LÁZ

 

This shit is so good. Makes me feel like the first time blasting GORILLA ANGREB or that time I went to see SOVIETTES by myself in Riverwest and didn't know anyone there except Andy and he was drunk as shit. Truly engaging guitar heavy punk - not "heavy" guitars though - more like the guitars are the thing....until you start listening to the vocals. You'll come back to the guitars though, because they're great. There's some other shit here - '90s emo mixed with PDX >> TX garage melodies like RED DONS and STORM THE TOWER but with '80s Rough Trade and some weird ass US college radio alt. Think about SQUIRREL BAIT, CRASS and fukkn WAX IDOLS...it doesn't make sense but it works. And that's all that matters.

LASSAN ÁTJÁRÓ ZAVAR

These words were stream of consciousness garbage. 

These sounds are brilliant.

GERINC

 

In this shit world, can we please celebrate Hungary for a moment? No one is ever going to accuse Magyar of being righteous, but damn that was a glorious rejection, right? Anyway, GERINC take snappy '00s USDIY and make it sound....theirs. Talking RED DONS and MARKED MEN and NEON PISS and shit, but a little nastier. Maybe like NEON PISS if they had existed in this modern reality. Every hook will stick with you, even though "Constrangimentos" kinda stands out as the song of the century (kinda) . So yeah, let's talk about Hungary for a moment, but maybe fuk the politics and let's talk about punk bands. I'll start: GERINC. Your turn.

REKLAMÁCIÓ

TUNGA PENETRÁNS

 

What a gloriously filthy quarter hour these punks have offered us...and I will accept their offer with verve and enthusiasm. Chaotic, blown out, stripped down Hungarian DBeat delivered with the weirdest fukkn style imaginable. I(t's a sound you've heard before....you just haven't heard it quite like this. Listen to the guitar (and the vocals) on "Leépülés" if you don't believe me. 

A LEGJOBB FÉREG

AMASUNZU

 

Ten minutes of insanely ugly powerviolence from Hungary. Pure blast mania of the highest order, like a band trying to conjure GODSTOMPER's unhinged chaos and the precision of IRON LUNG at the same time.....and I'm telling you, punks: It works. 

AMASUNZU

SZEMÉT ALAKOK

Total stunner here, offered with the highest recommendation for folks who dig on outsider hip-hop and collections that defy compartmentalization. A first side (almost) overflowing with dark razor sharp rap tunes from the likes of LORD IVAN LIVAH, SHADOW WARRIORS, NUDUM and NEMAZAJ gives way to a raw and derivative DBeat churn from TERMINATOR! and you start to wonder what more this tape can possibly offer....so you flip that shit. After a 24 minute live ambient/noise piece from LEV TOYSTORE & ERNOMINIMAL recorded in 2023, the listener is treated to a short punk burner from KOPROLIT and closes with VARDI TERROR CAFE delivering a damaged piece given the industrial new beat treatment by LORD HUMMUNGUS. And the listener is left wondering how to wrap their minds around what just happened to them.

SZEMÉT ALAKOK COMP 1: Rocket To Russia (b/w) HUI

KIEGETT FÖLD

 

After making a brief appearance here back in February and (presumably) taking the interweb by storm via Szégyen Kazetták, I was thirsting for more from Budapest's KIEGETT FÖLD. Luckily, during an evening filled with burritos and friendship and laughter a few weeks ago, I saw this pink sleeve peeking out of a small stack of Hungarian goodies my pal pulled out of his bag and I knew my thirst would surely be quenched. Thankfully, the tracks here are only slightly more realized than the product the band offered on their previous tape - and it's the awkward "not quite there" aspect that makes you feel like you're listening to something special. The foundation is angular UK post-anarcho, but what KIEGETT FÖLD build on that foundation is something that sounds like....well, it sounds like a one person punk project rooted in angular post-anarcho punk, allowed to grow and flourish without outside pressure. It's (still) rare and (still) wonderful to hear a band who sound so much like themselves even while not being afraid of exposing influences that may be a bit all over the place. I look forward to the next installment, just as I look forward to the friendship/s that continues to bring interesting sounds into my life. 

