Summer is just around the corner. And summer in the Balkans means going to the beach. And going to the beach can be tricky if you have a dog. Not so much if you have a cat, but that is not why we are here today. Namely, there is a Croatian band that goes by the name of Pseća Plaža, or Dog’s Beach and, well, they do make a splash.

Pseća Plaža hail from Croatian capital of Zagreb. And although they’ve been around only since 2016, they went through several lineup changes, eventually stabilizing as a five-member act, doing psychedelic surf rock. And yes, that’s a thing.

The thing about Pseća Plaža is not just their peculiar sub-sub-genre, it is also the fact that they are an audiovisual collective rather than just a band. In fact, their videos are just as important as their music.

Pseća Plaža started out as Dog’s Beach, playing mostly English-language lyric. But doing exactly the opposite of what most contemporary bands do, they dictched English in favour of their native Croatian. And it was a good thing too, as the symbolism and surrealism are much better expressed in a language they understand every nuance of

Pseća Plaža are a connosieurs’ band. While they do have a significant following, they are not there to appeal to the masses. As a result, they are often subject to harsher criticism than their mainstream competition. Then again, they do spend an awful lot of time working on details of their song. And videos.

To date, Pseća Plaža released two full albums. Honolulu came about back in 2017, a mere year after the band spawned. They followed that up with Povratak u Lagunu broj 7 / The return to the lagoon No. 7 in 2019. And later that year, they released a four-track EP as well.

As things stand now, Pseća Plaža are Erol, Branimir, Karlo, Matej, Leo and Marin. And as we speak, they are in the middle od producing their next album. It doesn't have all the songs yet, but it does have the title. Teško je imati glavu / It's hard to have a head.

And that’s all the time we have for today. Check out Pseća Plaža on Bandcamp, Spotify, and wherever you get your music from and Balkan Express will be back next week.

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Balkan Express brings you the latest and/or the greatest in music from the Balkans. On air every Tuesday at 11am on Ara City Radio, it is hosted by Aljaž aka @pengovsky who once did the world a solid and vowed never to sing again in public. Which is how he ended up doing radio.