 'L-Eletti' and 'Kontra Kollox u Kullħadd'. The band's sophomore release Trabokk (2012) didn't quite play to the gallery how- ever – that is, the crowd-pleasing 'Gadazz' and 'Bar' – and instead showcased a more allegorical strand both their lyrical content – with the likes of incest conspiracy ditty 'Ċikku iċ-Ċinkwina' and the certainly gig- friendly 'Il-Gallinar tas-Sultan' – while also offering a touch of haunting mel- ancholy with the tracks like 'Tiddi ix-Xemx Fuq L-Għodwa Moħlija'. But perhaps the standout track of that album was 'Nixtieq' – a pained lament for a perfect world that the speaker knows can never be made into reality. Songwriter and front man Mario Vella builds the song out of a series of deliberate para- doxes that speak true to human ex- perience in general but also to the Maltese scenario in particular – re- sponding to unsatisfying political binaries that will always be locked in an eternal race to the bottom. Vella is no stranger to contro- versy; a fact that erupted out of his usual boat-rocking among his (rel- atively wide) social media circles and into something of a national talking-point last summer, when he expressed his opinion on the Prime Minister's wife Michelle Muscat's charity swim using an evocative image that involved a jellyfish and the First Lady's gen- ital area. This led to the band being barred from participating at Farsons' Beerfest – a fact that Vella himself appeared to respond to with an amused shrug, but which led to an often embarrassingly earnest display of solidarity from fans and fellow musicians, some of them even sprucing up their show of online support with #jesuisbrikkuni. By now, however, this has become the most boring aspect of the Brikkuni expe- Brikkuni swerve away from their frontman's abrasive public image in the melancholy and sometimes rather majestic third album, Rub Al Khali Brikkuni debuting songs from Rub Al Khali during a concert at the Manoel Theatre in October 2015. Photo by Chris Vella "Despite being something of a departure in various ways, there's also something to the emotionally wrenching Rub Al Khali that isn't entirely at odds with what we've come to expect from both Brikkuni, and frontman Mario Vella himself" A pain in the ass in the desert of the real