Paraf: Croatian Post-Punk

Yesterday, I caught a portion of the Handsome Furs' 'Global Indie Mixtape' on Sirius XMU, and along with a couple heavy club bangers from across the pond, they played a track by Croatian post-punk band Paraf. I'm a sucker for foreign language sung songs—mostly because I dig the mystery of not knowing what a song is about—and I was particularly struck here by the androgynous almost Nico-like vocals of Pavica Mijatović. According to the group's Myspace, Paraf began as a punk band in 1977 and then in 1980 veered into post-punk territory after bringing on Pavica—who apparently performed under the moniker Vim Cola—to replace the band's male lead singer. Check out two killer tracks from Paraf below: the 1981 7" single "Fini Dečko" and "Odlazak" from the 1984 album Zastave. The instrumentation here, especially the drumming and bass play, is impassioned and vibrant, which contrasts neatly with Pavica's deep and even-tempered vocal delivery. You can thank the Handsome Furs for this discovery by nabbing their new album Sound Kapital via iTunes below.

Paraf - "Fini Dečko" (from Fini Dečko / Tužne Uši 7")
Paraf - "Odlazak" (from Zastave)