T​Á​BL​Á​ZATOK, INV​Á​ZI​Ó​K

UNHOLY SATIVA

 

You might think you're ready, and Budapest's UNHOLY SATIVA are about to prove you wrong. Absolutely off the rails hardcore somehow rooted in boogie rock and heavy metal....it just doesn't make any damn sense. The same was ANNIHILATION TIME flipped the script twenty years ago, these maniacs channel FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND, DUST, MOLLY HATCHET and early DARK THRONE and they make it sound normal. They make it sound like they're in a hardcore band - because UNHOLY SATIVA are a hardcore band. One of the truest (and hardest) sonic accomplishments is to create something that doesn't sound like anything else....and that's what this is. I don't know what is happening to me. I want to ask them to lay off the drugs but also (and mostly) I don't want this to ever end. 

VULKÁN

VEHEMENCIA

 

True freak shit from Budapest. My dude travels there a couple of times a year and always comes back with a few tasty sonic morsels, but this time he really melted my earholes. You know when bands seem more concerned with creating an energy than writing songs? It typically hits with heavier acts obsessed with tonnage, but it's just about how a band feels, you know? Well, VEHEMENCIA do that, but in the context of mutant outsider punk and I am so totally here for it. You can hear the fukkn bong water in "Bérenc." The bass in the beginning of "Nosztaglia" sounds like a 1976 Lada on a journey to it's final resting place in the Urals. Listen ti "Ez Van" and I think you can hear someone repairing a vintage acrcade Missile Command machine in the background. The foundation is chaotic hardcore, but the structure VEHEMENCIA has built on top of this foundation is....truly mysterious.

VEHEMENCIA

PARLAG

 

Some of the nastiest raw black metalpunk I have ever heard comes from Budapest. Paper thin no-fi treble rebels blasting impossibly bleak sonic destruction over the course of six movements....steel yourselves. You're welcome.

PARLAG

KIÉGETT FÖLD

 

Excellent and weird are a good combination. One can work without the other, to be sure...but when you have both? Enter Budapest's KIÉGETT FÖLD, a project that drags early '80s angular punk into the new world and breathes life into sounds that come off like they are from another world (not just another time). Fans of ALTERNATIVE and THOUGHT CRIMINALS will perk up at cuts like "Érzelem Rendörség" and at other times (think "Élelmiszer" specifically) they're just good, raw, interesting punk that should perk up anyone reading these words. The Szégyen Kazetták label is brimming with quality, and KIÉGETT FÖLD are just another reminder to pay attention.

KIÉGETT FÖLD

HAVÁRIA

 

This is some nasty nasty shit, and I am here for it. Two short EPs crammed onto one cassette, and there's now more Hungarian black metal/core in my ears than I ever knew I wanted....and oh fuck me do I want it. 

DEGENERÁLT, FAJ // MMXX

FOR GOOD

 

I heard you wanted to start your week by moshing in your bedroom. Well....FOR GOOD are going to help you get that one person pit started. Two mid teens EPs combined in one plastic shell, sixteen minutes of smashing shit before you go to work or whatever....sometimes you don't need much, but it needs to be right. FOR GOOD is right. 

VITAL SIGNS / ROUGH PATCH

PALÁNTA

 

You know the feeling when a band just sounds fun? Like the songs are good and they kick you in the ass but mostly you just think "fuuuuck I bet this would be a blast live!" Well folks, meet Budapest quintet PALÁNTA - hard swinging, feisty, psyched-out Hungarian punk drenched in keyboards are ready to absolutely level the joint. "Ehseg" is the summer party jam you never knew you needed, and I'm struck by how much this reminds me of the first time I heard GORILLA ANGREB (I was drunk in Malmö, spring 2003). The two bands sound nothing alike, but the it's the way neither fits into any mold past or present and the way both go hard without trying to be or sound anything other than what they are. That sentence as a descriptor is more esoteric than helpful, but I'm just gonna hope that you, studied visitor, are going to know what I mean...PALÁNTA might just be a once in a (punk) generation band. 

