Since I live in Slovenia, a former yugoslav republic, and I grew up listening to music from this area, I have quite a few non-english bands to recommend...
First of all, I think that 1980s in ex yugoslavia produced some of the best music (songs and albums) that I've ever heard.. I still have a lot to listen to (albums especially - while I know a lot of famous songs by yugoslav bands, there is actually only a small number of albums that I actually listened to), but here's what I find to be the best thus far:
note: I added translations to songs where I could
Ekatarina Velika or EKV, (trans. Catherine the Great)
I won't be comprehensive about other bands, but this is one of my favourite bands ever, so... They were a Serbian new wave/rock band, active from early eighties to 1994. They released 7 studio albums, the first of them when they were still called Katarina II. After that album (which is the most experimental of all) one of the members left and they had to change the name because he claimed rights..
Anyways, I would recommend basically everything by them, because while I don't think they were groundbreaking, or made a masterpiece or anything like that, they made consistently great albums in their genre, and I really don't think they made a bad one.. I would go even further and say they had not made a bad track (couple of average ones, sure, but not bad).
Albums (+ links to what I think are the best - or one of best - songs):
1985 - Ekatarina Velika- probably the weakest album (I actually prefer live versions of plenty of songs here), but still very good - great songs: Modro i Zeleno (Blue and green), Tattoo,...
1986 - S Vetrom Uz Lice (don't know how to properly translate this - with the wind beside face (?)); - it's a more conventional, polished sound, but very good, plenty of highlights; Umorna (Tired), Kao da je bilo nekad (As if it once was), Soba (Room)
1987 - Ljubav (Love); #49 on my chart - their most mature (+ polished) record (at the time) possibly their most highly rated; Check: Sedam Dana (seven days), also Voda (Water), Pored Mene (Beside me), Zid (Wall)...
1989 - Samo Par Godina Za Nas (Only a few years for us); #24 on my chart ; 10 great tracks, this is IMO Ekatarina Velika at their best. The sound is similar to what it was before, but this really their most consistently great work; Best tracks: Ona i on i on i ja, Iznad Grada (Above the Town), Ona mi je rekla (She Said to me)... But really, I love the entire album
1991: Dum Dum; #43 on my chart; One of the great things about the band - they really captured the "zeitgeist" in their work, this was made when Yugoslavia was falling apart, an important band member left the band,.. This shows in darker sound and lyrics; Best tracks: Bledo, Siguran (Safe), Idemo (hm.. We're going (?)),...
1993: Neko Nas Posmatra (Somebody's watching us); another great effort, it's considered as more "upbeat" and optimistic than Dum Dum, though listening to some of the lyrics I would say once again that it captures the war time and post-break up of Yugoslavia wonderfully; Tracks: Hej Mama, Zajedno (Together), Just let me play some modern rnr music,...
After this album, in 1994 EKV frontman Milan Mladenović died of pancreatic cancer.. Similarly, two most important members of the band, Margita Stefanović and Bojan Pečar have also died to soon, which is most likely the consequence of long term drug abuse.
Idoli (the Idols)
I admit that I only started to listening to Idoli recently, after seeing that their album Odbrana i Poslednji dani (The Defense and the last days) was voted in 1998 as the best album of Yugoslav Rock music.. Idoli were one of the most influental bands in this area, and one of those responsible for the "new wave" movement in Yugoslavia; They made two LP albums, a couple of EPs, and they appeared on a 1980 compilation album Paket Aranžman with two other bands (Električni Orgazam (Electrical Orgasm) and Šarlo Akrobata (Serbian version of Charlie Chaplin's name) - more about that belowˇ) - the latter was a band of which Milan Mladenović of EKV was also a member).. They disbanded in 1985.
LPs:
1982 - Odbrana i Poslednji dani; #50 on my chart: Highly recommended
1983 - Čokolada (Chocolate): I have to listen to this album, but from the songs I've heard it's a lot more commercial (pop rock)
Songs:
Kenozoik (Cenozoic)- opening track of "Odbrana"..
