The Rubber Soul Project Review:
During the long-lasting period of UN sanctions, many citizens of Yugoslavia learned how to manufacture products that had earlier been only imported. Thus Rastko Ciric, Professor of Illustration at the School of Applied Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade, and an old Beatles fan, suffering from the lack pf foreign records and licensed music titles, decided to act on his own. In 1993, he chose 15 titles of previously unreleased Beatles songs and – composed them himself! He did that to
the lyrics of Goran Skrobonja, horror fiction author and Beatles fan himself, and they used the only information available as a starting point: titles of the songs, for some of them the time of their origin and the name of the Beatles album for which they were intended. Working on the words and music, the two Belgrade artists tried to create these imaginary songs as close to the Beatles style as possible. In 1995, with a little help of their friends, professional musicians and Beatles fans too, they recorded the album called 'The Rubber Soul Project', using old instruments and old music equipment from the Sixties. Along with the title song, other titles include: 'All Together On The Wireless Machine', 'Little Eddie', 'Four Nights In Moscow', 'Home', 'I Should Like To Live Up A Tree', 'Shirley’s Wild Accordion', 'Colliding Circles', 'What’s The New Mary Jane', 'Heather', 'When I Come To Town', 'Bound By Love', 'Indian Rope Trick', 'Thinking Of Linking' and 'Watching Rainbows'. Mr. Skrobonja also wrote a horror/SF novella entitled 'Rubber Soul' and it is included in the CD package recently issued by the record company PGP RTS from Belgrade.
The appearance of this album coincided with the release of archive tracks elsewhere and created a big confusion in the local music scene. People wonder whether these are original recordings or just a skillful forgery. One copy of the CD was sent to Mr. Paul McCartney, who is the only person that can give the most authentic comment. Certain record companies in London are interested in this material (the rights to which belong to London based company AD&Sons Ltd. and there is a possibility that ¤'The Rubber Soul Project' will be released in Great Britain and other European countries. Anyhow, although this is NOT a Beatles record, it is a MUST for all Beatles fans.
--BILLBOARD Magazine 'Global Music Pulse'