Artist: Ogledala
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2008
Length: 47:29
Rating: 4.5/5
Dallas has just put out four albums by bands from the Rijeka new wave scene: Grč, Mrtvi Kanal, Ogledala and Fit! Ogledala’s self-titled album, finished, produced and ready for release back in 1984, sadly never saw the light of day. 24 years here or there, who cares. Better 24 years late than never. Anyway, here it is, thanks to a few nostalgics who never forgot the outstanding quality of this body of work.
I’ll never have a real grasp of the (worldwide) Rijeka rock phenomenon myself, for that my birth date would have had to be shifted deep into the sixties, but I can at least hint that after the first Rijeka boom, shaped by punk bands like Termiti or Parafi, Ogledala skipped that raw, in-your-face rebel attitude and lifted their understanding of rock to the level of avant-garde tinkering, with elements of new wave synth pop and even the new romantics of early Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Ultravox. Even a fledgling Simple Minds creeps into my mind. They breathed intellect and style into everything! Art. With this artsy approach, the band stands clearly apart, in the Yugoslav space, from the beer-soaked party-time entertainers I’d rather not list so I don’t hurt the feelings of the Yugo nostalgics, even though there are plenty of examples to go around. With a firm stance facing the West!
In the hermetically sealed space of the former Yugoslavia, Ogledala were a true miracle, a real undiscovered gem whose shine could have glowed much brighter under different conditions for creating and support. Roughly speaking, you pour more and more melody into the punk idiom, brought in by the first primitive synthesizer ever made on this planet. You combine that with single-string lead melodies on the guitar, with a thin, sharp, distorted tone, and an accompaniment of simple, choppy, higher-pitched chords that you push in the production to a distance of a completely separate entity and balance in the sound picture against the sound of the keyboards. As a counterweight, you set up bold, simplified rhythms that bring in energy, don’t even hide possible pop dance impulses, and are seasoned with a melodic, clearly shaped bass line. No two ways about it. Typical eighties. Artistry sought in minimalism and the intelligent, inspired combining of short, simple tricks of musical ideas. Unique.
Right at the center of all this sits a yearning, passionate male vocal in the mid-to-low range, convincingly stringing together a variety of emotions, and the most typical representative of the description above, a song that stands for the whole band, is Ogledala su oko mene. It’s followed, with undiminished expressive quality, by Kako ti je sada, Sve se nastavlja, Još jednom, loaded with a melancholy chorus, and the lewd Šapat tame. Just the opening tapping effect in Ogledala su oko mene faintly recalls the beginning of Duran Duran’s Careless Memories, while the guitar line in the chorus, with its thin, compressed, distorted tone pushed back to a clear sonic distance, offers a trick not far from the one used in a song like Planet Earth (Duran Duran). An occasional reference to Duran Duran’s self-titled debut, with a four-year phase shift (as far as album release years go), isn’t all that out of place as a comparison. At least it roughly shows where the dog pokes out its paw (every now and then). The verses are often stitched together on purpose in an illogical way, which was very fashionable on the global popular rock scene at the time, sought after, very art!
I’d also mention that in one of the outro repeats of the chorus of Sve se nastavlja, a semitone miss sneaks into the lead guitar melody, which we can count as a naive studio mistake, but also be grateful for the captured authenticity of the recording!
“Ogledala” is an album that seriously missed its moment. Today, when you spin it for the first time, it feels lost, remote, almost shocking. But back then it wouldn’t have been strange at all if someone had “booked” an EKV tour across Yugoslavia and added Ogledala as the support act. Believe me, that would have been a phenomenal combination, which perhaps helps highlight the band’s great sense for adding a fine art component to the understanding of the rock tradition. The avant-garde weirdness of art pop punk rock with psychedelic elements of new wave synth pop mixed in, made with hard graft and without the conditions foreign bands had in Great Britain or the USA, but with a quality of songwriting that effectively captured the worldwide appeal of the “mainstream” music of the time. “Ogledala” is a must for all nostalgic romantics of the eighties. The years of youth and innocence. An overlooked, one-of-a-kind gem that never got its proper validation, proper thanks, proper recognition. This Dallas release at least partly gives it back to the band.
Lineup
Leo Rumora – vocals, drums
Damir Bajić – guitar
Miro Zupčić – keyboards
Dado Trpkov – bass guitar
Production
Janez Križaj
Tracklist
1. Ogledala su oko mene (intro)
2. Kako ti je sada
3. Ogledala su oko mene
4. Sve se nastavlja
5. Samo ti
6. Još jednom
7. Šapat tame
8. Priča
9. Kule
10. Dah pločnika
BONUS TRACKS (Live Split):
11. Dok grad spava
12. Večeras
