ŠARLO AKROBATA - Bistriji ili tuplji čovek biva kad... (1981)

 

ŠARLO AKROBATA were a seminal Yugoslav rock band often categorized as late punk or new wave, particularly art-oriented. They formed in 1980, in Beograd. Short-lived band but extremely influential, in addition to being one of the most important acts of the Yugoslav New Wave scene, the three piece left an indelible mark on the entire music scene of former Yugoslavia. In April 1981, the band recorded their debut studio album "Bistriji ili tuplji čovek biva kad..." originally intended to be released through PGP RTB, but the head managers of the label, confused with the results of the recordings, sold it to Jugoton which released it in July of the same year. Jugoton put out around 10,000 copies of the album with very little commercial radio support, all of which, along with the absence of a recognizable hit candidate like "Ona se budi" or "Niko kao ja", both previously released on single, resulted in the album selling modestly. The album recording sessions featured Goran Vejvoda, Gagi Mihajlović, Jurij Novoselić "Kuzma" from the band Film and Dejan Kostić from Grupa I. Even though the original band's musical directions were based on a combination of punk rock and white reggae music, the outcome of the album recording sessions proved turned out to be as experimental as possible. The recording sessions were based on a kind of a system where Mladenović and Kojić would bring fresh raw ideas and Vdović would modify and shape them. Mladenović was into poetic and melodic aspect of the whole thing while Kojić, inspired by Jimi Hendrix style of playing, was turned to minimal lyrics and aggressive music which can be recognized on different tracks on the album and their work in general. The record was also a brave experiment where all British New Wave styles had been combined with reggae, punk sound backed with dub effects. The title of the album was taken from Vasa Pelagić's book "Narodni učitelj", from which the song lyrics for the song "Pazite na decu I" were also taken. The track differed from others because Mladenović played the drums, Vdović played the guitar, Dejan Kostić played bass, Gagi Mihajlović was on piano, while Kojić shrieked and played timpani. When the instrumental part was recorded, the tree read parts from Pelagić's book and different articles from Politikin Zabavnik magazine. The producer of the album was signed as Akpiđoto (misspelled on the album cover as Aktiđoto) which is actually a combination of names of real producers, Akrobata (the band), Pile (the nickname of Mile Miletić), Đorđe (Petrović) and Toni (Jurij, a recording engineer from Ljubljana who was an expert on dub techniques). After the album recording sessions, the professional and, consequently, private relations within the group were very strained and they split up. (from wikipedia)