Most of the bands on this compilation are known for their work within post-punk, rock or alternative rock genres. But as it is often the case with the 80’s underground music acts, their vision and influence went further on. SexA had some protoindustrial elements on their mid-80’s demo and live materials, at times post-rock 15 years before this genre even sounded as we know it today. Trobecove Krušne Peći used tape loops and went into deep studio experimentation on some of their tracks, also presented here. Satan Panonski was interested in all kinds of experimentation and destroying boundaries in music, arts and philosophy so his track on this compilation is more in the vein of the late 70’s experimental industrial than classical punk rock everyone knows him for. Tužne Uši and RLS both used primitive studio and rehearsal possibilities to explore and expand their sound, in very opposite directions. Tužne Uši did their radiophonic gothic synth rock music while RLS produced some raw and unpolished embryonic sounds that will later expand into classic alternative/rock domain, but their early experimentation is more than enough Igor Mihovilović (Split, Croatia, 1981), Master of Arts in Sociology (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split) and graphic designer (Pro Anima, Zagreb). Since the late 1990s, he has been active within his own experimental music project, The Karmakumulator, and engaged in digitization and the preservation of an unprecedented legacy of the independent cultural heritage, with a special emphasis on the local scene, and especially regional cooperation. He is also editor and co-editor of several anthology editions and re-launches, for both his and many other publishing houses in the region and beyond. Petar Pečur (Split, Croatia, 1985), Bachelor of Philosophy and Master of Library and Information Sciences from the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, currently a PhD student at the same institution. Since 2013 he is employed as the catalog manager,
music librarian and editor at Croatia Records (former Jugoton), the biggest record company in the Balkans. He is also active as a musician, producer and radio host, and his main area of interest is digitization, restoration and preservation of analog era audio recordings, as well as research and cataloging of discographies from the Yugoslav period.
a1 | Tužne Uši – Hod Kroz Maglu (3:42) [1986]
(S. Kesić / V. Krivić – D. Fazinić – S. Kesić / V. Krivić) Pioneers of post-punk/goth music in Split. Their activity span over half of the 80’s and they managed to record proper studio materials unlike other punk, hardcore and post-punk bands in Split from this period. In 1987 two live songs were recorded and released on the famous Omladina ’87 – Najbolji Uživo LP by Yugoslav pop and rock music festival Omladina. They disbanded shortly after, and many band members continued fruitful careers
in music and multimedia to this day. Their guitar player Saša Jimi Kesić produced and arranged a tribute album 3bjut Tu Tužne Uši released in October 2017 for Dallas Records Serbia featuring many regional artists as guests.⸻
a2 | SexA – Cvijeće (3:09) (1985)
(R. Danilović / I. Bilosnić / S. Last / N. Valentić / N. Prišuta)
Although recognized as the forerunners of the active ex-Yu underground scene of the 80’s, Zagreb’s SexA fell victim to lack of support in their surroundings. Local record labels and general public were not prepared for
their abrasive sound and raw style, and for SexA staying underground was both an aesthetic choice and the only available option. Eerie, hostile and bleak, their mixture of melancholy and anger is an additional proof that
geographic and cultural isolation has nthing to do with creativity and the ability to make great art. Along with Šarlo Akrobata, Trobecove Krušne Peći and other like-minded peers, SexA made some of the most exciting music in the region. With its intense post-punk frenzy, raw guitars, expressive vocals, dark atmosphere and deranged lyrics, their 1985 demo and live album SexA u Živo was a precursor to many things to come in the regional music scene, and it aged amazingly well. Think Pere Ubu, early Swans, Sonic Youth and
great forgotten bands like Minimal Man and Factrix from the other side of the planet.
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a3 | RLS – Holokaust (early version) (5:18) [1987] (pre-Rumplstinski)
(N. Radman / L. Rakić)
Rumplstinski was the most important post-punk band from Split during 1990/91. Nikola Radman, Mirjan Jovanović (drummer of Tužne Uši) and Goran Lekić Leka recorded a few demos and live recordings for promotional purposes and those recordings were a big inspiration to the next generation of musicians that will later emerge on active scene in Split during the early 90’s (Rapa Nui, No Comment, Zidar Betonsky,...). Before his successful activity in Rumplstinski Nikola Radman did some rehearsal experiments and recordings with late Leo Rakić in 1987. The song Holokaust presented here comes from these recordings and shows that Split had a potent but largely invisible lo-fi (proto-)industrial scene almost nobody knows of today.
This song was later rearranged by Rumplstinski and became a part of their standard concert repertoire.
