Некројаготки – Мајчице Вештице
Primitive noisecore/thrash/experimental from Skopje, originally released on tape in 1992.
In September 1991, an independence referendum proclaimed the former Socialist Republic of Macedonia’s separation from Yugoslavia. A year later, in 1992, two friends from Skopje, namely Smilen Dimitrov (guitar, bass, vocals, flute, harp) and Filip Mitrov (drums, vocals, plastic flute), used an old boombox like those found in nearly every household at the time to record the only demo cassette by their experimental project Некројаготки. Smilen would soon co-found SAF, Skopje’s seminal hip-hop crew, with Goce Trpkov and Mitko Gatarovski, but this cassette marks his first recorded venture.
In the early ’90s, underground music in ex-socialist countries travelled by mail: fanzines, tape trades, and the occasional swap of homemade rakija or vodka for Western vinyl. UK punk, crust, grindcore, noisecore, thrash, early black and death metal, all seeped into local scenes. All those influences, along with glam rock, funk, and psychedelia, surface in Некројаготки’s music. The band name translates to “Necro-Strawberries,” and their 20-minute material is truly all over the place. This lo-fi recording packs ten tracks of experimentation where the vocals shift from annoying hair metal wails to harsh growls in the style of bands like Patareni, while guitar and drums remain primitive as hell. Nearly every song opens with an overlong clip from Yugoslav TV and radio broadcasts, which oddly ties the entire eclectic mix together. Some tracks lean toward a Hellhammer or Bathory-style dirge, while “War System – Chaos” feels like the band’s Shitlickers tribute. Depending on your tolerance (and sense of humor), the whole record might feel like a strange parody of the ’80s rock and metal extremes.
The closer, “Некро Рап” (Necro Rap), is the standout here. The track begins with a snippet from a Macedonian schlager before moving to a rudimentary hip-hop beat, as a monster-like grunt growls over the drums and flute. Мајчице Вештице is not for everyone, you may struggle to play it through even once, but Опачина’s decision to reissue this 1992 obscurity on vinyl is commendable. The new screen-printed sleeve, built from collaged scans of the original tape, arguably looks better than the music sounds. I mean, in an era of oversaturation and constant flood of new releases, recordings like this one remind us of all the fun and joy of making something (whether you call it real music or noise) with two old microphones, a handful of instruments, and samples lifted straight off VHS tapes and TV shows. Many other noisecore and experimental punk bands from that era, like TEK from Varna and Tih Trud from Haskovo in Bulgaria, never got the chance to release their music properly. Once again, big ups to Skopje’s Опачина label for releasing this on vinyl!
