One of my most recent buys actually came in the post a few days before I travelled to Slovenia. Between then and now my ability to buy records has been limited by travel costs, and some other boring stuff, but things are settling down now so I'm looking to pick up a lot more in the coming months. As such I'll hold off talking about certain records that I only have represses of, in the hope that I'll be able to talk about the real things sooner rather than later.
This record is a bit of a weird one. Whilst, as the sleeve (scan above) would suggest, it's dominated by U.B.R. recordings, the compilation actually includes songs from III. Kategorija and Odpadki Civilizacije too, the latter of which I've not mentioned here before. Both bands are probably best known for their contributions to the Hardcore Ljubljana LP, but no tracks from that record are featured at all. Instead, you get the majority of U.B.R.'s other recordings, the late metal demo of III. Kategorija that I have previously mentioned and uploaded, and Odpadki Civilizacije tracks taken from the Kaj Je Alternativa (What is the Alternative?) compilation from 1983, which has also seen a recent reissue. This 12” was released in 2003, by Falšanja Kol'ko'š Records, which was based in Zagreb, Croatia. The label seemed to mainly put out Patareni records (Croatian grind, mainly active in the late 1980s/1990s), including a split with Buka, which again re-appropriates the artwork used for this compilation, originally taken from the U.B.R. Corpus Delicti 7”. The cover of this makes no reference to it's given title, 'Organiziran Kaos' (Organised Kaos), whilst the spine does, but neither mention the other bands featured. Initially I actually thought this was just a Corpus Delicti reissue on 12” and it wasn't until looking at the full tracklisting that I learned otherwise.
Whilst there seems to be little organisation to the chaos of the compilation- or reason why a U.B.R. compilation has other recordings tacked onto it, the record actually represents a decent roundup of some of the most important hardcore from Slovenia, and the sound quality of the vinyl is pretty decent, even if the actual recordings inevitably vary as far as this goes. Looking online I've seen this sell semi-regularly for all kinds of prices, ranging from a few quid, to almost £30. I got mine for about a tenner, and it's in pretty decent condition. The record doesn't come with an inlay (or at least mine didn't), instead the rear cover features all the important details, tracklisting and some artwork taken from other U.B.R. records. That's about all there is to mention, the whole thing is relatively basic and represents a bit of a missed opportunity to really do U.B.R. justice with a proper reissue, but I'm not hugely surprised, as it seems it's only been the last few years that this has happened, thanks to Rest In Punk and Ne! Records. It was however pressed on clear red vinyl, so that's something I suppose.
What you do get here as far as U.B.R. goes however is largely killer, by virtue of them being a great band. The Corpus Delicti 7” is rightly considered by people who have heard it, as one of the seminal recordings from Slovenia/Yugoslavia/Europe and is a certified banger, and the inclusion of outtakes from that session and a demo recorded a year later, in 1985, are nice bonuses. The B-Side features the U.B.R. contributions to the Kaj Je Alternativa compilation as well as Odpadki Civilizacije's tracks, which means it's only missing the Stres D.A. recordings from the original tape, which is probably the second most important/well known compilation from the 1980's Slovene scene. Both U.B.R. and Odpadki Civilizacije would go onto produce better material elsewhere and whilst the Odpadki songs here are decent enough, they don't live up to their Hardcore Ljubljana contributions, which are probably the highlight of that record.
As mentioned earlier, Rest in Punk have given U.B.R. the reissue treatment in the past year or so and have done a better job, with extra details, photos and a few extra songs (I think), so I'll be uploading that in a separate post, as well as dedicating whole articles to the Hardcore Ljubljana compilation and Corpus Delicti. I have a copy of Hardcore Ljubljana but Corpus Delicti falls into the aforementioned category of records I hope to own original copies of at some point soon. One of those posts will also contain a more extensive overview of the band, including some information I gained earlier this year when I spoke to Gigi.
TRACKLISTING
