Alternative Music from ex-Yugoslavia

Here are some of my favorite albums from ex-Yugoslavia that are considered more niche by some. You'll find YouTube embeds and links to full albums as well as some of my personal thoughts. I hope you enjoy the songs! Maybe a few might end up in your library - that would be super cool.

Trivalia - Telo i duša

Country: Serbia
Year: 1990
• Trivalia formed in 1986 in Niš, Serbia. The band consisted of songwriter and vocalist Vladimir Žikić "Vlad-a-Mantis", bassist Boban Stojiljković, and guitarist Srđan Jovanović. Their line-up was constantly changing over the years with Vladimir Žikić remaining a constant member. Despite the changes, the band never had a drummer but used a rhythm machine. Trivalia's music is characterized by darkwave, gothic, and industrial sounds, with additional Byzantine music influence and chants. Their albums were recorded independently under the Black Rider label on cassette tapes in limited numbers, making them very rare and hard to track down nowadays. The album "Telo i duša" is a compilation album of their previous two releases "We Always..." and "Pravoslavija" released in 1987 and 1989 respectively.


This is one of my all time favorite bands. I would love to own their cassettes one day but they're really rare now. They would be such special additions to my collection. For now, I made a bootleg version of this particular album myself, just like in the old days.

Borghesia - Ljubav je hladnija od smrti

Country: Slovenia
Year: 1985
• Borghesia was formed in 1979 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The band came to fruition from the FV 112/15 theater troupe established by students of sociology and philosophy. The band itself turned into a subdivision of FV 112/15 in 1983, with Aldo Ivančić, Zemira Alajbegović, Neven Korda, and Dario Saravel as its founders. Borghesia's music falls into the gothic subculture, with a special focus on EBM [Electronic Body Music], and minimal wave. Their unique sound attracted attention from foreign music lables in Italy, Belgium, and the US.


Such an amazing album! You can hear the complexity of it in every song. And all of them flow together flawlessly. Don't tell anyone about my bootleg cassette of this album either...

INDUST-BAG - V Obdobju Zločina

Country: Slovenia
Year: 1987
• Indust-Bag was formed in 1979 in Metlika, Slovenia. It consisted of guitarists and vocalists Goran Jarnević and Andrej Pečarić, bassist Boris Vinski, and drummer Bojan Vraničar. Indust-Bag is defined by their punk, dark, and new wave sounds that later turned to rock. Goran Jarnević and Boris Vinski are still part of the band all these years later and make new music with Uroš Pahor on the drums. "V Obdobju Zločina" is their first album and was released exclusively on cassette tapes.


The vocals on this album are awesome - especially on the song "Puščava". And the album art itself is so cool! You can definitely feel the DIY aspect of it. It gave me inspo when making my own mix tape covers.

Morbidi i Mnoći - Psihodelične Oči

Country: Serbia
Year: 1989
• Morbidi i Mnoći was formed in the early 80's in Belgrade, Serbia. The band consisted of vocalist Milorad Milinković "Debeli", guitarist and rhythm machine Mario Surjan, and bassist Mario Separović. Their album "Psihodelične Oči" is a compilation of songs recorded between 1985 and 1989. Mario Surjan is still an active musician and has uploaded a remaster of this album on YouTube here.


It was really hard to find information about this band online. However, Mario Surjan's YouTube channel and remastered songs were a great insight into the band. The descriptions of the songs have information on the recording process, band members, and fun facts. Please check them out if you're interested and like how Morbidi i Mnoći sounds!

Demolition Group - Mizerika

Country: Slovenia
Year: 1986
• Demolition Group was formed in 1985 in Cerklje ob Krki, Slovenia. The band consisted of vocalist Goran Šalamon, bassist Nikola Sekulović, guitarist Bojan Fifnja, drummer Uroš Srpčić, and saxophonist Jože Pegam. They all were part of another band - Gastarbajtrs - but decided to form other bands to explore more musical concepts. Other than Demolition Group, Silver Baracudas and Del Masohistics emerged from this project. Demolition Group's sound is characterized by aggressive vocals and funk guitar followed by techno beats.


The cassette and vinyl releases of this album are actually different - I prefer the cassette release way more. The one I've linked below is the cassette release, but you can find the vinyl one here. For some reason, there's an hour long AI video in that playlist with bots talking to each other in the comments. It has since been taken over by us humans.

Pauk - Mumije lažu

Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Year: 1983
• Pauk was formed in 1978 in Zavidovići, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It consisted of vocalist and keyboardist Željko Selak, drummer Ešref Hamzić. bassist Nenad Simić, and guitarist Branko Dabić. The band found themselves disappointed with the lack of their label's support, wanting to focus more on creating music rather than engaging in the business side of it. Their label, Suzy is said to have signed them due to political reasons in order to quell rumors of favoritism on a national basis. "Mumije Lažu" was Pauk's only album.


Again, very little information about Pauk is available on the Internet. You can find one of the members in the comment section of the video though! He shared some interesting facts about the band. The vinyl record itself is very rare because not a lot of them were pressed. Another one of my dream records to own - it'll probably be a dream forever though.

Pasivni Posmatrači Prirode - Intro

Country: Serbia
Year: 1992
• Pasivni Posmatrači Prirode was formed in the 80's in Niš, Serbia. The band consists of members of another cult band from Niš called Romantične Boje - Zoran Cvetković and Ivan Žikić. Their music is characterized by heavy synth and dark sounds. The band released the album "Outro" in 2024 as a remaster of "Intro" with additional tracks which you can find here.

Very little information about this band as well - there's a pattern emerging here as you might have noticed. But you can just say that this album is a release by the band Romantične Boje. A side project maybe?

Phantasmagoria - Demo

Country: Croatia
Year: 1989
• Phantasmagoria was formed in 1988 in Zagreb, Croatia. The band consisted of vocalist Tomi Phantasma, guitarist Robert Gelo, and bassist Darko Toth. They never released official albums, rather opting for demo and single releases. Despite this, they have reached cult status in Croatia and have gained notoriety outside its borders. They have shared stages with artists and bands such as Iggy Pop, Clan of Xymox, The Cure, and many more. Phantasmagoria still plays live at festivals and smaller gigs.

I find it super interesting that Phantasmagoria never actually released a full album. I would love to see them live someday even though I just know their demo songs and some covers because of that. If you'd like to know even more about Phantasmagoria, there's an insightful interview with Tomi Phantasma you can find here.

I hope you enjoyed some of the songs and albums I've listed here! I've tried my best to find information about these bands online. I also have an encyclopedia of ex-Yugoslav bands and artists that I've been combing through.

There are a few YouTube channels that have archived individual songs. They are used in this post so check them out if you're looking for more similar music!