Label: Dallas Records (original release Helidon)
Vinyl reissue year: 2023
Production: Goran Lisica Fox (2009 remaster: Matej Zec and Igor Sušanj)
Album length: 38.10 min
Genre: Alternative Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
Once upon a time, when the seventies were slowly molting into the eighties, there was the Rijeka new wave. And out of it came Let 2. They formed when the two main players and central creative figures of the story, Zoran Prodanovič (Prlja) and Damir Martinović (Mrle), decided to join creative forces. The former had previously played in Umjetnici ulice, the latter in Termiti. After a few months Let 2 renamed themselves Let 3, just as the eighties were nicely settling into their second half.
The debut “Two Dogs Fucking” is a classic today. The cornerstone of the Let 3 legacy. For many, even the best thing Let 3 ever did. Let’s be more precise: it’s still the most cherished record in the band’s catalog for many people. It came out in 1989 (recorded in Ljubljana between June and December 1988). And those were analog times. Times when our part of the world was (happily) still plodding along behind all the “junk” that the boom in recording tech and production tricks was bringing on a global level. So the album was born in a place that has always kept the genuine cry of rebellion alive. A cry that tears down taboos! With the sparkling sharpness of expressive wit that has always manifested in its own way. True to its geographic roots. Unique. So the album came out in 1989 and handles the novelties that defined global production standards at the time very badly. Actually, it doesn’t handle them at all, doesn’t absorb them. It’s much easier on this record to find a direct link to the ancestral roots of the Rijeka new wave, even though we’re talking about a clear artistic step away into a new creative dimension. About the birth of a new story, a new artistic and creative sphere.
The 2023 vinyl reissue is a real balm for everyone who doesn’t own the Helidon original and can’t come to terms with the sound of the 2009 CD reissue of this album, even though the vinyl reissue keeps the 2009 remaster by Matej Zec and Igor Sušanj. Vinyl is just vinyl. There’s no sweeter sound. Both sides of the album open rudimentary and the record grabs you instantly. It keeps the liveliness, the organic feel and the authentic reflection of the times it was made in, and as such it was embodied on the recording tape. Side A opens vividly. With three tracks that are still regulars in the band’s live set. Sam u vodi soaks up the most post-punk moments, which were all the rage in the eighties. Piercing bass lines, oscillating guitar feedback filling the background of the sonic picture, a disillusioned vocal front and center. Like a Rijeka reflection of some distant The Mission and The Sisters Of Mercy. And then the track goes into a fade-out. Ne trebam te, another eternal live favorite, steers things back toward classic punk abrasiveness and reflects the ancestral roots of the Rijeka new wave more intensely.
The debut reaches for sonic experimentation, which gives it a one-of-a-kind spot in the band’s musical dossier thanks to the arrangements. A saxophone joins the grinding guitars and is clearly pushed up front in the mix. On U rupi od smole, Let 3 cling even harder to the origins of Rijeka punk. What’s interesting is how they used the extra guitars to contrast the sonic landscape. Deftly, concisely and precisely. Against Zoran Prodanović’s destructive delivery of his poetry, this density of multiple guitar lines is an important element that boosts the expressive reach of the lyrics. Destructive psychedelia taken to all extremes, with a crescendo in the finale.
Then comes the calming down of side A with Armada, a track dedicated to the fans of the football club Rijeka. The rhythmic structures tell you everything. Nobody needs lyrics here. The bristling rock’n’roll of the phasing alternates with bursts of tribal rhythms, while the chaos of vocal clowning and roaring works as additional instruments! And then there’s that stinging gag Ciklama, which went through plenty of incarnations in later eras. In the studio and live (even in 2025 on the album “RKTRD NDRD”). With a banality that’s hard to put into words. As long as it stings.
Side B opens with force. With yet another live favorite that’s become a people’s anthem, Izgubljeni, which has to define every Let 3 show in every era of the band. “Two dogs fucking” rises proudly with a track that shakes the album like no other. It gets the blood pumping through your veins. A track that roars with punk grime, chases musical catchiness and races on the high wave of an internalized rock’n’roll rally attitude. With that chorus “1, 2, 3, 4,…Izgubljeni!!!” that we all know by heart. Zora brings an interesting artistic detour to the album. With an experimental stance, where the guitar lines (even ‘arabesques’ are thrown in) create a deliberately dissonant nature in contrast to the thundering vocal sermon. Piercing bass lines are an integral part of the arrangement of Niodkuda. Especially that transitional ‘lick’. The destructive attitude, led by the poetry and the nature of the delivered verses, is outstanding. A calm exit comes with the closing Veliki dan. Extremely bizarre and caricatured (I’m writing this without having eaten any ‘grass cookies’) – like handing a young Nick Cave The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows and telling him to make something out of it. An absolute experimental detour on the album (even a sonic distortion is woven in that evokes the buzzing of a fly). This track hints that the vision of Martinović and Prodanović was bigger than what the artistic horizon of this brave debut reveals to us, a debut that today counts as a cult classic of alternative rock in our region.
“Two Dogs Fucking” is and remains a very high-quality album. Strong both in its sharp poetry and in the very ideas that define the compositions. A rock’n’roll oddity that has stood the test of time. Not least, the live repertoire proves it too: Let 3 still play at least half of its material today, and it always drives their crowds absolutely wild. The focus of the crew that recorded the debut radiates unbridled fervor, heart and focus. The compass needle of artistry for Let 3 settled firmly on its direction with this debut! The rest is history and evolution!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
Side A
1. Sam u vodi
2. Ne trebam te
3. U rupi od smole
4. Armada
5. Ciklama
Side B
1. Izgubljeni
2. Zora
3. Niotkuda
4. Veliki dan
Line-up:
Damir Martinović-Mrle – electric bass, vocals, metal bird, balls
Zoran Prodanović-Prlja – vocals
Ivica Dražić-Miki – guitar, vocals
Nenad Tubin-Tubin – drums, vocals
Igor Perković-Gigi – guitar
Guest musicians:
Raoul Valjen – synthesizer (tracks A1, A4 and B4)
Igor Leonardi – guitar (tracks A1, A3 and B2)
Mario Marolt – saxophone (track A2)
Dalibor Laginja – guitar (track A4)
Igor Karlić – acoustic guitar (track A4)
Siniša Banović – percussion (track A4)
Martin Lumbar – sitar, frula (track B4)
Nina Cacadou – backing vocals (track B2)
Tanja Cacadou – backing vocals (track B4)
