Slowly but surely we are reaching the 11th edition of the Festival of New Music ZDRAVO MLADI.
This year, the festival on August 27.
SHORTPARIS
Shortparis are well on their way to deserved international acclaim and already being heralded as “the best Russian live act”. Hailing from St. Petersburg and led by charismatic frontman Nikolay Komiagin, the band continues to build a reputation for its jaw-dropping ritualistic performances and dark, electronic soundscapes, as “irrational, spastic dance grooves” converge with “post-punk, experimental noise and acoustic chanson” to form a musical aesthetic that is one of a kind.
Performing in Russian, French and English, Shortparis are nothing short of a revelation as they aim to provide a fitting soundtrack to their everyday lives, a sound that mirrors St. Petersburg as it was and is. “You know, I constantly dream of coming across bands like Shortparis yet so rarely do,” writes John Doran of The Quietus. “Ambitious, bombastic, incredibly pretentious, erotic, thrilling, impossible to pin down, vaguely deviant, fun to dance to and full of revolutionary potential. Sure, if you listen hard enough you can hear them laughing but you would be a fool to make the mistake of presuming that they’re joking.”
Their music videos are almost equally intense and leave room for interpretation. Take the companion visuals to “Страшно” (Strashno / transl. “Scary”) for instance. The lyrics reflect a current state of anxiety as the visuals try to reveal a sort of ongoing hysteria. Only hours after filming at a school, someone called the police about possible terrorist activities: “Our music video is trying to manifest the state of some part of our generation. It is provocative and refers to some social tragedies, which are not reflected in our visual culture. Taboos and fears are opened up: no matter what is written in Arabic letters, ‘love’ or ‘friendship’, it must be terrorism, bald heads must mean nazis, and so on. But after all this play with meanings, only anxiety stays and it grows.
ISKRA
We are announcing the first Macedonian band at this year’s edition of the festival. The innovative and creative ISKRA! Their animated videos tell a story from the future of Skopje, namely 2088/89 where a large corporation destroys the city. To prevent this, a dangerous gang decides to confront the whole situation.
A band that is relatively new on the Macedonian music scene, and they have a small number of live performances behind them, but after last year’s streaming in MKC, the same night “an agreement was reached” that we will see each other in August 2021.
A team that has a thick hardcorepunkmetal “file” behind it, and today, they direct their musical expression towards refined synth-electronics, followed by fantastic visualizations.
They signed the first release for the label PMG Recordings, and a week ago they released their latest single titled “New Era”, in collaboration with Druggy.
BELGRADO
Formed in 2010, Barcelona-based outfit Belgrado has existed at the innovative forefront of the global post-punk scene. Now in th eir ninth year, the quartet continues to play at home and abroad, carrying with them a reputation built on three full length albums and an impressive touring career that has taken them to all corners of the globe.
Emerging from the DIY underground of Barcelona, Belgrado initially traded in a stylish mixture of post-punk tropes that could be traced back to the Europe of the early 1980s. Following the release of their debut LP (2011), the band embarked on an extensive touring schedule of Europe and North America. As the group progressed onto their sophomore Siglo XXI (2013) the sound became distinctly more streamlined, elegantly incorporating a colder element, and ultimately marking them out as true frontrunners of the genre. Further touring ensued including a month-long expedition to Latin America in 2014, performing in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. But it could be argued that their latest LP, Obraz (2016), really demonstrated what the band is capable of. Sophisticated yet accessible, different to their previous work but still noticeably Belgrado.
Musically, the band is equally the sum of their four distinct parts. The machine-tight drums retain an expressive quality which drives the band forward as its rhythmic engine in propulsive dance. Atop the percussive motion, smooth bass lines dictate the harmonic language of the songs, whilst the guitar ricochets and echoes textural motifs high above the rest of the music. In the open space between the guitar and the bass, the voice (sung in the singer’s native Polish tongue), often rhythmic and repetitive, lulls to and fro in a trance-like state.
BLACKSTATE
“Dancing grooves with hardcore/punk roots.”
