Proggin' in communism: Prog in ex-Yugoslavia

---------------------------------------Korni Grupa-----------------------------------

Korni Grupa (Korni Group)

Founded: 1968

Country: Serbia*

Genre: Progressive Rock, Folk Rock, Rock, Symphonic Rock

Years Active: 1968 – 1974

Former Members:

Kornelije Kovač
Miroslava Kojadinović
Borko Kacl
Bojan Hreljac
Vladimir Furduj
Dušan Prelević
Dalibor Brun
Dado Topić
Zdravko Čolić
Zlatko Pejaković
Josip Boček

·      *Don’t worry, next time it will be a band not from Serbia

Discography:

§  Korni Grupa (1972)

§  Not An Ordinary Life (1974)

Formation:

Korni Grupa was formed in 1968 by keyboarder Kornelije Kovac (Who the band is named after), Guitarist Borko Kacl, bass guitarist Bojan Hreljac, drummer Vladimir “Furda” Furduj and singstress Miroslava Kojadinovic. The bands first live appearance was at the famous Belgrade Dom Sindikata during the Spotsman of the year ceremony. They performed with female dancers who “pleasantly” surprised the audience (You know what I mean). Soon afterwards the show “Studio VI vam pruza sansu “ (Studio VI is giving you a chance) invited the band to perform. Miroslava Kojadinovic did not like the songs chosen for the show and refused to sing and Kornelije Kovac acted as vocalists in her stead. She was excluded from the band shortly after, quite obviously.

New Vocalist and recognition:

The band hired soul singer Dusan “Prele” Prelovic who will be remembered not for his singing but more for his actions, more on that later.

At the time Kornelije Kovac focused primarily on progressive rock but the fans requested a more commercial song, which Kornelije wrote called “Cigu-ligu” (No Video, sorry everyone) for the 1986 “Jugovizija” festival in Zagreb (Croatia). Singer Prelovic arrived quite drunk to the festival and got into an argument with founder Kovac and was fired at the spot. Korni Grupa had now changed their vocalists twice in the same year (Not even Journey managed that) but has found a suitable replacement: Dalibor Brun from Rijeka (Croatia). With Brun they have recorded some of their greatest hits.

Magicna Ruka (Magic Hand):

Sonata:

Korni Grupa also appeared on the Singing Europe festival in Netherlands where they performed the song “Pastir i cvet” and won the “most original band” award. They might have used questionable substances but this nice psychedelic song is very enjoyable.

Pastir i cvet:

Their first concert as a band was held 1969 in Belgrade which they called "Uz malu pomoc mojih frendova" (With a little help from my friends) (The first one who guesses which band wrote this song gets a cookie).

Brun and Kacl left the band and were replaced by famous musician Dado Topic (Who was mentioned at least 3 times on my blog before) and guitarist Josip Bocek.

The 70's and well deserved fame:

With the new members Korni Grupa decided to primarily concentrate on progressive rock

Etida (Thanks to Blackmore):

Prvo svetlo u kuci broj 4 "First light in house No. 4":

For those wondering what Kovac is saying:

"The next composition is one of our songs, quite long but very good, written by Dado Topic. The composition "Prvo svetlo u kuci"" broj 4".

In 1971 Dado Topic left the band to form his own band "Time" (Go to page 1) and was replaced by famous singer Zdravko Colic. Zdravko Colic left the band after only 6 months and was replaced by Zlatko Pejakovic with whom the band recorded their first studio album "Korni Grupa" which is considered as one of the greatest albums in ex-Yugoslavia.

Moj bol (My pain) :

"Not an ordinary life":

"Not an ordinary life" is the first english album by Korni grupa and can only be voted as mediocre at best. Its failure is one of the reasons why the band disbanded.

Eurovision for Korni Grupa:

In 1974 the band participated on Eurovision ( For our american friends: Eurovision is a song contest in which european countries compete against each other for honor and glory!.... I may be overstating things but if your fueled by energy drinks you just stop caring after a while) with the song "Moja Generacija" (My generation, which is not a cover of the who song with the same name) and placed 12th (loosing to ABBAs "Waterloo")

Moja generacija:

Note: I could translate the german but I am far too tired to do it but there is a important part at the end

The german moderator said:

"They have on purpose declined a commercial song but therefore performed a very interesting musical piece on the stage in Brighton"

The end of Korni Grupa:

With the poor success of "Not an ordinary life" and the poor placing on the Eurovision song contest Kovac decided to close the chapter of Korni Grupa, one of the first and greatest bands of ex-Yugoslavia.

