MRTVO MORE

"Mrtvo more" (Eng. "Dead Sea") is a retrospective, posthumuous album, released after the break-up of KORNI GRUPA. Originally it consisted of 2 LP records, the first being a live record of their farewell concert in Novi Sad (Serbia) from November 1974, while the second is a collection of their most popular hit singles. The live set offered not much a convincing version of "Man With a White Flag" with some terrible Moog synth sounds, followed by even more horrible attempt to play "blues" where Pejakovic gave his weakest vocal performance. The better part of the live set came with a side-long (20 min) "Put za istok" where Bocek demonstrated why he had been, during the 1970s, repeatedly considered as one of the finest guitar players in the ex-Yugoslavia. The second record recapitulated their best known pop songs from 1969-74, thus showing the band's another, more hit-making and commercial side, where one can hear singing of 4 vocalists prior to Pejakovic (D. Prelevic, D. Brun, D. Topic and Z. Colic) . All in all this album is of historical merit only, it may be interesting for those who would like to compare two totally different faces of the band in one release. As far as the quality of music is concerned, a prog fan should look elsewhere. Another curiosity about this album is that it was allegedly the first double LP record of a rock band in former Yugoslavia. Although this is for completionists only, I give 2 stars for historical importance.