"Three hundred years have passed.
I'm here again at your doorstep."
( "Babylonian torches", Haustor)
Third_World_Haustor_01...
The album of the Zagreb band Haustor "Treći svijet" (Jugoton / Croatia Records) never got the place it objectively deserved in classic Yugoslav rock criticism - it is an overlooked masterpiece and one of the best records that scene has ever produced. According to his vision and revolutionary political courage, he greatly exceeded the previous scope of pop and rock production, so at that time he remained insufficiently listened to and explained. However, his reputation only grew with time, as did the reputation of Haustor.
"Third World" is a kind of postscript for "new wave". There we will find his delayed grand finale and possible directions for the further development of the art form known as rock music in our region. After the self-titled debut (1981), which was not well understood, the early Haustor came to its most complete album only in 1984, due to unfortunate circumstances (members leaving for the mandatory army). Until then new wave the expiration date had largely passed, and it was clear the intention of the members to prove themselves artistically in new circumstances and ambitiously make up for what was missed: in a way, this is their "Defense and Last Days", a work created with the desire to describe its era. Like "Defense...", "The Third World" has no counterpart in films, comics, literature, theater or visual art created in SFRY. It is an autochthonous achievement, which could only have been created within the framework of rock and roll - one of those few releases created at that time, which have given us a realization that is only now finally starting to reach the public: that some rock albums in the Serbo-Croatian language are a great artistic part of our culture.
Little has been said about this album - the future researcher will be surprised at how little - but the lack of resonance has followed Haustor from the beginning. At that time, "Jubox" was no longer published in its most famous edition (ended in 1983), after many changes in the editorial office, even the Croatian youth magazine "Polet" did not have a particularly important role - there was no serious criticism anymore. The silence that enveloped them while they worked did not diminish the legend, but only increased it, to grandiose proportions. The band may not have fit into the moment when it existed, but it fit into the future, and by the end of the nineties, the memory of Haustor became stronger and bigger than the former reality, and the group grew into an unquestionable example of consistency and faithfulness to itself, in times in which literally everything was called into question. Everyone knows that the group Haustor is many times more popular today than it was when it existed - and a good part of the reason for that phenomenon is hidden precisely in the album "Treći svijet".
WHO WILL UNDERSTAND THAT??
Everything new that the "new wave" introduced into society, all versions of the possible democratization of Yugoslavia, were stifled by 1984, because a democratic Yugoslavia was not needed by those who were in power, nor by those who planned to gain it. Haustor were always one of the most musically powerful collectives on the rock scene at that time, but at that moment they were also left alone on the scene in their city. The film slowly became commercialists of pop, the Dirty Theater became commercialists of rock and roll, and Azra went further in her restlessness. Someone had to step up and say what honestly needed to be said, with no apologies for possible censorship, or the market legalities and rules of the music industry. Haustor decided to be themselves at the crucial moment, try to say what they want, and survive without hit songs and similar trump cards for radio stations. Due to this movement against the logic of show business, as well as against the social currents, thanks to the faith in their inner creative logic, their feat is even greater and it seems as if it was prompted by the finger of fate - it had to happen, despite everything, although it will later him, the band almost disbanded, just like Idoli after "Obrana...".
Namely, on the other side of punk and Laibach, Haustor made the first fully politically engaged pop album in our country. It took only a few years for us to understand the accuracy of the poetic-activist observations presented in this edition, but by then politics had already dealt with us a lot during the nineties, since we were no longer with it, when it was time.
With "Third World" Haustor managed to build a huge metaphor that talks about how we all live in the world of the oppressed, and that the fight for freedom is unceasing. But it also has the special importance of a very clear vision of relations in our society, intended for the then Yugoslav public, from which it follows that we live in an environment ruled by usurpers - we will see further in this text. It was Haustor's message bottle released into our uncertain future, which we met sooner than expected.
LIKE TEARS IN THE SUN
"The Third World" is a heroic album.
At that time, rock and roll still acted as a new, autonomous medium, within which one could say what could not be said elsewhere. Haustor took the moment to completely design and round out his authentic aesthetic on this record in which - using rock, African and South American instruments - he developed a story similar to a theater performance. Each song is a separate scene, each scene has a different hero, but they are all in the same situation: they are fighting underground against occupiers or exploiters. On "Third World", the band confronts us with a magnificently romantic examination of the struggle for freedom, as something that is always threatened. And especially today.
