NIKOLA VRANJKOVIĆ - "VERONAUTIKA" (2017)

After having spent more than twenty years playing guitar in Block Out, one of the most important art rock bands from Serbia, Nikola Vranjković released this double album as a solo artist. 

It took him around fifteen years to ammass all these songs, some of which he had already played live on different occasions. 

In the end, "Veronautika" resulted in an anthology of fifteen epic songs, with many of them surpassing the 7-minute mark.

It's easy to get lost in this multi-layered sound, created by mixing gothic atmospheres, echoed guitars, wall-of-sound arrangements, and slow, martial rhythms. 

Thanks to some majestic arrangements and Vranjković's suggestive baritone voice, "Veronautika" is as immersive as music can get.

File under: alternative rock, gothic rock, art rock, post-rock.

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S VREMENA NA VREME - "S VREMENA NA VREME" (1975)

S Vremena na Vreme are one of the most important folk bands in Serbia. They became famous for mixing the Balkan tradition with the Western world sound, influenced by Simon & Garfunkel and the American West Coast. 
This is their debut album, which also reflects a strong progressive rock approach, due to some unusual song structures and to the presence of electric and electronic keyboards (Hammond organ, Roland synthesizer).

S Vremena na Vreme:
Miomir Đukić - acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, prim, šargija, backing vocals
Vojislav Đukić - acoustic guitar, prim, backing vocals
Asim Sarvan - vocals
Ljubomir Ninković - vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, synthesizer, organ, šargija, congas 

Guests:

Robert Nemeček - bass guitar

Nikola Jager - drums

Ivo Umek - organ (tracks 6 and 10)

Bato Popović - congas (track 7)

Maja Elman - flute (track 9)

Studijski Orkestar RT Ljubljana (tracks 4 and 10)

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KATARINA II - "KATARINA II" (1984)

This is Ekatarina Velika's debut album, released when the band was still called Katarina II.
It is a transitional work, that sounds a bit like Šarlo Akrobata (but without their experimental tension), and a bit like Ekatarina Velika's atmospheric efforts (but without their epicness). Still, it contains some great post-punk songs and Milan's voice is majestic.

Milan Mladenović - lead vocals, guitar
Dragomir Mihajlović - guitar
Bojan Pečar - bass guitar

Margita Stefanović - keyboards, vocals

Ivan Vdović - drums, percussion

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OLIVER MANDIĆ - "ZBOG TEBE BIH TUCAO KAMEN" (1982)

Propelled by the jazzy post-disco sound of the hit single "Smejem se, a plakao bih", Oliver Mandić's second album is known to be one of the most popular Yugoslavian releases of 1982 (even though I can't find its sales figures anywhere). 

Among the collaborators are the celebrated session man Nenad Stefanović "Japanac" on bass and the popular singer Bebi Dol, whose ethereal backing vocals characterize the ballad "Sve je propalo" and the dreamy funk sound of "Neverne bebe".

Mandić plays the electric piano and composes seven songs out of eight.

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OLIVER MANDIĆ - "PROBAJ ME" (1981)

Although he's often the object of the tabloids' attention for his public life as a celebrity rather than his artistic work, Oliver Mandić used to be one of the most important Serbian musicians back in the early Eighties.

This debut album was recorded between Belgrad and Bern, with the help of Swiss producer Peter MacTaggart. Most of the songs were arranged by session man and keyboard player Slobodan Marković, and composed by Mandić himself, who also contributed to some keyboard parts.

Mandić had already recorded a couple of relevant singles in the late Seventies, but it was only thanks to this LP that he earned universal appraise. To promote it, they recorded a beautiful, futuristic TV special, titled "Beograd noću", where Mandić had the possibility to present his ambiguous and sexually provocative persona. 

"Probaj me" is a superbly played album. With the help of a high tech record production and a bunch of great songs, it became a classic of Yugoslavian pop-rock.
If you like funk-and-fusion influenced albums of that era, you really can't miss this one. Oliver Mandić ranks up there with Japan's Tatsuro Yamashita and Italy's Pino Daniele.

