Dzeltenie Pastnieki are a Latvian band formed in 1979 in Riga, Latvia. Their name means "the yellow postmen" in Latvian, and is sometimes abbreviated to DzP. They were among the pioneers of new wave as well as reggae in the former Soviet Union. The music has ranged from guitar/bass/drums-based post-punk to minimal synthpop to experimental tape manipulation.
The constant core members of the band have remained Ingus Bauà ¡Ã·enieks (bass, keyboards, vocals) and Viesturs Slava (guitar, keyboards, vocals), with Zigmunds Strei÷is (keyboards) and Ilgvars Rià ¡Ã·is (drums) completing the "classic" line-up. Members of the band, past and present, include alumni of the school currently known as Riga State Gymnasium No.1 (formerly Leons Paegle Riga Secondary School No.1): Ingus Bauà ¡Ã·enieks, Viesturs Slava, Andris Kalnià Âà ¡ (all 1974), and MÃÂrtià Âà ¡ Rutkis (1975).
Their first six albums (1981âÂÂ1987) were home-recorded using consumer tape recorders, and distributed by means of magnitizdat, on 1/4" reel-to-reel tape and compact cassette, with no artwork. Despite popular demand throughout the 1990s, none of these albums was released properly until 2003, when Bauà ¡Ã·enieks began issuing them on compact disc on his own label, IB Ieraksti.
Contemporary Latvian composer MÃÂrtià Âà ¡ Brauns has said that Dzeltenie Pastnieki influenced the entire Latvian scene, including himself, and even Raimonds Pauls. The band's work of the 1980s has often been praised by leading Russian music critic Artemy Troitsky. Also, DzP were the only Latvian-language artists featured in Alexander Kushnir's book 100 üðóýøÃÂþðûÃÂñþüþò ÃÂþòõÃÂÃÂúþóþ ÃÂþúð (1999, "100 Tape Albums of Soviet Rock"), with dedicated chapters for two of their albums - BolderÃÂjas dzelzceÃ¼à ¡ (1981) and Alise (1984).
The earliest incarnations of Dzeltenie Pastnieki were formed in the mid 1970s around Bauà ¡Ã·enieks, and it is said that the band's early days were spent performing at dance events, playing covers of songs by Gary Numan, Bob Marley, Blondie, and The Police, among others. In the spring of 1981, while under an early name, Jaunais Sarkanais Karalis ("The New Red King", in reference to King Crimson), the band recorded a half-hour-long demo album entitled Madonas galerts (The Meat-Jelly of Madona). Photographs from the recording session show the band at this point consisting of Bauà ¡Ã·enieks, Slava, Andris Kalnià Âà ¡ (keyboards, saxophone), and MÃÂrtià Âà ¡ Rutkis (guitar).
Songs from Madonas galerts were re-recorded later the same year for the proper Dzeltenie Pastnieki debut album, BolderÃÂjas dzelzceÃ¼à ¡ (The Railroad of BolderÃÂja; usually misspelt as BolderÃÂjas dzelzsceÃ¼à ¡, even on the 2003 CD release). A majority of songs on it were written or co-written by NSRD core members Hardijs Ledià Âà ¡ and Juris Boiko, and date back to material recorded earlier by Seque - a pre-electronic version of NSRD and also the name of their record label. Additionally, it was Ledià Âs who named the band, after an early song, "Dzeltenais viltus pastnieks" ("The Sham Yellow Postman").
For their second album, Man üoti patëk jaunais vilnis (1982, I Really Like New Wave), Dzeltenie Pastnieki added Roberts Gobzià Âà ¡ (vocals, lyrics), whom Strei÷is had met at a choir rehearsal, and partially gave up the guitar/bass/drums setup for a more synthetic sound. The album boasts the first-ever Latvian-language rap performance (by Gobzià Âà ¡) in the song "Bezcerëgàdziesma" ("The Hopeless Song").
Following a period of inactivity, the band were asked to compose the music for an amateur stage adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, directed by Andris Zeibots. However, according to Bauà ¡Ã·enieks' recollection, there was only ever a single performance of the play. The resulting album, 1984's Alise (Alice) adopted a considerably more minimal electronic sound, largely due to its modest recording circumstances.
Leftovers from Alise as well as even earlier sessions formed the basis for the fourth album, VienmÃÂr klusi (also 1984, Always Quiet). Perhaps the band's most stylistically diverse work to date, it demonstrates both their guitar-based and electronic inclinations, and contains their populist calling card, "Milà ¾u cëà Âa".
DepresëvàpilsÃÂta (1986, The Depressing City) was assembled of out-takes, alternate versions, and even several proper solo tracks by individual members of the band.
Naktis (1987, Nights) could be seen as a 'back to the roots' effort that at the same time made use of the progress of home studio trickery made by Bauà ¡Ã·enieks over the previous years. His ever-increasing dominance in the collective also reached its peak on this album, and was most obvious in that Naktis contained only one song with Viesturs Slava on lead vocals (who had sung around half of the tracks on each prior album). Nevertheless, Naktis has had the best overall reaction from both critics and fans.
In 1988 Bauà ¡kenieks released his first solo album MÃÂjas dzëve (Life at Home). He claimed that by 1988 he had amassed enough equipment to be able to work without a full band. However, the lineup of Bauà ¡Ã·enieks, Slava, Strei÷is and Rià ¡Ã·is reunited and went on a national tour with K. Remonts in 1989.
As a solo artist, Roberts Gobzià Âà ¡ became a national star of the 1990s. He released the first Latvian-language rap 12" single Aka Aka on Westbam's Low Spirit label, and later signed a five-album deal with MicRec (now called Mikrofona Ieraksti and representing EMI and Sony BMG).
The only new Dzeltenie Pastnieki release in the 1990s was MÃÂness dejas (1995, "Moon Dances"), a collection of the band's past classics reworked by Uãis Vëtià Âà ¡, with all vocals re-recorded in a professional studio by Bauà ¡Ã·enieks, Slava and Edëte Bauà ¡Ã·eniece.
An album of new material finally appeared in 2003. Ka÷is featured Bauà ¡Ã·enieks, Slava and Strei÷is, with Gobzià Âà ¡ writing most of the lyrics. Rià ¡Ã·is was absent on the album due to living in the countryside at the time, as well as their inability to properly record live drums in the home studio. Following the release, Bauà ¡Ã·enieks, Slava and Rià ¡Ã·is resumed live performances as a power trio.