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a4 | Nowy LEF – Financial Capital. Fear of Silence. (3:02) [1990]
(G. Lišnjić – J. Attali – G. Lišnjić)
Osijek-based Goran Lišnjić created a number of mixed-media projects starting with Metropolie Trans in 1985 which, although primarily occupied with visual expression, also published three tapes ranging from sequenced
electronic music to ambient collages. The track Financial Capital. Fear of Silence. was featured on the equally named cassette album from the transitional period of 1990 when Lišnjić decided to retire Metropolie
Trans and publish the newly recorded material through Plavi Pilot in 1991 under the moniker Nowy LEF (a name used for one of his earlier tracks as Metropolie Trans), which lasted up until 1992 when he went on to form
Lebensformer. Goran Lišnjić recalls his workflow at the time: “In the late 80’s I was making music by a very simple process. I was literally collecting sounds on cassettes, recording radio short waves, dialogues from movies off VHS cassettes, and programs by Croatian radio 3 – this is also where I got the sample of Đurđa Otržan who presented an excellent programme on Jacques Attali and his book Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Besides that I also recorded concrete sounds, and also had a habit of borrowing instruments from friends, most often synthesizers, rhythm machines or some sort of effects. The whole process of recording was in fact collaging, playing with these gathered sounds in the TEAC, which I’d dare to call my main instrument.”
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a5 | Satan Panonski – Posljednji Dinosaur Umire (edit) (3:15) [1989]
(I. Čuljak)
Ivica Čuljak started his career in 1979/80 under the moniker Kečer II, first as a singer in a punk band Pogreb (later renamed to Pogreb X and still active today), and later around 1987/88 as a solo act named Satan Panonski, alongside many famous punk/rock musicians from Vinkovci (Sköl, Majke, Pokvarena Mašta, Nepopravljivi,...). He was hospitalized in an open ward of a psychiatric hospital for ten years due to a homicide that occurred in 1981. During this period he recorded a few dozen hours of raw, lo-fi tape deck recordings featuring poetry, minimal sound art experiments and bizarre radio plays. His track Posljednji Dinosaur Umire is a tape experiment culled from his first cassette Ljuljajmo Ljubljeni Ljubičasti Ljulj released by Slušaj Najglasnije! in 1989. This fragment from the mental institution cassette is a good example of his experimental approach to art, being it audio art or just “ordinary” punk, poetry or visual stuff most people know him for.
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b1 | Fritz und Hans – Luda Kutija (5:10) [1983]
(Fritz und Hans)
Despite the name, Fritz und Hans from Sarajevo were actually a trio – Faris Stanković was Fritz, Željko Andrić was Hans, and Robert Banić aka Roba was the third regular member. The band based their music on the German Neue Deutsche Welle movement (Grauzone, Trio, D.A.F.). Hans recalls: “We’ve recorded in a makeshift home studio at Faris, using 2 ’phono’ inputs of a DJ mixer rigged into 4 mono channels. A vocal was recorded over a pre-mix using the separated ‘record’ and ‘play’ functions of the tape deck.” Out of the three master copy cassettes recorded during their high-school vacation at Stanković’s home in 1983, one was destroyed in the war, one lost en-route to Australia and the third was believed to be completely eaten by a tape recorder during an attempt to digitize it. Up until now, probably the only surviving copy was a recording they sent to Zdenko Franjić from Slušaj Najglasnije! in the mid 80’s. The recording of Luda Kutija featured on this compilation comes from the salvaged part of the third original cassette, which was found some time after the release of Ex Yu Electronica vol. 4 in 2013.
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b2 | Trobecove Krušne Peći – Aualida (3:12) [1985]
(D. Begić / M. Barišin / G. Dorvak / I. Vinski / D. Prica)
One of the biggest secrets of Zagreb underground during the first part of the 80’s. The band managed to record a few concert appearances, one demo, one LP and one live album before they disbanded in 1987. Provocative,
murky and with smart dark humour, the band composed one of the darkest materials recorded in Yugoslavia, finally published as a proper vinyl release in 2013 (S Mukom Žvaču Trubadurov Vrat) when they emerged again to continue their career. Trobecove Krušne Peći are still playing shows and recording new material. Presented here is TKP’s most experimental track, Aualida from their cassette album 85 recorded in 1985 by Borut Činč of
Buldožer fame and released by Kornel Šeper’s label Kekere Aquarium in 1992.
