Рок Фестивал - Мичурин '89 - Свят, Чудни Хора / Rock Festival - Michourin '89 - World, Wonderful People

Sticking to the motif of rare Eastern Euro records, I share here a rare compilation from Bulgaria. This is a live document of the second Michourin Rock festival in 1989. Released by the state run Balkanton label. World, Wonderful People captures various rock/punk/metal bands at a time when Western culture began to make it's way in to Bulgaria and influence the music. CONTROL= fast, driving punk with keyboards, KONKURENT=metal, ERA=thrash metal, AHAT=metal, with a singer that sounds like Bruce Dickinson!, ATLAS=new wave, NEW GENERATION=new wave, REVIEW=new wave. The live recording quality is superb, and the roaring crowd throughout the album really proves the enthusiasm people felt for new music at the time. 

Рок Фестивал - Мичурин '89

IGNORE - New World Disorder Cassette

Allow me to present more rare sounds from Bulgaria! This demo was recorded in 1994 and is much different than anything else I've heard from there. Raw, gruff, steady hardcore punk influenced as much by AMEBIX as maybe other contemporary acts in Poland or even AUS-ROTTEN, and having a seemingly anarcho-punk approach. Long songs typically bore me to death, but given the context here and the simple foundation of the songs, these three tracks are awesome. 

IGNORE DEMO

LAST HOPE - Demo 1995

Here's the 1995 demo from probably the most influential and well-known hardcore band from Bulgaria, LAST HOPE. Once you get through the kind of monotonous but short into track, the demo shows a cool variety of sounds, most notably the urgent vocals and use of unconventional rhythms to spice up would otherwise come off as pretty generic hardcore. The closing track even ends in a melodic outro that brings to mind some sounds that came out of the UK early 80s anarcho scene! Their message seems to be generally challenging violence, drug use, intolerance, and hate. Here are some enthusiastic words about the band that I found on discogs; written by someone who seems to have a fair amount of experience and knowledge of LAST HOPE :

Since their formation in 1995, Last Hope established themselves as a major influence on not only the hardcore and punk scene in Bulgaria, but the whole underground community. Last Hope is the definition of hardcore – their remarkable style is an unique mixture of raw energy, intensity, heavy hard-hitting sound and unmistakable vocals. The true power of Last Hope has always been playing live, where they really blow things up. Those who hadn’t the chance to witness their live-show would never understand. Last Hope have played numerous gigs and festivals at home and all over Europe – they’ve toured and been to places that only few have been: taking off from their local dominant Balkan areas, through the regular Western Euro destinations, going as far as possible to countries like Turkey and Russia. No matter if it's a small underground club or a big open-air festival, Last Hope always deliver their hi-octane life-show and put the energy level to the maximum...

LAST HOPE

KOKOSHA GLAVA - Punk Anarchy Nihilism 89-95 Cassette

About this tape, taken from the Aon website:

"It was the Maria Luisa pub in Plovdiv, where i met Petko, the vocalist for Kokosha Glava and it took only 2-3 weeks to arrange releasing this tape, that is surely one of the Bulgarian punk rock cornerstones! Believe it or not, they started in 1988 in a small town near the Turkish border and they still play! The material inside is raw demo or live recordings off various concerts and there is even a rare studio session. Punk, punk and PUNK! and nothing else. They appeared on countless compilations worldwide and they are still eager to play live, if you invite them..."

This is rare, raw, often out of tune punk from a corner of Bulgaria near the Turkish border. It may sound inferior and inept in the context of the massive amount of punk music being released all over the world today. But in the context of a society transitioning from a Soviet-controlled communist state, and just on the cusp of Western influences creeping in, this is an important document in punk history. Seekers of easily digestible and familiar punk, you have been warned. Personally, I find this riveting... 

The first 3 live sets from '95, '89, and '91 are decent enough quality to introduce you to KOKOSHA GLAVA's primitive and tuneful UK inspired punk. The '93 demo is a much sharper sample, but employs clean guitars, giving it a unique quality. The two tracks from the '95 studio recording are really bizarre - not so much because of the drum machine, but the instrumentation, which is composed with keyboard guitar presets. Have you ever heard the "guitar" setting on those old Casio keyboards? Totally weird. The closing live set from '91 is certainly the noisest and hardest to listen to, though the amount of crowd enthusiasm makes it more fun, and you can still always hear all the instruments. For those who don't understand Bulgarian, I made any in-between song banter over 30 seconds it's own track. 

