Smak

Smak

Smak was a exYugoslavian and Serbian rock, jazz, blues band formed by the guitar player Radomir Mihailović Točak, the drummer Slobodan Stojanović Kepa and the bassist Zoran Milanović in Kragujevac, in 1971. The group was, with some breaks, active during the 1970s, 1980s and the 1990s. Their music has always been rhythmically and harmonically advanced. Interesting points about their compositions include the abundant use of odd rhythms, vocal improvisations (scat singing), lengthy improvisations from all of the musicians, and uniquely-styled lyrics using mostly very short words due to the relative difficulty of using complex Serbian words in singing. Many of the lyrics were written by bohemian-minded poets and artists who were in friendly relations with the band.

History

Smak was formed in 1971. in Kragujevac, Yugoslavia (present-day Serbia), by the guitar virtuoso Radomir Mihailović nicknamed "Točak" ("the Wheel"), the drummer Slobodan Stojanović Kepa and the bassist Zoran Milanović. The The first stable line-up was in late 1974. : Radomir Mihajlović Točak (guitar), Slobodan Stojanović Kepa (drums), Zoran Milanović (bass guitar), Boris Arandjelović (vocals) and Laza Ristovski (keyboards). They released 3 SP from 1974-1975, on which appeared their hit single Ulazak u Harem (Entrance to the Harem) and they appeared as an opening act for the Deep Purple concert in Belgrade 1975. After a successful hit single and an excellent concert with Deep Purple they released their first LP called Smak 1975 and it was one of the best debut albums of all time in ex-Yugoslavia. It consisted of 5 tracks, including a 20 minutes long instrumental, "Biska 20", the dramatically good "Blues in the park", the inventive and infamous "Biska 2", "Dark Minor" (Mračni mol) and the Hendrix-styled "Pearls".

At the beginning of the next year they released DS (double SP) called Satelit which featured their hit song Satelit (Satellite) and one of band's best , 'Šumadijski Blues', along with two other: "Slikar sa Pikadilija" and "Čoveče ti si mlad". During that time they made a short movie called Smak in New York, which featured their little tour in USA as a promotion of DSP Satelit.

In 1976 Točak released his first solo album R. M. Točak, which became the best selling instrumental album in Yugoslavia that year, even though it consisted of only 6 long progresive rock compositions. The LP was also famous for its great graphical sleeve desing. Their next single was out at the end of 1976 Ljudi nije fer/El Dumo.

During 1977-78 Laza Ristovski, the organ and keyboard player, migrated to a more mainstream band, Bijelo dugme and was replaced by Miki Petkovski, who appeared on the LP Crna Dama 1977, one of the best selling albums in Yugoslavia, and then by Tibor Levay on keyboards, with him they made LPs Stranice našeg vremena 1978 and the English versions of these two albums Black Lady and The Pages of our time 1978,(also known as Dub in the middle, by Bellaphone records). Laza's transfer to Bijelo Dugme was so important, that the national television reported of that in their most watched news show. It was considered a trait, for many Smak-lovers.

In 1977 came their huge success: they were best group in Yugoslavia , Točak was the best guitar player, Kepa was best drummer, Laza was best keyboard player, the group had concerts all over former Yugoslavia. Their LP "Crna dama" was proclaimed as the vinyl of the year, and their title song "Crna dama" was the best single. A LP was recorded and produced in London, consisting of 7 tracks, with 4 hit singles: "Daire", "Crna Dama", "Alo", "Plava pesma". Interestingly, they were so goood musicians, that they dared to challenge the biggest band in Yugoslavia (Bijelo Dugme) to a musical "fight", dedicating an extremely difficult composition to them. Točak sad that Dugme should call them (Smak) when they learn to play as good as them. And this was true, because Smak had the greatest musicians of that time, but other took the money and glory. Smak was loved, but less than 200.000 copies of their albums were sold.

