INDEXI (MC DISKOTON)

During the first half of 1975, music publications frequently announced that Indexi were planning to record their first original album. Recording locations such as Ljubljana, Italy, and even London were mentioned, and there was even an idea to involve poet Maja Perfiljeva, their longtime collaborator, to write lyrics for the new material. The purchase of new equipment in America, the triumphant February comeback concert in Sarajevo's Skenderija attended by 15,000 people, and the stabilization of the lineup with keyboardist Enco Lesic and drummer Milic Vukasinovic clearly foreshadowed the long-awaited return of Indexi to the rock scene, to which they had only marginally belonged since 1973, having increasingly focused on pop music festivals. In addition, their record label, Diskoton, acquired facilities for pressing LP records and producing audio cassettes during the second half of 1975, albeit still only in outdated mono technology, so even this technological prerequisite was met. However, as usual with Indexi, their ambitious plans to record an album fell through once again. The reasons for this are unknown, although it is possible that intensive concert activity during the spring and summer prevented Indexi from setting aside enough time for composing and studio work on the album, which, as announced, was supposed to be recorded in the fall of 1975. Instead, Diskoton released a compilation cassette during that period, simply titled "Indexi" (catalog number DTK 0224), containing songs from singles previously released by this record label. Since there was no new material, why not profit from re-releasing the old one?

This is, therefore, the first long-playing release of Indexi for Diskoton. The cassette is packaged in a white cover (a so-called "j-card") featuring a photo of the Indexi band from their latest single "Obala pusta, obala vrela" (Deserted Shore, Hot Shore), released in July 1975. Below the photo, six (out of a total of 12) songs on the cassette are listed. The graphic design is done in a typical manner, in accordance with the template that Diskoton used for its first cassette releases, among which stand out the cassettes of the pop group Ambasadori, and folk singers Hanka Paldum and Muhamed Mujkanovic, all of which share an identical design with this Indexi cassette. There is no reliable data on when the cassette was actually released, but based on the information above, it can be assumed that it was in the late summer or autumn of 1975. The cassette has been reissued several times with different graphic designs of the label and the color of the tape shell.

As for the content of the cassette, I will not repeat what has been said in the reviews of individual singles here, but rather focus on the whole of this release. Side A contains 6 songs recorded in November 1973, at a time when the band members were still Miroslav Saranovic (drums) and Vlado Pravdic (organ, piano). These are less-heard songs that, with the exception of "Samo su ruze znale" (Only Roses Knew), did not become big hits, although they were released on singles in 1974 while the band was on hiatus because Davorin Popovic and Bodo Kovacevic were in the army. It is good that they are gathered together on this cassette, and they represent a kind of "mini-album" that shows Indexi in a transitional phase from pop-oriented progressive rock to festival schlager. Side B also contains 6 tracks, recorded between November 1974 and June 1975, at a time when Indexi, completed with new drummer Milic Vukasinovic and keyboardists Miroslav Maraus (on the first 4 songs) and Enco Lesic (on the last 2 songs), experienced a great comeback to the scene, holding a series of successful concerts throughout Yugoslavia. Of these compositions, "Bacila je sve niz rijeku" (She Threw Everything Down the River), "Volim te" (I Love You), and "Ti si mi bila naj, naj" (You Were the Best for Me) became big hits, and stylistically leaned on the already established practice of "progressive schlager", with the presence of Milic on Pearl drums with a double kick-drum underlining the more energetic and rockier character of some of these songs, such as "Pogresan broj" (Wrong Number) and "Obala pusta, obala vrela" (Deserted Shore, Hot Shore).

In any case, this cassette is a valuable and interesting historical document of a phase in the band's work that is often overlooked by rock journalism, when by signing for Diskoton they rejected all the advantages that Jugoton had offered them until then, including better studio production, more developed distribution of records, a more professional attitude of the label, a more likely chance to record and release an original album earlier, etc. In other words, they went from "stereo Jugoton" (Jugoton had standardized the production of stereo records as early as 1972-73) to "mono Diskoton" (Diskoton continued to release records in mono technology until the end of the seventies), which certainly had a negative impact on their overall sound and musical expression, to the detriment of the listeners. Despite their immense popularity, Indexi remained, in large part, a strange and self-contained band, unable to seriously conceive of their own career as a "rock band".