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b3 | Masaker – Dol z Bando (2:59) [1985]
(Masaker)
The original band called Masakr was founded in 1979 in Selnica ob Muri. The change of name into Masaker, with almost the entire new line-up happened in 1981 when classmates at the first year of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Maribor, Dušan Hedl, Marko Derganc and Viljem Muzek joined together, followed by guitarist Marjan Bone and drummer Goran Podgorelec. Dušan Hedl left the band in 1984 to form C.Z.D. Masaker was holding rehearsals at the old pig barn transformed into rehearsal space by band members upon their appearance on Novi Rock festival in 1985, as well as YURM and everywhere on the Slovene scene at that time. Prior to Novi Rock, the band did a tour of Western Europe to perform in Cologne and in an abandoned factory in Amsterdam in front of more than 3000 people. After some further line-up changes, the band moved to a new rehearsal space in MKC Maribor. First studio materials were recorded in 1985 to promote Novi Rock at local radio stations. The band failed to record an album due to financial difficulties with getting into studios, so they only published some demo tapes. Their work continued until 1989.
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b4 | Abbildungen Variete – Republikanski Marš (edit) (5:33) [1983]
(B. Mirt / I. Zupe / M. Ornik / D. Senekovič)
The group was active in 1983, made their first recording in January (drums, distorted guitar and radio – medium and short wave) and was accepted at the Novi Rock ‘83 festival. Later that year the group recorded a few closed and two semi-closed performances (Franciscan Church, Synagogue), two exhibitions and two concerts. The group’s activity in the starting line-up ceased in early 1984. The group revalued Maribor’s cultural space with its public appearances, reflecting new and different aesthetics than the ones known before. The group’s poster campaigns were upsetting to the locals and representatives of the contemporary art and music scene. Their exhibition at the Maribor Synagogue was one of the important cult act events in Maribor art history. It is said that all who saw the poster for Abbildungen Variete wondered where the hell is that building in Maribor. We have to reveal that the building is not, and never was located in Maribor…
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b5 | Mario Marzidovšek – Elektrizität VI (2:09) [1986]
(M. Marzidovšek)
One of the hometaping pioneers and key figures on the Yugoslav/Slovene industrial/noise scene of the 80’s, operating from Slovenska Bistrica, Marzidovšek was publishing cassettes from 1984 to 1988 through his
label Marzidovshek Minimal Laboratorium (MML), previously being a member of international mail-art network involved in xerox art, collages, concrete poetry etc. As a skilled musician, author, versatile multimedia
artist, publisher, organizer of alternative culture events and a gateway to numerous musicians around the world, he built up the foundation of contemporary cultural production in northeastern Slovenia. His track used
on this compilation, Elektrizität VI, was taken off MML’s Third Generation Serious Music compilation from 1986. The track was put at the very end of the cassette and all previously sourced copies had been cut short due to
variation in tape lengths used during the taping process, so this particular recording is a rare complete version of the work.
***
Višeslav Laboš (Zagreb, Croatia, 1978), Master of Sound Design (Academy of Dramatic Art, Zagreb) and Journalist (Faculty of Political Science, Zagreb). Worked as an investigative journalist and music critic for Croatian Radiotelevision and other media, and as an editor at Radio Student. Appears as a composer, performer, producer, sound and mastering engineer and music editor on more than 50 albums. He is the author of music and/or sound designer for about 20 theatre and dance performances, experimental performances, sound installations and about 40 short films of domestic and international production. Dušan Hedl (Maribor, Slovenia, 1961), electric technician (Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Maribor), also graduated from business school. Active in the fields of culture, media, art and cultural enterprise as a musical (co)author and manager since 1977. Founded the first Slovene independent alternative art gallery Galeria 88, the musical label
Front Rock, the book collection Frontier and the institute for artistic production and publishing Subkulturni azil. Involved in a number of cultural projects (Akord festival, No Border Jam, Rokerji pojejo pesnike,...), as well as the punk group Center za dehumanizacijo (C.Z.D.) and punk choir Punkappella.
Monofonika / Kulturni center Maribor
executive producer: Dušan Hedl
release manager: Peter Dobaj
photography: Lea Jurčić
commissioned by: Dušan Hedl
design: Marko Borota
proofreading: Petar Pečur
liner notes: Igor Mihovilović, Petar Pečur
restoration and mastering: Višeslav Laboš
digitization: Igor Mihovilović, Višeslav Laboš, Petar Pečur, Franz de Waard
compiled by: Igor Mihovilović, Petar Pečur, Višeslav Laboš
Monofonika / Kulturni center Maribor, Javna muzika Maribor, MFLP 010 / FREE LP 027 / 2019
