Saturday, August 30, 2008

V/A, "Made In Yugoslavia"

Up next: a tape compilation of yugoslavian "wave" bands (note the quotes) released in 1992 by the greek fanzine Βρωμιά (Vromia/Dirt) & compiled by someone called Humpty Dumpty ('in dolby,' as the tape boasts - or warns...). I've never been into fanzines all that much myself, apart from very few notable exceptions (Χωρίς Κανόνα, 1000+1 TiLT, Σκύλα more recently, maybe a few more that I forget), so I know nothing about Βρωμιά; Παρακμή the infamous claims that it was one of the most well-known fanzines at the time, though. This tape probably did not accompany one of the 'zine's issues; instead, it must have been released independently of the fanzine - do correct me if I'm wrong.

The bands in here are an interesting, if somewhat incongruous, mix. For one thing, the recordings span the entire decade 1981-1990 - a rather wide range which also reflects on the styles included. Another interesting issue (which I find affectionately cute for my own selfish reasons) is the inclusion of bands both instananeously recognizable & bufflingly obscure: Belgrade's Sarlo Akrobata & Električni Orgazam definitely belong to the former category, having participated in the scene-defining compilation "Paket Aranžman"; the same goes for Disciplina Kičme - one of the two Sarlo Akrobata offshoots - & of Slobodan Tišma's Luna from Novi Sad. I would also include in this list the croatians Let 3 & the slovenians Strelnikoff, both of which are, first, excellent bands &, second, infamous for certain provoking incidents each. The rest of the bands, on the other hand, are either noticeably pretty obscure (Roderick, Abbildungen Variete), or prolific but still somewhat marginal (Sexa), or simply not wave at all (Miladojka Youneed). Or it could be that I'm prejudiced, since I didn't know the more obscure bands (with the sole exception of Sexa) anyhow...

That said, the compilation is pretty effective in presenting an interesting slice of the wave scene in Yugoslavia in the '80s. The first side is faster & more adventurous, combining the jazz rock of Miladojka Youneed & the proto-wave of Sarlo Akrobata with the demented industrial onslaught of Strelnikoff ('demented industrial onslaught' - pfff!... that's what blogging will do to you, apparently...) & the recognizably-yugo post-punk of GRČ. (Don't expect any punk here: there are no bands whose name starts with a 'P,' after all...) I am certain that there is a well-defined label for the more homegeneous second side, but I don't think I'm aware of it; dark wave is the only thing that comes to mind, as a generic substitute for music that is just plain weird at times. It definitely had an effect on me, since it led me to the macedonians Mizar whom I was unaware of - what a great, great track they contribute here... (Meager comparisons to compatriots Anastasia could be drawn, but only in that evocative religious feeling suffusing their sound; I, at least, hear nothing akin to tradition here.) (Oops - what do you know, Anastasia were 2/3 Mizar after all!)

That's it. The rest of this post is irrelevant musings from my side which you can (& invariably will, if not should) skip by scrolling down to the donwload link; let me only thank Στέφανος of Πλήγμα 'zine who passed me the tape.

Now that we're alone: a further issue of interest (to me) relates to posting this tape here: is there really any point in posting something like this (I'll assume an a priori optimistic view: that nobody's posting random stuff just for the hell of it)? After all, one can do a blog search & download a bunch of recordings by most (if not all) of the bands in this tape - so why the tape? Well, it looks to me as if one should start from the other end of the temporal line: why this tape in the first place? This particular answer, though, is easy: who even knew of yugoslavian wave (in 1992; in Greece)? A handful of people at most - like this Humpty Dumpty person who compiled it. & since one can only look for something one suspects the existence of, this tape must have been intended as a sampler of the insanely cool outpourings (can you tell I'm a fan?) of the neighboring country & as a gentle shove towards its music. I think that, plainly, efforts of this sort have become obsolete in the western world; or, if not obsolete, then a certain reversal of polarity happened: whereas tapes like this one were putting music forward through the darkness (how could the average joe hunt down such records in the pre-ebay/gemm era?), today's compilations hope (at most) to put music forward through the maddening lightshow of chaotic over-abundance (ranging from your grandma's high school band to the brand new releases of a million bands out there). So, the original intention is irrevocably lost; check your favorite yugo-blog & download what you will (or even become an expert in a month - cross-checking is far easier than to used to be, after all: 'just google it'). This manifests itself in the "naïvité" (read: lack of uniformity) with which this tape was compiled, after all. What does remain is this: that I still won't download & listen to 100+ albums of yugo-music (what with fads changing about every 5sec, as expected in this overabundance), but I will listen to a tape someone gave me. & in it, I'll discover Mizar whom I didn't know, just like I discovered Anastasia through the radio or La Strada through an mp3 cd-r I was sent by a friend.

Another touching particular of the tape is its cover, which - according to the tape itself - was B-92's symbol. (In short: B-92 was Belgrade's independent radio station at the time of Milošević's regime; apart from broadcasting great music, it opposed the regime on multiple occasions. Not in short: read Matthew Collin's "This Is Serbia Calling.") It's a wild guess, but I think that I did chance upon B-92 in one occasion, way before I knew the name: my girlfriend & I were travelling from Salonica to Prague by bus (1996), so we went through Serbia at night. Browsing through radio stations on my walkman, I finally got one playing some great (& dark) music - I don't speak the language, so naturally I cannot prove it was actually B-92... What's even funnier is that I mentioned this to an older fellow traveller the next day, to which she claimed zero surprise: according to her, a lot of great music was coming from yugoslavia 'back in the day.' Maybe she was Humpty Dumpty...

Tracklist

α01. (excerpt from LP 'ghastly beyond belief!') (Miladojka Youneed)
α02. Ne trebam te (Let 3)
α03. Svidja mi se da... (Disciplina Kičme)
α04. Čovek (Sarlo Akrobata)
α05. Brain (Sexa)
α06. Noćas se beograd pali! (GRČ)
α07. Gimme a gun (Strelnikoff)
α08. Parole dostojanstveno bedu prate (Napred U Prošlost)
α09. Afrika (Električni Orgazam)
β01. Stoji (Mizar)
β02. Ogledalo lune (Luna)
β03. Letzte dance (Roderick)
β04. Ishodisce subjecta (Abbildungen Variete)
β05. His Secret Sin (Autopsia)



Πράξη Πρώτη

3 comments:

irishdave said...

I've just (finally)found the time to listen to this - and for the most part, I like it! It's actually a good comp in that me and my partner listened to it, and I like some, some were just ok. G thought some I liked were just ok, but reved about the ones I wasn't keen on. Unity in the House Of Flying Flagons? My - well done! I look forward to hearing more like this!

tapes gone loose said...

Thanks Dave, I'll do my best to support unity in the House Of Flying Flagons. My partner was less keen on the tape - her interest in yu-music includes a total of maybe 3 bands, none of which is featured here... Oh well :) - let's see whether your partner or you likes the next post.

nitkov said...

thanks so much for posting this! this is imho by far the best compilation of ex yu bands. or more precisely, the compilation of the very cream of ex yu post-punk / dark / new wave, and the track selection is excellent. truth is, most of those weird bands demand a more thorough listening, and hearing just one track on a compilation won't have the right impact for each respective band. still, i think this compilation is precious in itself, because it's the only compilation i know of which gathered all the pivotal ex yu bands. [the only intruder is elektricni orgazam]