Cigarettes & Silhouettes. Danny The K

How many incarnations does one artist need? Not that much that a first solo album can't be added to the roster. Dan Kopko can be found on this blog as a member of Watts, The Peppermint Kicks, The Shang Hi Los and now as Danny the K. What does not change is the melodic (garage) rock on display. Of a so much more than average quality.

With The Shang Hi Los he has released a contender for my favourite album of 2023, with Cigarettes & Silhouettes he certainly is contending for a position among my favourites of this year. Kopko is able to write exceptional songs in a genre in which I had expected to have heard all I needed to hear. The kind that went out of style somewhere after 1980, the mix of pop, punk and rock. In this song one of the three may be more prominent. In the other another genre is more prominent. The other two are never forgotten.

Praise for this album started with the single 'Roller Derby Girl'. What a nice and great song this is. (Continue in an old single post.) What is earcatching, is that as Danny 'the K' Kopko manages to give every song something special, a feature capturing me each time. A great riff, an extra melody, an added instrument giving a different sound to the whole, Kopko has the imagination to change things around a bit.

What I notice, is that Kopko has selected songs for his solo album that are different from the ones he brings to the bands he plays in. In part this is down to the production, some songs are simply more elementary arranged. The big (punk/garage)rock element is lacking. Take the bonus track, the "acoustic" version. I can hear how this song could be blown up into Watts or The Shang Hi Los proportions, but isn't and keeps its strength. This comparison is cheating of course. Fact is, I could write the same for the version of the song that opens the album. This rocks out more loudly, than the acoustic version, but less so than I have gotten to know to be Kopko's standard.

There is a downside to Cigarettes & Silhouettes. The record contains only has seven songs! Not more than an extended mini album it is. With that two of the songs get an "acoustic" version, so there are really only five new songs. Better to have five new songs like these than none. Danny The K delivered on this album as someone with his reputation should. Add that all instruments were played by Kopko and the praise only gets raised.

How many people know Dan Kopko('s bands) in my country? I fear frightfully little. This should change, as the quality of his output is high, in all his incarnations. Cigarettes & Silhouettes underscores that rule once again.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Cigarettes & Silhouettes here:

https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cigarettes-silhouettes