Unit Eight - Glass Head -1981- (LP, Rouge, RMS/LP 130), UK

So I'm a huge fan of library records, specially if it involves electronic music. My main problem is that I always have trouble knowing which ones are the pearls (any suggestions are welcome!). Usually I go for the ones that do not contain eighty songs of twenty seconds, but have got proper songs on there. Still, a lot of library records can be quite cheesy. But not this one!

Unit Eight consisted of two people: F. McDonald and C. Rae. They had at least four releases on Rouge and this one comes from 1981. Rouge was a sub-label of the legendary British library records distribution label De Wolfe. The music on this record is described as Modern group sounds featuring electronic keyboards played by Unit Eight. You can find many library records over at this excellent blog.

This is an absolute cosmic disco, minimal synth classic. It has some cheesy library music touches to it, but nevertheless it's a record with almost only A-sides. Every melody seems like it has always existed and all the songs get stuck in the head. It's the missing link between stuff like Gary Numan/Tubeway Army, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Space (magic fly) and library minimal synth. It also reminds me of Latvian electronic space disco group Zodiac and the Philippe Laboudigue songs on this record. So it has a lot of dancefloor value because of the great combination of electronics with some more commercial melodies.

Our new favourite minimal synth record?

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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!

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