Gábor Lázár – EP16 (The Death of Rave, 2014)

Published October, 2014
by b.arctor

Gábor Lázár is back. Not much time has passed since we – positively – reviewed his previous album and now his reach bounds to get even wider, as Boomkat’s label The Death of Rave has decided to support this young Hungarian experimental artist coinciding with the rising interest in the Budapest music scene which slowly, but surely infiltrates international music magazines. While the output of his fellow Budapestians aims towards more accessible sounds and grooves, Gábor’s music is uncompromising, bare to the bone experimentation with sound dynamics and structures, mostly relying on single sounds processed through a strict, minimalistic approach relying on the skill of careful gradating composition.

EP16 is similar to his previous ILS effort and develops the sound and Gábor’s approach in a more precise and detailed manner. Again, despite the creative limitations that this process offers. Slight filter processing and sudden dynamic changes in rhythm are certainly pleasant. Adventurously chopped up sonic collages prove that Lázár did his homework well, when studying at Faculty of Music and Arts in Pécs. My favourite activity on one afternoon was to run his tracks through a spectrogram, the visual side of the tracks reminding me somewhat of the old Prince of Persia level designs.

Nevertheless, it is just an upgrade to his ILS album proving that Gábor was capable of a more refined sound in the original release. It makes me wonder why this wasn’t perfected on ILS already? I really hope that his upcoming collaboration with Mark Fell will be more daring and Gábor will take us somewhere else, as a third release of this kind would be a bit boring. On the other hand, a lot of people possibly didn’t catch his previous releases and through this opportunity a bigger audience will be able get to know the unique and intriguing Lázar’s take on modern music.