AERODROM

If you are a fan of that new wave pop movement of the 80's (you all know that sound) then this may be worthwhile, it is energetic and fun with surprisingly good production, just don't expect any intricacies or any prog at all.

2.25/5

This is still a bad album, there is no prog here, there is very little that is even worthwhile. Sometimes, every now and then, I listen to 'Digni me Visoko' with a dumb smile on my face, but I will not be disillusioned into the idea that it is a good song.

Mildly catchy pop music that gets 1.75/5 for me... Not really worth your time.

As a fan of prog it is your duty to stay away from this, if you want some cheesy 1980s pop, then you could honestly do a lot worse than Aerodrom. But I really don't think that's why anybody is on PA, so, on the basis of Prog, this album is a 1/5. My personal rating would probably be closer to 2/5 but even then it's not a great album, horribly average, even for what it is.

Avoid at all costs.

The album kick starts with two great hits - an erotically seductive dance rock "Stavi pravu stvar" (En. "Put your right stuff into the right place and do it often") and an excellent power rock ballad "Tvoje lice" (En. "Your Face"). These two songs remain among their best songwriting examples up to date.

"Dobro se zabavljaj" (En. "Have Some Real Fun") contains obligatory ska/power pop rhythmic structures with fiery guitar riffs and melodic bass hook, providing another hit single. Legions of Yugoslav teenage youth used to party 'till the morning hours with songs like this. "I live for women and I live for rock music and vices" yells Zivković in another catchy pop/rock tune "Rock i porok" (En. "Rock and Vices"), while "Nudistička plaza" (En. "The Nudist Beach") contains the call for the girls to "take down your panties"!

After the enormous hit potentials and speedy tempo of almost entire first side of the vinyl, the second part provides a needed break in the form of two instrumentals. The first is energetic ska improvisation of "Aerodrom" while the second "Mordorea" still retains slight instrumental prog elements (expanded keyboards and guitar sounds) along with the next track aptly titled "Mijenjam se" (En. "I Undergo Changes").

Sex and party is back again in reggae-rhythmic patterns of "Djevojke" (En. "Girls"), when all the gang, finally exhausted of 24-hours non-stop dance-craze, drops into "Monotonija" (En. "Monotony"), a surprising post-punk psychedelia reminiscent of GANG OF FOUR or early SIMPLE MINDS!

"Tango Bango" is not a progressive rock album. It is a powerful, energetic rock and roll statement full of confidence and emotions. Judging it as a whole, and having in mind its purpose in the mainstream New Wave scene in former Yugoslavia - a highly productive artistic and rock'n'roll movement - it appears to be even better record than the commercially unsuccessful prog debut. It remains probably the best album of AERODROM.

PERSONAL RATING: 4/5

P.A. RATING: 3/5

That said, it is still a good album. Musical performance is strong even if lacking the technical virtuosity of musicians, a tenet so akin to prog genre as a whole. The strongest points have to be the excellent Jon Anderson-like tenor of Zlatan Zivković (whose first job was actually a drummer!), and overall songwriting and production. Jura Pađen as a leading composer and competent guitarist did not want to engage too much in the soloing territory and perhaps he was right, but what he does in certain moments, like in Hackett-styled sustained solo in "Pusti neka traje" (En. "Let It Be") or "Sareni kolači" (En. "Coloured Cakes"), is very good.

Amazingly, this album contained a huge hit single, the title track, which did not help the album sales, paradoxically. The single was a smash hit - the album much less so. Obvious explanation is that it differs from the rest of the songs on the album - the title track is a concise, strong melody and chorus- laden rock song with radio play potentials, which cannot be said for other compositions.

On one side one cannot help but brag about a "half-cooked" product, not sufficiently devised compositions, not very original ideas and restrained development of epic song structures, even if we neglect a poor PR and audience targeting. "Vrati se Ivane" (En. "Come Back, Ivan") with its honky- tonks leaning is outright poor and totally out of place. On the other, "Kad misli mi vrludaju" is one of very few Yugoslavian albums that follow a "genre-orthodoxy" and can easily, without hesitation, be qualified under the tag of "symphonic prog rock", as defined by prog giants YES and GENESIS. Other albums that came close to this definition were KORNI GRUPA's "Not an Ordinary Life" and INDEXI's "Modra rijeka" but they were released earlier. In the best moments - "Nestala dobrota" (En. "The Kindness Lost"), "Pusti neka traje" and "Kraj tebe u tami" (En. "Beside You In The Darkness") - AERODROM shows decent prog capabilities that would unfortunately be largely dismissed in their later career.

