Out Fall 2022

Re-release of the Asbestos 1989 album The Final Solution... plus their latest, 3rd album Loud Noise Infection.

"No War, No Nukes, No Violence"
"Destroy Control, Destroy System"

Excerpts from interviews conducted by DTE (Winter 2021 and Spring 2022) on the mid-1980s hardcore punk scene in Yugoslavia; chapter Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Winter 2021, Rijeka, Croatia
Samir (Sexy), Dissidents (Prijedor)

Samir: We (The Dissidents) were formed sometime in the Winter of 1986. We got together, a group of young punks who had something to say and who wanted to express ourselves. The line-up was: Eka-drums, Dushan (Kangaroo) - guitar/lyrics in English, Amir/Serdjo-bass, and I as a singer/lyrics in our language. We formed a little before that famous gig at the grandmother's of the late Drazen. Hence the recordings from that compilation “Make Love Not War.” Also down there in that basement were WSW, and I think the AWOL. Regarding the band called Terminatori (The Terminators), I have never heard of them before or after the compilation cassette. It doesn't mean that they didn't exist, because as everywhere there were "crews" that met here and there. Like, from the same city, but all for themselves. There was no internet, so we went with the model, "he said-she said... this and that“ and "I heard from this and that ". You get what I am trying to say. This is where fanzines come into play... bands, contact addresses. Drazen had a fanzine "Eastern Front" and did a distro. A lot came to us from that side. We had contacts with a lot of people. Traveling, friends, concerts, cassettes... In my personal opinion, the late Drazen Zaric was one of the most important characters in Banja Luka punk (at least in that period of the second half of the 80's), because he expanded the circle. A lot of years have passed since then, a lot of it has been forgotten, a lot of it has been destroyed due to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (for me personally EVERYTHING... all those fanzines, records, singles, letters from people...everything... something my late mother saved, sent to me through so called humanitarian convoys, so people picked it up for me, but 80% of it went to waste when my family had to leave Prijedor overnight, not of their own volition... the ones who "came in", let's say, dismantled and destroyed it).

Anyway, let's go back to Banja Luka for a moment. Yes, we knew some people who played in "Policijski Cas“ (Curfew). A guy from Prijedor, we called him Nidjo, maybe Nikola was his real name, was their bassist. I know that he studied in Banja Luka, he must have met one of the guys from the Curfew and that's how he started playing with them (I even had a tape with their demo, 3 or 4 songs - it ended up in with all of my stuff that got stolen and destroyed). The band member names that come to mind about Curfew are Babin and Emir, but it's all like in a fog (a very thick one). That Summer (1986), they played at a festival in Prijedor, in the Summer Garden. I wasn't there, but according to people's stories, it was revolutionary for that moment. They had a darker expression... not punk, but it was not soft music. Of the Banja Luka people, I'm still in contact with WSW bassist Grams (Goran). He is in Germany.

There were also some younger people around. Well, they didn't play punk, but that Mega City Four, pop guitars, melancholy and the like. They were called "Blue Noise". With them, and another band, we (The Disssidents) played in SKUC. We were already on the third demo at the time. From the gig in the basement of Drazen's grandmother until then, we have already released 3 demos. We've been on some compilations (From the Cradle to the Grave, Dead Men Tell No Lies, The Nameless). That's where the nation comes into play, the fuss before the war, troubles, Dushan's stubbornness - I don't wanna know anything about that guy... he played badly in the last year of our "friendship" ... nothing more about that.

Compilations I know of are "Make Love Not War", "Krdo Slonova" (WSW and the Geneva Decree are also featured on this one), and some others for which I never received feedback (well, you send someone material, because they said they were a doing a comp and you never hear back from them and such).

And yes, that famous gig in Doboj. We played, as well as WSW, Fuck The Army, and, I think, ArtDeFacto. The gig was in 1989, the place was called "U Magazi" and now, I don't know if it was called "Pigeons Have Fallen To The Ground", but now it's like some gray cells are waking up, so it could be so. Thank you for "refreshing" my memory. The tape from that concert was ours. Someone asked us to borrow it in order to play it on Radio Doboj and it has not been seen since.

The guys I remember from Doboj are Robi, Roni, and Sanyin. The late Drazen and I visited them after that gig. We slept at Roni's. Then there were some police drills — blues and reds — and the blues caught us because I had a red bandana on my pants. Us crusty with dyed black hair (HC thrash style), tons of patches and what not... a circus. They gave us hard time, we had to show our ID cards, prove that we were from Banja Luka and Prijedor and that we did not know about that exercise.

The rest of BiH mid-80s:
Mostar- everything is already known.
Sarajevo- there were a lot of people, a few bands and some fanzines (Pesha and Epitaph...), Krizha (Encyclopedia).
Tuzla- except for Ludilo and Rupa U Zidu, I don't know any others. Polica Lica as some kind of a mythical band ... people heard of them, but no one saw or knew them.
Zenica- hmmm, you could get information from Zhili (I know you know "Zhili from Prijedor", he is actually from Zenica.) I knew another guy, Goody, but I hear he was killed.
I know of some other punks from "our" area (Bosnian Krajina):
Dubica- the legendary Ado, and a guy from Ivanjska (I forgot his name, but he was great... we met him by chance on the train to Zagreb... went to a concert of UK Subs, there was some fuss after the concert... we fought with metalheads/Bad Blue Boys football hooligans at the Central Station, the police chased us and somehow we returned to our hometown and of course, no one got contact from the punk guy).
Sanski Most- there were some new wave guys and girls, they were just okay...

