Early twothousands. My cousin who lived abroad paid us a visit and went to a summer festival with one of our older cousins. I was 15 years old and had no idea what a festival was. I heard them talking about camping gear and I thought it must have had something to do with that yearly mysterious stuff in HUMO magazine about Torhout-Werchter. At that point, the best alternative music I knew was probably Within Temptation - I remember being extremely pissed off when they suddenly became popular. Little did I know that bands tended to get on stage to give all they got to an excited crowd of music lovers. I guess I thought that bands just made albums and that the luckiest ones could get on the radio, on MTV or on 'Tien Om Te Zien' (an awful nineties pop music TV show).

Lucky for me, the cousins forgot two albums they had just bought on our kitchen table. "Always" by The Gathering and "The Knowing" by Novembers Doom. Of course I gave them a spin in my room which was covered in sad poems and wall posters of handsome couples and general teenage angst. Of course I quickly copied them to a CD-R before giving them back, because what I had just heard was pure magic.

Especially "The Knowing". This album always stayed close with me, in my walkman (yes, I'm from the tape generation), in my tiny CD collection, and a few years later in my Winamp and in my supersonic CD-RW-MP3 player - better safe than sorry! It's possible that I've listened to it several hundreds of times. "The Knowing" somehow got me through my worst moments like the break-up with my boyfriend, quitting university, failing my record store, getting hair-raising registered letters, you know the drill. And after two decades, it still does the trick. I just got some bad news and ran to our wall-covering CD collection for something agressive to accompany me while doing the dishes. There they were: my CD-R and an official version.

It must have been more than five years ago that I listened to "The Knowing" but every note, every word, every rhythm switch, every hit on the drums laid fresh in my memory to be sung, hummed or whistled along. This album has such an intensity. It could have been my age when I first discovered it; it's scientifically proven that you'll always prefer the music that you listened to when you were an adolescent. It could have been the concept of the album. It could have been the excellence of the musicians or my love of the genre.

But I blame it on a particular memory. Who can say that they've given their favourite band a place to stay for the night? I can. Paul and his missus had to book a hotel room because of his bad back, but Serge and I drove the entire band to Antwerp after the first time I saw them live in Vosselaar. We chatted about the album and music and other stuff, it's quite vague but the happiness I felt was extremely seldom in those dark days when I owned that record store and Serge co-owned a place for acoustic gigs like Novembers Doom was going to do the next day. I don't remember much from that gig either, but that's okay. I learned from one of the band members that "The Knowing" is not about lovesickness but about a guy who receives the gift of immortality. Knowing that, the lyrics make a lot more sense, but that's okay. This album will always remain the best catharsis within reach for me. I just wanted to share that with you and I hope you also have an album that you can consider a very old and close friend.


Eline

Well, 2019 is behind us and what a year it has been. It probably was not the best year for Merchants Of Air. We faced some difficulties here, even to the point where the future of this website was in doubt but, with the support and help of our beloved readers, we managed to pull through and get on track again. Because of these issues, plus the fact that there have been so many albums in 2019, we're extremely short on end-year lists. Patsker was the only one brave enough to dig through all the releases and pick his favorites. Ready?

1. KRYPTS - Cadaver Circulation

Excellent death metal from Finland.

2. WASTED SPACE ORCHESTRA – Syntheosis

When Oranssi Pazuzu meets Dark Buddha Rising…

3. KLUDDE - In De Kwelm

This Belgian swamp devil knows how poisonous black metal should sound.

4. THE PROGERIANS  - Crush The Wise Men Who Refuse To Submit 

Another Belgian band with a wonderful stoner release.

5. ANANTAKARA - Transmuted By

Avant-garde melted with darker electronic tunes.

6. IMPERIAL CULT - Spasm Of Light

A one track hypersonic black metal trip from Holland.

7. R BENY - Echo’s Verse

Beautiful transcendent ambient melodies and drones from Bay Area artist Austin Cairns.

