A1 Hajnali enek (Song at dawn)
A2 Hol az az ember (Where is the man)
A3 Mint aprilis (Like april)
A4 A laz (The Fever)
A5 Szettört almok (Broken Dreams)

B1 Kinyujtom kezem (Stretching out my arms)
B2 Hova mehetnek? (Where could I go ?)
B3 Igen, szep volt (Yeah, that was nice)
B4 Szeparcu idegen (The Stranger of nice face)

(play all)

with Zsolt Baronits, Akos Molanr, Endre Sipos, Karoly Friedrich, Otto Schöck, Andras Veszelinov, Tibor Tatrai, Tamas Turai, Rudolf Tomsits, Laszlo Gööz, Miklos Siliga, Laszlo Des. Conducted by Lajos Bolba, Musical Producer Zoltan Hezser, Recording Engineer Ferenc Dobo (same as on the Neoton Family record), Sleeve design Andras Alapfy.

This record aswell as the band is abit mysterious. While getting info from the net I stumbled over alot of contradicting information (like this record being from 1995, which is definately not true, my copy got published in 1976). But what seems to be fact is that this band did start in hungary and in one time of its career either completely moved or atleast recorded an album in australia (which seems rather unlikely, shouldn’t it be austria (the country neighbouring hungary) ?). And although I got three copies of this record from a library sale they all have a sticker at exact the same spot, making it hard to read the linernotes. (You gotta love these people working at a library … the backside has plenty of room for a sticker, but they put it on the text. Thanx alot.) Maybe a reader can give more info on this in the comments.

But no matter what, this record is really dope, in fact one of those that gave me a hard time deciding what tracks to put up here… Also this is a nice showoff moment for me, “look what great stuff I digged and can sample”. Hah ! It’s filled with loads of breaks, percussion loops, drumloops, stabs, hits … and a blast to just listen to (once you get accustomed to the hungarian language).

Track B1 Kinyujtom kezem (Stretching out my arms) has already been featured on the “Non Stop Beat”-mixset, A1 Hajnali enek (Song at dawn) begins with these great drums, full horn-section, a small guitar-solo with strings (something I don’t mind unlike other people who are immediately disgusted by even the smallest rock-reference in such music…), nice track. Track A2 Hol az az ember (Where is the man) has even more electric guitar, but also this amazing base groove of drums, bass, keys and guitar spiced up with a few horn-hits. B2 Hova mehetnek? (Where could I go ?) leaves a lot of space for that trumpet (?), a nice bass solo, fresh drums to sample … And as I said the rest of this record is as nice as these tracks, only one real ballad (which is not even bad either). I am glad I found this record especially because I made the mistake of ignoring Pepita-records for a few years because I thought it was all stadium-rock like the first few records I digged of that label (Fonogram, Dynamit etc.).

Discogs Entry for this record.

This record has obviously been re-released as a CD but is not widely avaible, you can still try getting it (or the vinyl on gemm, as always).

Syirus – Szettört Almok: Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm
Syrius – Broken Dreams: Amazon.de | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | gemm

Or just search on google for Szettört Almok or Broken Dreams.

Tracklist :

A1 – Disco Story
A2 – Easy Breezy
A3 – Lords of the Mountain
A4 – Seeing is Believing
A5 – Hot Headed Girl (snippet)

B1 – Santa Maria
B2 – Needing Someone
B3 – Discokece
B4 – Voodoo Girl
B5 – Mad For Love

(play all tracks)

Produced and mixed by Ference Dobo.

Back with more Disco. I don’t know much about the music from Hungary to be honest, been there on vacation one time as a little kid and that’s it.
The only obvious thing for me is the fact that Hungary was one of the more “open” countries in the eastern block, they invited alot of big western bands (Queen for example) to play concerts infront of huge audiences (in the hundred thousands), they had a formula one grand prix from 1986 on (behind the iron curtain !) and they were the first to open the borders to austria in 1989, making it possible for thousands of people from other eastern block countries to “go west”.

However, back to the record, its Disco as I said, not entirely my cup of tea because it’s a typical record from the time when the shift from the 70s-sound to the 80s-sound took place, also alot of those tracks are too slow and boring for me, with one huge exception: B3 – “Discokece”, which is incredibly arranged. First the instrumental part and when the break with the vocals kicks in I get goosebumps, every time. Great track.

Also I found two great vids of that time from that band on youtube, have fun

Neoton Family (apparently also spelled Newton Family or Neoton Familia) have a website with a discography, but as always you can just try google to get some more information or to look on gemm.com for this record