ENGLISH
P R E S S I N G
Left to right: Dejan
Utvar, Zoran Radovic, Vladislav Rac, Vladimir Markovic
Band formed in Belgrade,
Serbia, in the end of 1990. The founder and the leader of the band is Zoran
Radovic aka Kiza, the bass-player of the extremely interesting
Belgrade band Pasmaters, the distant relative of the New York no wave
band James Chance & The Contortions. The person who mediated the
creation of the band is Miki Ristic,the bass player of another Belgrade
band of the same generation, Darkwood Dub, who used to play in the high
school punk-rock band together with Crack (Vladimir Markovic), and who
recommended Kiza this guitar player as an intriguing alternative for the new
band of his. The only problem was that Crack used to live in London at that
time.
After hearing from Miki about new band plans, Crack comes
back to Belgrade almost immediately. The first rehearsal was held in the end of
November 1990 in the basement of SKC, the birthplace of the whole 1980’s
Belgrade new wave scene. It proved immediately that the junction of the Kiza’s
and Crack’s vibrations is very fruitful. The first line up was a trio, as Kiza
used to play the bass guitar, but in the first half of 1991, Kiza wants to be
hands free to concentrate on singing, and the new bass player comes to the band,
Roman, at that time the bass player of Euphoria. The band was
given the name “Pressing”, meaning pressure defence in basketball,
the sport Crack used to practice in high school.
The band remained attached to the post new wave guitar
sound as a dominant for all the years of its career, with influences ranging
from the psychedelic soul of Sly&The Family Stone, free jazz of Mingus
and Coltrane, minimal pop experiments of the early Kraftwerk, Can,
Pere Ubu, Red Krayolla and Captain Beefheart, post new wave of The Fall,
Cocteau Twins, David Sylvian, Dali’s Car, Gun Club, and many others. The lyrics
of Kiza’s, by many relevant opinions the biggest living Serbian post-punk
poet, joined to the unusual way of guitar playing of Crack’s create the
specific aesthetics of the band which is constantly tending to mutate and move
the previously heard matrix off the edge, inside of the still solid song
construction.
The first record contract the band got when in the spring
of 1991, right before the war began, the owner of the pioneer of independent
record publishing in ex-Yugoslavia, Zdenko Franjic, came to Belgrade and
heard two bands practicing in the same basement room in SKC, Pressing and
Darkwood Dub. He offered them first the single then the LP record with each band
on one side, and the final song was supposed to be the cover of each other. Then
by the end of the year both bands were supposed to release albums on Zdenko’s
Zagreb based “Listen Loudest” label, and to tour major cities of
former Yugoslavia. Out of the entire plan, they got to complete the single
“Macho” / “Oboye”, that appeared on the compilation LP of Belgrade bands
“I wanna ride till the ecstasy” (“Listen Loudest” / “Nova
Aleksandrija” 1991).
In the end of June 1991 war began and members of Pressing
spread in various European countries, boycotting the mobilization. In the spring
of 1992 war seemed to be over, and Pressing gathered again in Belgrade,
finishing its first album, “The Story of Totem, Spirit-That-Walks, Dog and
Disappointed Woman”. The album was released in Zagreb – the material
being sent through some channels in Hungary, as all the communication between
Serbia and Croatia was torn and it took significant dose of courage to release
such thing due to hostile atmosphere on the both sides. The album was rated as
#2 album of the year by the prestigious music magazine “Ritam”, and also as
#2 album on the annual list of ex-Yugoslav rockandroll albums made by Italian
Radio Udine, behind “Laibach”.
In 1993 band started recording the single for its second
album, and the song recorded then, “Mammoth Hills”, remains the
biggest success in the band’s career, reaching #1 chart in all the most
important radios in the country, being included to the soundtrack of the movie
“Ghetto” by Ivan Markov, and the compilation CD “Radio Utopia”
by B’92, the 5th anniversary CD of the MTV award winner radio.
However, the already prepared album was not recorded, due to the serious health
problems Kiza suffered for couple of years.
It lead to a 3 years break, during which period Crack
released an album with his band Tornado Birds.
In the end of 1996, Pressing reunited, recruiting Tornado
Birds bass player Rac, and by the spring 1997, the new album was ready. B’92
showed serious interest in publishing it but before the talks were over, Crack
was unexpectedly drafted by the Yugoslav Army and sent for a year long service.
The album “Sixth Heaven” was recorded in
December 1999, but then, due to the conceptual misunderstanding with the label
“Beoground” that produced it, the release was delayed for another two and
half years. The label insisted on serious computer editing interventions that
were not acceptable for the band, as they were changing the structure of songs.
The release of the album was legally banned until the problem was solved by
agreement. Finally the band found the new publisher and the album appeared as it
is, on Belgrade based “Square” label, in May 2002.
By the end of June the first single video taken from the
album, “Rhythm That You Stay In”, reached #1 in all the relevant
Serbian charts, starting from the most prestigious local lists at TV B’92 and
Studio B Television, to all the other relevant TV and radio stations and
magazines. The album itself moves from #2 to #1 position in the number of sold
copies in the country’s largest IPS Music Store chain list. The video will be
soon made available on this web site.
Contacts: e-mail presing17@lycos.com
/ markv@eunet.yu
Phone: “Square” label +381 63 396 819 > Ivan
CD release “Sixth Heaven” is available at special publisher’s price of 6 Euro / 6 US $ + postage fee.
CD reissue Pressing “The Story of Totem, Spirit
That Walks, Dog and Dissapointed Woman” + Tornado Birds “An Airy
Afternoon” is available at the price of 6 Euro / 6 US $ + the postage
fee.
You may order by sending certified checks, or money
transfer (thru Western Union). Please send an e-mail first to obtain details
(address for directing the money, etc)
If you want the quicker way to obtain the disk, visit www.gerila.com
where you can order the CD at the regular price of 9.95 US $ and pay by
plastics.
