Label: BJ Promotion & Nika Records
Release date: 10/21/2022
Production: Berislav Jovanović
Album length: 58.19 min
Genre: Punk/Punk Rock
Rating: 8.5/10
As you probably remember, on October 21, 2022, Pankrti celebrated their 45th anniversary in front of a sold-out Hala Tivoli. Well, their founding anniversary, to be precise, since over the years the band has taken quite a few serious breaks. On the very day of the Hala Tivoli show, BJ Promotions and Nika Records also put out a new live document from the band, dating back to the mid-eighties.
Thanks to the archives of the band’s former manager, Berislav Janković from Pula (who also managed Azra), the live album »Turneja pomirenja – Live In Zagreb 1985« has finally seen the light of day. As the title hints, it comes from the promo cycle for their then freshly released album »Pesmi sprave« (1985). The band played these archival recordings in the middle of Zagreb, at what was then the Dom Moša Pijade hall (today’s Boogaloo), on December 9, 1985.
By 1985, Pankrti had reached real maturity. Their language had shifted from the abrasive, razor-sharp pose of those notorious punk usurpers, who in the early days worked under the heavy influence of the first-wave bands led by Sex Pistols, The Clash and New York Dolls too, and by the time of »Pesmi sprave« their songwriting had become more and more engaged. The arrival of Marc Kavaš, a superb lead guitarist, and his partnership with Bogo Pretnar put the dot on the ‘i’ of that engagement. The band, which is considered an essential punk outfit across the territory of the former shared country (and there’s no need to even stress that), led by the one and only, the punk potentate of all potentates, Pero Lovšin, had honed a mocking, bristling show, and the unique madness of a rock-hungry crowd captured on this night adds an important contour to the document. Unique, because we’re talking about times that were considerably friendlier to rock music, and because this is the generation of punk that, with its burning attitude (together with Pankrti and other bands from the late, lamented Yugoslavia), firmly enthroned punk rock culture in the middle of the western Balkans back then. Those times will never come back. But they’re preserved forever on precious documents like this new live album from the legendary Ljubljana punk rock outfit. The quintet delivered impenetrable tightness, commanded by an untamed, hot-headed chieftain, uniquely ‘Pankrti-doglike’ – the roguishly charismatic Pero Lovšin. Alongside the vocal icon, Pankrti also brought serious power with the intensified, thundering wall of two guitars, that is, the fluid and superbly effective tandem of the aforementioned Kavaš-Pretnar duo, plus a piercing rhythmic tornado in the Colnarič – Kramberger line.
The album also comes with a booklet featuring a really interesting photo gallery. It’s a shame it isn’t a few pages thicker, and that it doesn’t include a short essay from some music observer from the former shared country who lived and breathed punk at the turn of the seventies into the eighties and through the eighties themselves. That’s the only minor, quickly forgotten gripe I can pin on this release.
Is the setlist actually longer? An hour-long recording and sixteen tracks. Satisfying. But questionable. In terms of quantity. Especially given the interesting setlist with solid representation of the »Pesmi sprave« material, where Osmi dan and Zvečer v mesta are of course present, alongside the soul-searching company of tracks from its predecessor »Rdeči album«, led by Udarnik sle, Gora, Slavni razglas, Vodja and of course the ferocious opening assault of Bandiera Rossa. Still, with the exception of Totalna revolucija, a whole bag of the most prominent moments of the band’s career, recorded on the debut »Dolhcajt«, is missing. Luckily, Za železno zaveso from »Državni ljubimci« is here.
In short, if I counted right, this archival live recording is the band’s fourth live document overall and the second from the eighties, when Pankrti were riding high on a gigantic wave of stage demand and tamed it with such skill that steering it ‘from behind the iron curtain’ (in the mid-eighties) kept gratefully cementing their title as the leading punk band.
Fans of raw punk and rock’n’roll nostalgics of the eighties already have this live album in their collection. It offers a hugely interesting glimpse into the band at the peak of their powers. Especially when it comes to that elusive stage presence, wrapped in unique charisma, eruptive energy and unshakable commitment, generated among other things by the band’s brilliant chemistry with the crowd. All of it is captured on tape from that December day, long ago in 1985. With its sermon-like title, »Turneja pomirenja – Live In Zagreb« is a new holy communion from the days of punk rock provocation at its most glorious, when Pankrti, with no compromise and no reconciliation, kept shaking the foundations of the old social order with ‘salted fury’.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Miloserdija dveri … (intro)
2. Bandiera Rossa
3. Skupi
4. Slavni razglas
5. Gora
6. Zakon smo mi
7. Gospodar
8. Umazane igre
9. Zekapank
10. Totalna revolucija
11. Udarnik sle
12. Čehi letijo v nebo
13. Vodja
14. Zvečer v mestu
15. Za železno zaveso
16. Osmi dan
Lineup:
Pero Lovšin – vocals
Marc Kavaš – guitar
Bogo Pretnar – guitar
Boris Kramberger – bass
Slavc Colnarič – drums
