As requested by Miso from the excellent Muzika Komunica blog, here's the first installment of the BG Rock series on state run Bulgarian label Balkanton. CONTROL seem to be one of the most exciting and influential punk bands from Bulgaria. They play mostly fast driving tunes with bouncy drums with catchy guitar riffs, and a keyboard blended in the mix to give it more depth. They remind me a little of some 80's Polish punk - like a poppier ARMIA.
NEW GENERATION have a more new wave sound, with many influences creeping in. I don't really know how to describe them, or how to convey their importance to the Bulgarian punk history, so once again I've pulled a excerpt from Ivailo Tonchev's Bulgarian scene report, because he just says it best...Enjoy this rarity! Oh, and if there are any other Bulgarian punk/new wave enthusiasts out there - I can't find the BG Rock 4 - Atlas/Class split!!! Any help??
A band that really stands out here is NEW GENERATION. I suppose I will need at least 20 articles like this to be able to describe them, one of my favorite ever bands. They described their style as "cold wave" yet it was really diverse in sound, probably the closest comparison will be JOY DIVISION. They started in 1985 as WOTZEK AND CHUGRA and this was one of the many projects of these brilliant musicians/artists... Other projects as KALE, ABSOLIUTNO NACINAESTI, VHOD B, LAKSHMI OT NAPISCHIM are also worth mentioning. These projects were quite varied musically... from goth-sounding wave up to minimalist improvisations. As KALE they took part in the first rock festival in Sofia, where they were officially thrown out with the help of the police. Something was really scaring the people around this band, they were too extreme and too radical for our short minded scene back then. They were the first to put out their underground films, to form their FAN CLUB (which was not T-Shirts, autographed pictures... but a serious communion between like-minded people). They didn't get enough recognition in their early years, at least I fear the scene wasn't grown up enough to understand their message, people found them too "weird" and too dark, yet this is what I love so much about them! Well, they were well accepted back then by most of the people in the scene, but I yet think not that many people understood what it was all about. They released a split LP with CONTROL in '89, a CD as a posthumous "best of" in '98, and countless tape releases, mostly spread though their fanclub. They split up around 1992 after the death of their leader/songwriter D.Voev. It was a sad event back in those days.
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