Yugoslavia? Yugosuaveia...

I'm not entirely sure how I ended up last Friday night listening to various new wave tracks from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but I'm glad I did. Once again I was on the search for new things to listen to, whether they be rock, pop, or another genre entirely. It seems I've left the 90s world of britpop and fringes behind (only briefly I hasten to add) and have found myself in need of synth solos and questionable music videos. But this time I sought to find something different to the usual synthpop/new wave tunes I know and love. Something unlike anything I'd listened to before. What happened next is a bit of a blur - partly because it happened at about 2AM and partly because in periods of excitement I seem to forget everything. For some reason I decided to read the Wikipedia page for Yugoslavia, and then decided to visit this page on it's popular music (I thoroughly recommend visiting that link - hours of fun to be had). I'm no stranger to music from Europe. Who can forget the days of Oh No Ono and all those other Danish bands I used to (and still do to some extent) adore; and through studying various languages I've used music as a way to understand a country's culture and further my knowledge of the language in question.

After studying various Wikipedia pages in various levels of depth I turned to YouTube to try and find some of the songs and artists that had been mentioned. I chose bands that I thought sounded interesting based on name and what their style was described as and ended up exploring the music of Dorian Gray and Električni Orgazam, among others. Despite not understanding any of the lyrics due to my lack of Serbo-Croatian language skills, I thought they were great. That night I listened to a handful of songs from various artists and two Električni Orgazam albums which surprisingly are available on iTunes. I also watched the 1981 film "Dečko koji obećava" (The Promising Boy in English) which served as a showcase for various bands of the new wave and punk scenes. Spoiler: it's very very good. A band that has really stuck with me over these past few days is Film, a Croatian rock group who formed in Zagreb in 1978, and who were also one of the most popular groups in Yugoslavia in the late 70s and early 80s. They also supported Lene Lovich (whom I love a lot) on her 1980 Yugoslav tour. Unfortunately I haven't been able to track down any of their albums yet and have been thriving off singles for the past few days. Specifically the 1982 single "Zona Sumraka" or Twilight Zone in English. When you start to sing along to a song that isn't in a language you know it's probably a sign that you've listened to the song in question too many times...

I've only been listening to this stuff for a few days so it's hard to write a full post on it, but my first impressions are that if I ever manage to get my hands on a time machine I am 100% going back to 1980s Yugoslavia (if not to just experience life in a Socialist state...but that's a story for another day). I'm sure I'll write another thing about this after I completely exhaust everything the internet has to offer and end up booking a flight to Croatia to try and find some records, but for now - doviđenja!