expression. 1984–1985: Muharem takes over Plavi Orkestar, Soldatski bal hits it big Though the torch of New Primitivism had primarily been carried by Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors and Zabranjeno Pušenje, other bands were also associated with the movement. After splitting with Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors following the lackluster reception of their debut album, crafty manager Malkolm Muharem switched over to another local Sarajevo outfit—Plavi Orkestar—a band that had also been gigging on the city's student club scene for some time already and was now looking to take the next step by recording and releasing a studio album. Though also starting out as a garage/punk rock group that often crossed paths with Pušenje and EJK (Orkestar's bassist Ćera I even played on Pušenje's demo recordings before joining Orkestar while the bands also often held club gigs together), over time, especially after achieving stable lineup of Loša, Pava, Ćera I, and Ćera II in early summer 1983, Plavi Orkestar moved to more conventional forms of expression within Yugoslav general cultural context. In practice, that meant essentially abandoning punk in favour of pop and openly flirting with Yugoslav commercial folk in their sound. Though opening doors for them commercially, this practice somewhat placed them on the fringes of New Primitivism. Compared to the two main new primitive outfits, their stage appearance was far more orderly and their lyrics were less cerebral. Nevertheless, Muharem saw a new opportunity with the four fresh-faced lads each of whom just turned 20 having recently returned to the city from their respective year-long mandatory army services. In addition to crossing paths with them at various gigs over the preceding few years while he managed Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors, Muharem had already shared a few instances of brief business collaboration with the Plavi Orkestar youngsters such as helping them, in September 1983, arrange demo recording sessions at Enco Lesić's Druga Maca studio in Belgrade right before they went away to serve their respective mandatory army stints. In fall 1984 when Muharem officially took the band under his wing, it barely existed with its main creative duo—frontman Saša Lošić and guitarist —not on speaking terms and Pava not participating in any band-related activities. Not deterred, Muharem took their 1983 demos over to Jugoton's chief executive , pitching him another new primitive band by presenting Plavi Orkestar's sound and image as camp. By his own