DRUGI NAčIN

One of the most innovative bands on YU rock scene was Drugi Nacin (pronounced "Droogee Nacheen" and meaning "Other Way"), a band from Zagreb which had started their career in earyl to mid 70's after issuing a number of singles 1973-75. Their first album was a great breakthrough for the prog movement. Before them, the only other prog act was Korni Grupa, who however weren't a pure prog band and therefore this album can be considered the first true progressive rock album in Yugoslavia.

One wouldn't guess that at once however, as the first song "Opet(Again)" is opened with a crunchy rock riff and is really more of a rock song. Then comes "Carstvo samoce" which has a good and long guitar passage in the middle and the end. The highlight of the album is unquestionably "Na mom dlanu (On my palm)", a moody 9-minute gem. It deserves to be called psychedelic and somewhat reminds me of Vanilla Fudge. "Lile su kise" is an interesting song by Ismet Kurtovic, the chief composer, guitarist, flutist and singer. It encompasses everything from folk-rock to rhythm & blues and finishes with a quasi-baroque organ solo after 4 minutes. The instrumental "Zuti list(Yellow leaf" offers a nice jam, if a bit too long and monotonous, before the song "Stari grad (Old town)", another aching love ballad, closes the album.

For it's time and place, this was truly a daring experiment. Unfortunately, it wasn't received very well and was soon forgotten at a time when mainstream rock acts like Bijelo Dugme, Indexi and Yu Grupa ruled the charts. Drugi Nacin would reunite in '82 to produce another album, "Ponovo na putu (On the road again)", which however was just a shadow of their incredible debut.