Reviews by deksametazon

Haustor at their artistic peak. Here we see the synergy between Rundek and Sacher come to its undisputed pinnacle, at which they would write songs that, you can argue, are the most unique instrumentally, and most diverse in lyrical content these parts of the globe have ever seen.

Darko found his unique niche of vocal delivery at this point, performing songs in more of a sombre and haunting tone, which gave them a much serious undertone. As I've mentioned previously (and many more have before me, and hopefully after me), the entire album is filled with unique lyrics with vivid imagery of all kinds, from descriptions of different places, cryptic political passages, and talks of human connections between people, all vowed inside a dense web of allegory and metaphors that's very hard to be understood by someone whose not a native speaker. Hell, even we have had a historic problem of interpreting Darkos lyrics, and he's not helping in that department either (meeting him and asking him what he meant in an X line in a Y song will get you a response along the lines of "It's whatever you imagine it to be" which kind further reinforces ideas that he wrote these lyrics fully strung out on God knows what kind of drugs). Mix that with a potent backing of a relatively unique lineup that features trombones, different percussion instruments, a different side of drumming influenced by jazz and funk, and not just laying down a 4/4 beat, makes for an amazing album full of absolute bangers chock-full of instrumental passages that require your utmost attention.

Not nearly as influential on me as their next album, but make no mistake, this here is one of those albums that makes you appreciate music a lot more than you did before you heard it.

The last Haustor album is, in my opinion, their weakest effort, in terms of a fully fledged project. Notice the last three words: fully fledged project. The reason I'm writing that is because this album contains two songs which heavily (and I mean really heavily) elevate this thing, and that is Uzallud Pitas and Bi Mogo Da Mogu, probably two greatest songs Haustor recorded in their career. Both having this melancholic, sophisticated approach that made unrequited love such a desirable feeling to every teenager who ever heard it.

Can it be said for the rest of the album? Nope. It goes between listenable and alright. It lacks a bit of that artistic magic he had on Bolero, which is replaced by a brand of sophisti-pop that is closer to his solo career than the world of Haustor. Still, I can, and will, commend Nada as a good attempt at making a minimalist intimate attempt at a ballad of sorts, and the final three songs hint at the career direction Rundek will head at the tail end of the 90s. Good songs with a noir tinge.

We all make mistakes. Some are big, some are small, but once we stop seeking perfection and admit that we are not beings of perfection and never will be, the world will be a much better place.

My mistakes were plenty, but one of mine is saying that this album is bad. Yes, I admit my sins, but the first step in redemption is admitting you were wrong, so here we are.

Haustor's self-titled album is, how do I say it, not unique and important in the grand scheme of things, but is intricately crafted and highly influential to the development of the Yugoslavian new-wave/rock scene and the Haustor sound they would be known and loved for.
The album starts with two straightforward new wave zingers in "Radio" and "Mijenjam Se", then even goes further into that territory in "Tko Je To", which has lyrics ranging from "ha ha children are naughty" to "what the fuck is that thing in the corner of my room" all while maintaining a happy, fun and jovial instrumental, which I find amazing. "60-'65" is a reggae-infused new-wave song that kinda foreshadows the melodies we'll be seeing in their subsequent albums. After that, we enter absolute banger territory from A5 to B4. "Moja Prva Ljubav" is an absolutely beautiful chill song about love and girls which saw big airplay all across Yugoslavia, which immensely helped this album and the band gain traction among a mainstream audience.

Now, the B side is where things get real. After finishing side A which was dominated by tip-top new wave songs that follow the formula set by contemporaries from around the globe, and around the Republics, comes side B comes in as a surprise and smacks in the back of your head and says "O sine nisi ti još ništa čuo".

"Noć u Gradu" and "Crni Žbir" are anxiety-filled fests with beautiful use of different instruments like the sax and synths that culminates in beautiful instrumental play in between Darko's cryptic and picturesque songwriting.

"Duhovi" = "Jesse, play "Duhovi", even if we scare the hoes"

"Duhovi" is probably my favorite song on this album, just because of how weird it is compared to anything that has been done in the entire Yugoslavian music scene. From its lyrics sung in the Zagorje dialect, to almost half of the song being drunken murmuring and the ending switch between the guitar strumming and Darko's anxiety-filled delivery to his spoken word ending, it just leaves you in this feeling of being awe-stricken and thinking to yourself "What the fuck did I just witness". After that ending, comes a fairly minimalistic "Lice" with amazing lyrical content that delves into society's need to put on a mask and hide true emotion and feelings, an act that is still relevant and that we do on a daily 40 years later, and will probably do for the next thousand years.

