Kh’lulu, the sonic cannibal
Decay, decomposition, destruction. Kh'lulu is a fledgling 20-year old musician based between Moscow and Belgrade.
Published February, 2015
Decay, decomposition, destruction. Kh'lulu is a fledgling 20-year old musician based between Moscow and Belgrade.
Published February, 2015
A shimmering coating envelopes the buoyant beats, that retain an inherent nostalgia, not in a sentimental sense, but in a sense of extatic retro bonvivant atmosphere. No wonder one of his unwitting influences was Hieroglyphic Being, notable for his idiosyncratic approach to dance music.
Published January, 2015
Samčo, Brat Dážďoviek in the unconventional music waters of Slovakia, as well as the Czech Republic, is a well-known character. With the look of a perpetual nomad, he moves through various musical genres, turning them upside down, armed with playfullness of a child, bending and deconstructing them, until they reach a point where they profess the sign of “Samčo-esque” poetics.
Published December, 2014
Farbwechsel’s recent releases are becoming more different, offering a broader range of musical genres. This change is welcome since their lo-fi and dreamy house-driven sound slowly started to become a bit worn-out.
Published December, 2014
As Muslimgauze’s magnum opus gets re-released and re-listened by a new generation of listeners, and his numerous epigons emerge and disappear, the merging of Oriental tropes in Western electronic music doesn’t seem to cease to interest up-and-coming producers in occidental bedrooms. Many question the earnestness of the ventures of the likes of Vatican Shadow, but this discussion, we rather skip here.
Published July, 2014
For tracklist click here: Tracklist:Superskin - Suspicious Minds Superskin - Drown Superskin - Descent Somnoroase Paserele - 18_01 Somnoroase Paserele - 18_08 Somnoroase Paserele - 17_04 Střed Světa - Ozvena Zmackana Opodal Střed Světa - Travinou Obkliceni Střed Světa - untitled, unreleased Střed Světa - Tvorem v tíží země (Basic House Rub) Lightning Glove - Dream On (Ketamine God) - unreleased Sister Body - Secret Turned to Revulsion Heroiny S Olbricht & Carla Under Water - No Message (The Key) S Olbricht & Carla Under Water - Birds Nightmare Carpet - untitled Shamnelism - Shamnelism Plevna - Imperios Future Nuggets Střed Světa - Tvorem pod sluncem S Olbricht - III1 Synus006 - Dist_Black Jonáš Gruska - Lunars
Published March, 2014
Although the activities of the Prague based Klangundkrach collective seem to have been put on a halt as of late, the legacy of this post-noise label/collective, which was quite an extraordinary achievement in Central Europe (check out our podcast about this scene here), remains. From the fertile sonic soil of this relatively small group the increasingly successful Lightning Glove, now signed to Tesla Tapes, has emerged.
Published March, 2014
The Budapest scene of the last few years has garnered attention, because of its cross-pollinatory nature, specific sound revolving around the Farbwechsel label. Lo-fi house, analogue electronics, vintage techno have become staples of sonic map of the Hungarian capital.
Published February, 2014
Samčo, brat dážďoviek is a Slovak musician and an enigma, with an affinity for subversion of national identities and all sorts of ideology recontextualisations. He is also an expert in obscure music, check out his article about the Czech and Slovak Bandzone scene here.
Published January, 2014
The internet made it possible for every user to distribute his or hers music in quite a democratic way, while the development of mobile phones, computers and all of those cross-overs made it possible for everyone to make his or hers own musical recording - even if it’s recorded with poor microphones on a cellphone by someone who doesn’t know shit about music. Take these two things together, and what you have is a sort of minor music revolution.
Published November, 2013
Farbwechsel has become a staple and a nurturing umbrella for several up-and-coming Hungarian producers, acting as a catalyst for the diverse and noteworthy Budapest electronic scene of the last two years with Martin Mikolai at its helm, who produces music under his moniker S Olbricht. The Opal Tapes artist has also created a specific sound - hazy, dance-oriented and nostalgic, which have also been translated on the output of his own imprint.
Published October, 2013
Lightning Glove is a Czech project that emerged from the murky circles of the Prague noise/psychedelic collective Klangundkrach. A trio, accompanied by a visualist, Lightning Glove strive to resurrect rave from its sad sold-out existence, as they told us in an interview: The music has inherent allusions to the likes of Excepter or Suicide, with a dash of Coil or Throbbing Gristle for a good measure, a psychedelic lo-fi guttural onslaught that you can listen to and groove to, as well, aiming for the treshold between psychedelics and post-dance, with yearning vocals, delayed samples, tweaking the hidden ghost out of their drum machine, to create an aural shamanistic excercise.
Published March, 2013
It’s hard to imagine a better initial encounter with a band than a half secret gig taking place on a beach late early summer’s night. At that time (21th May 2012, around midnight) Ch-ch-ching’s music created the sonic backdrop to an event focused on constructing Chinese lanterns and sending them to the sky.
Published October, 2012
One year after releasing his debut as the now discontinued witchhousey project TEMPELHOF, the Czech musician Tomáš Kopáček returns to his song-writing roots. His new project Black Tar Jesus seemingly continues in the vein of Kopáček’s former production - the dreamy and nostalgic lo-fi pop released under the name of Mon Insomnie.
