Smak

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Smak was formed back 1970.They were the best Rock 'n' Roll,Hard Rock,Progresive band in Yugoslavia.Because of there succsessful albums like LP Smak 1975.,MLP Satelit 1976.,Crna Dama 1977.,Black Lady 1978,Stranice naseg vremena 1978.,The pages of our time 1978.,Rock Cirkus 1980. they earned there title of best band in Yugoslavia.
Any way here's the full biography:
SMAK was formed 1971. in Kragujevac, the present Serbia and Montenegro, by a guitar virtuoso Radomir Mihailovic nicknamed ''Tocak''(the Wheel). The first stable line-up was assembled in late 1974. including Slobodan Stojanovic Kepa (drums),Zoran Milovanovic (bass),Boris Arandjelovic (vocals) and Laza Ristovski (keyboards).They realesed 3 SP during '74-'75 on which appeared there hit single Ulazak u Harem(Enter to Harem) and they were pregroup for Deep Purple concert in Belgrade '75 ,after successful hit single and exellent concert with Deep Purple they realesed there first LP called Smak 1975. and it was one of the most selling albums in Yugoslavia of all times(the present Serbia and Montenegro),at the beginig of the next year 1976. they realesed MLP(mini long play) Satelit which featured there hit song 'Satelit'(Satelite) and one of there best instrumental 'Biska 2' ,blues song 'Sumadijski Blues',and the song called 'Put od Balona-Biska 20' which was used as a instrumental solos song,in that period they made a short movie Smak in New York,which showed there little tour in USA on which they presented MLPSatelit ,and in that period Tocak realesed his first solo album called by him R.M.Tocak which was the best selling album in Yugoslavia for year 1976. and they have made again single at the end of '76 Ljudi nije fer/El Dumo. During 1977.-78. Ristovski was replaced by first Miki Petkovski,which played on 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 naseg vremena 1978. and English versions of these two albums Black Lady and The Pages of our time 1978. ,while in the period 1979.-81. Dado Topic (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. ,before they had splited up they made LP Rock Cirkus 1980. which was destened to be one of there most selling albums but because of yugoslavian president's death it had not gotten much popularity ,after that they made 3 farewell concerts in capital of Serbia and Montenegro ,Blegrade on which came 10.000 fans and those fans which didn't get the ticket for the concerts.The original line-up gathered again in 1984. and with Dado Topic made LP Zasto ne volim sneg ,which was dedicated to Tocak’s dead brother ,after that they had splited again. In 1986. with a new keyboardist Milan Djurdjevic they came back and made LP Smak 86 ,but after the release of Smak 86 they had splited again. The forth 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. on which appeared the best serbian harmonic player Pera Joe.This concerts in '92 and '93 were for promoting Tocak's second solo album which was soundtrack for the movie Byzantine Blue1993. ,for which Tocak was given a prise for the best soundtrack on Christal Prisma awards.Finally, in 1994 SMAK re-appeared again, this time along with Tocak and Stojanovic they added younger musicians: Dejan Stojanovic Kepa Jr.(second drum kit),Dejan Najdanovic Najda(vocals), Vladimir Samardzic (bass) and Milan Milosavljevic Mikica (guitar).In that time Smak relesed album Bioskop Fox(Cinema Fox).After 4 year period Vlada Samardzic left SMAK and went to Bearkley music collage,on his place as bassist came Sale Markovic .With Sale they made albums Live wihtout audience1998,Egregor1999,Live 3.mart.2000. Kragujevac klub 'La Cinema' 2000.
SMAK was celebrated for Tocak's virtuosity in guitar playing, modelled on Jimi Hendrix's and Jimmy Page's style, and for interesting and powerful, if not always successful, fusion of hard rock and jazz, prog rock, jazz rock with strong blues backing, with Arandjelovic's falsetto vocal often used as an instrument rather than singing. "Ulazak u harem", a folk-inspired instrumental issued as hit-single in 1975, showcased Tocak as one of the guitar-heroes and legend of ex-Yugoslavian music scene of the 1970s, while 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 for the Western market. Their reunion, from the second half of 1980’s onward, turned the musical direction of the band into less-inspired mainstream hard rock, abandoning any prog elements,but after re-appearing in 1994. SMAK turned back the musical direction back to hard rock,fussion jazz with prog elements.As a comparison, one can mention similarities in style with artists such as Led Zeppelin,Deep Purple,Taste,Doobie Brothers,Santana,Leb i Sol.

Edited by Tony R

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