Fotografije dobojskih pankera Fuck the army i Art 'e facto 1986. / Photo of Doboj's punks Art 'E Facto and Fuck The Army 1986

Ah yes, every time we came to Banja Luka we ended (or started) the visit by going to the basement of the Pub in Gospodska, then to the park across from Boska. We went to some gigs there. One of my favorite ones was the Citizen Fish concert in Sebastian (it was along the Vrbas, across the bridge?). Great concert. That's where Miladojka Youneed played as well. I didn't see much more shows there. Either I wasn't there, in Prijedor ... because I traveled a lot then ... Ljubljana, Zagreb, Karlovac, Novo Mesto, Sarajevo, the sea .... punks from everywhere).
I'll let you know if I think of anything else, and you feel free to ask.
Greetings, and greetings to those people from Doboj who are near you.
Cheers

Winter 2021/2022, Sweden
Habi- Geneva Decree (Mostar)

Habi: I believe that there were a lot more punk bands in Banja Luka in the eighties than the ones you mentioned (WSW, Curfew), but it was probably all local in nature and quite closed to your own city scene. Otherwise, I don't know how else to explain that I haven't heard of them, that they weren't mentioned in fanzines, etc.

Back then I did a fanzine too. It was called Udarac Svijetu (A Blow To The World). 2 issues were published in some fifty copies. I failed to save a single copy of those 2 numbers. I would be glad if I could find them somehow. I inquired, but so far I have not been able to find any.

By the way, at that time ('86 / '87) I was in the army (mandatory in Yugoslavia), I was pretty off when it came to music, so I completely missed this tape (Mako Love Not War ?!). Only some 20 years later I found out for the first time that it had been published at all.

I remember that quite early on, maybe even in '85, a big article about the Zenica scene was published in the youth newspaper "Novi Dani" where 3 bands were mentioned. Even some of their lyrics were published. The names of the bands are impossible for me to remember.

Of all those guys, I only met Sexy from the Dissidents on the train to Zagreb when D.O.A. played there.

In Tuzla, there was a band "Polica Lica" which were supposed to perform at the HC fest in Subotica. However, due to the fight between the skins from Novi Sad and the punks from Subotica, neither they nor we played that evening. As far as I remember, of the many bands that were supposed to play, only Patareni and another band from Subotica played, and then the police dispersed everybody. If this band from Tuzla had not appeared in Subotica that evening, I would never have heard of them, because after that all trace of them was lost.

Spring 2022, San Francisco, USA
Boris (Lovra) - Fuck The Army (Doboj)

Boris: A concert called "Pigeons Have Fallen To The Ground" was held in 1986 at a Doboj theatre called "U Magazi". The bands that played that night were WSW (Banja Luka), Dissidents (Prijedor), Art 'E Facto (Doboj), and Fuck The Army (Doboj). We (Fuck The Army) had a new guitarist, Slaven, who joined the band just before the concert. He was a metalhead and learned our songs in an instant. Fuck The Army was the fastest and most brutal band at that concert. Compared to us the other bands sounded like punk rock.

A year or two later, a concert that was supposed to be held at the Music Youth in Doboj was canceled. Many people came from all over. The Geneva Decree was supposed to play as well.

Fuck The Army was formed in 1986. We rehearsed at the Music Youth. After FTA, I played in several other bands: 193+ (all band members were taller than 193 cm), OPTM (O Pizda Ti Materina), and Hyperactive Children (drum & bass band formed after my return from army 1990 or 1991).

Art 'E Facto members were Robbie, Roni, Cako, Chennai. They played punk. Robbie lives in Berlin.

The concert "Pigeons Have Fallen To The Ground" was recorded by a guy from Radio Doboj. I had the recording until a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, it was stolen together with a very good live recording of Miladojka Youneed (I think it was live from Banja Luka) when my car was broken into in San Francisco.

In 1987, Roni and I went to Popovača to visit Kečer from Satan Panonski. From there we went directly to Vinkovci to hang out with a bunch of punks. There were many people there from different parts of Yugoslavia. We used to go to Banja Luka to visit Drazen Zaric and others. We also went to Rijeka. There, our contact was Damir Pilić Pile, with whom Kečer connected us.

When you mentioned Zavidovići, I remembered that there was a punk band there in the eighties, but I can't remember their name. It's not the band Pauk (Spider).

Fotografija Dissidents-a sa koncerta Golubovi su pali na tlo/ Photo from the Pigeons Have Falled To The Ground gig: Dissidents
Plakat za hardcore feštu u Subotici 1985/ Hardcore fest Subotica 85 poster
Članak o Art 'e facto iz fanzina T.S.O.M./ Article about Art 'E Facto from T.S.O.M. zine

I did a fanzine, but I can't remember the name. At that time punks were all over. I remember going with my sister to a small town called Visoko where I saw punk graffiti written on the walls.

