áPolóK - Egyedül A Világon -1993- (Tape, Artalom), Hungary

Time for another cassette by Hungarian cultband áPolóK (trans. The Nurses) after two of their other releases I posted on the blog before. áPolóK comes from the Hungarian city of Miskolc and started out in 1982. They are ranked among Hungary's finest weirdo avant-garde groups. They can be placed among other Hungarian underground bands from the eighties and nineties like A.E. Bizottság (Albert Einstein Committee), Kampec Dolores, Tudósok, Vágtázo Hallottkémek and many others.

Their humoristic hyper-intelligent lyrics combine the insanity of the Hungarian culture with great poetic depth and absurdity. áPolóK is a quite unique band in Hungary mashing up a Rock In Opposition sound that contains unorthodox transitions in zappaesque ways with a great punk attitude and alternative rock manoeuvres. It's a band that is very underrated and deserves a lot more attention.

Egyedül A Világon (alone in the world) was áPolóK's first album that was also published abroad as a CD in England which was translated to The One And Only In The World (get that one here!). The cassette was self-released on their own Artalom label (it's a word merging the words Art and Content with each other.) I think this album is one of the stronger releases and shows a more developed sound of the band. The musical quality is keeping the right pace with the showcased absurdity. Some of the members of áPolóK are still playing in bands in Hungary like the absurd punk group Büdösök. Again check out their other releases in the archive of this blog.

Highly Recommended!

Get it - in all its original cassette glory - HERE

áPolók - Kondásdiszkó -1998- (Cassette, Bahia), Hungary

After this very early material of áPolók (The Nurses) I posted about a year ago, here is a later release by these Hungarian musical cultfreaks from the city of Miskolc. The title of the cassette refers with the word 'Kondás' to an old Hungarian swineherd. So the title basically means "Pigmansdisco", which is very very Hungarian.

áPolók are not to be caught in some type of musical genre, they exceed the borders of music types so much that sometimes you have no clue how to pinpoint them. The music ranges, depending on the release, from punk to RIO to Techno. Kondásdiszkó is basically áPolók's satirical take on the new digital era when the first computer programs to make music became available for the masses. It's a totally absurd collage of video game music moving into proggy soundtrack quirkiness through bad equipment genius reminiscent of Japanese nineties dada 8-bit fuckery acts of Boredoms-minded weirdness.

One of the songs is called Török Ádám who is the frontman and flutist of one of Hungary's well known jazz and fusion bands Mini from the seventies. They named the song after him because their track happened to get into similar sounding realms. There is always a lot of intricate mockery within the Hungarian (music) culture present in the music of áPolók.

This is a very psychotic, yet amazing recording that ultimately makes your head explode. Moreover it's excellent music to accompany you during this summer. Get this next piece of the áPolók puzzle and great cassette from Hungary's underground now! Oh yeah, and the cassette inlay tells us not to put this tape into a CD-player or computer.

HERE



Update on Archaic Conventions (my other blog!):

Unfortunately I don't find the time to upload nice rarities or other weird releases and also write about them next to this blog. Therefore I will just start to upload that stuff to my Youtube Channel. This way I can uncover a lot more weird stuff while maybe write a line or two about it in the description box. If you need the file, just write me a message.

So if you haven't subscribed yet you can do it here.

Thanks - Bence

Ápolók - Szeder Demo -198X- & Artis Studió -1989- (Cassette), Hungary

Ápolók, actually written áPolók, is one of Hungary's finest Avant-Garde groups to come out of the eighties. They started out in 1982 and were not from the capital Budapest, but came from a city in the North-East of Hungary called Miskolc. Their name means "The nurses" if translated to English. The city Miskolc is known for its heavy industry and its raw edge. Not coincidentally one of the songs on the Szeder Demo ("Blackberry Demo") side starts with a cacaphonic take on The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night.

Much like their peers A.E. Bizottsag (check them out), Ápolók uses absurdist lyrics, Casio SK-1-driven punk, post-punk sounds and other wonky guitar and piano based movements reminiscent of some R.I.O. bands. They are definitely one of the most underrated weirdo bands to come from Hungary. I'm not quite sure if they ever had proper releases of their old stuff. Even in Hungary they are somewhat of a cultband and quite unknown. In the nineties they did manage to tour around through Europe.This cassette seems a self-made creation of apparently a demo and a studio recording.

Ápolók nowadays still exists through other weird Hungarian bands in which some of the members play, like Büdösök and Csermanek Lakótelep. The cassette did not contain a tracklist, although I'm sure the songs have in fact titles. If you want to know more about Ápolók you have to read this article over here by someone who really got into the whole Ápolók myth.Check below for a song and how a concert of Ápolók  looked like.

Highly recommended and so so underrated!

Get it HERE