Last time we mentioned Padot na Byzantija, Luna, Pingvinovo potalbjulju and Dobri Isak, and now four new names that marked post-punk in the area of the former Yugoslavia for at least part of their career. “Fear of monotony” is an album that came out more than 40 years ago and was not greeted with kind words then, maybe simply because people didn’t like change. Today, these same changes gain more and more popularity and bands fill concert venues. Is this a sign that there are no more “fear of monotony” or is it just a trend, like the Joy Division t-shirts that have become part of some fashion rather than a characteristic of the band?
Peking Duck (Serbia, Novi Sad)
As Čonta once said the first punk band in Cyrillic, Peking duck is a group whose name was created hastily and has no conveyed meaning, the only association is that the two letters “P” resemble the word punk. They formed one of the first authentic punk groups in Yugoslavia in July 1978 Nebojsa Čonkić Čontaprofessor at the Electrotechnical School Center, and guitarist Sreten Kovačević Srele. In the original line-up next to them were drummer Laslo Pihler Cila and Miloš Žurić Žura, bass guitar. The first album “Shallow poetry” they released in 1980, and already a year later, when punk as a genre began to lose its popularity, and the new wave was gaining more and more audiences, they released their second edition “Fear of monoty“. A release that is completely different from the previous one, given the big difference, critics welcome it with a knife. From signature punk to another legacy of what Joy Division started.
Soon Pekinška Patka stops working and the band “Luna“, which will become one of the most important bands of the new wave scene, which we wrote about last time. More than 20 years later, in May 2008, the Peking Duck returns to the scene with a performance at the EXIT festival together with the Sex Pistols, The Hives and Ministry. In the same month two years later in Belgrade, they held another concert in SKC on the thirtieth anniversary of the single “Bila je tako lijepa” and after that another one in the Boogaloo club in Zagreb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNRw1FDuQYA
Pauk (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zavidovići)
Zavidovići, a town from Bosnia with no more than 40,000 inhabitants together with the surrounding villages, brought us Safet Sušić, a legend of Bosnian football and the French club Paris Saint-Germain, Venia Losert, one of the best handball goalkeepers and a former member of the Croatian national team, who is also holder of two Olympic gold medals and Monika Radulović, Miss Universe Australia in 2015.
But let’s get back to the music. If the doom genre had its grandfather, it would be the band Paukwho also comes from this city. They were formed in 1978, and the first line-up consisted of: singer, keyboardist and frontman Željko Selak, Branko Dabić Daba (guitar), Nenad Simić Sima (bass guitar) and Ešref Hamzić Eško (drums). The biggest success in their short career was the victory in 1980 at the guitar festival in Zaječar, which enabled them to record a single and opened the door for a handful of performances in all major cities of Yugoslavia at the time. They also participated in the compilation album “First tooth” which was published by the publishing house Suzy in 1981, which included the songs “And“ i „I’m late to heroic times“. They have two plates behind them “A boy from the province” which is actually the single with which they became famous, the second is “Mummies lie” which they released in 1983.
This music makes me feel like a Slavic vampire hunter riding a motorbike through the Bosnian countryside in the middle of the night. Sunglasses, a leather jacket and the wind blowing in the fresh night air, says one of the fans among the comments on YouTube.
At the beginning of 1982, Branko Dabić Daba left the group to join the Zavidovici band Krivaja, and in his place came guitarist Mladen Pavičić Pava from Sarajevo, who remained in the group for a short time. Pava left Pauk for Blue Orchestra and Vlado Kalajdžić took the place of guitarist. The bass player was soon changed, because Goran Grozdić Moca joined the group in 1983 due to Sima’s departure to the army. Pauk stopped working in 1984, when the members stopped making music. Singer and keyboardist Željko Selak starts working at Radio Zavidovići, where he builds a successful hosting career. Daba starts a career in architecture, Eško goes to Austria, and Sima to Belgrade.
