Indeksi

A very weird album. The whole album is mostly disregarded when talking about the impact of Indexi, mostly because it being only distributed on cassettes, in small quantities, and on a Slovenian label ZKP RTVLJ, despite most of their releases at the time being on the Jugoton label. From what I've read, there was a habit of lending tapes from other labels around the country, which meant that ZKP RTVLJ was able to get tapes from PGP and Jugoton, thus stitching this album.

Also, a fact that doesn't help is that this album is made from songs recorded from 1969 to 1972, a period which was characterized by the band's change from poppy, beat songs to progressive, psychedelia, which meant that the album is somewhat uneven, both in terms of song structures and the quality of recordings, as some songs were recorded on more modern equipment in Croatia, but some were recorded on subpar equipment in Sarajevo and Serbia. The whole ordeal of recording can be read in Seyo's extensive review of the album.

I will not go into detail as he did, firstly because I'm not that big of an Indexi fanatic, secondly because I'm not that well-read on the subject matter, and thirdly because I just don't have the time. The things I will say is that the album boasts some real gems, like the prog-rock behemoth of Negdje u Kraju u Zatišju, and Hej, Ti, songs which are believed to be recorded in the 1971-72 period, also known as the progressive period of Indexi. The rest of the album deviates in quality, sometimes dipping into pop-rock territory, sometimes into beat music, which is mostly because of the aforementioned differences in recording periods of songs.

All in all, the album is worth listening to as a relic of a period in which rock LPs were scarce in Yugoslavia, and as a pillar in the Indexi discography around which the band went from being festival darlings to an actual band devoted to making music they loved. Other than that, listen to the essentials, to save time.

Essentials: Dan kao Ovaj; Hej, ti; Negdje U Kraju u Zatišju;