Published June, 2012
Having three sides as painter, rapper and songwriter-poet Gazsi Rap Show aka Gáspár Szőke is one of those multi-facetted artists. Gathering attention of the DIY-art scene with his memorable live shows and visual aesthetics of trash art he is finishing now his first album Az Atom Utolsó Erkölcsös Vak Királya (in English: The Last Virtous Blind King Of The Atom).
Published June, 2012
Route 8 has dropped his first EP Never Ending Stories just two months ago - we also featured his 4-track debut a while ago - and for now he’s working hard on his live set debut at the release party for the imminent second compilation of Easterndaze on 11th of May in Budapest’s Roham Bar. We’re eagerly looking forward to seeing his ‘synthpop-house’ tunes live.
Published April, 2012
The Black Elbows is a debut by the young Kiev-based musician Igor going under the name Falcon Ruby. Playing in various local bands since he was 15 he started to record his debut in autumn 2011.
Published April, 2012
The latest export from Hungary /where our new collaborateur and author of this article Andras G. Varga comes from/ comes via Route 8, a very young producer making atmospheric electronic vibes.
Published February, 2012
A new compilation put together by Nikola Vitkovic (as his independent endeavour) strives to highlight the buoyoant music scene of the troublesome period of Serbia’s history - the 1990s. It seems that the old maxim about art thriving in the age of general gloom is at play in this case as well.
Published January, 2012
The end of the year is nigh, and thus we have decided to - surprise, surprise - compile a list of Best of from the countries we have been exploring over the last two years. And since our knowledge is limited, we have asked those living, working and creating in those particular countries to tell us about the music happenings in their country.
Published December, 2011
When Benedek Szabó, the mastermind behind the Hungarian project Zombie Girlfriend asked us to be the international platform through which the project’s second LP will be announced, we couldn’t say no. First of all we love Benedek’s musical humour, as manifested in the laid-back surfpop killer Jesus Stole My Zombie Girlfriend released as a part of the seminal Hungarian Lo-fi vol.
Published December, 2011
It has been an age-old assumption that when the times are shit - politically and/or economically, the art thrives (punk or the NY-based no wave and new wave scenes as a case in point). Hungary currently is not in the best state both politically and economically.
Published December, 2011
If we were not from this region, we would also probably throw in together Ela Orleans, a Polish lofi chanteuse informed by post-punk and Maria Minerva, the Eurotrash and dance music inspired Estonian producer with a penchant for retro as in “Eastern European lofi girls making it in West” (as has been recently inadvertently done by one NFOP writer). Ela has been inspired by the rich Polish musical heritage (she’s lucky she comes form a country whose music scene actually and arguably thrived during communism) even though, as she says in an interview with NFOP: “I could rarely express any enthusiasm for Polish bands then (and even more so now).
Published December, 2011
It’s been a perennial discussion of ours, at least since starting this project - what does and doesn’t belong to Eastern Europe. Is the post-Cold War world still divided into east and west? The more we’ve travelled across the region - and living here all our lives - the more we think that the distinctions are pretty much still in place.
Published September, 2011
The Hungarian project Gazsi Rap Show sing about loneliness?? (Egyedül vagyok mint az ujjam) on the backdrop of industrial beats and lofi rapping.
Published August, 2011
July shizz by Easterndaze on Mixcloud We have a new social gizmo on Mixcloud (you can find us here), this time to upload podcasts, mixes and more concise sets. To kickstart our feature, we put together a selection of the finest tunes we found in July (partly played in our Habitat show).
Published July, 2011
[gallery] Following her debut EP Parttalan, the Budapestian lofi-queen Piresian Beach releases her debut LP Fuck Your Mind. You can get it from the download link below, or on her Bandcamp.
Published July, 2011
The brand new imprint alice mange son coeur is a truly modern label. It operates from Prague and is run by the young Sara Cross who A&R’d the label roster from her bedroom via Last.
Published June, 2011
Hungary seems to be in thrall of all things dreamy, lo-fi and fuzz (just check out Piresian Beach and her work, she’s also on our compilation). Another case in point is the Hungarian dreamy lo-fi fuzz project Models Can’t Fuck is inspired “by the "impotence” of the Hungarian music scene (hence the name), both mainstream and underground, and the general public’s out of date thinking about contemporary music and their indifference towards new exciting acts and young bands,“ says its heart and brain Árpi Szarvas.
Published January, 2011
One man music project (Transylvania Noise Lamp aka Acidbusman) from Hungary. Using only very short loops and effects via a virtual sampler this music is made on a Dj Crazy Boris software and a laptop.
Published December, 2010
foto: Ivana Vereski A live recording from dné’s gig at our first night on 18 November 2010. Check back for more live sets, which we’ve been diligently recording at our three shows.
Published November, 2010
There’s two ways how to deal with pre-Xmas late November depression. We don’t mean to boost the pharmaceutical industry, so no tips for cute little pills here, just some musical medicaments.
Published November, 2010
The symbol of the Warsaw Uprising, which we come across in form of a graffiti tag all over Warsaw Warsaw: its spacious streets and the central agglomeration of skyscrapers dominated by the famous Palace of Culture and Science from the first moments evoked a strong urban feeling contrasting with the the touristy “history museum” of Krakow. During WWII, 85% of the city was destroyed, the Jewish Ghetto with its 1943 Jewish uprising was laid to the ground in an act similar to the crude retaliation of the Hitler’s Army after the Warsaw uprising.
Published August, 2010