A PEEK BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN - the Yugoslavian New Wave
If you’re a keen navigator of the interwebs, you may have came across some channels recently that have uploaded so-called“forgotten” post-punk, gothic & new wave tracks from over the last half century. It’s invaluable, and I’m glad they exist. Without the archival works of Dronemf S or In Depth Music, I would remain ignorant of the weird and wonderful world of punk media beyond the English-speaking world. In some ways, I do wish I were still blissfully ignorant; the indignant search to find physical media of foreign works is a leviathan of trouble.
I’ve been fascinated by Yugoslav music for a while. I’ve never been to the Balkans and don’t speak any of the present languages - nor do I claim to know anything about their culture, but I do have a reverence for the musical talent that burst forth from the area throughout the 70s-90s
It’s clear that sometime in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a reality-bending time vortex from the future behind the Iron Curtain spewed forth visiting artists from the 30th to the 50th century, who came by for a quick stop. The phenomena left behind by the Visitors were pristine; there is little chance that the Visitors will return, as for them, it was a brief stop on the way to their actual destination, for reasons unknown. Out of all of the existing media you can find from that period, it’s the Yugoslav works that take the top spot. The Yugoslavian New-Wave scene was phenomenal. There was a lot of creativity going on there behind the Iron Curtain that has gone unrecognised in the West. Arguably, many of these bands should have seen greater fame – they’re brilliant. Unfortunately, the collapse of Socialist Yugoslavia and the Balkan wars did put a damper on the goals of daring teens of the time to get plastered upon bedroom walls on an international level.
If you’re unfamiliar with Socialist Yugoslavia - get it on your agenda, it’s a fascinating period of history, and we don’t hear nearly enough about it here in the West.
Because of their laissez-faire approach to censorship, Yugoslavia acted as an unusually open nursery for the punk and new wave, with little official concern expressed over the government’s lack of control over the opinions of an emerging generation who were less blindly patriotic but still as revolutionary fervent as their predecessors. Much like here, the alternative 1980s is perceived as a youth golden age, ‘The late Zagreb music critic Ante Perković famously dubbed the punk and new wave scene Yugoslavia’s “Seventh Republic”, an “invisible, supranational and extraterritorial” entity that brought people together rather than throwing up new divisions’ - Jonathan Bousfield for the “New East Archive”
Goth, Two-Tone, New-Wave, Post-Punk & Punk (in all its glorious forms) flourished in the Balkans at the time, the sound of the generation is perfectly captured in the compilation album PAKET ARANŽMAN - ŠARLO AKROBATA & IDOLI & ELEKTRIČNI ORGAZAM (1981), which displays the best of the three earliest Yugoslav rockers in high fidelity -
Beyond PAKET ARANŽMAN, I’d also personally recommend delving into the following
Alongside the wealth of music, there’s a good degree of cinema capturing the essence of youth at the time. Primarily, The Promising Boy – A Serb/Croat Film from 1981- comparable to a Yugoslavian Jubilee – not just aesthetically but also in intent - Misa Radivojevic, much like Derek Jarman, was intent on mocking the “stupidity” and “petty violence” that both directors saw as endemic to the movement. The Promising Boy explores youth freedom and musical/sexual liberation and unintentionally acts as a great display of many great Yugoslav bands of the time.
There’s also a 2003 Rockumentary called Sretno Dijete, which follows Director Igor Mirkovic (a Croatian Political Journalist) as he explores the music that shaped his youth alongside his own teenage story. Igor interviews members of his favourite bands & also includes archival footage of major concerts and events around Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslavian New-Wave scene goes beyond a hidden gem, its a gorgeous geode that’s been untouched and unadulterated for bored youth and adventurous deviants to rediscover in the future. it’s too easy to stare in awe at the freedom and artistic expression that came out of that strange time; where future music appeared and promptly disappeared right on the flip side of the Iron Curtain