Side A shows the band has the potential in making themselves blend in with the crowds and go with the flow, while side B showed how much of a genius Rundek is at song structuring and musical writing. Recommended fully, from beginning to end.

This album and Treći Svijet are pretty much interchangeable, though I'd argue this one is more commercial than Treći Svijet, even though their style is similar. This one boasts the heavyweights of the entire Yugoslavian musical history like "Ena", "Šal od Svile" and "Šejn", but the rest of the album is not that far off as well. The only song that really drags the album down is "Take The Money And Run" which in my opinion is skippable, but the rest is a must-listen if you're looking into Yugoslav New Wave from the 80s.

U posljednjih, mozda godinu dana, cesto pogledam svoju prethodnu recenziju ovog albuma I pomislim kako je izuzetno jednostavno I previse kratko opisan, pogotovu kada uzmemo kalibar albuma. Upravo zbog toga, nek Bolero bude prvi album koji ću počastiti sa jednom “remaster” recenzijom.

Tesko je da ce ijedan album dostici nivo znacenja u mom zivotu koji je dostigao Haustorov Bolero. Kroz moje skolovanje I interesovanje za ljudski psihu, dosao sam do sopstvenog saznanja da ljudski um u prosjeku izmedju neke 18te i 25te godine biva udaren muzičkim žigom koji definiše ono što će mu se doista sviđati do kraja života. Sve prije voljene pjesme I albumi će biti gledani kroz nočale nostalgije, a sve poslije će biti slušano u cilju traženja nedostižnih polja. Takav je bio I moj odnos sa Bolerom, prvim albumom Haustora koji sam poslusaš I koji je upravo moj muzički žig kojim sam obilježen na eksurziji 2019te kada sam na zvučnicima autobusa iz noći u noć slušao kako kroz mrtvi zrak treperi melanholični “Šal od Svile” koji je za mene imao ljubavne konotacije, a danas sa svojim tekstom I sa dešavanjima oko nas, jednu zatvorenost I žudnjom za ljepotom slobode.

Bolero je veliki trenutak za Rundeka, koji nakon odlaska Sachera, ostaje sa Trećim Svijetom i sa zadatkom da dadne nastavak jednom od najboljih albuma bivše Jugoslavije. “Sad je Vrijeme Za To”, kao što kaže stih iz pjesme “Sejmeni”.

Bolero je potvrda da Haustor odlaskom genijalnog Sachera nije lišen duše Trećeg svijeta. Pjesme kao što su Ena, Šejn I prethodno pomenuti Šal Od Svile su dokazali da Darko ima šlifa za komponovanje evergreen numera velikog kalibra, ono što je falilo Trećem Svijetu. Ali daleko od tog da je Bolero bio samo album koji je ukrašen specijalnošću da bude mašina za evergreene, ne bi bio ovako spomninjan da je tako. Bolero ima sposobnost da ide korak ispred, muteći depresivnu atmosferu ispod rasplesanog senzibiliteta kao što je slučaj u Sejmenima, TV Man (meni jako dragom pjesmom u posljednje vrijeme) ili isa početnom numerom, koja zaljulja slušaoca u trans tako da ne sluti ono što se sprema. Tek nakon drugog slušanja pomisliš da I nije ovo tako zabavan album. Možda je tu i nikla moja ljubav prema melanholiji.

Bolero je sa svojom unikatonšću zaradio mjesto kao jedan od najboljih Jugoslovenskih pop albuma. Jako prostrano djelo sa jako širokim interpretacijskim mogućnostima. Nešto što se rijetko susreće na ovim prostorima.

I da, “Take The Money and Run” i nije toliko loša pjesma. Samo joj i nije mjesto ovdje.

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In the last, maybe a year, I often look at my previous review of this album and think that it is extremely simple and described too briefly, especially when we consider the caliber of the album. Precisely because of this, let Bolero be the first album that I will honor with a "remaster" review.

It is difficult that any album will reach the level of importance in my life that Haustor's Bolero reached. Through my education and interest in the human psyche, I came to my own conclusion that the human mind, on average, between the ages of 18 and 25, is hit with a musical stamp that defines what it will really like for the rest of its life. All previously loved songs and albums will be viewed through the glasses of nostalgia, and all afterward will be listened to in search of unattainable fields of that period in life. That was my relationship with Bolero, the first Haustor album I listened to, and which is precisely my musical stamp that I was marked with on the excursion in 2019 when I listened to the melancholic “Šal Od Svile” flickering through the dead air on the bus speakers night after night, which for me had love connotations, and today, with its lyrics and the events around us, a kind of closure and longing for the beauty of freedom.