That black and white photo of Dissidents was taken in Doboj in 1986 at the Pigeons concert.

We had a lot of problems with the police. The punks from Banja Luka were banned from coming to Doboj by the police after 3 primary schools were broken into. The punks were accused of that. We were detained and interrogated. In the end, we were released, but the people of Banja Luka were forbidden to re-enter the city. That was the last time I saw some of them.

During the war, in Teshan there was a punk festival Rostock. I think that younger punks who during the war fled to Teshan were involved.

Spring 2022, Sweden
Golub- Geneva Decree (Mostar)

DTE: Lately I've been trying to connect some missing dots, especially about mid-late 80s hardcore punk scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in Macedonia, about which little has been documented. I wrote to Gvido (Brainstorm), Habi (Geneva Decree) and Eka (Dissidents), but I received very little information.

Firstly, I wonder if you know anything about the compilation tape "Make Love Not War!?!" Gvido has no idea. Habi told me that he was in the army in 1986 and that it was only 20 years after the release of that tape that he first heard about it. I corresponded with Eka, but he didn't tell me anything concrete except: "Brother, there was a party. We recorded at Drazen's grandmother, in the WSW practice room. There were a lot of bands in Banja Luka at that time."

Golub: Drazen (R.I.P) contacted us (me and Kokich) about that compilation (by a letter, of course, that's how it went at the time) and that was sometime after the recording of our first demo. He and another guy from Banja Luka were doing the compilation. Kokich was more in charge of contacts in BiH, and due to acquaintances I was in charge of contacts with people in Ljubljana, Subotica, Novi Sad… Drazen sent us a copy when the tape came out and there were only bands from BiH on it. So Banja Luka, Prijedor, Mostar and Doboj. An excellent retrospective presentation of the then BiH HC punk scene and active bands.

Quite strange and for a deeper analysis that Sarajevo did not produce any hardcore bands at that time. The name of the compilation is prophetically good.

DTE: Do you know of any other mid 80s Banja Luka punk bands besides these ones?

Golub: Well, these from the tape and some more like Policijski Cas, Rescue Party, Subversion ... Somehow, Banja Luka, unfortunately, was more in post punk, noise and dark sound. At least judging by that Banja Luka Dreaming compilation that Drazen put out.

DTE: I did not know Drazen Zaric. I know some people who knew him, but I don’t know how to reach them. I went to the show in 1997 or 1998 when he returned from London to Banja Luka to promote the Banja Luka Dreaming compilation. He died in a car accident during that visit...

Golub: He remained in my memory as cheerful, agile, always ready to cooperate, to help, full of energy and positivism. We actually met in 1986 on a train going to Ljubljana (they joined at Banja Luka train station) to the Ni Strahu hardcore party. Later, a video cassette of the same name was released, as well as an audio cassette called Čudeza Ne Bo. WSW, his band, also played at that party and they “stuck” to us because we were a little older than them and knew more people. We were together the whole time of the party. Even today, it is not clear to me why their songs did not appear, at least on the cassette tape. They were not much worse nor better than the rest of us. As far as I can remember, they were the first to play, so maybe the recording equipment hadn't prepared yet. Too bad!
Punkers from Prijedor also came to the festival and started pogoing at our performance: my great friend Sexy, Eka….
It was also the beginning of our friendship, which continued through concerts of foreign bands when they played in Zagreb or Ljubljana. They were sure to be at those shows: Exploited, Angelic Upstarts… We continued to hang out once some of us ended up in Sweden.

As far as I remember, Drazen also published a fanzine called the Eastern Front.

DTE: Toshe from Skopje wrote to me that the last time he was in Banja Luka was on a tour with Padot Na Vizantija (The Fall Of Byzantium), sometime in 1987. If I remember correctly, he said that it was their last concert. Do you know anything about it? Did you go to the Sebastian Club in BL?

Golub: No, but I know about that concert. It is possible that before that concert, the band were guests on TV Sarajevo and recorded a video.

DTE: Was there anything related to hardcore punk in Sarajevo in the mid-1980s? In Bihach? In Herzegovina? In the villages?

Golub: Some bands appeared in Sarajevo before the war, but not at the time of the release of this tape. Later from Sarajevo came Mentols (garage punk), Nuclearchy (Voivod style)...
From Tuzla were the Polica Lica who traveled with us to Subotica for the fest called Strah (Fear) in 1985. Later appeared Ludilo and Pakleni Dvopek.

DTE: Who was the publisher, ie Branko Lazić who did the New Musical Direction, and the fanzines Exces, Akt and Gutemberg? Was he in one of the bands?

Golub: I don't know, I didn't know that Branko. As I told you, in our case it went through Drazen. At the time we came out on a lot of compilation tapes and this one was no different based on its (non)quality.

I want to say that everything was okay, and the only difference is that the tape Make Love  covered only bands from BiH. Their great idea. I salute them for that.

Intervju sa Fuck the army i gig report iz faznina T.S.O.M. / Interview with Fuck The Army and gig report from T.S.O.M. zine