I've previously written about Dva Minuta Mržnje on this blog (look back to the previous post to find downloads for all of their 1980s recordings) and as a result of that Dario from No Plan Records got in touch with me to say that they were planning to release all the bands material in the near future. I finally got hold of copies of the two 7's they released this morning. On the left of the picture above is a 7" made up of the tracks from the Izgubljena Alternativa compilation tape, with really great artwork by Chris Weston, who is best known for illustrating comics. I'm not sure how that link came about (and when I asked him on twitter he wasn't sure himself), but the Big Brother inspired art fits the general theme of the band. On the right is the Došao Je Kraj 7", featuring alternative artwork to the No Time to Be Wasted version, this time designed by Dario himself. Both releases are pretty limited (350, of which 50 are on colour vinyl) but it's good to have physical versions of both, as the 90s No Time... pressing i mentioned is still selling for £200 upwards on discogs and I've not seen a copy of the Izgubljena... tape available anywhere. Both releases come with single sheet inlays with some artwork from original releases, flyers and photos (see the very on trend drummer below), and most importantly for me at least, a lyrics sheet. All the lyrics are in Serbian, but are relatively simple which means i can piece together some general meanings from them.
The title track of 'Došao Je Kraj' roughly means 'Coming to an End' and talks about how people have had enough of deception and lies and have turned into a wild mob. I'm assuming it's about Yugoslav communism. That might be a simplistic/obvious conclusion to make but it would make sense given what I previously talked about as far as the song 'Crni Mercedes' goes and what I know of the bands general outlook. 'Zašto?' translates as 'Why?' and actually has a resemblance lyrically to another Discharge song, 'Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing'. 'Terorizam' is about hearing about and seeing terrorism on the news and in the street, and ends with 'Terorizam protiv dosade!', or 'Terorrism against Boredom'. I'm not entirely sure what conclusions can be drawn from that.
On the other 7", 'Sudije' or 'Judges' discusses the empty words of judges and executioners which are only followed by obedient sheep and loyal dogs, 'Moderna Omladina' describes the entertainment modern youth find in breaking someones jaw, and 'Maske', like several of the other songs, seems to be a cryptic message to Yugoslav communists, with the singer urging them to take off the mask and show what they really are, and to spit in his face.
I highly recommend buying both records from- http://noplanrecords.blogspot.co.uk as they've done a really decent job with the releases and the songs are great. It would've been great if they had gone down the Ne! Records route of including a biography of the band etc. but half of my motivation for reading that kind of stuff is down to me being a nerd, the other half because it would be useful for my studies.