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BAJAGA I INSTRUKTORI - "PRODAVNICA TAJNI" (1988)

Bajaga i Instruktori were formed in Belgrade by Momčilo Bajagić "Bajaga" after he left hard rock quintet Riblja Čorba, where he played the guitar. Luckily, Instruktori proved to be much more interesting than his previous band. 
This is their fourth and most accomplished work. It was a big hit, selling 360.000 copies before the war started.

Despite its popularity, it doesn't sound trivial at all. On the contrary, it is a refined, beautiful anthology of songs which encompass post-punk epicness ("Tišina"), local folk tradition ("Verujem, ne verujem"), psychedelic synth pop ("Plavi safir"), mysterious ballads ("Ruski voz"), and funny calypso numbers ("Život je nekad siv nekad žut").

It's exciting how it goes from silly refrains to suffocating atmospheres in the space of one song. A must hear for anyone who loves pop-rock music from the Eighties.

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KORNI GRUPA - "KORNI GRUPA" (1972)

Korni Grupa were an important Serbian rock band, founded in 1968 by keyboard player Kornelije Kovač, shortly after having left Indexi.

They had two parallel careers. One as a pop act, releasing many catchy songs exclusively for the singles market, and the other as an ambitious progressive rock project, with full lenght releases which sold only a few thousands copies at the time, but established them as one of the most influential Yugoslavian bands ever (Smak, Leb i Sol, and Bajaga, just to name a few of their fans).
This is their first and most important album. In fact, it is considered one of the founding moments of YU-rock.

Please note: whilst Dado Topić was a renowned member of Korni Grupa, he didn't play on this record, having left the band in 1971. The lead vocalist here is Zlatko Pejaković.

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DARKWOOD DUB - "O DANIMA" (2004)

Darkwood Dub are one of my favourite Serbian bands, and this album is an important piece of their puzzle. 

If "Život počinje u 30 oj" was probably their masterpiece, "O danima" is its worthy sequel. It goes in the same direction, mixing dub, noir atmospheres, indie pop, and electronic beats.

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SMAK - "CRNA DAMA" (1977) [R.I.P. Boris Aranđelović]

As I said on my previous post, during the two months off my blog two important figures in the music scene of former Yugoslavia died. 
The second was Boris Aranđelović, lead singer of the historic Serbian band Smak.

Smak were founded in Kragujevac by Aranđelović and guitar player Radomir Mihajlović Točak, who composed the majority of their songs.

While they started as a hard rock band with a strong blues influence, this second album shows their experimental face, adding progressive rock structures, luminous vocal harmonies, jazz fusion keyboards, and funky rhythm patterns.

This is a wonderful, dynamic album, where every song is melodic, catchy, and creative.
A special mention for the title track (whose riff at 0'21'' incredibly predates "Moving in Stereo" by the Cars), "Tegoba" (a melancholic jazz-rock extravaganza), and "Plava pesma" (a slow ballad with baroque arrangements).

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DARKWOOD DUB - "ŽIVOT POČINJE U 30 OJ" (2002)

In their early years Darkwood Dub released a couple of funk-rock albums with harsh, experimental sounds (I've already uploaded one of them here).
After taking a short hiatus due to the war, they became an electronic band, facing styles such as downtempo, alternative dance, and ambient. 

"Život počinje u 30 oj" is just another beautiful album by this great Serbian band. Among the best tracks you will find "Dnevnik", with its house-influenced beats, "Vrtlog vira", with a suggestive noir atmosphere, and "Baobab", with that obsessive dub progression.

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R.I.P. Vlada Divljan (IDOLI)

According to B92.net, "Vlada Divljan died in Vienna on 5 March 2015 after a long illness".

This is a sad day for this blog, IDOLI were one of the first non-English speaking bands I discovered and I will always love their music.

Here's some links to download their first EP, their debut album, and the compilation album "Paket aranžman".

DARKWOOD DUB - "U NEDOGLED" (1996)

Today Darkwood Dub is one of the prominent bands in the Balkan indie-rock scene, but it hasn't always been this way. Their affirmation is the result of a long process, which started with the Yugoslav war and endured to the very end of it. During the conflict, the band encountered difficulties in both distributing records and performing live.