8. RAPOON - Sol Laude: Mercury Rising 3

The last of Robin Storey’s Mercury Rising triptych.

9. MATHLOVSKY – Phantoms

This unpredictable Belgian sound artist raves like hell.

10. HER FAULT – S.Y.T.

Belgian doom/sludge release of the year.

Patsker
​(intro by Serge)

Located in the middle of Eastern Europe right on the Danube and between the mountainous part of Hungary and its lowlands is Budapest, a city known for its rich history, its secession style architecture, its baroque and Neo-classical style buildings of the 18th to early 20th century that is at the same time a mecca for people from all different backgrounds, also musically. While, before the collapse of the Warsaw Pact-states and the fall of the Iron Curtain, Budapest was often being associated with classical music, its old opera house and composers like Ferenc Liszt, since the late 90s it has also become the center of a new pilgrimage with the famous Sziget Festival taking place on a Danube island and attracting more than 500,000 in the span of one whole week. The festival is not only famous but also one of the best in all of Europe winning the award for Best European Festival twice in the 2010s. However, it is remarkable how few bands outside of the usual rock and pop genres perform at Sziget, and anything “post” can literally not be found on the lineups of the last few years.

The festival is, as mentioned before, also known for its location on a beautiful island in the Danube. And one should not forget that music is always influenced by its surroundings – may it be social, political or architectural. The latter, of course, is dominated in Budapest by buildings from the 16th and 17th century onward with many baroque (have a look at the Kiraly and Széchenyi baths) and revival style buildings (the House of Parliament is world-renowned). However, you can also find Art Deco, or Secession Style buildings, see the Museum of Applied Arts or the beautiful Parisiana, which once was a cabaret, are examples. The city also features some buildings in the socialist-classicism style (note the Körszálló hotel building). The Central European University Building and the MüPa again are highlights of contemporary architecture in the Hungarian capital. Imagine walking through these streets with so many interesting buildings, their styles and history all combined by a lively group of inhabitants known for their hospitality. Two of Budapest’s most famous clubs – the A38 and Dürer Kert can also be connected to the architectural landscape of the city, but more about that a little later.

​Politically, Hungary is nowadays known to be a place ruled by a very conservative government, fronted by Victor Orban. However, the image of a near totalitarian state that some might have in mind when thinking about the country is definitely not the case when we talk about music. All the interviewed artists said that they do not feel any kind of censorship. On the other side, many of the bands also describe themselves as politically not active and they also say that their music is non-political. It would be far-fetched to say that of course they are non-political in such a state. Let’s leave the notion of personal freedom to those people inside Hungary, where some people also state that the state has no kind of interest in the scene because it is simply too small and unimportant. 

Nevertheless, the near-simultaneous release of the brilliant records of Hegy and Törzs bring up the question how lively the post-metal and post-rock scene is in Budapest. Talking to a lot of people from the Hungarian scene (you can find all the interviews at the bottom of this report) one gets the notion of live in the shadows of the Hungarian public and at the same time of a vibrant scene for Eastern Europe with lots of big bands coming through Budapest and playing at Dürer Kert a spot famous for its very open-minded audience and its importance for the metal scene located in an old school complex formerly run by nuns. The complex surrounds a beautiful, classic yard which is also used as an outside pub or event location for screenings, concerts etc. Summer nights outside under the trees sharing one of the famous drinks from Hungary with some open-minded people who might end up new friends  – quite an experience. Another important club is A38, located on a ship right on the Danube, talking about a beautiful location. The former Ukrainian stone ship was transformed into its current existence with five different rooms, lots of open space and a pretty modern look. A38 is quite different to the former one, because the venue itself is not as big as the other one and pretty futuristic but its location, right on the river with some of Budapest’s staggering houses right on the riverbank makes for a quite unique combination. Some of the bands interviewed for this report already played in either or both of these venues and according to Ágoston Dániel from Dürer Kert the club has like post-rock or post-metal concerts every few weeks and the audiences that turn up are usually quite strong and very loyal with an even stronger focus on post-punk which is also stressed by the success of recent bands like Black Nail Cabaret. There is also a post-festival taking place not far from Budapest called Fekete Zaj that focuses on Eastern European bands (like Black Nail Cabaret) but was also able to bring acts like Jo Quail, Nadja, Oceans of Slumber, The Twilight Sad or Tribulation to the Hungarian mountainside in the summer of 2019. There also seems to be some kind of winter edition taking place in Budapest, maybe you check their website or FB page for it. 

