BREZ NASLOVA

Debut album of Ljubljana-based PREDMESTJE (Eng. "Suburbs"), along with their countrymen SEPTEMBER's "Zadnja avantura" (1976) are quite representative of the mid- 1970s jazz rock wave in ex Yugoslavia. At this time Slovenia was a hotbed for this style of music and they were to influence other parts of Yugoslavia, notably Serbia and Macedonia. Although jazz elements had been occasionally present since the earliest albums of Yugo prog rock, such as eponymous debuts of KORNI GRUPA and TIME (both released in 1972) or some famous INDEXI compositions around the turn of the decade, only after 1976-77 we can trace the immediate influnce of international pioneers of the genre.

"Brez naslova" ("Untitled") is a solid album of largely instrumental jazz rock. There are several vocal parts courtesy of guitarist P. Gruden who did a nice job, so his singing does not stand out of the overall picture and it is rather a part of the whole instrumental concept. This album is actually still closer to rock than to jazz. One can hear extremely confident and flawless instrumentation. There are parts of music that envoke not only the early CAMEL, but also THE DOORS in their most jazzy improvisations, as well as early prog- oriented CHICAGO (especially excellent saxophone parts). It is hard to single out any particular track; the whole album is enjoyable to listen throughout and once it's finished I had an urge to play it again. So, I guess it is sort of recommendation to lovers of this music style.

At the time of release this album was largely unnoticed (it could be partly due to a self- contained Slovene market within the Yugoslav federation), but the style these Slovene guys were developing later influenced many other Yugoslavian bands to follow the suit. For example, the most successful fusion works like SMAK's "Crna dama" or the first two LEB I SOL albums appeared after this release of PREDMESTJE. In that context, "Brez naslova" deserves to be mentioned as an influential record.

This rare collector album was introduced to me as a jazz rock album in the vein of RTF and billy Cobham. Obviously it is not the case : we're here between Lonnie Liston Smith pre 80's period, sometimes poor disco-funk sections, and The Doors light my fire and riders on the storm small jazz solos. All this melting is submitted to balkanic melodies (and bass lines!!) sometimes...

The four first track are pleasing : short, efficient, simple and really rock. The vintage sound is really interesting too. The disapointment comes with brez besed : a poor grooveless disco-jazz piece with small balkan harmonies, this track is too long and the musicians have nothing to say on it (except an interesting but short solo piano). The two last tracks are in the same kind. Svit is unsignificant : it sounds like a ridiculous tv series music. Sled Zonca begins more interestingly (camel influences) but there are too much repetition of the principal section.

As a conclusion, I would say that this album is too poor to be filed under jazz rock bacause there are only poor jazz harmonies in it. RTF fans and complex rock listeners (from Mahavishnu to Santana) should be warned that this album is really soft. Catchy 70's rock song lovers could appreciate the first four tracks. However there are really better stuff to listen to!

A good work for this ExYougoslavia band. Seventies decade it's important all over the world for music and progressive world and East Europe it's not exception. In this work lirics are in Yougoslavian but the great music of this work have some Doors influencies in music context and in singer voice but we find other's. I think that this album it's not in Jazz fusion vein but in Psichedelic space rock in most of tracks, and some synphinic context in other's. We don't find improvisations but a very nice music construction. Some sax it's very calm in Arsenal vein and we listen different influencies in all tracks. I like this album and i give 4 stars because we can find some beautiful music and it's a very good adiction for all that like seventies music and sound