Future plans:

Dado Topic stated that there might be a reunion in 2012 on the occasion of Kovac 70th birthday.

I hope you enjoyed another blog entry and prepare for many more to come 

Live Smak's version of Crossroads (a nice footage)>

----------------------------------Darkwood Dub-------------------------------            

Apologies everyone; the Indexi post has been postponed. I need a little more time gathering all the required information

Thank you ko for introducing me, and incidentally making me addicted, to Darkwood Dub.

Darkwood Dub

Founded: 1988

Country: Serbia

Genre: Alternative rock, Reggea, Dub, Elecro rock, Drum and bass, Experimental music

Years active: 1988-present

Current members:

Dejan "Vuča" Vučetić - vocal
Milorad "Miki" Ristić - bass
Bojan "Bambi" Drobac - guitar
Lav Bratuša - Drums
Vasil Hadzimanov - Keyboards

Former members:

Miladin Radivojević
Vladimir Jerić

Discography:

Note: While not very progressive, Darkwood Dub has some prog in its experimental acts.

Foundation:

Darkwood Dub has been formed in 1988 mostly to play reggae music with a line-up of 2 drummers, 2 bassists a rhythm guitarist and a vocalist. Luckily this line-up has been changed, taking out a bassist and a drummer and replacing them with a keyboarder.

Before the first debut-album “Paramparcad” the band had become one of the greatest underground groups in Yugoslavia with attendants in the thousands. The name was inspired by the Italian comic “Zagor” (Italian comics were very popular in Yugoslavia and still are today, most popular one being “Alan Ford”) whose protagonist “Zagor” lived in a magical forest called “Darkwood”.

They won numerous MTV awards and were nominated for many more (Not like they mean anything anyway)

Rise to fame:

“Paramparcad” (Splinters) was recorded 1992 but was first released in 1995 with great commercial success and soon the band received a “Cult status”. This was the only album the band used punk rock as an influence.

Spori Vavilon:

The song Lunogled starts with an amusing “All right. Wait! Stop stop stop!”

Lunogled:

U nedogled "Into the infinite":

The album "U nedogled" received greater attention from fans and critics alike and they were not disappointed.

"U nedogled" is seen as a "far" better album than the debut and was the first album that got a promotional tour by the band.

Antena:

Elektropionir (Electropioneer):

The album "Elektropionir" was recorded in february 1999 but was first released in september because of the NATO bombings in the "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" (Serbia and Montenegro and notice the word"socialist" missing) (The reason of this was because of the inhumane "ethnic cleansing" performed by president and war criminal Slobodan Milosevic, whose presidency was a dark chapter in the history of Serbia) 

The band said that they wanted a more rhythmic sound with the use of keyboards. The album was a success and the more charismatic side of Darkwood Dub was shown

Supernova:

Fun fact: Supernova can also mean "super new (feminine)" in slavic languages

Zivot pocinje u 30-oj:

"Zivot pocinje u 30-oj" (Life starts in the 30's) is seen as the most successful album by Darkwood Dub and was awarded the title of best selling album in 2002 (In Serbia of course!).

The members were always a bit .... weird. The promotional video of "Srebrna Kap" (Silver drop) confirms this

Srebrna kap:

"O danima", "Jedinstvo" and Darkwood Dub today:

As the "horizon of expectation" for Darkwood Dub was expanding, they have not failed to give the fans what they want, and they definitely didn't fail with that goal with the album "O danima" (About days) which was released in 2004.

The following video confirms the weirdness of the group (again)

*The guy who uploaded the song "prostor izmedu nas" (Area between us) falsely uploaded the video as "Kosmos"

prostor izmedu nas:

And by the way, is it me or does bassist Milorad Ristic look like a young Steve Hackett?

In 2008 "Jedinstvo" (Unity) was published for the first by the now   4-member band Darkwood Dub (Guitarist Vladimir Jeric left the band). After the album was released the vacant spot was filled by a second keyboarder, the famous serbian jazz fusion musician Vasil Hadzimanov.  

"Disem" (I'm breathing):

Hope you enjoyed post No.4 and prepare for an upcoming special post  (It's not really special as something extra-ordinary but I think you guys and gals will like it)