When talking to a lot of the modern bands one name always comes up and that is Pozvakowski, who are regarded to be the founding fathers of anything post-metal or post-rock in Hungary. Most of you will not know this band but might know another great example of experimental music from Hungary, Thy Catafalque. That band, however, is more of a one-man project by Támas Kátai who then invites others to accompany him on some of his records.  He definitely helped to push Hungarian music with his unusual, very experimental approach, which surprisingly seems not to be a major influence on the scene, as most bands spoke about Pozvakowski – and if you listen to both bands you will notice that their music is definitely sharing more with the focal point of this article, the new post-scene. The band is already together since 1999 and set out as “a noisy, instrumental power-trio, where we won't use the usual forms” as Adam describes it. The band drew a lot of inspiration from old 80s and early 90s noise bands and labels such as Amphetamine Reptile, Touch and Go – Adam also says that he listened to Slint, one of the iconic early post-rock bands that also released on Touch and Go; nonetheless he doesn’t mention them as one of his major sources of inspiration but rather bands like Cherubs, Hint, Man or Astroman or Jesus Lizard, Shellac or Cop Shot Cop. Only later did he see that people called the music he and his fellows made post-rock and were compared to bands like Tortoise. Nevertheless, that never meant anything to him, also they shared the stage with several post-metal acts like Pelican, Torche, Jarboe or Baroness, which also implies that they are more on the post-metal side (which makes sense for he also says that “We were just playing very loud, louder than anyone else in the Hungarian underground”). Listening to their early stuff (for example the “sinus” EP from 2002), you can definitely see both ideas – why people would identify them as “post” but also their noisy roots. 

Nevertheless, it seems as if there is quite a gap between Pozvakowski's beginnings and a real scene of Hungarian post-bands, even though most of its protagonists still see it as one group of bands which is interesting because at the same time it can be seen that the attendances go up, seemingly it is more of a receptive than a productive scene. Hegy and Törzs, who are open to do some concerts and tours together, are not even sure, where this post-scene will go in the future and some of their hopes lie outside Hungary. Naturally something like that needs something like a backing by a label or a good booking agency.  Törzs have now made a step in that direction with signing to Golden Antenna Records from Germany, however this is a singular event for the Hungarian post-scene. Most of it is done in accordance with the DIY principle, for Pozvakowski it has always been that way, as Adam explains: “I am my own distro and label.. I don't believe in any sort of [such] thing. We didn't get any kind of help or anything through the years. And it's absolutely OK, I don't have [any] problem with it.. We wanted to record albums, so we did, wanted to go to tour, so we did.” Feel the punk-attitude flying through these words. 

Success outside of course also depends largely on the bands involved. Some of the bands that are already in it for several years are Perihelion who play a kind of post-influenced, blackened prog metal and sing in Hungarian, which of course doesn’t make it easier on the global stage; or Beriloom and the Doom whose oftentimes acoustic post-rock is really mesmerizing and very gentle; one of the already gone bands from the second wave was Torn from Earth, who had their own rather sludgy approach to post-metal a bit like a crossing between Red Sparrowes and The Ocean. 

