Repetitor - Dobrodošli Na Okean

  by Maarten Schiethart

published: 30 / 4 / 2013

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Review

This is far from the first punk music from the former Yugoslavia that I have heard. My brother gave me Pankrti's 'Totalna Revolucija' which he bought in Novo Mesto, after staying with friends there in 1981. Thirty-two years later Repetitor, who are from Belgrade, reach well above the level of Pankrti, with this snappy, loud and somewhat refined second album of garage punk, whose title cheekily translates as 'Welcome To the Ocean' - Serbia being a landlocked country. Accidently supporting the release of 'Dobrodošli Na Okean', Repetitor played Leiden, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Amsterdam. These dates had been confirmed months ahead of the album release and Netherlands was the sole foreign place on Repetitor's itinerary. In November the album became available as a download, for which you decided the price. 'Dobrodošli Na Okean' has now recently shipped as a LP release in a gatefold sleeve, and on CD. After a listen to this album, you might be inclined to think that the band has chosen their name in homage to Fugazi's debut album. The link is obvious. And I'm afraid that the few bits from their Serbian lyrics that I can recognize are loanwords. On 'Dustupni i laki', for example, one of the words sounds like 'Arschloch' - German for arsehole - German being a common second language on the Balkan. Most likely, I am of course hilariously wrong here. Theme-wise perhaps, Repetitor may stand close to their expatriots Kultur Shock in the US. There is no big, zany Balkan hoompa here though; this two woman and one man trio is strictly and orthodox punk vocals, guitar, drum and bass. Repetitor are fierce, melodic and dribbling with playful venom in typical punk rock trio style, while vocalist Boris Vlastelica sing/cries his heart out and in the process teaches emo singers how to express emotion in a comprehensible fashion. The opening track ‘Devojke idu u Minhen’ is an overwhelming sleazy garage punk number. The addictive bass line of 'U pravom trenutku' works on the hips immediately. Probably a very convincing stage artist himself, Boris, as well as the rest of Repetitor, do Fugazi proud. Try to imagine White Stripes joined by the bass player from Delta 5 or the Bush Tetras, or one of their grandchildren. They've passed my, unconsciously held, politically correct criterions. On tour they probably pick dandelions to feed to their hamsters, whilst on stage they come on like a storm. Some welcome to the ocean!

Track Listing:-

1 Devojke idu u minhen
2 Bi?u bolji
3 ?teta
4 U pravom trenutku
5 Dostupni i laki
6 Lica
7 Oktobarski salon
8 Laka zabava
9 Pripazi na ljude

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/repetitorbgd
http://repetitor.bandcamp.com/

Label Links:-

http://www.moonleerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/moonleerecord
https://www.youtube.com/user/moonleere
http://moonleerecords.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/moonleerecords
https://vimeo.com/moonleerecords