Krešo Bengalka’s “Finale” is an album with aggressive trap beats and lyrics that sketches Croatian reality.
Bengalka is a trap lord with hardcore style, and those of you who do not believe in that, just listen to “Finale”.
♪♫ Listen: “U glavu” + album stream
This is an album that you should listen in one breath and it is important to feel it. Guys from Čakovec show their atmospheric version of post rock/post metal music.
This LP sounds like one big song cut in several sequences, in one moment it is very loud, in the other it is aggressive, and then again it is melancholic and slow.
♪♫ Listen: “Muna / Iam” + album stream
“Lonely Boys” is the second album for Side Project. Their music has influences of dark wave and synth-pop music from the ’80s.
They are very young, but still they had the courage to produce the album by themselves. The result is very good, childish playful but intended for modern youngsters.
♪♫ Listen: “Lonely Boys” + album stream
Side Project on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram.
They are punk, they are fast, they have attitude and they are EkeBuba. The shortest release on this list has barely five minutes, but this EP has five songs.
The whole album “S/T CS” is very chaotic, just as punk needs to be. Definitely the best five minutes of Croatian punk in 2017.
♪♫ Listen: “Shut Up” + album stream
EkeBuba on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Facebook.
After “Maggie” released several years ago, Jonathan is growing bigger and bigger. In the beginning of 2017 they released the first part of the new album “To Love”, and the second part should be released soon as “Or To Hold”.
“To Love” shows them in mostly dark and melancholic atmosphere than before. Jonathan is one of the favourite bands of the year.
♪♫ Listen: “Who Lies To Whom” + album stream
Jonathan on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, www.
Diyala’s highly anticipated third album “World Raw 3” shows maturity of an artist and that she is still in her own specific music universe.
It sounds like a world class album that is worth of listening, especially because Diyala gives us atmosphere different from anything that we have had the chance to listen on Croatian music scene.
♪♫ Listen: “World Raw 3” + album stream
Diyala on Soundcloud, Facebook, Instagram.
Mayales returned us about 50 years in the past with their time machine. “Simbol za sunce”, their third album, sounds like some psychedelic pop rock band from the end of the ’60s.
They have changed their sound completely and it is their best album up to date: complex, tough, easy, warm, cool, dreamy, sexy – ideal album for any time.
♪♫ Listen: “Danas smo happy” + album stream
Mayales on Soundcloud, Facebook, Instagram.
The second album “Haze” is a new step forward for Irena Žilić. Songs on the new album are darker and atmospheric, but again very peaceful and melodic.
“Haze” proves that Irena is one of the best new artists in Croatia who is not restrained to do whatever comes to her mind.
♪♫ Listen: “The Moon” + album stream
Irena Žilić on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, www.
After eight years, folk-punk band Cinkuši released their new album. The formula is the same as on previous albums: traditional songs from northern Croatia are transformed to punk tunes in Cinkuši way.
They have succeeded again. On the album “Krava na orehu” they have used a lot of references from one of the biggest Croatian writer Miroslav Krleža. They are the best guardians of the heritage.
♪♫ Listen: “Oj, mladosti moja” + album stream
Cinkuši on Soundcloud, Facebook, www.
From Another Mother released their album at the beginning of January 2017, but it is still included on our list. The reason for that are great tunes on “Epileptir”.
They are young and definitely affected by prog-rock bands such as The Mars Volta, so there is no wonder that their album is complete madness, chaos, energetic bomb and monumental.
With its changing rhythms, “Epileptir” shows that youngsters can be crazy enough to create such a perfect mess.
♪♫ Listen: “Sinister minister” + album stream
From Another Mother on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Facebook.
What happens when you put two great musicians at the one place when their main bands are resting?
You get a side-project without any limits. Para Lele is mystical band which plays Far East and South America world music in a psychedelic way.
The album was a surprise, without any press release posted online, but soon it has become one of favourite albums of the year.
♪♫ Listen: “Krajolik” + album stream
The drummer Janko Novoselić plays in several Croatian bands that create different music.
His project Kozmodrum is definitely something special because here he combines a lots of genres in something what we can call electro-jazz fusion.
On Kozmodrum’s second album “Gravity” everything is switched to a greater level, so there is no surprise that he takes such a high place on our list.
♪♫ Listen: “Otok Potok” + album stream
Kozmodrum on Soundcloud, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
On their first album “Vacation Freeze” (The) Lesser Men was great power-pop band.
Three years later, on “Bedrooms” they included synths in their music and now they sound even better.
The album is a nice progress and it shows them as very energetic and potential band ready for big things.
♪♫ Listen: “Summer Gone” + album stream
(The) Lesser Men on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Their fourth album is simply named “IV”. During the years, My Buddy Moose had a habit of showing us their style of country rock sound.
The new album is not an exception, because it shows the band in their best mood. The beginning of the album is more brightly and the second part is slower and gloomy. All in all, they again made a great collection of fine Americana tunes.
♪♫ Listen: “Terrible Place” + album stream
My Buddy Moose on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter, www.
The third album “Osunčani ljudi” presents Žen in a little bit different style; they are more optimistic, cheerful, happy and energetic than on previous albums.
Even with these changes, they are still great shoegaze band which combines dream pop with post rock and there is a lot of reverb in their sound.
Eight new songs are very compact, so there is no doubt that “Osunčani ljudi” is again one great piece of music.
♪♫ Listen: “Opet gange” + album stream
Throughout last several years Ivana Picek has transformed from folk troubadour to Π, modern electropop artist who experiments with her music.
“☠ (časna lubanjska)” is an album which combines electronic beat similar to Bon Iver and Grimes, it never loses the freak folk attitude of Joanna Newsom, but the difference is that everything is moved to space sound.
Here we can find ambient elements, pop elements, synth elements… Combined together, everything sounds perfect.
♪♫ Listen: “山 (planina)” + album stream
After Vlasta Popić had split up, Ivan decided to reincarnate his high school project Seine. He added two guys, one on the bass and other on drums, so they started completely from the beginning.
Last year they won the Demofest, the biggest regional competition for young demo bands, so that was the indication the first album will be special.
“Sno sna” has ten songs about anxiety, paranoia and of course about love.
♪♫ Listen: “Šilo” + album stream
Seine on Soundcloud, Facebook, Bandcamp.
Nowadays, we can rarely find double LPs, but the alternative collective Moskau has decided to release the conceptual double album “Violence & Sorrow”.
As the title suggest, dark sound with elements ranging from violence (very energetic parts) to sorrow (very expressive introvert atmosphere) dominate through the album.
Moskau is even more impressive when they are performing music live.
♪♫ Listen: “Down, Down, Down” + album stream
The end of this summer was the beginning for the album “Horizons”. In alternative music world it was immediately recognized as one of the best album of the year.
Three girls have managed to combine post rock with shoegaze and the result is beautiful alternative story, amazing from the start until the end.
“Horizons” is the best debut record of the year and we believe that it is only the start of one great career.
♪♫ Listen: “There’s a thin line between everything” + album stream
Tús Nua on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.
Voting poll for Croatia selected Kries as the album of the year in 2017.
When Legen was disbanded, Moimir Novaković started to work on a new project with similar origins, a modern world music band mixing influences of alternative rock music.
New album “Selo na okuke” is the best way to see how these two genres are compatible. The album is intense, melodic, rhythmic…
Download of the release had the campaign to help refugees, so we don’t need to give you more reasons why this record is the album of the year.
♪♫ Listen: “Selo na okuke” + album stream