KOKOSHA GLAVA - tape

BG ROCK 1 - CONTROL/NEW GENERATION LP

As requested by Miso from the excellent Muzika Komunica blog, here's the first installment of the BG Rock series on state run Bulgarian label Balkanton. CONTROL seem to be one of the most exciting and influential punk bands from Bulgaria. They play mostly fast driving tunes with bouncy drums with catchy guitar riffs, and a keyboard blended in the mix to give it more depth. They remind me a little of some 80's Polish punk - like a poppier ARMIA. 

BG ROCK 1 - CONTROL/NEW GENERATION LP

NEW GENERATION have a more new wave sound, with many influences creeping in. I don't really know how to describe them, or how to convey their importance to the Bulgarian punk history, so once again I've pulled a excerpt from Ivailo Tonchev's Bulgarian scene report, because he just says it best...Enjoy this rarity! Oh, and if there are any other Bulgarian punk/new wave enthusiasts out there - I can't find the BG Rock 4 - Atlas/Class split!!! Any help??

A band that really stands out here is NEW GENERATION. I suppose I will need at least 20 articles like this to be able to describe them, one of my favorite ever bands. They described their style as "cold wave" yet it was really diverse in sound, probably the closest comparison will be JOY DIVISION. They started in 1985 as WOTZEK AND CHUGRA and this was one of the many projects of these brilliant musicians/artists... Other projects as KALE, ABSOLIUTNO NACINAESTI, VHOD B, LAKSHMI OT NAPISCHIM are also worth mentioning. These projects were quite varied musically... from goth-sounding wave up to minimalist improvisations. As KALE they took part in the first rock festival in Sofia, where they were officially thrown out with the help of the police. Something was really scaring the people around this band, they were too extreme and too radical for our short minded scene back then. They were the first to put out their underground films, to form their FAN CLUB (which was not T-Shirts, autographed pictures... but a serious communion between like-minded people). They didn't get enough recognition in their early years, at least I fear the scene wasn't grown up enough to understand their message, people found them too "weird" and too dark, yet this is what I love so much about them! Well, they were well accepted back then by most of the people in the scene, but I yet think not that many people understood what it was all about. They released a split LP with CONTROL in '89, a CD as a posthumous "best of" in '98, and countless tape releases, mostly spread though their fanclub. They split up around 1992 after the death of their leader/songwriter D.Voev. It was a sad event back in those days.

BG ROCK 3 - MILENA/REVIEW LP

Today I bring you a rare  LP from the dawn of the Bulgarian new wave/punk movement. I became obsessed with REVIEW's track from the Bulgarian Archives comp EP a while back, and since i can never seem to be satiated, I made it my mission to track this down. Don't expect raging hardcore or familiar punk angst here; this is something totally different. The REVIEW side is a mix of new wave and what I can only assume is a traditional Balkan sound - really unique and mostly incredibly catchy. The MILENA side is the singer from REVIEW's solo project, and honestly is as pretty far away from punk as you'll ever see on this blog. It's pretty much just radio pop or something, but I felt it necessary to include it for completeness's sake. Below I've included Bulgarian punk scene veteran Ivailo Tonchev's account of the bands...

BG ROCK 3 - MILENA/REVIEW LP

REVIEW bore the only female punk STAR (?) here - MILENA. REVIEW did a great LP of gloomy wave/punk, the first underground film movie "WATERFALL MANAGER" and split up. Later on there was a tape released by DS music. MILENA was their vocalist, quite fascinating with her mohawk and her unique dressing style. Sadly the 90's fucked her a lot. She did one great and extremely hard to be found LP, where she was supported by the musicians of ERA ("HA HA") and later on turned to glam rock, metal or now she's into crossover... ok, she was, as I saw her last summer and she had again ripped a new style, this time sort of acoustic rock... kinda boring, huh...

NOVI CVETYA - 83 98 Cassette

I'm a complete sucker for rare Eastern European punk.Today's completely deranged post may be a test of patience for most of you - i.e. a must for 'exotic punk' fans, and a maybe for everyone else. If you dig the GRAZHDANSKAYA OBORONA post I did a couple weeks ago then you should definitely download this, because it has a similar style in vocals and melody. The cassette is obviously a 327th generation copy of a copy of a copy, and suffers in quality, but hey what the fuck do you expect from some obscure artifact from the tape trading circles in Bulgaria in the 80's-90's? So if you can't hang with it, just skip to tracks 16-20 when the recording is much fuller and you can hear the drums and stuff - it evolves into super catchy punk with some hints of UK 80's anarcho sound, and an added female vocalist for an extra dynamic.  

