Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Kerekes Band - When folk starts doing the boogie

Once upon a time there were lived a handful of hungarians, who due to some curse that was laid upon them at the dawn of time, picked up folk instruments, and devoted time and energy into mastering them. They did this because they loved the ancient sound of hungarian music, from the areas Gyimes and Moldva. However they soon learned that unless you have a relative or a contact that owns a TV channel or the Operahouse itself, you're going to die of famine - so they had a better idea.

Why not throw in some electronics?

The outcome hit the musical scene in 2006 with their album 'Pimasz'. Their finesse at playing those weird instruments which you won't hear even from the popular, so called world music playing bands stood as the fundament for everything else thrown into the mixture. The flute, lute and viola meet the keyboard, the drums and some really rad beat-patterns. The sound is laid-back psychedelic funk, the never-loved child of jazz and rock. All of this is dipped deep into the ancient soul that still lives in rural parts of Hungary, making their work well worth of the word extraordinary. They received numerous awards, and it's safe to say that our culture has never sounded this awesome.

These five guys haven't stopped there though: in 2008, they released their second album, titled 'Fel a kalappal!' (Up with your hat), shooting a video for the song 'Ethno Funk' in the meanwhile. Right now they're throwing gigs around the country, but they have set afoot in other countries, mainly in folk- or world music oriented festivals. With one half of the populace in their awe, and the other half not knowing about them yet, they continue to preserve our culture in a loud and fashionable way, but no one's complaining - because they're just that badass.

Ethno Funk video
Csángó boogie [live footage]

Official website
Myspace
Last.fm

Download 'Pimasz' (2006)
Download 'Fel a kalappal!' (2008) [pass:zsola400]

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