Some music rattles through time, shaking the bones of history and lighting up the present. It Was Ridiculous, It Was Amazing! is one such record. With this release, the music of DATA and The Master Scratch Band is finally given the retrospective celebration it deserves. Recorded between 1981 and 1983, but never previously released in full, the album is an essential document of the early Yugoslav electronic underground. More than that, it is a thrilling, imaginative, and deeply human work of sonic art. It feels astonishingly ahead of its time and strikingly suitable now. This compilation is divided neatly into two halves. The first side belongs to DATA, a project that draws on the haunting spirit of minimal synth and the energy of early electronic music. The second is dedicated to The Master Scratch Band, a bold and bright project that leans into breakbeat and early hip-hop influences. Both bands were the creation of two brilliant minds, Zoran Jevtić and Zoran Vračarević, who pushed boundaries and created something entirely new in a place and time where innovation was not easy, nor expected. Their story alone is remarkable. These two artists created something radical in Yugoslavia, far away from the major electronic capitals of Berlin, Detroit, or Tokyo. In the early 1980s, while global giants of synthpop and breakbeat were developing their movements, Jevtić and Vračarević were carving out their own, with homemade ingenuity and passion. They were experimenting with machines and methods that defied the norm. They were making electronic music not to follow trends, but to invent futuristic soundscapes.
The DATA’s sound is minimal yet expansive. The vocals, often processed and surreal, bring haste and intimacy. The synth work is sharp, driven by analog hardware like the Roland System-100M. It creates a gritty but deeply textured soundscape that evokes the cold tension of industrial music and the beauty of ambient synthpop. There’s subtle poetry enclosed in these tracks. Some feel fragile and melancholic. Others hit like a storm. You don’t just listen to these tracks, you can clearly visualize them, in shapes and colors. You imagine neon lights on crumbling buildings. You feel the weight of history in every drum machine kick, every strange echo, every whispered lyric. DATA is full of mystery and emotion. The compositions are brave and unconventional and do not follow a pop structure. They bloom and retreat. They collide and resolve. It is music that invites you in slowly, then refuses to let go. It makes you ask questions and it doesn’t hand you easy answers. And then comes The Master Scratch Band side. What a joy it is. These are not just old-school hip-hop tracks. They are the first of their kind in the region, possibly even in Eastern Europe. But they don’t feel like early experiments. They are full of confidence, swagger, and fun. They carry a rhythm and pulse that feels eternal. The breaks are tight, the scratches wild, the beats full of hand-crafted funk and forward motion.
What makes these songs especially compelling is how tactile they sound. Every beat, every sample, every synth stab was made using analog machines, hardware, tape, and turntables. The care that went into crafting these rhythms is astounding. These are not loops taken from elsewhere. They were built from the ground up, sound by sound, breath by breath. You can hear the sweat in the grooves. You can feel the intent behind every snare. The Master Scratch Band looked westward in sound but made something unquestionably unique. They wrote in English, dreaming of international success. But their music carries a local spirit, something abrasive and unfiltered. It is lively but also filled with creative defiance. It laughs in the face of limits. It dances beyond the walls it was born within. This release is more than plain nostalgia. It is more than a collector’s treasure. It is a work of art that feels alive, pulsating with power and truth. The tracks might be over four decades old, but their spirit is eternal. They sound like something made yesterday in Berlin, or tomorrow in New York. The production is crisp. The ideas are fresh. The sound is relevant, but more importantly, it is authentic. What makes It Was Ridiculous, It Was Amazing! so powerful is not just the music itself, but what it represents. It exemplifies what creativity can accomplish against the odds. It reminds that music does not have to follow the rules of its time, it can invent new rules, or choose to ignore them entirely.
This record feels like a hand-written letter from the past, personal, imperfect, full of meaning. It offers something rarely seen in music releases nowadays, authenticity. And for those of us who listen deeply, who search for magic in the grooves of vinyl or the hiss of an old tape, this record offers gold. There are no weak moments here. No filler. No gimmicks. Just two brilliant minds, two essential projects, and one unforgettable record. Whether you come to it for the synthpop, breakbeat, nostalgia, or novelty, you will leave with more than you expected. You will leave changed. To say this album is just “good” would be to miss the point. It Was Ridiculous, It Was Amazing! is a cultural document, a musical time machine, and a love letter to creative freedom. It deserves to be played loud and studied carefully. Head to Discom for more information about ordering this gem on vinyl.
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