This cycle of songs simply has no counterpart in our language, and until today, no one has succeeded in repeating an artistic endeavor of such momentum. "Strange Day" is striking, a surreal impression of a forever indeterminate genre, which just reminds of some kind of dislocated reggae, like the rest of the record. It introduces us to the absurd world of political divisions and suffering for unknown reasons: with the refrain "who will understand that / left, right, central", it is striking how ahead of its time the song was. The realization that we are all victims of politics and that as a consequence "there are no survivors, comrade" is the key message of "Third World". That "buddy" perhaps reveals the starting points and origins of this record. And, of course, no one knows who Nena is, whom the main character rides on a bicycle while "the streets are full of potholes" - probably unintentionally, but vividly evoking the atmosphere of the upcoming violent Yugoslav denouement...
The fateful "Last View of Jeršaleim" is probably the first song about a political assassination in our language, the despondency of which goes beyond any message. In a fast, seductive rhythm, we listen to a story about people who sacrificed themselves in that liberating act, we are pushed into the hustle and bustle of the city, where we encounter streets, black limousines, the port, noise - but why exactly did "the girls fall for the cause"? Maybe we'll never know, and maybe they're just braver. The indelibly melancholic tone of the song assures us that we will witness some terrible event and that those who are about to die in it - loved life very much: "We will disappear quickly, like tears in the sun..."
The same kind of female liberating power is expressed in "Torches of Babylon", a song about the power of love and a fascinating black lady to whom the hero returns after a long time, to worship her strength. It is just one of the strong feminine characters in Haustor's poems, in which they always had a place far more important than that of society, a position that corresponded to the place they had in their hearts. In addition, the quiet cityscapes and the life of the people with broken spines, described in the composition "Dwarfs in the Garden", so clearly record the inner image of Yugoslavia at that time, that it does not need to be explained separately. What is disturbing is that the same descriptions fit the current state of spirits and the absence of any public words against rulers of all colors and stripes - to the point that it is simply sad.
"Working Class Goes to Paradise" - a hit that couldn't have been - actually suited this album far better than the debut from which it was pulled. If he had appeared on the first record, he might have disturbed its oneiric nature, with his story of workers traveling into history, never to return. But what was forbidden to say in 1981, was allowed in 1984 - by then it was already unofficially clear that the working class no longer asked anything in SFRY. That's why this song fit perfectly into the story of the enslaved that Haustor told on "The Third World", placing it seamlessly in the historical Yugoslav framework.
"The Downside of Lightning" describes life in an institution where one man survives quietly doing his job, and not standing out in anything, while "lunatics are taken away and brought in". This avoidance of exposure, sinking into silence with hidden disagreement with the events around them - is a faithful description of the state in which the spirits of the ordinary inhabitants of the former land, especially the younger ones, were. Everything goes as planned, despite the uncertainty, the rut is general ("Above us turmoil and space / September's working mornings and steep evenings are still dawning / Teeth are in a glass"). The only answer is to keep quiet. But not for long. The theme of the preparation for the uprising is "Hidden behind false names" - in it we meet a person who, precisely for this reason, comes to a place where everyone is already ready to jump to their feet against the "guard", and maybe there is only one more night left until judgmental events. The revolutionary will take her next to her sweetheart, once again confirming that women are a force.
The menacing dark bass opens the title track "Third World", hinting at the great events that will inevitably begin - this epic song for all time, with its chorus "get up and go" brings the clearest call for radical change in this and any other country where injustice is in power. With its alarming chorus, it is so iconic that it remains to this day a distinguishing mark among all in these parts who do not consent to suffering imposed from above.
If it wasn't obvious until then, after this track it's clear that the place of the whole album "Treći svijet" is not some exotic area of the world, as one would say based on the instrumentation and poetic associations, but Yugoslavia, which objectively - was the third world.
HIDDEN BEHIND REAL NAMES
Haustor_01...
"Third World" is the secret language of rebellion.
The theater-inspired debut album of Haustor is the result of the group's collective work, while "Treći svijet" is largely written by Srđan Sacher's creative handwriting and cultural interests, such as the later "Bolero" and "Tajni grad" built around the unique pop skills of Darko Rundek. But Sacher and Rundek are not at all that far off as authors: both believe in telling a story, and everything that came out under the Haustor label or as their solo work has the hallmarks of superior narrative. The texts of Darko Rundek and Srđan Sacher (now Samuel Sacher) are not only engaged, but in the "Third World" they create a phantasmagoric parallel world, in which we discern the outlines of reality as if in a fogged mirror.
The band's sound is orchestrated to the point of strain, the brass section (Darko Prica, Jura Novoselic, Siniša Kovačić, Ivica Lozić, Robert Lovrić) and the melodic lines of the guitars (Zoran Zajec, Darko Rundek) stand out, but primarily it is built so that it rests very much on to the work of the rhythm section in which, in addition to Srđan Sacher on bass, Srđan Gulić excels on drums and percussion (with the additional support of producer Željko Brodarić-Jappa on talking on the road and Stanko Juzbašić on kitchen). Almost every composition has an added dimension of impressive extended jamming, especially in the tracks "Hidden Behind False Names", "Babylonse Torches", "Garden Dwarves", and, of course, "Treći Swiet". The atmosphere of the recording in Split, in the Tetrapak studio, certainly contributed to the unique Mediterranean breadth in which there is room for Latin American brass and percussion sections, as well as for African rhythms and dub effects.
