Slav To The Rhythm: Eastern and Central European cold wave, space disco, post-punk

bunnnnnn

Well-known member
So, I've come out of DJing and club promoting retirement to start a night playing cold wave, synth pop, disco, electro and noise from Yugoslavia, Poland, Russia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, etc. Here's a mix DJ Baklava and I put together as a taster...

 

luka

Well-known member
For those that don't know bunnyhausen is one of the most storied record collectors of our era having made six figures per annum since the age of 16 just through selling on rare finds. The legend goes she doesn't just have names of artists, albums, track titles and record numbers memorised, but knows all the catalogue numbers off by heart too.

This is how you end up with enough Slavic synth pop to run a weekly club night devoted to it.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Is that one Romanian? I ask cos the language doesn't sound Slavic and my girlfriend is pointing out that Romanians never never shall be Slavs.
A month or two back we watched a film called Davitelj protiv davitelja (or Strangler vs Strangler) which was filmed in Belgrade in the 80s - good film actually, very funny in parts - anyway, there was this tune on the soundtrack, kinda Yugo New Wave I guess that I reckon would be perfect for this night, we couldn't stop singing it for days. Though listening to the mix maybe it's a bit (lot) more commercial than most of that...

 
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luka

Well-known member
Is it Romanian? My girlfriend is pointing out that Romanians never never shall be Slavs.
A month or two back we watched a film called Davitelj protiv davitelja (or Strangler vs Strangler) which was filmed in Belgrade in the 80s - good film actually, very funny in parts - anyway, there was this tune on the soundtrack, kinda Yugo New Wave I guess that I reckon would be perfect for this night, we couldn't stop singing it for days. Though listening to the mix maybe it's a bit (lot) more commercial than most of that...


Guitar at 1:19 on this is really nice. Or was it 2:19... Sorry I've forgotten
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Guitar at 1:19 on this is really nice. Or was it 2:19... Sorry I've forgotten
Glad you liked - it's a silly song but it works perfectly in the film which is a kinda serial killer comedy. I think the guy from the band (who are a real band playing themselves I believe) becomes fascinated by the serial killer and starts killing people, but then frames the original killer and gets away with it or something.
 

bunnnnnn

Well-known member
What's this track that sounds exactly like The Associates??

That's this Czech band called Mama Bubo. They're still going - their most interesting stuff sounds like the kind of thing Chris Cutler would've been into at the time, but with an ear for a tune and markedly less po-faced. A couple of their releases are pretty straightforwardly bedsit minimal synth dirge - they have one casiotone kosmische epic 'Planet Haj' which they appear to have revisited throughout their 30+ year career. I've not checked out their recent stuff, but one 7" from 1989 is - um - not great.

Anyway, that track's called Neni Pomoci and it's from 1983. There's a CD comp that remasters all their tape stuff from that era, which seems to be their best imho.

The Supernature track is from Uzbekistan. I know they're not technically slavs, but - um - I could really get in trouble with this couldn't I?
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Great stuff, bunny! Just listening now.

(Were there meant to be two different links in that post? It's the same one twice.)
 

luka

Well-known member
Is that one Romanian? I ask cos the language doesn't sound Slavic and my girlfriend is pointing out that Romanians never never shall be Slavs.
A month or two back we watched a film called Davitelj protiv davitelja (or Strangler vs Strangler) which was filmed in Belgrade in the 80s - good film actually, very funny in parts - anyway, there was this tune on the soundtrack, kinda Yugo New Wave I guess that I reckon would be perfect for this night, we couldn't stop singing it for days. Though listening to the mix maybe it's a bit (lot) more commercial than most of that...

[
" Beware. There is a new sort of begging and the Morissons staff told Robert it is
regular. A Romanian Gypsy woman pushed in front of Robert as he was about to put his groceries down. She asked the young woman in front who already had her groceries being
scanned by the cashier to pay for two items she put on the moving counter. The young woman said the Gypsy woman should be using her benefit money to buy food. The beggar said
no she got nothing. The young woman tried to say but everyone who does not work can apply for universal credit etc but the items were not removed, and not wanting to create a scene and hold everyone up the nice young woman ended up paying for this woman's stuff!!"
 

martin

----
did the night ever take place @bunnyhausen ???
I know you're not asking me but, yep, it happened, I was there. I went after nearly eight hours of drinking in a pub in Portslade with an old friend I hadn't seen since 1997, so was completely trashed, but it attracted a crazed crowd doing aerobics on the dancefloor.

I also went to the second one just before Xmas 2019, blissfully unaware it'd be one of the last 'nights out' in a while.
 
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