Bolero is a great moment for Rundek, who after Sacher’s departure, remains with Treći Svijet and with the task of giving a sequel to one of the best albums of the former Yugoslavia. “Sad je Vrijeme Za To”, as the verse from the song “Sejmeni” says.

Bolero is a testament to the fact that the Haustor was not deprived of the soul of Treći Svijet by the departure of the genius Sacher. Songs such as Ena, Šejn and the aforementioned Šal Od Svile proved that Darko has the knack for composing evergreen numbers of great caliber, which Treći Svijet lacked. But far from being just an album adorned with the specialty of being an evergreen machine, Bolero wouldn't be remembered this way if it were. Bolero has the ability to go a step further, blurring the depressive atmosphere beneath a danceable sensibility as is the case in Sejmeni, TV Man (a song I've been really fond of lately) or with the opening track, which lulls the listener into a trance so that they don't suspect what's coming. It's only after the second listen that you think this isn't such a fun album. Maybe that's where my love for melancholy came from.

Bolero, with its uniqueness, has earned a place as one of the best Yugoslav pop albums. A very spacious work with very wide interpretative possibilities. Something that is rarely encountered in this region.

And yes, "Take The Money and Run" isn't such a bad song. It just doesn't belong here.

In my humble opinion, the best album in the entire Beatles universe.

It's really incredible, and even sad on the one hand, that so many good songs were in the back pocket during the Beatles' heyday. Of course, some of these songs were not even presented to be used as Beatles songs, because they were a subtle attack on an already fracturing situation (a proto-diss, if you will), such as "Wah Wah" and "Run Of The Mill", but most of the songs written in the era of 68 and 69 could've easily been included and would blow away a lot of the other Macca-Lennon songs, like the ones that were included did.

I can certainly write a good paragraph about the history of the creation of this album, but for that you have plenty of other "wikipedia-lite" reviews, so I will only refer to what this album represents for me. One grandiose outpouring of emotions with a lot of different influences, but also with a lot of influence on future generations. It was particularly difficult for me to single out the best songs, all of them from the first two records are extremely strong. The entire sequence of the first 6 songs could rival any Beatles song, and the others vary between "the peak of another artist's career" and "simple songs that pleasantly fill in the gaps". This is how spiritual rock is performed without getting too into Jesus-loving water.

The third disc is the jams, which were put there mainly for the reason that the buyer at the time would have a reason to pay a three LP value of a double album. They're not bad, but somehow they don't fit into the whole picture.

Through the Trees for me gains the reputation of being an uneven album, with it being front-loaded with good tracks such as the opener, "My Sister's Tiny Hands" and "Stalled", but also having some on the back end melodies that pique my interest such as "I Fell", "The Woman Downstairs", "Last Night I went Out Walking" and "My Ghost", but the middle is an absolutely dreadful snoozefest, especially "Cathedrals".

Overall, as I listen to it, the album gets harder and harder to keep track of. Be it because of the slower tempos, the deadpan vocals of Brett, the shakey voice of Rennie, or the hit-or-miss lyrics penned by both of them. It still has moments I've mentioned above, but do I really need to run through it more than once to get the jist of it? Probably not. But should you give it a try? Only if you like laid country melodies and vocals, that match the cover well, mixed with existential and somber lyrics.

There’s absolutely no reason this album should be such a good listen front to back. Wholeheartedly mean it. Two guys that were/are pop hit churning machine making an album that’s equally both deeply engaging and shallow enough the be considered easy listening is a achievement both of them should put on their CVs.

The atmosphere and picture painting this album possesses is a benchmark which albums after copied to a T, but most never managed to get to the that level. Probably because this duo didn’t stay in one spot and one mood throughout. “When the Morning Comes” and “Had I Known You Better” is a representation of waking up in a crammed apartment, a sarcophagus filled with a damp air of emotion, with no way of leaving. Unlike the lover.

