PLJUNI ISTINI U OCI

BULDOZER's debut album was among the most revolutionary works of popular music issued in the former Yugoslavia. It came out in 1975 just to be withdrawn from the market shortly thereupon. It was so outrageous that PGP label refused to print more copies after the first circulation was quickly sold out.

The avant-garde nature of its expression is best detected from the lyrics, which are unfortunately not easy to translate into English. The title means roughly "Let's Face the Truth", while the cover sleeve is designed as a magazine page, in the vein similar to JETHRO TULL's "Aqualung", full of black humor, semi-pornographic strip- cartoons and ridiculous sarcastic "articles". The opening miniature "Najpogodnije mjesto" ("The Best Place") is Brecelj's lamentation "I am sorry sir, but I am not from this town, so I would like to know where is it here, ahem... the best place to commit suicide", backed by psyche bottleneck blues guitar. "Zivot to je feferon" ("Life Is But A Chili Pepper") is a highlight of psychedelic avant-prog, with strong Hammond, excellent guitar solo by Lovsin and vocal craziness of Brecelj. It is followed by equally stunning and slightly more aggressive masterpiece "Sto to radis, Buldozeru jedan" ("You Buldozer, What Are You Doing"), carrying a freaky story of a negligent character called Buldozer who ate a beef soup including cooked meat, just to face the revenge of a bull who complained "what are you doing?/you have been eating my mama!" What to say? - I mean, you have to be either a bit deranged or a pure genius to put such stuff onto a rock album!!! "Blues gnjus" is, believe it or not, a wonderfully played straight blues composition with -hmmm- not so straight lyrics. The Brecelj character here is an animal lover so that he welcomes all sorts of germs and bacteria into his head and body, where there is "enough blood for all of you, my dear beasties..." At the end, he cannot stand anymore and starts vomiting out into a toilet flusher... pure disgust! "Ljubav na prvi krevet" ("Love At First Bed") and "Yes My Baby, No" are two hilarious mockery of love and romance that it brings laugh to tears, with lyrical acrobatics and wordplay that is sadly restricted almost to South-Slav speaking people only.

The timeless nature of this unique album is best proved when, at the peak of New Wave explosion in 1981 in ExYU, the reissued "Pljuni istini u oci" this time by Helidon label, was again warmly received not only by the (punk and new wave) fans but also by critics and even general pop consumers. To my knowledge, this kind of freaky satire and humor can be found only in Frank Zappa's famous works of the mid-1970s. This album is a must for every respected prog collector!