DUBIOZA KOLEKTIV

line up

Adis Malicbegovic (vocal, MC)
Almir Hasanbegovic (vocal, MC)
Armin Busatlic (guitars)
Brano Jakubovic (keyboards, samples, DJ, vocal)
Dragan Jakubovic (sound)
Orhan Maslo (percussion)
Senad Suta (drums)
Vedran Mujagic (bass, vocal)

country:
Bosnia and Herzegovina
region or city:
Balkan
style(s):
Hip Hop Rock
label:
Gramofon Rec.
type:
Band
instrumentation:
instrumental, vocal
artist submitted by:
Earth Music

THE STORY
L'Istruttoria e chiusa: dimentichi (The Case Is Closed: Forget It) ... As quick as rough shots of Balkan war vacated TV screens very probably also thoughts of this corner of Europe dismissed minds of most people in rest of the world. Of course it's hard to live with consciousness of massacre in Srebrenica, killed girls and boys in Tuzla, destroyed old bridge in Mostar, snipers and bombardment in Sarajevo... Do you also think the war is over and everything's alright? Have you heard how life's goin' in Bosnia today, what does trouble the people there?

Wake up and listen to Dubioza kolektiv, the band from Bosnia, which have put fresh sense to hiphop and mixed it with reggae, dub, rock and Bosnian folklore. These people engage themselves in political and social fight for a next generation in today's Bosnia. They are no MTV gansta-rap stars acting rude criminals and going for budget from the top fashion industry. They were between 11-14 when the war began and had no choice... They were hungry and thinking of sweets, they were used to carry thousands litres of water on long distances during siege of Sarajevo and never knew what bullet or shell can finish their road. But they also organized exhibitions and concerts (as far as an electricity worked) and kept themselves and others to resist the war. The war has changed them forever. You can't expect that band with such experiences will play like all others, you have to expect a different energy...

BIOGRAPHY
Dubioza kolektiv is a band from Bosnia founded in 2003 out of members of "Gluho doba Against Def Age" from Zenica and "Adi Lukovac & Ornamenti" from Sarajevo. Dubioza kolektiv live act consists of 7 people: 2 vocals/MCs, guitar, bass, drums, keys/sampler and percussion, performing a fusion of hiphop, rock, reggae, dub and Bosnian ethno sounds.

Brano Jakubovic started his music career as a bass player of "Deceased" in Sarajevo. He's been working as a DJ since '96 and played at Sarajevo clubs. In summer '96. he met and after several join projects he joined famous bosnian band "Adi Lukovac & Ornamenti". He was in charge for rhythm programming, played percussions and saz.
Vedran Mujagic started as bass player in band "Maelstrom" in Sarajevo. He also played in Sarajevo's clubs as a DJ. In 1998 he started working with "Adi Lukovac & Ornamenti" first as a concert musician and latter as a regular member of the band.
Almir Hasanbegovic, Adis Malicbegovic were founding members of street rap improvisation band "Gluho doba Against Def Age" in '93 in Zenica. They were trying to fight against the war atmosphere with their fusion of hiphop, reggae, ska, ethno, crossover... After the war they started with intense concert activities, DJ-MC sessions in clubs and played several festivals.

In 2003 they all met and founded the Dubioza kolektiv. Next members of the band today are Armin Busatlic, Orhan Maslo and Senad Suta. Since 2004 the band started to play number and fastly reached very good responses. They toured Bosnia, Slovenia and immeditelly in 2004 they received invitation to play at Cultural Olympics in Athens 2004. In 2005 they attended Eurosonic Festival 2005, Groningen, Netherlands, their track "Bosnian Rastafaria" was released on Eurosonic 2005 promo CD.

A record company Gramofon from Sarajevo (www.gramofon.ba) released Dubioza's first self-titled album in April 2004. Album was followed by 2 video clips "Bring The System Down" and "Be Highirly". Dubioza Kolektiv received 11 nominations for 2005 Davorin Award (www.davorin.ba) 4th BiH national music award. The band has won prize in two categories: in the category of the best debut album of the year, and in the category of the musical innovation and different sound.
In December 2004, new Dubioza kolektiv CD is released: EP Open Wide. This CD contains 2 new tracks (featuring famous dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah and Mush Khan from Pakistani-UK band Fun-da-mental) and 4 remixes from the first album done by remixers from BiH.

In 2006 year a new album Dubnamite was released and the band reached very good responses from their concerts and festival appearances like Exit /YU, Sziget /HU, celebrations of "L'Humanite" in Paris /F etc. (see the Selected performances). The band also performed on Colours of Ostrava festival, Czech Republic, summer 2006. Thanks to their raw and strong show and really huge success they immediately got invitation for first winter volume of Colours of Ostrava, January 2007.

Today Dubioza kolektiv is one of leading forces in a battle for changes in bosnian political and social life. Although there is no official censorship in the country, most of media ignore a voice of young people and independent artists. But in case of Dubioza they can no more close their eyes, because many people already know them and ask to hear and see them. Their songs are in radios, video clips in Bosnian TV and ex-Yugoslavian MTV, thanks to political message of their music members of the band took part in several political TV talkshows. One of their latest songs "Dosta" (Enough) is dedicated to Bosnian people's movement Dosta and became it's anthem.

You can find Dosta and next latests video clips on YouTube -
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=dubioza+kolektiv&search=Search

On the spring 2008 Dubioza's next album "Firma Illegal" was released. Opposite to their previous albums most of the songs here are sung in Bosnian language. This way the band continues also on their latest album "5 do 12" released in April 2010. The band provided this album for free download on its website and after 4 months got more than 100.000 downloads

THE BAND
Almir Hasanbegovic - vocal, MC
Adis Malicbegovic - vocal, MC
Brano Jakubovic - samples, keyboards, DJ
Vedran Mujagic - bass
Armin Busatlic - guitar
Orhan Maslo - percussion
Senad Suta drums
Dragan Jakubovic - sound

DISCOGRAPHY
Dubioza Kolektiv - Gramofon, 2004
EP Open Wide - Gramofon, 2004, incl. Benjamin Zephaniah and Mush Khan of Fun-da-mental
Dubnamite - Gramofon, 2006
Firma Illegal Ekipa Rec., 2008
5 do 12 Dubioza Kolektiv, 2010

Eurosonic 2005 promo sampler - track "Bosnian Rastafaria"
Nepopularni singlovi, Gramofon Rec. 2007 track "Ovo je zatvor"

SELECTED PERFORMANCES
Cultural Olympics - Athens /GR
Fete de L'Humanite - Paris /FR
Exit Festival - Novi Sad /YU
Sziget Festival - Budapest /HU
Colours of Ostrava - Ostrava /CZ
Eurosonic Festival Groningen /NL
Pohoda Festival Trencin /SK
Soca Reggae Riversplash - Tolmin-Sotocje /SLO
Rototom Sunsplash Reggae Festival - Osoppo /I
Balkan Trafik Festival - Brussels /BE
Couleur Cafe Festival Brussels /BE
Trutnov Open Air Festival Trutnov /CZ
Green Valley Festival /A
Topvar Rockfest /SK
Bruis festival Maastricht /NL