The multi-layered music of Haustor was challenging in itself, and here the fantastic playing ability of each member came to the fore - arrangement solutions that did not know the limits of imagination only enhanced the strength of the band and gave each member the opportunity to add their own color to the composition. It is fascinating that in that abundance of tones, even after many listens, you will never discover anything superfluous - this is one of the best played albums in Yugoslavia. In addition, this is one of the most perfect Zagreb pop products - everything we have always known about that school is here in one place: superior playing, inventive soloing, inspired effects, and many original melodies, which can only be performed by true masters.
"Treći svijet" is one of the most serious popular-music expressions created in Yugoslavia: articulating a different political language within a super-controlled media space was only possible through guerilla actions, such as the conception of this album. Pressed by the false images of reality that we were surrounded by in the SFRY, he did not call for an open coup, but visualized and voiced the inexorability of the struggle for change, giving support to all who thought the same.
VISIONS OF FREEDOM
The "Third World" is a left-wing fairy tale.
In the last decade of Yugoslavia, absolute power was held by one party that passed into the hands of the newly created bourgeois class, and it slowly prepared national counter-revolutions in order to take over the social wealth built in socialism. In the 1980s, we criticized the SKJ as if it was still a communist organization, and it was no longer that: it was turning into an alliance of the worst representatives of the middle class and the oligarchy, who used the found apparatus of totalitarian state coercion to impose their interests. In its last years, the one-party SFRY was actually driven to ruin by the usurer urge of petty-bourgeois provenance, which in the end did not hesitate to use bandit, proto-fascist methods to destroy the country, if not to win the market and resources. Haustor's album "Treći svijet" therefore clearly calls for rebellion against those in power, or at the very least calls for disobedience in the face of this new lie. When its hidden messages are unfolded, it becomes obvious that the authors already sensed that we live in an "unpopular regime", hidden under the cloak of socialist slogans that no longer meant anything, a system in which no one cared about the general welfare for a long time, but was ready to the use of force to protect oneself. That's why Haustor had to use this record to try to raise awareness of the need for revolutionary justice and solidarity of all social losers, at least in a fairy-tale way, with an action that apparently doesn't happen in our country. Why else would a group that became famous in the early eighties with the beautiful summer hit "Moja prva ljubav", throw everything at their feet and feel the urgent need to continue their career with the obviously extremely political song "Working Class Goes to Paradise", and then record a call to uprising as it is" Third World", and then a whole album like that?
In order to at least stimulate thinking about this historical situation in which we lived, the "Third World" instinctively grabbed into the deep layers of the collective Yugoslav consciousness, with its engagement on the side of the endangered and humiliated. In it there are traces of everything we learned about in schools and read in textbooks, watched on the cinema screen and TV screen - the fight for justice and the liberation of our community, the secret connections of resistance cells that resist and carry out their actions despite the superior enemy, as well as deaths. for the matter". Almost all the myths of the fight for freedom and resistance to the occupier can be found here in one place. "Treći svijet" is, in a way, a partisan album.
Although some people like to see Haustor's "Third World" as a musical world inhabited by Corto Maltese, that eternal casual fighter for the rights of the vulnerable, this signatory is of the opinion that the entire early Haustor oeuvre is much more activist, created along the lines of extreme left-wing ideas, which later discovered by Manu Chao. As with Haustor during the "Third World", it only exudes Kort's charming solitary heroism, and there are much more calls for an active joint guerilla struggle to overthrow the evildoer, so there is nothing Bobmarly peaceful in the work of the Rundek/Sacher creative axis - although reggae is definitely big inspiration, here it's that irreconcilable reggae rebel cry of Peter Tosh. The album never abandons its combative nature, despite its seemingly calm tone - but it is precisely this calm, muted language that gives it the power of transcendence, enables it to finally move into the field of the mythical and turns it into an eternal metaphor. That's why this album continues today, like the murmur of millions about freedom, and it's always just as contemporary.
Neoliberalism in the 21st century is slowly giving birth to new feudal lords, owners of supranational capital, who are prevented by the state from running their entrepreneurial fiefdoms. The world is returning to the 19th century, only digitized. And this is what globalization has finally led to - the third world, the exploited world of poverty, misery and slavery, is now beginning at our doorstep. Just as Haustor had guessed at one time. The working class went to heaven a long time ago, let the citizenry get ready.
And we simply cannot avoid our fate, because the third world is breathing around us and waiting for us.
