BULDOZER

BULDOZER were a six piece band from the former Yugoslavia, and this is their debut from 1975. I can only imagine how much the lyrics would have resonated with the youth from that country at this time. Very political with a lot of satire. Talk about anti-establishment! Much like Zappa I suppose, who influenced this band a lot. Toughest thing for me are the vocals which are rough, theatrical and singing in his own language. Takes away from it, but I'm sure the opposite is true to someone who understands the language.

Instrumentally this is really enjoyable, and I like how they add samples to the music. Basically the straight up four piece of guitar, bass, drums and organ, but with a second guitarist and a vocalist. There's a bluesy flavour at times especially on that fourth track. My favourite is the fifth song which is organ led early on, a rocker. The closer is also quite good.

I suppose me listening to this would be like a non-english speaker listening to "We're Only In It For The Money". We are missing out.

It was maybe a couple of weeks ago after going on a bit of an Avant binge I thought to myself I am actually a pretty big fan of the avant. Then I hear a band like BULDOZER that hard core avant fans love and realize I'm far from a fanboy of "out there" music. Their first two albums are the ones that avant fans point to as being classic avant but they are far from that in my world.

From the former Yugoslavia now Slovenia this six piece band was all about pushing people's buttons I suppose. Silly and crude lyrics thankfully in their own language with inappropriate pictures to match. They took their cue from Zappa and went a couple of levels higher(lower). I'm so not into this stuff and the vocals which have purpose in the sense that they are rough and unappealing(to match the lyrics) make this a 3 star album but a step up from their debut in my opinion.

The difference is that Zappa put a lot of focus on difficult instrumental material mostly in that jazz mode while here we pretty much get bluesy music that I'm just not that into. Yes I'm surprised at the high ratings but those are mostly from fans of that area so there's that.

The one track that I can stomach is "Jeste Li Vidjeli Devojcice" where we get some melodic music and harmonies but of course mixed with the more passionate and twisted sounds as a contrast. More of this please. I suppose I have dismissed a lot of experimental music based on the extreme vocals like soprano female vocals for example but this record offers nothing to me that would even have me considering 4 stars. 3 rude stars(haha).

I find the music of Zarbanjeno Plakatirati remarkably interesting and hardly inaccessible. The biggest negative though would have to be the vocals, which are grating and distract from the music.

"Ne brini, mama" The fuzzy bass and splashes of organ make for exciting semi-psychedelic rock, such that the vocalist would have served the music better by humming John Cage's "4'33."

"Dobro jutro, madam Jovanovic" Funnily enough (to me anyway), the phrase "Dobro jutro" is Serbian for "Good morning," but of course a Dobro is a trademark of a resonator guitar, played with a slide, and slide guitar opens up this track. Okay, so maybe that self-amusement was a bit of a stretch. Overall, this lengthier song is heavy rock in the vein of Uriah Heep with occasional jazzy touches. The first instrumental section about three minutes in is a brilliant mélange of guitars and organ over a spacey bass riff. The last two minutes drive right through Gentle Giant territory.

"Helga" The strange introduction is like the rockier side of Jethro Tull, and then the song becomes closer to typical blues rock. The vocals are even gruffer and more unnatural and ill-fitting. Fans of Led Zeppelin might have to give this a try.

"Jeste li vidjeli djevojcice" Murky guitar and ethereal organ make an entrance. Two minutes in things pick up and become carnival-like, very peppy and enthusiastic. It features an exciting passage in 7/4 before dropping into the murkiness again. A herd of schoolchildren, perhaps escaping school for the summer, may be heard at the end.

"Doktore pomozite" Hurling back into the foot-stomping rock found in "Helga," this song has a steady electric guitar riff and a giddy piano. The shouting makes a mediocre song even more so.

This review of ZABRAJENO PLAKATIRATI is coming from a different perspective than what has been written so far. It's coming from an American who was about a year old when the Berlin Wall fell and knows nothing about the Soviet Union other than through history classes. If you want to gain more insight into the history surrounding Buldozer and this album, check out the other reviews. I am going to try and focus on the music and boy, does it satisfy.

ZP sounds as if you took Captain Beefheart and THE YES ALBUM and cross-fusioned them, but that description still doesn't do justice. This is about as wacky as a Beefheart or Zappa or Gong album without the name recognition of any of those outfits. The vocals are not really gritty but not really clean, they have this humourous tone to them, and they're done tremendously well too; anyone that was repelled by the Captain might want to sit and listen to one Marko Brecelj. Easier to digest and not much effort is needed to spot the humour tone in his voice.

