New Primitivism (original) (raw)

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New Primitivism (Serbo-Croatian: Novi primitivizam) was a subcultural movement established in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia-Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia in March 1983. It primarily used music, along with satire, sketch and surreal comedy on radio and television, as its form of expression. Its protagonists and followers called themselves the New Primitives. Functioning as a banner that summarizes and encompasses the work of two rock bands Zabranjeno Pušenje and Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors as well as Top lista nadrealista radio segment that eventually grew into a television sketch show, the discourse of New Primitivism was seen as primarily irreverent and humorous. The movement officially disbanded sometime in 1987, although the bands and television show continued for a few more years after that—Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors until 1988, Zabranjeno Pušenje until 1990, and Top lista nadrealista until 1991. (en)

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Taking my lawyer's advice, the defense I presented at the 'Marshal has croaked' court hearings was continuous denials I ever said the remark they accused me of saying. My lawyer, being an intelligent man fully aware of the particular point in time, politically, in Yugoslavia, knew the extent to which this mad witch-hunt could've gone to had I admitted to actually uttering the remark. He also knew 'Marshal has croaked', which still sounded like blasphemy in 1984, would soon take on a whole different contextual meaning. And really, within a short few years, figuratively speaking, 'Marshal has croaked' became an official political programme for many of the newly founded political parties that were in the process of gaining strength and eventually winning power all over Yugoslavia. (en)
New Primitivism was primarily a fuckabout that got taken a little too seriously in the end. It was created as our answer to global musical trends that the Western music industry had been manufacturing and launching in regular intervals in order to sell more records. Whenever there's a lull in sales, the industry comes up with something called, say, New Romanticism, for example. And then, a band appears and it's called Ultravox, for example, so we all cut our hair like Ultravox and we buy that thing for a year or year and a half. And then it's time for New Something Else, and the same cycle is repeated over again..... As sensitive and receptive consumers of pop-culture, we quickly realized the whole thing is a sham so we decided to "join" the musical industry by coming up with our own movement. New Primitivism would've been genius had it been taken over and fostered by a serious conceptual artist willing to invest at least as much energy in it as those Slovenian dudes did in their Neue Slowenische Kunst. However, speaking objectively, that was always going to be an impossibility because the NSK guys took their thing seriously while we never got past the fucking around stage..... I should also add that the biggest difference between New Primitivism and NSK was the fact that "old primitivism" tangibly existed while the "Altslowenische Kunst", strictly speaking, never did. (en)
To be completely honest, I eked out that contract [for the upstart Plavi Orkestar in late 1984 and early 1985] purely on the back of Zabranjeno Pušenje’s commercial success with Das ist Walter. The main thrust of my pitch to [Jugoton CEO] Škarica was that this material is another New Primitive project, only from an angle of camp. And it was still a very tough sell though he eventually budged, even signing off on tracks like “Suada” and “Šta će nama šoferima kuća”. Still, his acceptance was only preliminary as he wanted at least 5-6 new tracks to be recorded at which point he would make his final decision. So, basically the band had to make demos all over again. And since the members were in complete disarray with only Loša available, through Jajo Houra, I managed to get a hold of Hus to produce these new demo recordings. Hus, in turn, brought over his Parni Valjak mates to play, like a hired emergency cleanup crew of sorts... And it was only then that Škarica gave his final go ahead. So, yes, the recordings that made Jugoton finally sign Plavi Orkestar were de facto Parni Valjak recordings. (en)
During summer 1983, after getting back from an out-of-town gig somewhere, we went to our favourite kafana Dedan at Baščaršija where our friend Đuro told us about a journalist from Start looking for us to do an interview. We were convinced Đuro's fucking with us, but he insisted, telling us the guy had already looked for us at TV Sarajevo , at Diskoton , before finally resorting to asking about us from kafana to kafana and eventually ending up at Dedan, leaving a phone number with Đuro. This confirmed to us once more what we had already picked up on during our out-of-town gigs—that people outside of the city are taking our braggadocios and bombastic proclamations in the youth print about being the 'kings of Sarajevo' quite literally and quite seriously. In reality we were complete unknowns. Media outlets in Sarajevo didn't give two shits about us, but we noticed that our embellished stories found a receptive audience in youth print media from other Yugoslav cities. They especially lapped up our tales of this 'great new movement in Sarajevo called New Primitivism'. (en)
Once in a blue moon, I'll get a call from someone saying they're a researcher working at some university somewhere and they want to ask me questions about New Primitivism. My immediate reaction is to fuck with them. However, when they later send me a nicely bound hardcover book, I must say I'm filled with pride. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than seeing 30-year-old crap I wrote purely out of spite, indolence, or malevolence, now translated into English and dissected by serious people for deeper meaning. (en)

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New Primitivism (Serbo-Croatian: Novi primitivizam) was a subcultural movement established in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia-Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia in March 1983. It primarily used music, along with satire, sketch and surreal comedy on radio and television, as its form of expression. Its protagonists and followers called themselves the New Primitives. The movement officially disbanded sometime in 1987, although the bands and television show continued for a few more years after that—Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors until 1988, Zabranjeno Pušenje until 1990, and Top lista nadrealista until 1991. (en)

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