Part of CD Box "Kad je Rock bio mlad", "Beat Goes On vol.1" continues research trough old music archives and all those now forgotten EP and singles recordings once cherished by young, teenage audiences in & around 1960s Croatia. While CD 1 started with than-current generation of basically pop and "schlager" singers covering international hits without any pretensions to actually rebel against anyone, this CD covers second part of the 1960s where new young beat groups and earnest artists truly tried to establish themselves with original material.
It is a great idea as a statement that kids today are not as wild or rebellious as they think and every time has its own angry punks. Sure, this music has also to be understand in contest of its time and what kind of mainstream it confronted back than. It would be great to claim yes, these were truly original and fabulous rockers who swept everything away, but in reality its actually very mild and well-behaved. In all honesty, I don't think that these guys were so much different from any East European student groups and beat bands who emulated their international idols. The only difference between music here and on vol.1 is prominent guitar sound and appearance of more bands as opposite to single artists previously. If previous generation still nurtured idea of solo singers, mid-1960s showed explosion of competing bands formed seemingly overnight and 70% of them never went further than few EP recordings. Quick look at the list of artists actually prove my point, almost half of them left the music eventually and nobody survived in music business without compromises and dabbling in mainstream pop, festivals and all.
Listening this cute, nostalgic collection today I am trying to imagine how did it sound when these recordings were originally released - it was very probably very cool and wild as compared to mainstream and weepy "schlagers" that ruled the radio waves, but true spirit and bite can be heard only occasionally, with Karlo Metikoš, Tomi Savilj, "MI" and "Uragani", all of them doing covers. The rest is either sunny 1960s pop ("Bele Vrane", "Delfini") or clumsy first steps that show the best intentions marred by seriously banal lyrics. Only two girls emerged in this generation (Josipa Lisac, Alenka Pinterič) and they easily overshadowed guys with their charisma and voices - but being non-instrumentalists, they belong to category by themselves.
"Beat Goes On Vol.2"
Second part of vocal selection in CD Box "Kad je Rock bio mlad" (archive recordings from early Rock in Croatia) continues nostalgic walk trough late 1960s music. Its almost without exception very happy, sunny 1960s music that would perfectly fit into any "oldies" radio station playlist today, but it was rebellious and wild once. Some of these songs, once released on EP and singles recordings became classics in the meantime ("Osmijeh" by "Grupa 220"), others remind listeners that today's old farts were once vital and young artists. Like everything else in this Box, it would probably appeal to listeners who were there and danced to these groups on student dances once but I doubt that it would impress anybody else who is not somehow connected to it trough either language or geography. It is mainly of interest to listeners familiar with these artists who without exception later left their youthful anger behind and moved into pop.
"Doba Električara"
Judging by the sheer space Siniša Škarica gave to instrumentals in this CD Box (three our of six CDs) it is easy to get impression that his main idea was to release the retrospective of these now completely forgotten EP and singles, than just beefed it up with vocal selection as an afterthought. It is probably very interesting to older musicians and lovers of instrumentals, but it kind of looks overwhelming to casual listeners faced with 30+ titles by long-defunct bands. True, it is very interesting anthology of 1960s surf rock and to my knowledge this chapter has never been so fully covered as here but its still just a chapter that appeals really only to connoisseurs. So my main complain here is not the music - which is quite fun in small doses - but the huge quantity of it. Sure, its good and timeless, meticulously and obsessively researched from every corners of archives & private collections so it has historical reason to be released again, I guess. Its just that the whole concept of boxing this kind of music into CD format that holds so much of this music seems more like academic pedantry than real listening pleasure.
"Doba Električara Vol.2"
More goodies from CD Box "Kad je Rock bio mlad" created by Croatia records director Siniša Škarica who was musician himself once and obviously feels a deep affection for this kind of music - he not only decided to put together this anthology of first rock recordings in Croatia but also published the book about it under the same title. Perhaps the focus on instrumentals seriously unbalanced project in a sense that giving half of the CD Box to exclusively instrumentals obscured anything else that could have been included, but this is his call and no point of criticizing guy who truly loved this project and unearthed music that was seriously forgotten. Anybody can quickly make a 1960s hits collection that covers biggest, schmaltziest and the most bombastic from than current pop charts but only this man remembered obscure EP recordings by 1960s beat bands, who were actually not bad at all - except that most of them emulated "The Shadows".
"Doba Električara Vol.3"
Final CD with instrumentals from CD Box "Kad je Rock bio mlad" that serves as anthology of early rock recordings in Croatia - while half of the box focuses on vocal performances and all those earnest copies of international covers, the other half is all about instrumentals. What is sweet here is that guys compiled here played not only obvious pop covers but also recorded their own versions of either classical pieces or traditional folk songs dressed up in surf rock - very good. Some of these recordings are very hard to find indeed, as they come from private collections and we would probably never heard them if not for this compilation. Another curiosity is that most of these groups actually had very good singers who later became successful as solo artists, but here they were caught in a first bloom of youth where they were proving themselves as instrumentalists. "Zlatni dečaci", "Crveni Koralji", "Uragani" and "Delfini" were just some of groups that served as starting point for their singers. Its all about 1960s surf rock and retrospective ends in a very good note with several newly recorded tracks from current artists that perfectly continue the tradition.
No comments:
Post a Comment