Phantasmagoria (Croatia, Zagreb)
A cult band from Zagreb that was formed back in 1988. The inspiration for the name was found in the album of the same name by the English band The Damned. In addition to being active to this day and having enough material for at least three albums, they are still running as a demo band, because they haven’t officially released anything yet. If it wasn’t for the war in Yugoslavia, which prevented them from recording an album for Croatia Records and led to the breakup of the band, who knows how many releases they would have had by now. When you also take into account that they are in their thirties filled halls and played with greats such as Iggy Pop, Clan Of Xymox, Mizar and Let 3, it can be safely said that Phantasmagoria not only a phenomenon on the domestic, but also on the world stage.
They achieved a successful start to their musical career with the song “Alex” for which they received a lot of positive criticism from the media. Soon after that, Phantasmagoria earned the cult status of the Croatian underground scene. The following singles “An invitation to heaven“, which is perhaps the most famous in their musical pocket, and “I see with my own eyes” had similar success. A year later, that is. In 1990, the music press awarded them the title of the best new alternative band in the then former Yugoslavia. In 1991, a music video for the song “Better World” and in a short time reached the first place on the top list of music videos. Video for the song “Isolated” finished as one of the top 10 in Croatia just one year later. Because of the use of the pentagram as a symbol, the Catholic Church influenced the band’s publicity, both by tearing down and tearing up their posters and by writing in local church newspapers.
In addition to the war and conflict with the church, another major problem affecting almost their entire career is the band’s line-up. From that 1988, when they first stepped on the scene, until today, the members of the band have changed often, which led to the fact that they barely went a year without changing a member. The most famous member of the band and its frontman is Tomi Phantasmafor whom this is practically a life project that has been living for 30-odd years.
Initial (Croatia, Rijeka)
Initialsa band that was formed in the same year (1976) as the post-punk pioneers led by Ian Curitis, in their first years of existence kept a real punk sound and deservedly got the title the father of the punk movement. They held their first performance for the new year (1976/77) at the Belvedere in Rijeka, and in the following period they are expected to perform at high school parties in the same city, together with bands with a similar sound such as Termita, Protest and Lom. At the end of 1978, the band gained popularity and started playing concerts in all major cities of Yugoslavia. More than 30 years later, they made a mini-tour and packed Belgrade Youth Center.
Because of the provocative lyrics, their debut album “And the day started so nicely” was marked as a kitsch product mainly due to the use of ironic communist slogans and mockery of the political system of the time. In this way, it is subject to additional taxation, despite the subsequent changes to the lyrics as well as the choice of a different album cover, which caused the delay in publication. Valter Kocijančić, who left the band after the release of the album, was replaced by Pavica Mijatović (vocals), under the pseudonym Vim Cola, and guitarist Klaudio Žic also joined. With the change in the band’s composition and the arrival of two new members, guitarist Mladen Vičić and keyboardist Raul Varlen, they also change their musical style, which is now turning towards post-punk, mostly influenced by the British bands Joy Division, Gang of Four and Wire.
This new style was presented on the second album “Excursions” on which there were songs like “Rebellion of pimples„, „Naughty school trips„, „Federico in a barrel“ i „Public baths”. After a series of promotional concerts, guitarist Vičić left the band, and was replaced by ex-Termite member Robert Tičić. Before the third studio album “Flags“, Robert suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage and died. Shortly after his death, Mladen Ilić arrives, who later founds the band Psi. The album was inspired by the novel of the same name by Miroslav Krleža, and most of the songs contained somewhat vague references and absurd lyrics following the Gang of Four sound that can be recognized in the song “When he speaks” or else “Flags” where the influence of the band Wire can be heard. Paraf stopped working in 1986, but since then they have returned to the stage several times between 1994 and 2008 and here they are again at concert venues where more tickets are required.
Bonus band: Indust Bag (Slovenia, Metlika)
Source: balkanrock.com