The key point is that Buldozer know how to rock without sounding blatantly commercial (or at least the Western Hemisphere version of it). They seem to know how to keep a song going even if there are parts that seem to just dissolve. Take the big ''Dobro jutro, madam Jovanovic''; the song is littered with the strangest guitar riffs you've ever heard, but it wanders off into some jamming before an alarm clock sound brings the song back into place. These guys can sound like they wreck a song and make it sound perfectly okay, even warranted at times. It's almost perfectly constructed as if the band knew how the notes were supposed to go, even the wandering bits. Put that on top of a layer of Hammond and pulsating rhythms...indescribable joy.

And that is just the longest track; I can smell the humour coming off of ''Helga'' and ''Doctor'' even with the handicap of not understanding a word they're saying. The mostly psychedelic ''Jeste li...'' is the only track that is slightly different, but the psychedelic tone is very warm and juts fits with everything else.

Sometimes you get tired of hearing that cliche, ''It's really great because nobody knows about it''; ZP can validate this cliche mostly because the music holds up well. It's perfect for the fan of Zappa/Beefheart/Gong without going into clonish territory. I know it's just over a half-hour, but we get a quality half-hour of music. It's RIO where the ''R'' and the ''O'' really mean something.

Amazing album by an amazing band, I love those cases where bands don't release just great debut but perfect their sound over time. This second album by Buldozer is if compared by loudness has more hard rock in the blend then the first album, but so those everything else, like psychedelic elements.Like for instance "Dobro Jutro Madam Jovanovic" has a lot of stuff going on, from hard rock, jazz and symphonic elements, to me the best track. Psychedelic sounding (at first) "Gdje Su Djevojcice" or "Where Are The Little Girls" is just about that, Brecelj singing about finding lost girls and worrying about them, albeit from a perspective of maybe an overly paranoid parent. What is better then the first album is also the better usage of non-music sounds, where even in the "Gdje Su..." there is a part where a policeman of sorts asks an identity card and it's ridiculous but it fits perfectly, lots of moments like that throughout the album as does the weirder Brecelj's shouts. On the first album I had feeling of being overwhelmed by these strange stuff, and some parts in the songs were just nonsensically noisy to me. As people before me said, this is for FRANK ZAPPA, BEEFHEART and GONG fans as they are most representative of this sort of avant-prog genre. Only sin of this album is it's shortness.

It was not easy job for me to review this album. And not because it is kind of controversial one, no way. Just I have same problem reviewing this release as with almost any other album from ex-Yugoslavia. As foreigner who lived in that region for some years and understand local languages good enough to catch slung and black humour added in songs lyrics, I always wonder,how listener without such abilities feels when listening such album.

I'd read all reviews on this album written by people from former Yugoslavia, and perfectly understand their highest ratings they gave to this album. Zappa/Captain Beefheart influenced avant-rock with bluesy roots and strong psychedelic scent, original enough, with strong local flavour (mostly in lyrics) was absolute explosion in half-totalitarian Yugoslavia of mid 70-s. Rebellion evidence which will be remembered for all their life by generation who was young in mid 70-s. Especially because very soon,just few years later such music was almost totally forgotten and changed by Yu-pop all around the country. Few decades later all the country finished its existence (in bloody few years war) and many of this album fans found themselves living in States,Australia,Sweden or Austria. And one of few things they still have from their 70-s is this album.

Album is quite short and sound mix is very average,or even worst. But this music is great evidence of time and the place in its atmosphere. Slovenian band sings in Serbo-Croatian (can't hardly imagine such combination nowadays), and for everyone, who can remember (or at least imagine) that time this release is the same as early Zappa albums for American youth.

But-what doest it means for all other world?For the world ,who thinks that Slovenia and Slovakia ("Slovensko" in slovakian) is the same country? Who can't understand all that humour and nostalgia (looking from now) in album's lyrics? OK, for them it's just one rare a bit vintage (for 1975) Zappa-influenced avant-rock album with original vocals, many interesting moments and non-understandable lyrics.

Returning back to the beginning of this review, it is not easy for me to rate this album. As a rare person in between of two worlds, I understand point of view from both groups of listeners. So -what can I say there? I believe my verdict is something in between - everyone interested in Eastern/SE European avant-rock from totalitarian period should check this album, but don't expect you will catch it in full.

My rating (for all listeners of non ex-Yugoslavian origin) is 3,5,rounded to4. As my position there - somewhere in between. :)

Debut album from Slovenian band Buldozer is easy and difficult one for reviewer. It is one of these works, when you need to be domestic, or at least to know the place and time where this work was recorded very well. In other case you're missing bigger part of this album ( or even almost all).

And the one can easily find confirmation of my above sentences right here, between other this album reviews. Any reviewer of ex-Yugoslavian origin, with language understanding, valuated this album very high , but always mentioned, that to catch it you need to understand lyrics. And almost all foreigners found just simplistic, blues rock rooted early proto- avant rock there.