This fall saw the release of two outstanding post-albums, Hegy’s “We Won’t Make it Home” and Törzs’ record “Tukör”. While Hegy plays a very modern and grounded kind of post-metal, Törzs are much more playful and combine wide-ascending guitar lines with a spacious production that can not only be heard but also seen, as they released a video of the recording a few weeks later. And this recording highlights not only the skills of the band but also the spot where it was done, outside of Budapest in a cave which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage. Soma from Törzs describes the way he got the idea: “I was listening to our rehearsal recording, and just realized that we have [such] big reverbs on all our tracks that we should do this record in a place where the atmosphere is similar to the songs.” And indeed, when you listen to those songs, you’re automatically transported to that cave where the songs and reverberations have just so much space to float and come back that it is simply amazing. For all those interested in how the recording took place – you can find a video of the whole thing online on WherePostRockDwells’ Youtube-channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et8LmrqMJiQ). If you want to get the full thing of a record that is already really impressive, you should watch the video, it is really worthwhile watching as you get a pretty good impression into the recording process itself and you can see how tight the band is together. And the intro is really mesmerizing!

There are lively signs of a continuation of the Budapest-scene with new bands like S O N Y A who play a cinematic version of post-rock with a tinge of 80s synth-soundtracks; Kytaro is a trio who seemingly take Pozvakowski’s notion of a noise-infused post-music to heart, they might be considered their stylistically closest followers; Wasted Struggle is a four-piece focusing on the modern screamo side of post-metal, very much in the vein of Vein, they will release their next record in Mid-January; Black Nail Cabaret on the other side of the spectrum are definitely Black Nail Cabaret, the art pop duo using a lot of synthesizers for their version of post-punk. The variety between these bands, the different approaches and a steady flow of new bands makes it clear, that this scene is flourishing.

So you see, the post-scene in Hungary is affluent and striving and if you want to witness a scene on the verge of “breaking it”, of gaining a wider audience for all its diversity and DIY-attitude – then give these bands a listen and discover more than this tip of the iceberg. If you then throw in the beauty of Budapest itself and the level of attraction that some locations like A38 or Dürer Kert have (also among big international acts) then you might find yourself, planning a trip to the Danube in your mind. It is definitely worth it! 

(Feel free to add any noteworthy release, band, location or else in the Comments section!)

For your further listening pleasure and for organizing your own field trip:

Bands to check out

The Founding Fathers
Pozvakowski (noise influenced post-metal) 
Angertea (Tool’ish prog-metal) 
Thy Catafalque (avantgarde metal)

The current forerunners
Hegy (post-metal)
Törzs (post-rock)

The Second Wave
Beriloom and the Doom (post-rock)
Entropia Architektura (experimental doom)
Perihelion (blackened prog metal)
Torn from Earth (sludge)
Ultranoire (electronica)

The New Additions
Black Nail Cabaret (synthy post-punk)
Irrational Orthodox Noise (experimental)
Kytaro (noise)
Planetdamage (industrial)
S O N Y A (post-metal with female vocals)
Wasted Struggle (screamo, post-core) 

1. How often do you have concerts with bands from the post-genre? Like Hegy or
Törzs? Or Mono or Russian Circles?
Normally we have these kind of gigs in every two months, but it depends of the other
bookings we make in the club.

2. What would you say, does the Hungarian audience like those bands?
I think yes, we have a pretty strong subculture of post-punk in Hungary, even if it is a
smaller scene here.

3. Do they attend the smaller bands from Hungary, too? Or only big global acts like
The Ocean or Mogwai?
Yes, they do, we had before Dark Horses and Cold Wave and we'll bring them back soon.

4. Which Hungarian post-bands would you name, apart from Hegy and Törzs and
Pozvakowski?
For example Black Nail Cabaret. They are pretty cool and talented, you should check upon
them.

5. Are there any bands from around the world or from Hungary that you would like
to book?

All the biggest names and the newcomers as well :D

6. Are there any Hungarian labels that promote and push Post-Rock or Post-Metal?
Unfortunately there is no such thing like this in Hungary.