PALÁNTA

 

TROTTEL

 

The Final Salute In The Name Of Human Misery is an all encompassing double album that captures TROTTEL at the height of their transition from underground Hungarian punk band experimenting behind the Iron Curtain to a full on prog/alt juggernaut. You can still hear remnants of their UK anarcho influenced roots mingling with the exploration that would carry the band well into the new century - like INTERNAL AUTONOMY and Gish and SO MUCH HATE. The cassette version was self released (with only seven of the thirteen cuts on the vinyl version), and is an excellent introduction to folks looking to travel forward or backward in time with TROTTEL. Fortunately for potential travelers, there's not a wrong choice. 

THE FINAL SAULTE IN THE NAME OF HUMAN MISERY

 

GIPSY SS

 

Hungary's GIPSY SS dropped an EP in our lives a few years ago and it blew minds. Supremely damaged and wholly unique sounding punk that just grabs you by the brain and refuses to release you. Classic punk sounds (think DKs, MUTANTS and/or the squirmier sides of the underworld) clashing with the GAGs and IDIOTA CIVILZZATOs of The New World. If you think that this shit should (still) be interesting, then I recommend their new recordings, I recommend that EP mentioned at the start of this paragraph...and I recommend these demented demos from mid-decade. If you don't think this shit should be interesting, then I am not sure if I can help you.

GIPSY SS

PASZTERNÁK KÁROLY & A LÉGKÖRI JELENSÉGEK

 

Absolute freak sounds from the folks at Szégyen Kazetták in Budapest. No-fi outsider punk and über primitive synth punk blasts try to hide the pop brilliance of "Mondom Neked" and the laid back psych/pop mini-jams like "Macska Karambol," but there's no denying this shit. Image 50 MILLION + CAPT. BEEFHEART + SHRINKRAPP KILLERS and you'll be in the neighborhood, but the house that these mutants built had no blueprints and the carpenters were on acid. It's definitely the house where you want to party. 

PASZTERNÁK KÁROLY & A LÉGKÖRI JELENSÉGEK
TAPE 2

LIDÉRC

My friends....this one is real good. If you like your sounds hollow and demented, then you're going to want to get on the LIDÉRC bandwagon. An avalanche of primitive churning metal delivered with the intensity (and fidelity) of modern era raw punk. Like BONE AWL and HATE PREACHERS collaborating on a Kill 'Em All Halloween cover set, and recording the whole experiment in a cave. On a shitty 4-track. There are a scant few physical copies of this tape in the world, but there are still a few available from Szégyen Kazetták - you know, the folks also responsible for the ELECTRIC DRUG FUCK UP tape. You're welcome....now go wreck everything. Not limited to, but definitely including, yourself. 

LIDÉRC

AURORA

 

If you still had any questions after blasting AURORA's 1987 cassette, then a quick listen to what they did the following year should clear thing up for you quite nicely. I want every one of these tracks in my brain. Permanently. 

1988

S. OLBRICHT

Abstract and disorienting sounds from Budapest's Stephan Olbricht. Deutsch Amerikanische Tragödie practically drags the listener through a forty-plus minute journey filled with dark dancefloor damage and planetary electronic ambiance....subtle and deliberate, the cuts are at once engaging and distant. I listen to this and I want to get into the why and the how, but it feels impossible. And perhaps that's why it grabs me now. "Foragrafia" grab you and, with just four notes, will bring you to your knees. 

DEUTSCH AMERICANISCHE TRAGÖDIE

If you don't already know (and you should), there's a lot more where this came from...

ANTI MILITARY DEMONSTRATION

More sounds from 1980s Budapest (on loan from a pal in the neighborhood), AMD were getting a little funky by the time they released 1991's Ne Vonulj Be! but that piercing flanged guitar and the fury of the approach more than makes up for it. Imagine an evolution beyond BGK's late '80s split - erratic light speed riffing on tracks like "A Félelem Bére" demand the kind of attention that a band that raging behind the Curtain had to fight far harder receive (from the West). 

 

NE VONULJ BE!

Choice cut here is "Még Nincs Késo" ("It's Never Too Late") - listen at volume and try to imagine late '80s NYHC through this filter, and it's pretty easy to imagine how much more deadly NYHC could (have) be(en). I'm going to go ahead and stand by that statement....