Dr. Project Point Blank - Gitarologija: Live (Dom Omladine 2016) (2023)

Point Blank, probably, the first real blues band in former Yugoslavia, enough honest and brave to dive deep into the blues idiom at the time which was over piled with music so much different from blues, as well as fighting against, for so, so long, firmly established opinion that Balkans couldn't cope with such kind of feelings arose from dark depths of American black society's spiritual tradition. English language finally cemented down the prejudice, casting away an idea to playing blues music as already highly respected form of musical expression. But..., as always happens, something was creeping out from the cellar!

The very beginning of the summer 1983 found Dragoljub Crncevic-Baki, the prodigal son, and two, the off-road pals of his, one Timothy Davis an American, the other Michael Sulc an Australian, coming to visit Baki's hometown Belgrade, in which somewhere in shadows languished Dragan Markovic, a. k. a. Mare di Luna, waiting for an opportunity to knock!
That summer was good as any other, and almost out of nothing came out the very first true YU blues outfit, Dr. Project - Point Blank. During that summer, Dr. Project - Point Blank boasted quite a reputation as a blues group through live appearances, which led to an idea of recording the very first YU LP in English, entirely self composed, which would range from bottleneck to all-electric city blues based on Chicago and Detroit downtown guitar styles. Again, as usually happens, drummer Michael Sulc got homesick and left. Not long after that another fine drummer, Miroljub Vilotijevic, was augmented to the group. The wheels started turning...!

Mr. Djordje Debac, musical producer of PGP-RTB, was wise enough, after listening to demo, for not longer than five minutes, to give the group their first contract. The necessary time for recording in studio came along.

The very outfit, mentioned above, comprising of D. Crncevic-Baki (vocal, guitars), D. Markovic (guitars), Timothy Davis (vocals, bass) and M. Vilotijevic (drums, percussion), brought out their first born and gave him his Christian name, The Blues!

After, by critics, well received first album and public acclaim, Point Blank proved, for the first time in the history of YU rock, that English language and musical expression in its blues form couldn't have been a barrier for approaching wider audience.

That fact opened the door to formation of the steady blues scene first in Belgrade, then in other cities like Novi Sad, Nis, Zagreb, etc. Finally blues became incorporated into Yugoslav musical body for good. At the time of the first LP Timothy Davis unfortunately left, and was briefly replaced by the newcomer Sasa Labudovic. However, by second album group's direction was begining to shift away from the blues as evidenced in numbers such as Glass Rider and Sisters of Mercy, as well as experimenting with rhythm in Broken Toillette's Seat Blues, showing necessary complexity in arrangements throughout the material. Well composed, arranged and imaginative, Dr. Project - Point Blank, the second album remains possibly the finest Point Blank's album to date.

In late summer 1986, not long after very successful Mid-European tour, due to internal stresses D. Markovic departed to form his own group, Di Luna Blues Band, which is doing well since then. Replacement was found in Aleksandar Kozakijevich with whome band kept on constant gigging across former Yugoslavia. By the end of 1991 along came well known crissis. Yugoslavia was splitted and the band fell apart altogether. Point Blank went down into a period of hibernation.

During 1995 and 1996, Point Blank came out as trio, D. Crncevic (vocal, guitars) with R. Bulatovic (bass) and M. Karlovic (drums), cutting rather disappointing, Southern Comfort, their third album, falling apart for the second time after a handful of gigs.

In attempt to put up Point Blank on its feet again, D. Crncevic gathered completely new outfit consisting of one time member A. Kozakijevich (guitar), D. Grujic (keyboards), D. Petrovic (bass), G. Ilic (drums), (who replaced B. Balos), with the addition of the third guitarist B. Milosevic.

This lineup recorded much improved Sunny Sky, the fourth album, by the end of summer 1997. In that formation Point Blank has been touring Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Italy during 1997 and 1998. Not long after Christmas 1998 all members left except keyboards player Darko Grujic and founder member Dragoljub Crncevic. Two young musicians were brought in, Zoran Milenkovic on bass and Jovan Pejcinovic on drums, which rounded up new, rejuvenated quartet, ready to bite down hard! After a couple of months of rehearsing during 2000 this new formation occupied studio, for a week’s time during December the same year, and recorded excellent LP having John O'Leary, prominent British harmonica hero, as a guest.