1. How do you see your "position" within the Hungarian "post"-scene?
Emese: I think there is an overlap within our audience. Our music is a mixture of synthpop and darkwave, with a hint of pop and electronica, and it shows in our follower base, too. Considering that, I think we are fairly known among Depeche Mode fans as well as in the goth community.

2. What was the biggest concert you headed by now? What was the biggest you played in (no festivals)?


Emese: I would say our release shows, especially for the last album. We did 2 shows with
Pseudopop, one in Budapest and one in Leipzig, where we had guest musicians and
dancers/performers. We were headlining and chose our supporting act with the help of local
promoters.

3. What's your biggest influence?
Emese: Music inspires music, but we often we get an idea from a single sound in a sci-fi
movie. When it comes to lyrics, there are many things, from philosophy to sexuality. I read
a lot of stuff.
Krisztian: My instruments, which all had been specifically selected for various reasons. The
more I get to know them, the more impulses I get for a new song.

4. Do you think that the Hungarian "post"-scene has grown over the years?
Emese: I feel that it sort of fluctuates. There had been a downfall around 2011-12, but I feel
there is a revival happening in the past 2 years, which is more like a modern take on the postpunk scene. Alternative festivals in Hungary are getting more attention, which I’m so happy to
see!
Krisztian: I would like to add that even though there is a decent audience in Hungary for this
kind of music, there are not many active post-punk/alternative bands, as many of them don’t
play often or at all. The problem behind this is probably that smaller club nights don’t have a
good attendance rate.

5. What are the biggest names, locations, clubs, labels for post-music made in Hungary?

Emese: Fekete Zaj Festival and OGT are definitely the main organizations which are trying to
keep the scene alive. Fekete Zaj has been bringing fantastic acts to Hungary, as part of their
main festival but also with their other events. Lilian Goth Art Prod is arranging old school postpunk and cold wave parties quite often. The Memento Mori organisation preserves the art and culture of the dark scene by arranging exhibitions, performances and screening events.
Sadly there are not too many specifically dark / post-punk clubs left. The biggest venue is
probably Dürer Kert in the heart of Budapest. There is a fairly new venue with a fantastic, huge
stage called Analog Music Hall. I probably should mention the A38 ship, although they have a
lot of mainstream events going on, but they accommodate many “post” artists, too. I have also
heard good things about a club called Robot, although I have never been there myself. I do like 
me some dark techno and electronica, Lärm is a great place for that. Boy Harsher gave a
hypnotic show there when they played in Hungary for the first time.
Krisztian: As for bands, I’d like to mention Volkova Sisters (electronic shoegaze), Planetdamage
(electro-industrial), Entrópia Architectúra (ritual, doom, experimental, noise), Irrational Ortodox
Noise (romantic bio-dark), Ultranoire (dark synthpop).

6. Would you say that Hungarian post-music is political?
Emese: Some of them are, some of them not. It is hard not to be influenced by politics and
society’s issues these days.

7. What would be your biggest dream for your band?
Emese: I am quite happy with the way things are going right now. We get to do what we love to
do and we get to choose how we do it, and we get so much love from our followers. It would
probably be great to tour in countries that seem so far away right now: the far East, in the US, or
Canada for example. We have had discussions about it, so it might not be a surreal dream after
all.
Krisztian: I don’t really have big dreams. If people will remember us in 20 years, that will be
awesome. 

Thank you guys for doing this. First off, how has the time since the release of your new
album been? Have the reactions pleased you?
Hey, thanks for having us! Those few feedback we received was favorable, but we probably won’t
get a Grammy award.