Their next LP, Stranice našeg vremena, was not so popular. Točak and the rest of the band had major disagreements about lyrics and the group split. Točak was replaced by an anonymous guitarist and the concerts were tragically bad. The music on this album however was performed virtuously, with songs ranging from hard rock tunes (Tenge-Tange) to 11 minutes progresive rock (Biska 18). The most successful was the remake of their hit tune "Ulazak u harem", this time played in fanatic tempo, in pure rock style. Dark Age of Smak came.

In 1979-81. Dado Topić (ex-TIME, ex-Korni Grupa) collaborated with SMAK as producer and occasional guest vocalist on single Na Balkanu before the band broke-up in late 1981.

In 1980, shortly before split, they made LP Rock Cirkus which was destined to be one of the most selling albums but because of death of Yugoslavian president Tito it had not gotten much popularity, mostly because of poor classic rock songs that sounded quite anachronically in the punk-ska-new wave years. After that, they made 3 farewell concerts in Belgrade attended by more than 10,000 fans.

The original line-up gathered again in 1981 and with Dado Topić made LP Zašto ne volim sneg, which was dedicated to Točak’s recently deceased brother. It supposed to be Točak's solo project, but their publisher (PGP RTB) considered it too risky and demanded it to be labeled as a "Smak" album. The most popular songs were the Macedonian folk tune "Zajdi, Zajdi" played as instrumental composition in a bluesy 12/8, and a fast hard rock song "Juzni voz", sung by almost anonymous singer Zoran Živanović Hose, with guitar solos in weird scale. After that they split again.

During 1983 Točak recorded a Serbian patriotic war song "Marš na Drinu" with David Moss and got extremely bad reputation in government press. During that days it was forbidden to play this kind of music. This particular song was also recorded by "The Shadows (Hank Marvin)", but never released in former Yugoslavia.

In 1986 with a new keyboardist Milan Đurđević they came back and made LP Smak 86, but after that split again. That is considered the groups weakest album, even it had few decent songs "Sava" and "Kad spavaš sam".

The fourth comeback of SMAK happened in 1992, with Ristovski again as a member, when they mostly played concerts in Serbia and issued a live album odLIVEno1992, featuring the best Serbian mouth-harp player Pera Joe. In '92 and '93 Točak was promoting his second solo album and a soundtrack for the movie Byzantine Blue 1993, which won a prize for the best soundtrack Christal prism awards.

Finally, in 1995 Smak re-appeared again, this time along with Točak and Stojanović they added the following younger musicians: Dejan Stojanovic Kepa Jr. (second drum kit), Dejan Najdanovic Najda (vocals), Vlada Samardzic (bass) and Milan Milosavljević Mikica (guitar). The idea behind this new line-up was to create a much bigger and modern sound with two down-tuned guitars (D-tuning) and two very loud drummers.

In this shape, Smak released an album called Bioskop Fox (Cinema Fox). After a 4 year collaboration, Vlada Samardžić (bass) left SMAK, out of necessity, to attend the Berklee College of Music, and was replaced by Sale Marković, a natural talent who has never had any formal tuition, but nevertheless proved to be a great cohesive force in the band due to his aggressive style. With Sale they recorded the following albums: Live without audience 1998, (literally, a live performance attended only by the tone technician, in a big, empty cinema) Egregor 1999, (their least popular album ever, featuring alternate tunings, polyrhythmic and odd-meter experiments and, most importantly, no lyrics at all, except for one song - the vocalist used scat techniques instead) "Live 3. mart" 2000. and "Kragujevac klub 'La Cinema'" in 2000.

In 2001. group split again, due to Točak's disappointment with the status of musicians in (FR)Yugoslavia.

Influence

Smak was celebrated for Točak's virtuosity in guitar playing, inspired and modeled primarily after Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, but with a unique expressive warmth and an unprecedented, sophisticated way of incorporating Serbian folk motifs into his compositions and improvisations.