The debut album, "Paramparčad", was recorded in 1992-93, but released only in 1995. It was a strange record, heavily influenced by funk and dub music. Anyway, a poor sound quality and some monotonous guitar-driven arrangements penalized it a bit. It was only with this second studio effort that the band finally revealed its true value. 

While the mix of indie-rock, funk and dub remains the main key of their music, the album is full of keyboards, samples, and scratch tricks, making it one of the most exciting hybrids between guitar music and electronic sounds of the Nineties.

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VIS IDOLI - "VIS IDOLI" (1st EP + 2nd single, 1981)

I presented Idoli on my blog nearly one year ago, when I posted their 1982 full-lenght album, "Odbrana i poslednji dani".
"VIS Idoli" is the first EP from the band led by Vlada Divljan. Released in 1981, it was a blockbuster for Yugoslavian new wave, selling over 200.000 copies at the time.

It contains six songs, three of which have become classics: the art-rock love song "Malena", the punk anthem "Zašto su danas devojke ljute", and "Devojko mala", cover of a wonderful Serbian pop hit, originally sung by Vlastimir "Đuza" Stojiljković in 1960.

P.S. I added two bonus tracks, released in the same year as a single: "Maljčiki", a crazy ska song which probably remains the symbol of the band, and the melancholic post-punk "Retko te viđam sa devojkama" (transl. "I rarely see you with girls"). This was the second Yugoslavian song about homosexuality, preceded only by Prljavo kazalište's "Neki dječaci".

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PARTIBREJKERS - "PARTIBREJKERS" (1985)

Partibrejkers is probably the most important Yugoslavian garage rock band. They were founded in 1982 by singer Cane (Zoran Kostić), drummer Manzanera (Goran Bulatović), and two guitar players, Anton (Nebojša Antonijević) and Ljuba (Ljubiša Kostadinović). The band is still active nowadays, even though only Cane and Anton are part of the current line-up. 

Produced by Dušan "Koja" Kojić, their debut album was released by Jugoton, the greatest label of socialist Yugoslavia. It was anticipated by "1000 godina", a frantic punk-blues number which quickly became a generational anthem (no. 7 on the B92 all-time chart). The chorus is basically a libertarian slogan: "I don't want to live for a thousand years, I want it now, and I want it all". 

If this song is characterized by a strong acoustic guitar presence, the rest of the album is electric and noisy. The band played an all-power rock'n'roll with sharp sounds and no bass guitar. Some of the most exciting titles are "Ona živi na brdu" (with dissonant background vocals and loud drums), "Hej ti dole u mraku" (with a crazy guitar solo), "Ako si..." (the videoclip is a must watch), and "Stoj Džoni" (an answer to "Johnny B. Goode").

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OBOJENI PROGRAM - "NAJVAŽNIJE JE BITI ZDRAV" (1990)

Founded in the early Eighties by singer Branislav Babić, better known as Kebra, Obojeni program is one of the most important bands of Novi Sad's indie music scene. They started to release albums just a couple of years before the outbreak of the Yugoslavian War, but they were able to release their music throughout the Nineties, without leaving their homeland. 
If today they are a cult band among rock music listeners, at the time of this debut album they were just a small underground reality, known only to those who had seen them in small concerts during the Eighties. 
The tracklist is composed in its majority by songs tested during those gigs, such as "Štipaljka", "Ona je tu!", and "Filadelfija". Music style incorporates funk rock riffs, jangle pop guitars ("To još nisam rekao", "Uzmi me!"), and a bunch of catchy (sometimes even epic) vocal tunes. Kebra's peculiar voice is their real trademark. 
Some melodies here and there remind me of the coeval Madchester sound, which the band would have fully embraced on the second album.

P.S. Those who appreciates Šarlo Akrobata and Disciplina Kičme would probably like to know that "Najvažnije je biti zdrav" was produced by‎ Dušan "Koja" Kojić.