The suite of the next three tracks is a lamentation of a person deeply in disconnect with his emotions, while the day slowly goes on. “Las Vegas Turnaround” picks it up, with a light jazz tempo and aura in it signaling the waking of the city, people walking to their jobs, and cars speeding through the streets of the big city, but also feeling the emptiness of losing a lover, whose feelings are more analyzed in the next one “She’s Gone” where the guy clearly cannot come to terms with the fact that… she’s gone. And that he can’t do anything about it. “I’m Just a Kid” gives us a glimpse as to why the things preceding this album had to happen. The singer clearly has some of his own unresolved personal issues that his woman, who’s clearly done having to carry her own and his burdens, couldn’t stand anymore.

“Abandoned Luncheonette” is the midday, lunch break crisis. On the surface, the song is a simple ditty, but underneath everything, the cracks of filthy cynicism of the singer begin to show, which perfectly gives an insight into the singers overall personal instability. A perfectly hidden one behind the cheerful nature of the instrumental.

That segues us into the second, and final three-part suite is a flip of the switch. The narrator is done hiding behind the façade of cheer. All hell is bound to break lose, as per the lyrics and tense nature of “Lady Rain”. But just before the pot begins to boil over, a ray of hope shines on our poor "Laughing Boy" in the form of an unnamed second person. A friend who tries to cautiously steer him from the unthinkable. Obviously, the friend pulled a string, for in the culmination, “Everytime I Look at You”, our guy is clearly done with her. For good now. But just before it’s all over, from the halfway mark, we’re treated to a progressive section. A pour out of emotion, which ends with an ambiguous goodbye. Has he truly moved on from her? Have his emotions got the best out of him? Who knows.

And that’s the beauty of the album, really a full on onslaught and a rollercoaster of emotion and storytelling. Obvious recommendations.

Cool jazz never fails to deliver. This star-studded lineup plays off of each other, rather than trying to hog the spotlight, to create this audio-wave full of introspection and emotion, which is even more of a commending achievement when you consider how Chet Baker was just getting back into his groove after a period of decline, and Paul Desmond was battling with lung cancer.

Of course, since this album is cool jazz, you already know that the wind instruments are going to be up front, meaning Hall and Carter are behind the two virtuosos holding it tight, evident on various passages throughout the A side.

Concierto de Aranjuez is obviously great, but side A has a lot of flavor to it as well: calm, composed, with a lot of mutual resect, and most importantly, talent on display.

A spastic adventure. Honestly, I'm very surprised at how much genius these guys had at the very start, which may or may not have been amplified by producer Todd Rundgren.

Sparks/Halfnelson is an album that's very hard to pinpoint. At moments, you think they're riding the glam train, only to be eluded by a theatrical sound that's a lot more complex than glam, but in reality, is very easily digestible. Now that's art!

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2025: #49. An album under 30 minutes (4th Album)

The Hahas and The Blablas are a local band with a foreign flavor.

This youth plays a quirky brand of pop punk that is known among this youth as egg punk, and what I know as the B-52s brand of new wave, or post punk if you prefer.

On the one hand, as a general music fan, I feel disappointed that a little more inspiration was missing to make this something more unique, because it's really hard to distinguish this band from the B-52s, even down to the color of the vocalists' voices and the musicians' mannerisms. But on the other hand, as a resident of the Balkans and a fan of music in general, it's nice to see interest in this type of music in these areas. A few more ideas of their own (and singing in local tongue), and this group could tear things up.

Over the Atlantic, we Europeans had our own Patti Smith, and her name was Nina Hagen. A very bold album for sure, especially for the time. The A side is mostly dull, except for the closer, which foreshadows the much better atmosphere on side B, which to me sounds great, especially on Heiss and Auf'm Friedhof. I could do without the jumpy registers in her vocals.

Habitus is one of the relics of times that aren''t that far gone, but feel like eons ago.

It is difficult to describe to people who are not familiar with the music scene of Yugoslavia at the time, how different this album is from most of what was released in Yugoslavia. Simply put: a lot of things couldn't be said, or shouldn't be said, because communism, fraud, conspiracy against the great leader and so on... So the whole album exudes a mystery, so one wonders what the album might look like, or would it have seen the light of day at all, if it had been released at least a few years earlier.

Right away, at first we have a unique cover, which represents a man made of different sabers, bullets, grenades, rockets, scopes, with military emblems on his shoulder. For such things, I would already have one foot on Goli Otok, but it probably works in favor of the fact that the album was self-released, in only 200 to 500 copies at the end of an era, and that it went very unnoticed without any promotion or large sales. But I wander too much.