нови цветя 83 98

There's absolutely no info in this tape or in my "Discography of Eastern European Punk Music 1977-1999" book by Luk Haas, (oh, you don't have one of those?? ---> http://darbouka.pagesperso-orange.fr/), but I do have a NOVI CVETYA reissue 7" that has a short history of the band:

"The band was made of a bunch of kids, that heard some punk stuff on the Yugoslavian radio and decided to become 'punks'...back in 1979. They made their own instruments, recorded demos in their summer kitchen, using simple reel to reel recorder.

With the 'perestroika' they became more famous, did their first official gigs and even got an alarm clock as a prize! It was 1987...

The early 90s brought more fans, more concerts and then one day it all faded away, as after all they had to take care of their families, to work and...you know...

In 2004 'Radiation 1978-1995' was released, a sort of collection of tracks that never made it on vinyl or cd, until then. In February 2007 they released the new album 'Zemen Rai' (The Earthly Paradise) also including some of their old tracks."

BULGARIAN ARCHIVES 1985 - 1990

Here's one for the "exotic punk" fanatics - a great starting point if you're ready to dive into the early Bulgarian punk scene! AON Productions (Bulgaria) and Break Even Records (Canada) brought us this magnificent 7" compilation of rare, mostly unreleased tracks back in 1999, and it's limited to 500 copies!

The collection kicks off with a solid rager by one of Bulgaria's first punk bands, DDT, who only released two demos throughout the '80s. Next up is a really incredible live track by REVIEW - by far my favorite song on this comp. REVIEW was fronted by a woman named Milena Slavova, who supposedly became a sort of alternative "popstar" later on in Bulgaria. Online articles that I have read described her as the Bulgarian NINA HAGEN!? Their track, "UFO," is one of those comp tracks that made me exclaim, "Oh my God, I have to track down everything related to this band!" (which I sadly still have not managed to do - little help?) Amazing, melodic, interesting, upbeat punk with excellent dynamic vocals. On to U.Z.Z.U from the small town of Gabrovo. Their demo got the John Peel treatment on the BBC in the early 90's, and this track is a satire on a traditional patriotic Bulgarian song. Next up is a total smasher by Bulgarian punk legends, CONTROL. They were the first Bulgarian punk band to release vinyl (I'll post in someday!), and really shook things up in the Bulgarian underground beginning in late '80s. Their sound here is fast and aggressive, but nuanced with driving keyboard lines and catchy choruses. Back again with DDT, this time presenting a  very rough recording - but if you can tolerate the rawness, you will appreciate the great hooks of a solid, mid-paced punk tune. NEW GENERATION offers up a more dancey new wave track, the best of all their material that I've heard.  Adept musicianship and a great recording almost put this track in a different category to my ears, but the liner notes identify NEW GENERATION as an influential part of the early Bulgarian punk movement. The compilation fades out with a sample of some old traditional Bulgarian song.

V/A - BULGARIAN ARCHIVES 1985-1990

I'm certainly no expert, so I really can't school you on the history on Bulgarian punk beyond the info on the records and tapes I've collected, but I found a link to an excellent scene report written by Ivailo Tonchev (of AON Productions) for Maximum Rocknroll (I think). Check it out here!

Funny side note: I found this record at a punk record store in or near Orange County (the name of it escapes me...it didn't even have a sign out front and it was in a very non-descript building). I bought a nice stack of stuff that day, but this was one of the records I was most excited about finding. When I got home I pulled the record out of it's sleeve and the center labels were for a DEEP WOUND "American Style" EP (demo tracks i think). Shit - they stuffed the wrong record in the sleeve! So I sadly put it to the back of the listening pile and played everything else that I bought. At the end of the stack I thought - what the hell, I like DEEP WOUND - it's not obscure punk from behind the Iron Curtain, but i didn't pay 5 bucks for nothing. I threw it on and it was not DEEP WOUND after all, but the BULGARIAN ARCHIVES 1985-1990! It made it even more exciting, and made my record shopping day feel so much more triumphant - saving the best for last without even knowing it! I don't know if all copies have the wrong labels, but if you're lucky enough to find one of these and notice DEEP WOUND labels on it, don't be deterred! Also, anyone out there have the DEEP WOUND "American Style" 7" with BULGARIAN ARCHIVES labels? Just curious.