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ANGEL'S BREATH - "ANGEL'S BREATH" (1994)

In 1993 Ekatarina Velika released "Neko nas posmatra", basically an alternative rock album. Even though it generated "Anestezija", their last hit and one of their masterpieces, the album was not adventurous as usual. In order to find new sources for his creativity (and to have a little break from his anti-war activism during these years), Milan Mladenović traveled to São Paulo do Brasil, where his old friend Suba (Mitar Subotić) had lived since 1990. 
In the spring of 1994 they recorded a bunch of tracks, with the help of two local musicians (guitar player Fabio Golfetti, percussionist João Parahyba) and various background vocalists. The result of those sessions was "Angel's Breath", an out-of-this-world album which incorporated alternative rock, musica popular brasileira, Balkan folk, electronic experimentation, and guitars which vaguely reminded the style of Robert Fripp (if you really want someone to compare them with). 

Milan came back in Serbia soon after, where he unexpectedly died of pancreatic cancer at the end of the year. After his death, Ekatarina Velika officially disbanded. The other two founding members also died young: Bojan Pečar had a heart attack in 1998, Margita Stefanović died of AIDS-related complications in 2002, after some years of major depression.

Today Milan is still a music icon all around ex-Yugoslavia. Who knows which new frontiers his genius would have discovered if only he hadn't died so soon...

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EKATARINA VELIKA - "DUM DUM" (1991)

In 1991 Ekatarina Velika were an established force in the Yugoslavian music jet set. 
On this record you can perceive the darkness of the social and political situation which caused the outbreak of the War. Lyrics are more depressing than ever, generating deeply emotional songs such as the ballad "Bledo" and the anthem "Idemo". 

This is the first album without Bojan Pečar on bass; he was replaced by session men Dušan Petrović (from the band Plejboj) and Bata Božanić. The basslines on this album are way distant from the post-punk style of Pečar, preferring a prosperous jazz fusion approach.
Definitely abandoning new wave and its chrisms, the band builds an unclassifiable sound. Songs are less catchy than in the past, with twisted, experimental melodies, where sometimes you can't even tell the difference between verses and refrains. Arrangements are quite rich, with piano, organ, acoustic guitars, percussions, lots of female background vocals, and threatening string sections.
By listening to these songs you can easily understand why "Dum Dum" was not as popular as "Samo par godina za nas". 

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EKATARINA VELIKA - "SAMO PAR GODINA ZA NAS" (1989)

The Eighties were ending, and you can perceive it on this album, where EKV started to distance themselves from their original new wave sound. Though there is still a post-punk percentage, the sound of drums is not as glossy as on their previous works, the dosage of orchestral arrangements is higher, and some female soul-influenced background vocals appear here and there. 

This was EKV's definitive blockbuster, with three songs ("Par godina za nas", "Krug", "Srce") becoming universally known hits, and others entering the circle of cult classics ("Sinhro", "Ona mi je rekla"). This is a must have for everyone who loves ex-YU rock music.

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EKATARINA VELIKA - "LIVE '88"

Tracks 1-12: live in Novi Sad, 1988
Tracks: 13-14: live in Zagreb, 1988

Milan Mladenović - lead vocals, guitar
Margita Stefanović - keyboards, vocals
Bojan Pečar - bass guitar, vocals
Ivan "Firchie" Fece - drums

This beautiful live album, released in 1997 by Global Music, contains powerful versions of nearly all the best songs released by EKV until 1987. 
Some of these outclass the originals, in particular "Oči boje meda" and "Jesen", where Milan screams his soul out of his tonsils.

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EKATARINA VELIKA - "LJUBAV" (1987)

"Ljubav" is considered by many to be EKV's most complete studio work. Preserving the polished post-punk sound which made them popular, it includes aggressive rock numbers ("Pored mene"), atmospheric songs with epic crescendos ("7 dana", "Voda"), and unespected folk hybrids ("Zid"). 
The hit single was "Zemlja", a powerful raga-rock, but my favourite song is probably "Tonemo", with Milan Mladenović whispering some depressed verses over an acoustic guitar pattern, with bleak synthesizer melodies and pristine piano scales all around him. 
I translated the song in English:

We passed the first days of wonder, we passed the first days of stare,
I'm not here, I'm not there or here.
While I drink the juice from your eyes, while I lick the salt from your fingers,
I'm not here, I'm not there or here.

We're sinking, we're sinking.

We passed the first days of lying, we passed the first days of remorse,
I'm not here, I'm not there or here.
No, days did not wait too long, days were running and crawling and flying,
I'm not here, I'm not there or here.

We're sinking, we're sinking.

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