The band also made interesting and powerful, if not always successful, attempts of fusing hard rock and jazz (in the vein of Mahavishnu Orchestra and other super-influential fusion bands from the 70's), prog-rock and blues, with Arandjelović's falsetto vocal often used as a melodic instrument, rather than just a vessel to carry the lyrics. "Ulazak u harem", a folk-inspired instrumental, originally composed by Jaraković Dragoljub-Jarak, one of Točak's first guitar teachers, issued as a hit-single in 1975, showcased Točak as the definitive guitar-hero and legend of the ex-Yugoslavian 1970s music scene, while the albums "Crna dama" ("Black Lady", 1977.) and "Stranice naseg vremena" ("The Pages of Our Time", 1978.) were highly celebrated among prog fans and were even released in English versions aimed at the international market.

Their reunion, from the second half of the 1980s onward, turned the musical direction of the band towards a more bland mainstream rock style, abandoning any prog elements, but after re-appearing in 1994. SMAK turned their musical attention back to hard rock with strong jazz and prog leanings. Točak has, in the meantime, fully matured as a guitarist on a never-ending quest for perfection, and spent more than 20 years providing professional guitar tuition to a huge number of students in the ex-Yugoslavian territory. He achieved an unparalleled breakthrough in jazz-guitar playing, evidenced, for example, in his masterclass held in Zagreb, Croatia, on 10.22.2002; but in many television interviews of this period, he cited Rage Against the Machine and Tool, and more recently, A Perfect Circle as the greatest rock bands of the modern age, and their musical influence is easily noticed in SMAK's latest endeavor, titled "Egregor".

Smak discography

Studio albums

Year	Name	Label
1975	Smak
1977	Crna dama
1978	Stranice našeg vremena
1978	Black Lady
1978	Dab In The Middle
1980	Rock cirkus
1981	Zašto ne volim sneg
1986	Smak '86
1995	Bioskop Fox
1999	Egregor

Singles

Year	Name	Label
1975	Živim...Biska 13-Biska 16
1975	Ulazak u Harem-Sto Ptica
1975	Ulazak u Harem-Epitaf
1976	Satelit
1976	Ljudi nije fer-El Dumo
1978	Nevidljive Terazije-Hitopadeza
1979	Na Balkanu

Live albums

Year	Name	Label
1992	odLIVEno
1997	Live Without Audience
2002	3. Mart 2000. Kragujevac Klub La Cinema

Compilations

Year	Name	Label
1977	Ulazak u Harem, Plava Pesma - The best of
1996	The Best Of Smak
1996	Star? Mlad. Večan?*
2001	Istorija

There have also been many unofficial Live albums (Live 1992, Live in Zupa '98...) and unreleased songs (Biska, Na Drinu, StaKapKara, Kepo, Novi Novi Dan, Swap, Egregor...), some of which included bassist Lola Andrijić of the R. M. Točak band, who played with Smak at some concerts in 1974.

ANd here are those vinyls with ID numbers and publisher details

7" Smak Ulazak u harem / Sto ptica Suzy sp1081

7" Smak Ulazak u harem / Epitaf RTVLJ sp10061

7" Smak Crna dama / Plava pesma RTB s51794

7" Smak Alo / Daire RTB

7" Smak Na Balkanu / Gore dole RTB s51855

7" Smak Rock cirkus / Hirosima RTB 1120247

7" Smak Zivim ja / Biska 16 RTB s51639

7" Smak Ljudi nije fer / El dumo RTVLJ sp10117

2x7" Smak Satelit / Sumadijski blues / Covece ti si mlad / Slikar sa Pikadilija RTVLJ sp10091

MLP Smak Nevidljive terazije RTB ms7001

LP Smak Smak RTVLJ lp1079

LP Smak Crna dama RTB lp555307

LP Smak Stranice naseg vremena RTB lp555336

LP Smak Rok cirkus RTB lp2320010

LP Smak Zasto ne volim sneg RTB

LP Smak Ulazak u harem / Plava pesma RTVLJ ld0421

LP Smak 86 RTB lp2122278

LP Smak Black Lady Bellaphon

LP Smak Retrospektiva RTB

LP SMak The Pages of our time Sorabia disk

MLP Tocak M.R. Mars na Drinu RTB

LP Tocak M.R. Tocak RTVLJ lp1152

External links

• Official site