As for the musical composition (content) here, the template is the same throughout the album, but very well done. A few renditions of poetry, with self-penned singer-songwriter songs interspersed. Mustafa had (and still has) a gift for writing texts and poetry with various themes and themes. Although in some moments cryptic, and in others very cheeky and sometimes even humorous, they never manage to be too boring, to reveal too much, or to create the image that Mustafa is some misunderstood poet who laughs out loud when he writes lyrics under a candlelight. I would even dare to say that Mustafa Sirbic is one of the best songwriters in our area. Look at the song "Visegodisnjak" and its vulgar description and mockery of aging, reminiscent of some version of punk poetry like that of Dzoni Stulic, Patti Smith or Tom Verlaine before him, or "Ni Z od Zidina" which describes human sexual insecurities some 30 years ago. but that topic has become even slightly relevant.

Mustafa was not afraid to say what he thought on this album. Of course, there is also what we have already touched on above, that he had no one breathing down his neck and dictating what he would do and how he's going to put together the album (he touched on that in the last song), but again: vulgar, honest lyrics that are second only to the lyrics of those real, genuine top 3 to 5 songwriters of the former Yugoslavia.
Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit.

It may be difficult to put Mustafa on such a high pedestal with only one album, but in my humble opinion, the entire album, from the music to the lyrics and interpretations, deserves to be talked about as one of the bright spots of that end of the Yugoslavian musical era where every village had its own scene.

(This review was written in 2021, but for some reason it stayed in my Word documents and was never published until now)

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2025: #19 An album with only one continuous track (39th Album)

Vocaloid jazz? It's a welcome detour, considering the only other options were avant-garde or free-form jazz releases.

First off, RRRepeat!!! surprised me by how coherent it sounds. Hear me out, I associate the Vocaloid scene with over the top theatrics with cutesy, annoying vocals. Overall, an assault on the senses, both auditory and visual. But this album is first and foremost - jazz. Everything else comes second, which means the emphasis is on great instrumental chops with a knack for production. If you played this to me blind, I would've assumed it was a Japanese jazz band, but never that it came from this scene. Overall, an abundance of talent on display, from what I gather, from one person, GYARI.

I could do without the vocals, though. They do bring something enjoyable to the table, but I just feel my enjoyment would be bigger if it didn't include vocaloid vocals.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2023: #38 An album from the 1940s (16th album)

I guess it's alright. Time has definitely done a number on it, but it still has its merits. It still holds up musically, even though it's been released 83 years ago, but considering the heavy hitters that were released in the decades following, it got relegated to mostly being a history lesson about a period that caused a lot of pain, in every aspect of the word, to a lot of families.

Orpheus Listening Challenge 2023: #26 A jazz album from Norway (34th Album)

Soft and melodic to the ears. It weaves between being a melancholic atmosphere akin to a barely beating heart, and a fiery mind full of thoughts unspoken. Perfect study music while still maintaining a level of intrigue, rewarding the listener if he decides to listen closely, but not punishing him if the mind wanders.

It's wonderful and all, but I find nothing to grab to. The side long opener, Midnight Mushrumps is okay for a background listen, but the rest is really nothing but music for medieval cosplay. The musicianship is good, but that's it.

This one was not my jive. It's nice and cozy psychedelic folk that you forget about while it's playing, but it fits whatever you're doing in the background. They got chops, and I'm sure someone will find this great, but it's not for me.

If is the sharpshooter, then Grant Green is the ultimate playmaker, always setting up his cohort, his band of thieves if you will, with a perfect mood to glide across with their immaculate playing. The s/t opener is the obvious standout, with the atmosphere being that of a late night stroll through the empty streets of a once vibrant city, with your emotions creeping closer and closer.

Let's get the elephant out of the room: this is better than 36 Chambers. 6 Feet Deep doesn't have the same rocky sequencing it has, and the atmosphere is darker without turning into a goofy mess.

It's a very wild ride that capitalized on 90s east coast America, and America as a whole, with violence and horrific imagery. Some may find it tacky, but I find it hard to resist. A stone-cold classic with killer bars and great production.

It starts to drag close to the end, but by then you'll either be hooked or you'll turn it off. That's why songs like Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide, 2 Cups of Blood, and 1-800 Suicide exist to hook you in and not let you go until the end of the album.

Precise with a lot improvisation. I'm currently in love with their blues-country phase, so songs like Help on the Way, and Eyes of the World are standouts, especially with good jam passages. The psychedelic moments are more miss than hit, though.