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Katarina II
In the spring of 1983 they took part in Zagreb bienalle and received solid
reviews. Their first recorded material featured actor Svetislav Goncić as guest,
and was done in 'Druga maca' studio owned by Enco Lesić whom Milan knew well
from Šarlo days. Unfortunatelly, it was unusable due to a variety of reasons
having to do with studio's poor technical equipment, forcing the band to
re-record. They then took an offer from fellow musician Srđan Marjanović and did
so the following year in RTV Ljubljana studios.
Katarina II's self-titled debut album finally came out in 1984. Most of the
lyrics were written by Milan except for songs "Vrt" ('The Garden') and "Platforme"
('The Platforms') (done by Gagi), while the music was a collaboration between
the two. On tracks like "Aut" ('Out'), "Jesen" ('Fall'), "Radostan dan" ('Joyful
Day'), "Treba da se cisti" ('It Needs To Be Cleaned'), "Ja znam" ('I Know') the
band successfully linked Milan's descriptive lyrical sensibility with the
energetic New Wave sound. Often considered one of the band's purest works, if
not the best, the album never gained much main-stream popularity, mostly due to
its inaccesible, artistic sound lacking commercial catchiness.
Soon after the album release, the band went through more lineup changes. Just
like in Šarlo Akrobata and Limunovo drvo previously, Milan and Gagi never really
got along and their personality issues continued. Furthermore, Gagi ran afoul of
the law and even landed in jail. After getting out, he was informed by the
bandmates he was no longer a Katarina II member. That was not the end of it,
however. Since Gagi had the rights to the "Katarina II" name, he forced the band
into using another one. Remaining members settled on - Ekatarina Velika
('Catherine the Great'), or EKV for short.
Additionaly, drummer Vd left due to drug abuse problems, and eventually ended up
in Du Du A. His replacement on drums was Ivan Firchie.
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