Balkan Noise: A Brief Intro to the Ex-Yugo Underground Music Compilations

An insight into Ex-Yugoslavian deep underground music compilations

By DIY Conspiracy On Nov 21, 2016

For those who missed the last 25-30 years or skipped history class, Yugoslavia was a socialist and communist country in the Balkans. But unlike similar Eastern European countries “behind the Iron Curtain”, Yugoslavia was not part of any bloc. In fact, the country was a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement, but still had a good influence on Western culture.

That was the reason why all subcultures were present and started to develop a few years after their beginnings in Western countries. We had R’n’R, punk, post-punk, hardcore, disco, pop, comics, art and so on. The “Ljubljana-Zagreb-Belgrade axis” (the capitals of the republics) was very strong, connections were made, people traveled a lot, exchanged ideas, played and you can say that this was the “golden age” of our underground scene.

Words by Nenad Popović

The year of 1992 was the end of Yugoslavia. We’ve split into six countries: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. I am sure some of you have heard about the civil wars that ended in 1995. Most of the contacts were broken or hard to maintain, a lot of artists moved to some other countries, or stopped being active, however, there were some new generations that grew up in between.

After the war, the connections between ex-Yugoslavian republics were slowly restored, mostly by fanzines. The Internet came few years after, and fanzines were moving slowly to their demise. Here and there you will find some punk, art, sci-fi or other fanzine, but by now they are more of “by accident” than a regular thing.

Video Killed The Radio Star…

Internet Killed The Fanzine

Webzines have come to dominate the underground media scene, and every few months a new portal, blog, or the like pops up. Like fanzines, most of them only last a year or two. But there are very few that last more than a decade, a decade and a half.

Labels? Physical labels are also disappearing. There are a few indie labels in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, and I think they are doing quite well. But most of the new labels start as net labels. There are all kinds of them, supporting punk, metal, noise, industrial, electronic, D’n’B and many more.

Fortunately, we have younger generations that are active, and that’s a pretty good start.

Since it is hard to cover all the underground genres, maybe the best way to scratch the surface is to check out some of the labels and compilations that have come out in the last few years. You’ll see how diverse the scene is, from obscure bedroom projects to artists with commercial potential.

LIBRARION

So let’s start with LIBRARION, which is basically an art fanzine, but almost every issue was followed by a release. Sometimes it was a single track, but over time the net label became a parallel part of the Librarion project. Three compilations have been released so far:

“Strah” (Fear) as part of issue #3 of the zine, and “Opasna ženska muzika” (Fearsome female music) with issue #2. This compilation is quite interesting, as it only included girl bands and acts. It was made to highlight the women of the Balkan underground.

Their latest compilation is called “~” and was released a few days ago. Unlike previous comps, this one has a totally free form in its subject. You’ll find some noise, harsh noise, electro, metal, post punk and punk acts from Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia mixed together. This latest release from Librarion is noteworthy because it brings a bunch of new names and also delves into the past. These are the contributors of ‘~’:

Dangerous Beat (Croatian techno/IDM producer, this time in noise outfit)
The Bane (two-piece ad-hoc band from Serbia, from military days)
Olja Wagner (solo project from prominent musician and poetess from Niš)
Summer Deaths (one of the rare Vaporwave/chill acts from Serbia)
Psihokratija (cult goth/dark cabaret band from Belgrade, they are active these days)
No No Instigator (fresh post-punk/no wave duo from Croatia)
Litanije Čaranja (one of the rare funeral doom projects, from Croatia)
Bitchslap (experimental act from Serbia, by owner of the Deathfuckarmageddon Records)
Monosiped (weird, melodic musical act from Serbia)
Acoustic Torture Chamber (experimental/noise from BiH, by owner of the Human Cross Records)
BxOxKx (digital punk/ska/hip-hop act from Kraljevo, by the editor-in-chief of AkuPUNKtura zine)
King Ubu (reactivated alt. rock sensation from Zagreb)
Antitalent (harshnoise/minimalistic project from Brus, Serbia, by owner of the underground label Jesboligakurac Records)
The Ant (minimalistic instrumental rock from Majdanpek, Serbia)
:dARM (one more experimental project from the owner of the Human Cross Records)
Nekro Batica (noisican from Serbia, owner of the Deathfuckarmaeddon Records and editor-in-chief of Ciklonizacija blog)
Eva Ras (post-screamo project from Serbia, by owner of the Confusion Specialist net-label)
Misha Mashina & Mashtrakala (very noisy and weird alt. rock act from Serbia)
KSEA (mysterious ambient/minimalistic project from Serbia)
Dosis Letalis (ANW/HNW artist from Serbia)
Ex You (experimental no-jazz ensemble from Serbia)
.vernacvlaar destrvction. (HNW/static noise artist from Serbia)

This label released some other weird releases, no fancy shit, just pure underground for the underground geeks like you.

Crime:Scene

Now, let’s move to the Crime:Scene Records.

One of the oldest and most productive net labels from the frontman of the massacre-industrial act dreDDup, who has released more than 150 releases in about 10 years. CSR is more oriented towards darker sounds, industrial, noise, post punk, gothic, EBM etc. They have organized some festivals and radio shows in the past.

Among their releases there are some nice compilations that will give you a nice insight into this kind of sound.

Dark Balkan Music Vol.1 & Vol.2

Alchemy (ex-Yu bands doing covers)

Also, there is a series of CSR regular compilations. For now, there are 14 volumes.

Black Planet Records

Black Planet Records is also active in connecting bands and producers in ex-Yu. They are best known for their series of compilations called Balkan Under The Radar. The name is self-explanatory. Each release is like a double or even triple CD edition. They also make physical copies in limited numbers. Style? You name it, they got it.

Vol. 1 The Invisible Scene

Vol. 2 The Black Wave

Vol. 3 Black Generation

Vol. 4 Antisocial Network

Underground Alliance

Underground Alliance has 60 releases under their belt, but I think this label is on hiatus right now. Check the compilations they made (similar idea like BPR above) two trilogies.

Ubivae

Ubivae is the youngest label/collective. So far they released two compilations, check it out if you are into electronic, D’n’B, experimental.

Panda Jesus

In the end, I’d like to mention a label from my hometown, Ćuprija, that just started as well.

Panda Jessus is dedicated to some alternative electronic genres: witch house, vaporwave, down-tempo/chill, etc. They have three releases so far, but you can check out the first compilation they made, the first one that gathered the next generation of artists that produce the genres mentioned above.

I think that would be enough for now. I am sure that even these few labels mentioned above will be enough to give you hours and weeks of new music and insight that music from the Balkans is still alive.

There are more labels and bands to present, but feel free to explore them yourself. This is just to scratch the surface. I’m sure you’ll find something exotic and I’d love to hear your comments below.

About the author: Nenad Popović is editor-in-chief of HELLYCHERRY webzine.