How would you describe the process of writing this album? Was it a normal everyday record for you – because it seems that this one excels the first record by far?
It was nothing special, we went to rehearse, did some gigs and the songs were shaping. If you feel that these songs are more mature, it’s because of a natural developmental process, we got to know each other better as musicians.
​
Where do you record your stuff? Who does the recording?
Both albums were recorded in Miracle Sound Studio, it is one of the most professional studios in
the country. For the second album we took all our gears to the studio, amps, cabinets, drums you
name it and we managed to capture the live sound of Hegy. Because what you hear on "We Won't Make It Home" is pretty much the same as you hear in a Hegy gig. (Live gigs are a bit more killer though)

Now to a few questions more closely related to the Hungarian scene – when thinking about Hungary the first band that jumps to my mind will always be Ignite even though they are from Orange County, California. But their singer has Hungarian roots and also sings some songs in Hungary. However, I do not think that they play too big a role in Hungary, right?
We don't really know that much about Zoli Téglás' stuff, he seems like a nice guy and “Our Darkest Days” is a really cool record, but we don't think they have such an effect on things in Hungary either. 

Otherwise most Eastern European countries are known for obscure metal bands and some with pretty strange political views. Where do you place your band within the Hungarian
scene? 
We wouldn’t think that the situation is that bad, government don't really give a shit about
underground bands in Hungary.

It seemed to me as if Hegy was a popular band in Hungary, at least within the boundaries of the genre?
It might just seem like this because there are very few noteworthy bands in this genre in Hungary,
but that's okay, we are not doing this because of popularity.

You and Törzs recently released two outstanding “post” - albums, yours is more post-METAL, theirs is more post-ROCK. Do you know each other? What can you tell me about Törzs?
We knew the band by name, they look like cool guys, we agreed that we would have a joint gig
someday.

Do you think that the whole scene will benefit from the proximity of those two outstanding
releases?
We are always pleased when high quality Hungarian post records are coming out, so I'd like to
think yes.

Which other bands from Hungary should – in your opinion – be next to make a big jump in
popularity outside of Hungary?
Unfortunately a lot of bands who should have made the big jump outside Hungary have already
broken up. Those who are still out there and really deserve notice are Pozvakowski, Perihelion,
Beriloom and the Doom, Sonya, Kytaro, Angertea, Torn From Earth, Wasted Struggle...

Speaking of outside Hungary, where would you like to go with your band next? Any ideas
for a perfect tour? How about a tour with Törzs?
Any kind of tour would be nice, but managing it takes a lot of preparation and sadly neither of us is manager type. I think the most important thing for us is to play music together, write songs and
hang out. These are our main driving forces.

Is there a special location for post-rock in Budapest? Like a club everybody goes to? Are
there any other epicenters for post-music in Hungary? Cities? Clubs? Labels?

Post-Rock and Post-Metal are mostly unknown sub-genres in Hungary, the audience is very small and with a few exceptions they are likely interested in stereotypical, dime a dozen bands. So sadly no, Hungary is not the capital of the post genre.

Now – if I may – a few political questions:
Do you think that instrumental music like yours is able to criticize the current political system in Hungary with a political leader bordering on the edge of sanity?
We separate ourselves from political issues, we have our own angle about the matter but I don't
think this is the right channel for expressing these opinions.

Is it easier to publish instrumental music than music with lyrics in Hungary? Do you find
yourself a victim to some kind of censorship?
No, nothing like that, things could be better but it's not like Orwell's 1984.

How vocal are you as a band about your political/ethical ideas?
As we said we try to keep distance from politics..this is an instrumental thing, not in the way of for
monuments for masses for example...so we don't use any speech samples or something like that.
We don't want to preach about anything. Ethics is a different thing because as an underground
band in Hungary you have to do everything in DIY mode so this is our ethical credo..but we have
nothing to do with any institutional ethical order so if you think about ethics like veganism, straight
edge or any ideas about religions or something we have to say, that we as a band are true neutral about ethics.

Dream club/location to play in in Hungary?
A38 in Budapest. We were lucky enough to play there a few times.

Outside Hungary?
Royal Albert Hall.

