October 2017
For too long rock and roll and chocolate have been kept apart. But no longer! Enter Marinko Biskic from Croatia, addicted to both chocolate and loud music since the age of 16. In !978 he played his first concert as Fon Biskich and the National Treasure, an intriguing blend of new-wave, heavy-duty rock and Italian Canzone music. His bean-to-bar chocolate business Nadalina (meaning girls born around Christmas) followed in around 2007. In 2010 Marinko’s band recorded the vinyl single Guarda Che Luna and “listening to it and watching the vinyl spin got me thinking about marrying it with chocolate and after six months work I did just that!”. And so the Chocosingle was born.
Fon Biskic and the National Treasure come across as an intriguing blend of the Shadows and a folk-rock Clash. Check out the video for Guarda Che Luna and you will never be able to take the Milk Tray advert seriously again. Marinko has released a further three one-sided chocolate singles since 2010, including Chocolate Flavour Song which adds a splash of New Orleans jazz into the mix. He has also released a Chocosingle for his friends band The Sunnysiders. The Sunnysiders have a more blues/skiffle sound and sport a nifty line in black leather trousers .
A typical Chocosingle pressing is between 300 and 500 copies and they come packed in a nifty pizza-style box. Each Chocosingle sells for around £20 exclusively from retail branches of Nadalina in Split, Vienna or (closer to home) London’s Borough Market. Mail order is not an option due to the extreme fragility of the grooves.
Once you have carefully brought your Chocosingle home you can play it on a standard record deck around ten times before the grooves wear out. Marinko recommends a NAD533 with antiskating set to zero and the needle weighted a 1 – 1.5g. After ten plays you just have to eat the record, not a problem as Marinko only works with very high quality chocolate. .
As to what Marinko will next immortalise in cocoa. Hot Chocolate and the Dolly Mixtures are both obvious candidates but what about Brown Sugar? Sweet Home Alabama? Black Magic Woman? Sweet.