Coming straight from the DIY hardcore/punk scene, Filip Tasevski – Fitz debuted under his new pseudonym Blackstate in 2019, with the single “WOLVES”. Blackstate’s debut EP “While the World’s on Fire” is out now via Treble Trouble + PMG Recordings. His newest material – the song INDIFFERENT is out now:
For the first time ever Blackstate playing @ ZDRAVO MLADI new music festival!
PIKI PELE
Peki Pele started playing music very young, with a serious intention to release records on vinyl. He received the attention of the general public after his first release Deguté for the collective “više manje zauvijek” from Zagreb, a label that has Svemirko, Phantom, Dzutko… and other artists who gravitate towards them.
Although Peki Pele tries to be mysterious and does not reveal his true identity, between the lines in his biography it is suggested that he is a person with a fine sense of humor and a man who listens to a wide range of music. He says for himself that in the style of his home production he combines dancing pop with punk aesthetics, which is why neither pop fans nor punks accept him, and we believe that the Skopje audience will generously accept this talented young musician, who in his musical expression deeply ingrained the synth pop / new wave sensibility of the 1980s.
Peki Pele performs as a live duo and we are looking forward to seeing him for the first time in our city.
HERCULES & LOVE AFFAIR
Andy Butler, best known for the Hercules & Love Affair project, has been a forerunner of the electronic music scene since the sampling of HALA and their debut album released for DFA. His relevance and ability to take into account new developments in electronic music are evident, especially with the recent EP entitled “Change”. For the past 25 years, Andy has been known for his eclectic, intuitive and highly personalized approach to mixing and selecting music. His sound is varied and reflects on Hercules & Love affair, but he also draws from numerous remixes with artists such as Roisin Muprhy, Chromeo, etc. His commitment to music always went hand in hand with his fascination with freedom that comes with disco hedonism.
Whether it’s the Panorama Bar House podium or playing in Block 9 at Glastonbury, Andy has the power to take the audience across seven seas and seven oceans. You will surely recognize him by the incredible hit BLIND with the beautiful voice of the performer Anohni.
Straight from the European dance floors, Andy Butler for the first time @ ZDRAVO MLADI!
LUFTHANSA
To our great honor and pleasure, this year’s edition of ZDRAVO MLADI will be opened by Lufthansa – one of the new, leading bands on the Macedonian alternative scene!
The band was founded in 2020. It consists of Ivo Nikolovski, Andrej Dimovski, Luka Jovanoski, Viktor Stojanovski, Rade Bikovski and Martin Dzorlev. They play post-punk, psychedelic rock and everything that comes their way at the moment. On April 5, 2021, they released their first album entitled “Demo Tape I”, and on July 17, the same year, they released their second album “Demo Tape II”.
The guys will perform at MKC for the first time ever and we can’t wait to hear them live at the eleventh edition of the festival of new music ZDRAVO MLADI!
KOIKOI
KOIKOI is a fresh name for the colorful and playful Belgrade music scene. The Hali Gali compilation was first introduced to the audience in 2019. Their debut album “Pozivi u stranu” drew attention to the cult Slovenian independent label Moonlee records. KOIKOI will enchant us with its trans-genre combination of the indigenous music tradition mixed with modern trends. The album “Pozivi u stranu” carries the most tempting form of a different pop, which at the same time is silky soft and playfully noisy, radically sensible and rocky violent, and always under the veil of hypnotic Balkan melos, an interweaving of ecstasy and nostalgia.
DJ FITZ
DJ FITZ does not need a special announcement, every ZDRAVO MLADI edition starts and ends with him. Ours, and worldly. He made a covid-mix for the festival preparaions, enjoy:
Mask or Transformation of the Perverted – Brankica Jordanovska photo exhibition
“Mask or Transformation of the Perverted” is a series of graphics, drawings and objects that explore the Mask as an artistic, formal and speculative figure, which contains the potential for various manifestations, transformations and metamorphoses.
The dynamism of the mask is taken as the embodiment of social and emotional processes, which exist outside the norm and which can often be marked and condemned as alien and perverted. The works contained in this exhibition are made in different art techniques such as watercolor, linocut and textile.