Dream tour package?
Deftones / Russian Circles / Night Verses / Hegy

Wish for 2020?
New songs, new gigs, maybe a live session video.

Favorite band of all-time?
Faith No More (Miklós), Karnivool (András), Deftones (Attila)

Most influential band in terms of influence on your song-writing?
Neurosis, Dub Trio, Deafheaven, Mastodon, Deftones, YOB

Best concert seen in Budapest or Hungary for that matter?
Shining (2 of us were drunk as hell but still)

Which band would you love to see in Budapest?
Cult Leader (Attila), Car Bomb (András), PSOTY (Miklós)
​
Where do you see your band in 5 years?
In five years ideally we would tour in cool clubs around Northern Europe. But in reality probably
we'll play at home with our kids and only play the occasional club show in Budapest...plus play
shows around Northern Europe. 

1. How long have you been playing together as a band? Have you always played "post"-music?
Playing together since 1999, never had any lineup change. I'm the founder of the band, met the guys in university, talked about music a lot, and I've wanted to do a noisy, instrumental power-trio, where we won't use the usual forms. That was it, I have literally NEVER considered my band post-rock, never used this term to describe our music. Some others did a bit later...However I've listened some so called postrock bands from the first era of the genre, such as Tortoise or Slint.

2. What are your major idols? Where do you draw your inspiration from?
My musical inspiration comes from the early ninenties noiserock bands. Labels such as Amphetamine Reptile, Touch and Go... all of their bands were amazing. I've discovered the whole scene from Hungarian underground fanzines (Masodik Latas, Straight Edge) For me personally the major milestones were the band Cherubs a raw noise-rock band from Austin, the mighty Man Or Astroman which is literally the best band in the whole universe (period), there was a french act called Hint and their first album 100%WhitePuzzle changed my whole perspective about music itself. The Jesus Lizard obviously, then CopShootCop, Girls against Boys, Shellac, Janitor Joe, ... etc. See, they have not much to do with postrock :)

3. How would you describe the Hungarian "post"-scene 10 years ago and now?
10 years ago in the reviews and articles we sometimes were described as postrock music, I was amazed by this I’ve never thought that we could be a postrock band, otherwise they usually attached the fact that this kind of genre didn't even exist in Hungary that time, so we were really some kind of pioneers of this music in Hungary. But this never meant anything to me. We were just playing very loud, louder than anyone else in the Hungarian underground, we had the visuals, which nobody else had... and now, I've even less knowledge about post music. What is it? If you have a band without a singer does it qualifies you to postrock? If you are using those (by now) very lame and boring schemes what Explosions In The Sky used 15 years ago (and they
did perfectly), does it qualifies you to be a postrock band? Because this is what I see now. I guess the "post" music genre meant to be something very unique, using some sort of classic rock formulas, but in completely different fresh new way. As the Slint, or Tortoise did.. but I don't see this nowadays. could be my fault of course..

4. Do you think that post-music is more popular today?
Yes I think so, it's way more popular than earlier.

5. I listened to your records on bandcamp and must say I really like them. Have you found a good European distro?
We are a DIY band, didn't search for any distro... for us the most important thing is playing live. I don't even like or listen our own albums :)

6. Are there any other post-rock/metal bands that started at the same time as you did? Some that are still around?
No... we were the pioneers. :) but this fact is not about our supremacy, it's just about age... we are doing this for 20 years. That's a lot...

7. Which Hungarian label/distro/clubs push post-rock the most?
I am my own distro and label.. I don't believe in any sort of thing. We didn't get any kind of help, or anything through the years. And it's absolutely OK, I don't have problem with it.. We wanted to record albums, so we did, wanted to go to tour, so we did... However there's for example the Fekete Zaj Festival which is a summer festival located in the mountains in every August and they have a winter edition as well in Budapest. They are doing single shows on a regular basis as well. They are amazing, and they are everything what the whole music business should be.