Maljciki (=Russian for 'boys') - included on compilation album Paket Aranžman; parody on Russians
Poslednji Dani (Last Days) - second track of "Odbrana"
Rusija (Russia) - possibly the best song by the band
Malena - included on one of their EPs.. Funny video
Paket Aranžman
It's not among my favourites (Idoli were better in "Odbrana.." if you ask me) but this compilation is considered as one of the most influential records from ex-yugoslavia.. I would give special mentions to three songs (well + Maljciki which i mentioned above):
by Šarlo Akrobata: Niko kao ja (meaning 'nobody like me' - with a very funny video),
Ona se Budi ('She's waking up')..
By Električni Orgazam: Krokodili dolaze ('Crocodiles are Coming').
Bijelo Dugme (trans. White Button)
A very famous Bosnian band, active from early 70s untill late eighties; I think some of you may have heard of Goran Bregović, band member and writer of majority of songs.. Their music included influences of Hard Rock, Blues Rock (they kind of remind me of Led Zeppelin on some songs), progressive rock, elements of folk rock (I call it Balkan rock) and new wave in the eighties (which i guess was the style of the time), they also composed some of the most beautiful ballads...
I don't want to write the entire discography, I would just mention "Bitanga i Princeza"(Scoundrel and a Princess), their 1979 album (#28 on my list), which is arguably their best..
Some of the songs:
Bitanga i Princeza - first song on the album
Ove ću noći naći blues (...the blues) - early Bijelo Dugme, not included on any LP (just compilations)
Kad Zaboraviš Juli (When you forget July) - an example of their ballad; also check Sve ce to mila moja prekriti...
Top (Cannon) - another one which isn't on any album, but a fantastic song..
And, I think their most famous song (from later in their career, and with a different singer): Đurđevdan - an example of folk-rock, although I prefer "Ederlezi", basically the same song (composed by Bregović) but with a female singing (in "romani" language), also used in Emir Kusturica film Dom Za Vešanje (translated as Time of the Gypsies)..
There are many more great bands - Film, Azra, Plavi Orkestar (Blue Orchestra), Prljavo Kazalište (Dirty Theatre), Time (who made IMO the best ex-yugo album of all time - #16 on my chart), Niet, etc., but I'll write more about those someday later ..
If anyone is interested, this is a playlist I made on youtube - The Best of.. Slovenian Music (I put my favourite Slovenian artists/songs that had existing videos on u-tube); It's not a perfect representation of slo. music, but I definitely recommend it.
I know this is a "best ever albums" site, but there are very few Slovenian albums which I could recommend. Id (which is on my chart) and Nord by Siddharta + one more album by a comedy duo (not unlike Flight of the Conchords) Slon in Sadež (Elephant and Fruit) are the only ones which I would consider putting on my top 50 list.. The problem is there's a small number of albums I had actually heard in its entirety and those that I did are mostly too inconsistent.. Anyways.. My picks from the mentioned playlist:
On sunday there was a Slovenian national final for the Eurovision song contest.. In recent years, there haven't really been plenty of songs I liked in the ESC, nevermind in our finals.. But contrary to some of the previous years, there were some.. OK songs, with one standing out in particular (at least in my opinion - it didn't win) > Slovenka (Slovenian girl?) by Leeloojamais.
STUDIO version (no video)
And a "live" version (ie live vocals over the pre-recorded backing track- rules for eurovision):
Not what I usually listen to (not a fan of RnB/pop/whatever this is), but I really like it.... You have to be a bit open minded when listening to whatever these kinds of festivals have to offer
I just got back from an expo in Dusseldorf, Germany, where I met with some people from Hungary that I have known through business for a few years. We got into talking about the very subject of this thread and they recommended a Hungarian band called Tankcsapda. I don't have a clue what they are singing but the music is pretty straight forward heavy rock. Not bad at all. Here's a sample:
On sunday there was a Slovenian national final for the Eurovision song contest.. In recent years, there haven't really been plenty of songs I liked in the ESC, nevermind in our finals.. But contrary to some of the previous years, there were some.. OK songs, with one standing out in particular (at least in my opinion - it didn't win) > Slovenka (Slovenian girl?) by Leeloojamais.
STUDIO version (no video)
And a "live" version (ie live vocals over the pre-recorded backing track- rules for eurovision):
Not what I usually listen to (not a fan of RnB/pop/whatever this is), but I really like it.... You have to be a bit open minded when listening to whatever these kinds of festivals have to offer
I liked it _________________ .
I owe $100,000 and wasted 4 years of my life.
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