My situation is quite unique, because I am foreigner with good understanding of Serbo-Croatian (happily for me this Slovenian band's album is sung on this language, not on their native Slovenian). And even more - I spent almost three years of my life living all around former Yugoslavia, so perfectly understand local (very specific) cultural atmosphere.

So - my vision from position as above: absolutely great album if you know language and (it is important, believe me) that Balkan/Adriatic Slavic way of thinking. All the album is full of domestic folklore humour, which is almost impossible to translate.

Easiest way to imagine what I am speaking about is just to compare this work with great ex-Yugoslavian film director Emir Kusturica works. Just remove from its such important ingredient as Balkan Gypsy culture, and add some European early underground rock element instead.

If you don't know nothing about Kusturica and his movies, than ... imagine early Zappa works, transferred to hot, a bit lazy and very colourful land of South-Eastern Europe.

To be honest, I don't believe someone without language and that culture knowledge could be strongly attracted by this work. But - whenever it is avant-prog, everything is possible. Usually fans of that genre are prepared for very unexpected things . So - try, who knows, may be you will find the way to get what is there under the skin of this album's sound. My evaluation is made from the position of listener, who caught this album's music in full.

Buldozer made their recording debut with this relatively obscure (and rare) single in 1975. The record features two songs that haven't been made available on the 'Lik i djelo' box-set, one being the Brecelj- penned freak-schlager 'Rastemo' [the strings were arranged by Bojan Adamic, respectively] and the other an acoustic version of the 'Pljuni istini u oci' outtake 'Svaki covjek ima svoj blues', a psychedelic tune most probably brought in from the repertoire of Sedem svetlobnih let. The language barrier is still present (although maybe not quite as much as on 'Pljuni...'), but I think one should find this enjoyable even if one doesn't understand Slovenian/Serbo-Croatian.

Although not quite essential, this single is a pretty good addition to your record collection if you can get your hands on it. 3,5 stars.

After the initial 13000 copies of Pljuni istini u oci were sold in about a month, the PGP RTB label refused to print more because the ones responsible considered the album's sleeve and music to be a threat to the Yugoslav public. Not receiving much airplay either, Buldozer were forced to make their public breakthroughs through very distinctive live performances which quickly gained them the reputation of the craziest band in Yugoslavia (although they'd announce themselves as a typical ensemble of pop-folk music from Slovenia (Eine tipische Export artikel aus Slowenien)).

Zabranjeno plakatirati was recorded in Novi Sad during the autumn of 1976, but the recordings got shelved for a year due to disputes with the label regarding the 'drug abuse-inducing' and 'pornographic' lyrics of the songs on the album. It eventually got released in late 1977 by Helidon.

Musically, Zabranjeno plakatirati is much stronger than its predecessor as it displays the very high capabilities of the band as both musicians and arrangers. The lyrics are typically humorous and satirical, embodied by Brecelj's vocal cord-ripping voice. The 5 songs are all Buldozer classics, from the heavy opener Ne brini, mama (and the infamously changed nirvana/kafana lyric) to the chopping rhythm of Doktore pomozite (there are records of live performances where Brecelj would sing this song while butchering a piece of pork with an axe while dressed up in a doctor's suit). This album also features what are in my opinion the best two songs Buldozer ever recorded, the mentioned being Dobro jutro, madam Jovanovic (a 9-minute number with some terrific drum work and psychedelic passages) and Jeste li vidjeli djevojcice, which combines psychedelic moods with raw punk-ish energy. Helga is a waltz with hilarious lyrics, portraying/parodying a galeb (a local whose 'job' is to keep the female foreign tourists 'company' during their stay on the Dalmatian coast) and one of the few early Buldozer songs in hit format.

Overall, this album would have been a true masterpiece if PGP RTB engineers actually put some effort into the recording and production (according to Borut Cinc, the tapes Helidon got from PGP weren't even the original masters but rather inferior outtakes!). The music alone has it all, but the recording quality is poor. 4,5 stars actually.

Some folky rock tunes, quite weird, too much, but not enough for me. I don't like when there's some quotes from known songs. Harsh and nice sound reminds me of Beastie Boys' experiments, with jazz, blues. The hard rock, or classic rock, is original, but all in all, the dynamics, different musical styles, almost polyphony and the scales used, makes this one worth. My favourite song is Ljubav na prvi krevet. Also Sta to radis, buldozeru jedan?! and Yes my baby, no are good. But I give only 2 stars for this, maybe because this Buldozer wasn't as good as I was hoping, or maybe it's just boring. Though, the boringness is symphatetic and I've learned to love this album also. It's like apathetic but crazy.