OPUS 1

Forgotten gem of Yu-prog,Opus 1 is quite different from everything else recorded around that time in Yugoslavia.Essentially band is a trio,on this album joined by two guest singers. Album trade mark is a unique monstrous sounding hammond organ played by one of the most underrated yu-musicians Miodrag "Mive" Okrugic,a very talented keyboard player clearly influenced by Vincent Crane.Music is quite heavy,mostly driven by hammond B3 organ,and is symphonic in nature,although there is couple of funky songs that reminds me of Atomic Rooster,circa "Made in England",together with singer Dusko Prelevic sounding remarkably similar to Chris Farlowe.Sound is very dirty and unclear,due to poor production,but overally,this is very enjoyable slice of keyboard based prog.It's one of rarest records ever in former Yugoslavia,I think there was only 3000 copies of original pressing released,and after lack of sales Diskos label deleted it.Courtesy of Greg Walker's Syn-phonic distribution I learned there is a japanese "Poor House" reissue in mini lp sleeve,but looks like it's of very suspicious quality.

This is an obscure and rare Yugoslavian release and the only album of OPUS. The leader M. Okrugic is a remarkable organ player and here his Hammond sound is predominant all the way through. The style of "Opus 1" was influenced by heavy organ rock of PROCOL HARUM, VANILLA FUDGE, ATOMIC ROOSTER and EL&P, while the symphonic ambitions draw inspiration from early DEEP PURPLE. Vocal of D. Prelevic is strong, slightly R&B/"black"- coloured and performance is good, but the songs and production are somewhat sub-standard. The main problem is that all the songs seem unfinished as if the authors were lacking bravity to push their ideas more agressively. But this can be said for most of the Yugoslavian "prog" artists of the era, so let's not be too harsh on OPUS. This is a valid record, in spite of not very inspired songcrafting. Instrumental performance is very good, and even with a poor production, this LP is recommended, especially given its unpopular and oblivious destiny.

A relatively strange-looking cover and a band I've never heard of before being labeled as 'symphonic' made this one enough for me to take a listen. As far as band members are concerned, I'd only heard of Dusan Prelevic before and had been familiar with his performance in Atelje 212's adaptation of "Hair", and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the instrumental capabilities of the rest of the band, especially Miodrag Okrugic's organ playing, which is quite similar to Vincent Crane's. The group's sound is very much in the vein of acts like Procol Harum (the beginning of "Skupljac zvona" being almost identical to "A Whiter Shade Of Pale") or Atomic Rooster, focused on Okrugic's rumbling organ (backed up by some piano here and there). Prelevic's vocal is good and I prefer him to Zlatko Manojlovic (who sings lead on Memento Mori). The songs, besides the fact that they sound like demos recorded on a magnetophone (which is not necessarily a bad thing, it reminded me a bit of a late 60s obscure US psych/prog act called Sleepy John), are fine, the heavier tunes have an Atomic Rooster feeling to it, while the more laid-back ones remind most of, as mentioned above, Procol Harum or ballad-type songs of Indexi/Korni Grupa from the same period.

All in all, this is a very enjoyable "garage prog" record, but, as other reviewers have already mentioned, it's almost impossible to get the original LP (my copy is a vinyl rip with two non-album singles as bonustracks). Two and a half stars with a hope that someone someday will remaster it.