Jura Pađen continued to pursue a commercial, new wave/pop rock and mainstream path after this album, so this all makes "Kad misli mi vrludaju" even more interesting piece of work to check out.

As a personal note, I should mention that my first rock concert attendance was actually AERODROM around 1980, after this album has been released, so I have pleasant memories for this period.

PERSONAL RATING: 3,5/5

P.A. RATING: 4/5

Because there is no new wave music inside.

The album contains mostly of crappy tracks that are pure pop suitable only for 12 years old. When it's not dull, it's cheesy. It's not even a good pop, it's more like a 80's-prototype of what will became known as entertaining music in Yugoslavia, and I don't have a stomach to describe it.

The album opens nicely with Strauss' 'Blue Danube' waltz played on dreamy synth and then bass driven beat is riding us deep into the pop territories.

The opening track Obična Ljubavna Pjesma (An Ordinary Love Song - the title of the album means the same in plural) was (luckily!) the only hit single from the album, and it really stands out of the pile, even if it's just plain pop, it's catchy and decent.

Aside from that, there are a few moments saving he album from the absolute disaster; interestingly they all have a traces of prog varying from very, very, very watered down particles of YES or GENESIS (circa 'Entangled'), a moment or two of ELP's honky tonk piano and yet another plag...ehm, borrowed chord progression too similar to Led Zeppelin's song...guess which one.

Yep, nothing too spectacular. These three tracks (aside the opening track, the hit) are 'Snovi (Dreams) and 'Kad Je Sa Mnom Kvari Sve' ([S]he Spoils Everything While [S]he's With Me). The third track is another love ballad, 'Stranac' (Stranger), acoustic ballad with nice layered flute and hand percussions. It's far from demanding and certainly not very original, but it tickles my ears.

So, we have a catchy hit, a lovely ballad, and two somewhat interesting pop tracks with distant traces of prog, and everything else that could be described as rubbish.

Perhaps that decent song or two could be squeezed on some decent compilation. Because the album is not recommended.

Well, it's certainly influenced with YES, melody-wise. Music is far for complex; mostly it comprises of dense songs, sometimes with heavy prog, sometimes with neo-prog touch. There are no drastic changes and collages within the song structures, they're homogenic and often inclining towards pop-rock. So much for the structure.

It contains of pleasant, more-or-less high pitched vocals, very decent guitar, Hammond organ and beefy synth that's more in the role of a texturizer than a furious soloing device. I don't have any significant opinion about bass and drums, they're not outstanding, but they're not distracting the listener from the overall picture neither. Decent.

The opening track, Kad misli mi vrludaju was a hit single, it's more-or-less straightforward heavy-almost-prog track with beautiful vocal melody (Jon Anderson's influence is obvious), very catchy chorus and overall boogie-woogie attitude. I loved this track since I was a little kid.

Nestala dobrota is even more YES-influenced, with it's 9/8 intro and typical ingredients from the YES' sound palette. A good tune.

Other tracks are less memorable, varying sometimes between very straightforward prog and mainstream rock, there are a few bars of nice keyboard or guitar solos, sometimes in a irregular time signature, but only briefly! What a pity. There are also some touches of psyche, and some darkish, but artistically not so succesful atmospheres, done with unusual vocal melodies and hilarious amounts of reverberation, so typical for the below-par seventies Yu-prog rock.

Kraj tebe u tami is their second hit single from the album, later covered by the most famous new-wave band AZRA...however, it's incredible! See, the tune is quite poppy, sort of a new wave song with a simple synth sequence repeating on and on again...it sounds so 80's right? Well, somewhere around a middle of the song, the poppy arpeggiated sequence went mad, howled, and a whole song changed its pace and turned into a great prog rocker! Song changed the pace once again calming down for a downtempo jazzy ending. Great. This one is not so 'choked' with sound like other songs, offering some 'air' and let us take a broader look at the structure.

The last two tracks are more or less in the same vein as the majority of the album, but much less enjoyable.

In conclusion...

This is decent album. This is a decent band. One may only wonder what would have happened if the band refused to shift their musical style and continued to play prog rock...the second and the third prog albums would probably be much better, as this one is suffering from some syndromes typical for a debut, and Jura Pađen proved his songwriting skills many times in the past decades.

On the other hand...

They were good new-wave band, and even in their new-wave peak occasional 'prog' moments happened, here and there...but from the pure post-punk/new wave point of view...Croatia had much better bands, even bordering (or stepping the border) of the prog realm. So why bother? I won't recommend it to aim your prog cravings to, but if you came across this one, don't hesitate to give a spin.