Jazz Archives

After ground-breaking debut album "Pljuni istini u oci", BULDOZER had to cope with not so friendly cultural establishment, which was outraged by their acts and thus prohibited further printing of that album. During 1976 the band played on stage extensively in order to keep their fan base interested. Ironically, Marko Brecelj even won a prize called "Seven Secretaries of SKOJ" (SKOJ- Communist Youth Alliance of Yugoslavia during World War II) for his solo album "Cocktail" that typically used to be awarded to prominent socialist youth activists in the field of art and culture! In October 1976 "Zabranjeno plakatirati" (Eng. "Posting Forbidden") was recorded in Novi Sad, again under the auspices of the notorious PGP RTB label. For this occasion the band saw a change of rhythm section; Vili Bertok was new bassist while Tone Dimnik joined on drums. Then, a painful negotiations with PGP authorities continued - BULDOZER were required to change their alleged "pornographic" and "drug-inducing" lyrics (in one song they had to replace the word "nirvana" with "kafana" (meaning: "a coffee bar"), but to no avail. After waiting the whole year, they finally signed to more liberal label Helidon and the album appeared in late 1977.
In spite of very short duration of about 30 minutes, "Zabranjeno plakatirati" was another excellent album by BULDOZER. It continues in the vein similar to its predecessor, only this time psychedelic textures are more present. This is especially evident in "Ne brini, mama" ("Don't Worry Mama"), "Djevojcice" ("Girls") and "Dobro jutro, madamme Jovanovic" ("Good Morning Madam Jovanovic"), which are full of black humour and sarcasm. Musicianship is excellent and they delved more into psychedelic experimentation with heavy use of distorted organ and synth with firm guitar solos and riffs, while Brecelj offers his perhaps the best vocal performances for BULDOZER. A novelty of this album is presence of two shorter and rock-oriented tracks, presumably written as potential hits, and indeed they both were extremely popular during their hilarious live shows. "Helga" is satirical use of the socialist myth of the local Yugoslavian macho males offering sex services to German female tourists at Dalmatian coast. This song would appear in four different "versions" on their ultimate live experience "Ako ste slobodni veceras" few years later (Frank Zappa did similar thing to song "Black Page" on "Live in New York"). "Doktore pomozite" ("Help Me, Doctor") is another trademark BULDOZER song, with timeless lyrics ("Help me doctor/I am dying/My son is a discophile/He's got that LP record/Which corrupts our children").
This album is another remarkable achievement of BULDOZER and acts as fine example of Central-Eastern European avant/prog. Due to its shortage and sometimes less than perfect production, 4,5 stars would be more objective. But anyway, this is a great album and is absolutely recommended for purchase.

:::Review by Seyo:::

Buldozer - Zabranjeno plakatirati (1977)

1. Ne brini, mama (6:50)
2. Dobro jutro, madam Jovanovic (9:13)
3. Helga (3:41)
4. Jeste li vidjeli djevojcice (6:41)
5. Doktore pomozite (3:46)

Credits
- Bele Boris / guitar, vocal
- Marko Brecelj / lead vocal
- Borut Činč / keyboards
- Tone Dimnik / drums
- Uros Lovsin / lead guitar
- Vili Bertok / bass