SMF (2)

SMF is a band formed in February 1989 in Belgrade, Serbia, as a project of four musicians who were already playing in their own bands. The idea was for SMF to perform at a festival, held at SKC, and play hardcore style influenced by bands like S.O.D., G.B.H. and Suicidal Tendencies and for the lyrics to be simple, kinda “sick”, sarcastic and even ridiculous. However, themes sometimes carried a strong message yelled in the listener’s face or metaphoric meaning hidden under the “direct” level. The result appeared to be a quite unique style, brutally sounding and aggressively played music, full of weird breaks and unusual guitar riffs leading to bizarre harmonies. Finally, the whole idea was also considered a good fun and that’s how it also went. Some people consider that SMF followed this original idea so closely and systematically that a completely new sub genre was born: “Sick Core”. One other interesting thing about this first gig was that 8 songs were written in one day. Even though everything started out as a joke, the audience at SKC accepted SMF much better than the other more known bands. That was bands main incentive to continue working. The idea was that no one played their instrument. Kokan and Dare are guitarists, while Francuz a bassist (only Đura played his own instrument). After the concert at SKC, Đura and Kokan returned to their own bands. Due to the positive reaction of the people who heard SMF’s songs, Francuz and Dare decided to continue working. They were joined by Sale (Bands: Kerozin, Šaht) and Šola (Bands: Brainstorm, Svarog): * Sale - vocals * Dare - guitar * Francuz - bass * Šola - drums In this formation SMF worked until 1994. After a couple of gigs, in 1989 they recorded (now legendary) DEMO at the Zodiak studio. The demo contained 9 songs and lasted for about 10 minutes total. Don’t be fooled by the duration - it does not take away from the quality. Even though this demo was later supposed to appear as a single for the “Start Today records”, it was never formally issued. However, the demo has been carried “from hand to hand” and spread by word of mouth, so, wherever they played, people knew lyrics to their songs and accepted them well. The production was raw (and fierce), and the style being authentic hard core from the late eighties. In 1991, upon the breakout of war, the band stopped working (due to understandable reasons). During that period, the style of SMF was not adequate to the happenings and the situation as a whole. SMF began work on new songs using the entire newly formed situation as an inspiration. At the beginning of August 1994, for an incredible 30 somewhat hours, we recorded “Dalje nećeš moći…” (“You can’t go any further…”), at the Focus studio. During that time, they were fascinated with the jokes from legendary Serbian movies “Ko to tamo peva” i “Maratonci trče počasni krug”, which can be noticed on the album through songs like “Dalje nećeš moći”, “Đenka”, “Opljačkani smo” i “Vozi Miško”. They were the first ones to use samples from these movies, which were later adapted by other bands, radio stations and even TV stations. Šola left the band in 1994 and joined Svarog. Taking his place was Boris, formerly of Brainstorm. The line-up of SMF became the following: * Sale - vocals * Dare - guitar * Francuz - bass * Boris - drums The same line-up remains today. In 1995, SMF's friend Dejan Zečević, a movie director, used their music for the soundtrack of his movie “Dečak iz Junkovca”. SMF began to prepare the new material in mid 1996. They worked pretty hard and compiled 17 songs. At the beginning of 1998, their second album “Lako ćemo” was recorded at the Akademija studio. Music stayed aggressive and hostile, the production of the very album was now much better than the previous one and the lyrics were still provocative, direct, carrying a hidden meaning. The CD edition of this album represents the first formal multimedia disc of any domestic band in Serbia, it contained a short video story relating to the album itself. In year 2000 SMF started working on their 3rd album. After amazing 6 years of work, 14 new songs were completely mastered at the end of year 2006. Well known SMF’s unique style, sounding, rhythms and harmonies, this time has developed further beyond the boundaries of standard hardcore and crossover. While influences of metal core, traditional metal, punk rock and funk were usual before, now in SMF’s music could be found some elements of fusion, industrial, break beat, drum‘n’bass and even a some traces of purely electronic music, like techno and trance. The album was finally released in November 2007 for PGP-RTS. Members: Darko Smukov Dare (Genocid, Heller, Brainstorm) - guitar Dejan Lukić Francuz (Charisma, Amnesia) - bass Saša Milenković Sale (Kerozin, Amnesia) - vocals Boris Maslikovic Boris (Brainstorm) - drums Ex-members: Vladimir Vilovski Šola (Brainstorm, Svarog) - drums Zoran Đuroski Đura (Svarog, Overdose, Crist, Eyesburn, Brainstorm)- guitar Zoran Kokanović Kokan (Overdose, Amnesia, X-Centar) - vocals