Mungos

Mungos were a band formed by legendary producer Tihomir "Tini" Varga and keyboardist Hrvoje Marjanović, a session musician who played with legendary bands such as"Grupa 220", "Vještice" and "Plava Trava Zaborava".

This sole album by the duo is a doozy of a piece. A mix of new wave, funk, soft rock, with psychedelic and acoustic tinges sprinkled around. And highly unknown too (only one other person rated this album at the time of writing). The album has been on my permanent rotation since first hearing it, with the only track that I skip is the upbeat track "Vlak" which kills the vibe set by "Pjesma", the previous track. I would move it in front of it so the album can end on a melancholic note with "Pjesma" and "Stoj".

Tini's guitar playing here is amazing, though it can feel a bit repetitive when the solo quite literally repeats twice in a song, chord for chord in "Šetač", but I don't mind. Hrvoje is an unsung hero on this album, with synth and piano playing that accompanies Tini well and doesn't try to be in your face.

All in all, I'm quite perplexed. How can such an album be so forgotten? It doesn't fit. Tini is arguably an A or even an S tier Yugoslav producer (and with this album a formidable musician as well) and you have a feeling that an album by a person so famous and revered in the musical circles would at least be recognized to exist, but sadly it went not only under the radar, but under the ground!

Highly recommend checking the album out. It's highly cohesive, considering the number of styles it has, and I'm pretty sure that every listener will find something that they like in here.