Buldožer

Buldožer are a rock band from Ljubljana, Slovenia, formed in March 1975 by Marko Brecelj, Boris Bele, Borut Činč, Andrej Veble, Uroš Lovšin and Štefan Jež. Bele, Činč and Veble came from the progressive rock band Sedem Svetlobnih Let, and Bele suggested the name. Mixing avant-garde and progressive rock with satire, Buldožer are described as forefathers of the Yugoslav new wave, and they were often compared to Frank Zappa.

After their first notable show at the BOOM Festival in Zagreb on 31 May 1975 they signed with PGP-RTB, and their debut album Pljuni istini u oči came out in December 1975. Its cover, with a childhood photo of Činč in a pioneer uniform under a picture of Tito, was seen as provocative, and PGP-RTB delayed its reissue. In June 1976 Buldožer became the first Slovenian band to sell out Ljubljana's Tivoli Hall. PGP-RTB then held back their second album, Zabranjeno plakatirati, over its allegedly "pornographic" lyrics, until the Slovenian label Helidon released it in October 1977.

Brecelj left for a solo career in March 1979, guitarist Davor Slamnig joined and Bele became the lead singer. Their music for the film Živi bili pa vidjeli won the Golden Arena for Best Film Music at the 1979 Pula Film Festival, ahead of Bijelo Dugme, and came out that year on a mini album that included "Novo vrijeme". Izlog jeftinih slatkiša (1980) brought "Žene i muškarci" and "Slovinjak punk", the live double album Ako ste slobodni večeras was recorded at Zagreb's Kulušić club in 1982, and on Nevino srce (1983) Mira Furlan sang "Garçon de Yougoslavie".

A short break planned for 1984 grew into a decade-long hiatus. The band came back in 1991, and after the first recordings were lost in a fire at the Tivoli studio, the comeback album Noć appeared in 1995, sung in Slovene and Croatian. In 2006 the box set Lik i djelo reissued all their albums, and Bele, Činč, Veble, Janez Zmazek and Dušan Vran toured the former Yugoslavia again. Uroš Lovšin died in 2007, Zmazek in 2020 and Marko Brecelj on 4 February 2022.

In the book YU 100 (1998), Pljuni istini u oči was ranked 7th and Izlog jeftinih slatkiša 55th among the best Yugoslav albums. In the Rock Express Top 100 Yugoslav Rock Songs of All Times, a poll of more than 3,400 readers, 120 journalists and critics and 100 musicians published in 2000, "Novo vrijeme" was ranked 91st. "Ne brini, mama", "Helga" and "Doktore pomozite" are among their other well-known songs.