Cojones – Resonate LP (PDV Records)

It’s been a while since we had a band like this on our pages. I felt like this blog lacks some proper desert rock reviews, so now it’s more than adequate time to introduce them to our readers. Perhaps this album was released five years ago, but it seems like the music of Cojones is timeless. Cojones is a desert rock quartet emanating from Zagreb, Croatia. Resonate is their most advanced recording released by PDV Records in 2016. Previously, the group released a split release with Umor, Live In Jena (Black Night), Sunrise LP, and Bend To Transcend LP. Resonate represents their full-length recording, housed into a marvelously illustrated gatefold sleeve. Seriously, this is an outstanding piece of art, which undoubtfully goes with their music.

Resonate carries ten profoundly detailed desert rock compositions, also suitable for those who’re not entirely into this particular genre. Besides desert rock, Cojones are exploring other genres in order to highlight, decorate, or enhance certain moments, segments, or entire songs. You may stumble upon the alternative rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, stoner, sludge moments, and it’s nearly mindblowing how the group handles all these elements throughout the whole album. The band thoroughly explores all these ingredients until they reach the desired sound that will elevate a particular tunes on entirely another level. Each track includes nearly all the beforementioned elements, but these additions are not overwhelming their primary direction. Quite the contrary, Cojones used logic and reason while composing these flawlessly performed numbers.

Cojones easily transit from crystal clean tones to heavier/fuzzier shreds in a matter of seconds and vice versa. Guitars are delivering everything from arpeggiated chord progressions, psychedelic themes, robust riffages, various guitar scales, catchy melodies, and harmonies, but the group doesn’t stop there. Just when you thought their music couldn’t be more complex, they decide to spice things up a little bit more. Still, the group performs these complexities with so much sense for balance and dynamics, so you won’t even think how their music would sound without these additions. The bass guitar contributes to the massive output of the group by delivering semi-distorted low-end tones. However, it seems that these basslines are sometimes present without additional distortion. The excellent drumming performance offers various rhythmic segments that occasionally resemble tribe music, mainly because of the involvement of polyrhythms within some songs. It seems like the group also involves some percussions along the way, so these rhythmic segments are equally complex as the remaining orchestrations. The vocals are delivering another layer of melodies to this nearly psychedelic desert rock amalgam, and I couldn’t think of any other vocal maneuvers that would fit Cojones better than this.

Resonate comes on vinyl and compact disc, but it’s also available on all streaming services. Pick up your weapon of choice and enjoy the brilliance of this outstanding band. Head over to PDV Records for more detailed information about ordering.