Author: Urban Bolta
Artist: Let 3
Label: Dallas Records
Released: 1989
Length: 58:22
Rating: 4/5
Let 3 are today an integral, indispensable part of the Croatian rock community, and not just the rock community: they’re one of the biggest and most recognizable elements of the Croatian music scene, period. But every band was small and obscure once, and had to build its career from scratch. Let 3 were of course no exception. To understand how the band got started, we have to look way back, to the turn of the seventies into the eighties, when the so-called Rijeka new wave ruled the local music scene.
One of the most recognizable and unique bands of that new wave was Termiti, a short-lived group that nonetheless left behind an incredible legacy. Future Let 3 bassist and co-founder Damir Martinović “Mrle” gathered his musical experience in Termiti, and he knew exactly how to put it to work in Let 3, giving the band the look that’s so recognizable today. The second key piece, vocalist Zoran Prodanović “Prlja”, played in another well-known Rijeka band, Umjetnici Ulice, and then in the second half of the eighties teamed up with Mrle, and that creative partnership , which soon grew into a five-piece band, became a new project. Let 3.
The debut Two Dogs Fuckin’ came out in 1989, long after the Rijeka punk wave had died out. There’s no need to look for parallels between the debut and the dead movement on whose ashes Let 3 started playing, because there aren’t any: the only thing they really share is the idea of playing music. Two Dogs Fuckin’ is a quality album of (then) modern rock crossed with a heavy dose of experimental punk, but it’s a lot more than that, since the songs aren’t cut from the same cloth, with ideas pulled in from all kinds of directions. The opener “Sam u vodi” is marked by oriental-flavored keyboards and a drum rhythm, while the guitars hang back in the background and only kick in more lively in the second half, when they even hit you with some distorted bits. If the opening song leaves the listener sitting in their chair, that’s definitely not the case for the follow-up! “Ne trebam te” is an angry, almost hard rock song with squealing guitars and psychedelic elements that crank up the aggression and unease even further. The first two tracks are thus a representative sample of the whole album, since every next song brings new ideas to the table and keeps the rhythm varied. Repeating or copying motifs from song to song is something Two Dogs Fuckin’ simply doesn’t do. One of the album’s peaks is “Niotkuda”, thanks to two guitars that complement each other masterfully, slow-paced vocals and mighty lyrics.
That Let 3 are not just a quality rock attraction but a small-scale circus is made clear by the twenty-second-long “Ciklama”, a lost “song” by Mrle’s Termiti. Mrle’s goofy, high-pitched squealing, and that’s the whole song. Like skinning a live piglet. Commenting on gems like this is pointless, but the fact is that with this and similar bizarre bits, the Croats have won over legions of fans throughout their career, and on the other side of the sea, legions of the appalled. Let 3 are just specific: you either love them or you can’t stand them, there’s no in-between. The track “Ciklama” announces the silliness and utterly unserious outbursts present in the lyrics and message of some songs, and ultimately at their live shows too.
A five-piece lineup opens up the possibility of two guitars, but at moments that’s not enough to fill the sonic space, and sometimes the listener gets the feeling they’re hearing, say, just a trio. Prlja is also only an average vocalist, but the essence of Let 3’s music was never virtuoso instrument-wielding or flawless vocals, but cleverly combined ideas that are in themselves bigger than the Croatian musicians’ merely average command of their instruments.
Exactly twenty years after the debut’s release, the label Dallas reissued the rarity (as far as getting hold of an original copy goes) and added three bonus tracks. The first, previously unreleased “Pere pere”, is an interesting approximation of sixties psychedelic pop-rock, the second, “Ne trebam te”, is a live version of the studio track, played at Turist in Ljubljana in 1992, which can be taken as a thank-you for the band’s popularity in our parts, and the album closes with “We are lost”, the English version of “Izgubljeni”.
With the debut Two Dogs Fuckin’, Let 3 laid solid foundations and a strong springboard for the rest of their journey. It’s worth adding that the album is firmly anchored in purely rock waters, which can’t be said for some of Let 3’s more recent releases, when the Croatian oddballs turned their backs on rock.
Lineup
Damir Martinović “Mrle” – bass guitar
Zoran Prodanovič “Prlja” – vocals
Ivica Dražić “Miki” – guitar
Nenad Tubin “Tubin” – drums
Igor Perković “Gigi” – guitar
Boris Reinić “Reina” – drums (11)
Dean Benzia – (12)
Raoul Varljen – keyboards (1,4,9), Igor Leonardi – guitar (1,3,7), Mario Marolt – saxophone (2), Dalibor Laginja – guitar (4), Igor Karlić – acoustic guitar (4), Siniša banović – drums (4), Martin Lumbar – flute (9), Nina Cacadou – backing vocals (9), Tanja Cacadou – backing vocals (7)
Production
Goran Lisica, Damir Martinović, Zoran Prodanović, Bojan Mušćet, Sanjin Đukić
Tracklist
1. Sam u vodi
2. Ne trebam te
3. U rupi od smole
4. Armada
5. Ciklama
6. Izgubljeni
7. Zora
8. Niotkuda
9. Veliki dan
—- bonus tracks (2009) —
10. Pere pere
11. Ne trebam te (live)
12. We are lost
