Adventurous releases from Hungary (2015)
As if trapped in locked groove or tape loop the whole EP drifts in a circular motion. ‘On’s naked percussive patterns repeatedly fall over each other while the disorienting staccatos of ‘Onlon’ fade into the thick smoke soaked basements. ‘Lacertid’ featuring label mate Imre Kiss starts with a rattling sound which could be recordings of rain rapidly falling onto windows. When the greyscale synths kick in they rupture this descending bleakness with a strange otherness.
Imre Kiss finally lands back on the Lobster Theremin mothership, this time with a reissue of his seminal tape album Midnight Wave.
A seminal, bold and instantly nostalgic LP, Midnight Wave showcases Imre’s immense ability to craft vivid landscapes of ethereal sound, infused with layers and years of emotional content.
Culled from live-to-tape synth sessions in his once London abode, these tracks are the result of melancholic and restricted surroundings and trappings.
What has emerged is a body of crackling, warm ambient and techno with a vast, cinematic scope. A sonic portrait of an alienated moment in London, told using industrial visceral tools and visualised through the cutting figure of a lonely individual boarding the 5am night bus home.
Kokum – Impressions of the Environment
Kokum’s sound harks back to those times in musical history that cherished the primordial and the raw. A ritualistic narrative inspired by his interest in “primitive ancient things” and his search for what is irredeemably lost. Every track tells a story, using the voice as the instrument, with a relentless rhythmic backdrop. Vulnerable, fragile, but raw and commanding at the same time, the voice is at the centrepoint of Kokum’s artistic practice.
Trauma is a mysterious project composed of Krisztián P., Erika Sz. and Márton B. They are based in Budapest and the trio makes improvised electronics, with no holds barred. Harsh and brutal, unhindered noise without rhythmic compromises, interspersed with rapid moments of calm (not the good sort though, but more the harrowing calm before a cataclysm). The music is abstract, with disorienting connotations. The track titles, nevertheless, are almost cinematic, book-like. (Easterndaze)
Mark Fell + Gábor Lázár – The Neurobiology Of Moral Decision Making (The Death of Rave)
Mark Fell and Gábor Lázár ratchet the game with their razor-sharp debut collaboration, ‘The Neurobiology of Moral Decision Making’. As promised in the wake of Gábor’s acclaimed vinyl debut, ‘EP16’, the duo have colluded on a full set of ten tracks, ranging from short synapse bursts thru to an uncannily emotive 12 minute masterpiece on the closing side. As the 10th release on The Death of Rave, it demonstrates the distance travelled since the early ’90s paradigm shift of original rave culture, effecting a radical recalibration of meter and tone conventions in electronic/dance music, and by turns, acutely probing our perception of time and space. Essentially it’s incredibly “funky”, if “funk” is taken to mean syncopation or a play on tension-and-resolution. By utilising the grid-morphing potential of Max/MSP software, they unlock mutant ballistic patterns cleanly weaving between and recoding the tendons and ligament of techno, garage, footwork and hardcore with muscle memory-reprogramming impact. Kicks, claps and visceral chromatic stabs land at irregular, blind-spot junctures, acutely rewiring our sense of rhythmic anticipation and offering a thrilling new freedom of expression and dancefloor discipline in the process. It’s a masterful step forward from Yorkshireman, Mark Fell’s Sensate Focus output and SND classics, and, likewise, a logical leap from Budapest-based Max whizz, Gábor Lázár. If you’re into Mumdance, Errorsmith, Lorenzo Senni, Autechre, Actress or SND; we’d say it’s as essential as they come. (Boomkat)
A i w A – I’d Rather Take You Out
A i w A, a core artist of the Farbwechsel stable is back to Hungary’s celebrated label with his third release. I’d rather take you out is a collection of ten analogue boogie jams, each inspired by a gif. On the album, these endless visual loops transform into live recordings of barely fleshed out melodies that constantly run around in circles but somehow still remain elusive. By design, the whole record maintains a very lo-fi, albeit controlled aesthetic that is supported by antique drum machines and synths. All in all, it’s still a very exquisite, classy sound not unlike listening to Jimmy Edgar on a malfunctioning Walkman. Warm, peaceful, slo-mo dance music. Works best if you’re a pro football player in Louboutins, who takes pleasure in cruising through the city behind a tilted windshield, doing 30km/h.
Excalibur, Eril Fjord’s second full length album hides a collection of lavish, impressionist landscapes. The twelve featherweight pieces presented on Farbwechsel records create a world of soothing, organic electronica sometimes echoing the greats of spiritual jazz, sometimes showing more technoid folk influences. What defines Excalibur more than anything is its exceptional sense of proportions, space and narrative – a remarkable journey to take on. Krisztián Pet has been involved in a number of projects in the past decade. His promising solo project, Eril Fjord was launched in 2011 and met with great success right away. There’s no doubt Excalibur will help build Eril Fjord’s reputation.
You’re about to swallow your sweet summer love and BANG there’s Bálint Zalkai aka Alpár with an oh so sweet reminder, a tape filled with hardcore memories freezed out for your best K-way behaviour. Tropic Daze, slinky themes from an analogue twiddler; bad boy romantics and street wise synth cocktails straight out of Budapest.
12z – The Freefall Inspirations
With their new album entitled The Free Fall Inspirations, Hungarian electroacoustic duo 12z [onetwozed] present an eclectic palette of intricate, improvisatory tone poems. This is the first of two upcoming full-lengths with the label and the second, Trembling Air, will follow in just a few months. The Free Fall Inspirations marks another direction in 12z’s work, being their first entirely electronic recording. The album was sparked by György Pálfi’s film Free Fall, for which it was recorded as a potential score, but it stands strong independently, conjuring its own strange images.
Released on 6th of April, 2015 on Nicolas Jaar’s Other People label, as part of The Freefall Inspirations.
Oszlopoz – The Righteous Light Going Through The Life-Giving Rain
Oszlopoz is a Hungarian band, playing experimental music what’s mostly contains electric & bass guitar, long steel chains as drums, bells, and rainsticks. Totally instrumental. The main goal of the project could be to create a constant, dense, slightly psychedelic music.