8. Which was the biggest post-show you played in Hungary by now?
Biggest? hm.. we have played with bands such as Pelican, Torche, Baroness, Mono, Ufomammut, Jarboe... yes these gigs were kinda big.

9. Where do you see post-rock/metal from Hungary in 10 years?
If we are part of that scene, I can promise we'll be still there. If we are not, then how should I know..
​
10. Is there any (major) epicenter for post-music in Hungary outside of Budapest?
Debrecen maybe.

Thank you guys for doing this. First off, how has the time since the release of your new
album been? Have the reactions pleased you?
Dani: We are really grateful for all the support and feedback we had since we have released Tükör. It is amazing to see all the love post-rock fans show. It is quite new to us, that people from all around the world write to us and show their appreciation for our music.

How would you describe the process of writing this album? Was it a normal everyday record for you – because it seems that this one excels the first record by far?
Dani: I think we are self-identical with our music at all times. When we wrote Magasra fel and
Földön, we felt like that. The process was quite similar though. Music is a therapy for us. We try to “digest” what happens in life through creating music.

Who does the recording?
Dani: Recording and mixing is done by Gyuri Ligeti in all our 3 albums so far. He is a true lover of
music and has been the “dad” of the band since the beginning. Actually the three of us played
together in a previous band, and most of those albums were done by Gyuri. He saw the value in
our music from the very beginning and was supporting us no matter what. He is a really well known producer in Hungary and done tons of records, all sound amazing. For this special venue he came up with a unique idea how to capture the natural sound of the cave. But let Soma tell you more about that.

Soma: He exactly knew how to record the huge atmospheres, and how to place the microphones to achieve the most natural sound. The main idea was to give the feel of standing in the cave in front of the band.

Who came up with the idea of recording underground? How did you get to really do it?
Soma: I can’t remember exactly when, but I just had this crazy idea. I was listening to our rehearse recording, and just realized that we have so big reverbs on all our tracks that we should do this this record in a place where the atmosphere is similar to the songs. Also I was on the idea to think big, because I really liked the songs, and wanted to record them like no one else did before. The process of organizing the record was quite long, It took like 3 months or so. We needed to get all the permissions, because the cave is part of the UNESCO World Heritage, it’s located in a National Park, and it’s highly protected. Also to organize how to get down all the equipment we needed was more than challenging. The recording hall was about 500 m-s from the entry. And below that the temperature is constant 10°C and the humidity is 100%. Not the best conditions to record an album and a 42 mins live footage, but I think all the efforts worth that.

I really like the vibe of the record – to what extent did that come along with a recording spot?
Soma: The cave itself is a huge part of the album. The natural reverb just colors the whole sound in a rich way. Also it gives more meaning to the album in a special way. When we recorded the album, it was a strange but beautiful feeling. The songs between the monumental spaces and the
extraterrestrial forms worked quite differently in the cave than in the rehearsal room, giving them a strange, timeless frame. Somehow, this is how I imagine what people, who have lived for
thousands of years, have experienced when they played their ancient melodies in one of these
places.

Most Eastern European countries are known for obscure metal bands and some with pretty strange political views. Where do you place your band within the Hungarian scene?
Dani: Since the very beginning I feel like we don’t really fit in any of the musical scenes in Hungary. With the first two record we were to instrumental for the alter-rock listeners, and not instrumental enough for some others. But now I feel like we started to find the people and communities which resonates with us. Just recently we played with a really cool band from Netherlands, called GOLD. The event was organized by Fekete Zaj festival (Black Noise Festival). The audience of Fekete Zaj and the community behind it seems like a prefect fit for us. I felt the same when we played with two post-rock bands Fleet Goes North & Johnny in the Jungle. I felt on the gig with them, that the audience really appreciated the type of music and vibe we have.

It seemed to me as if Törzs was a popular band in Hungary, at least within the boundaries of the genre?
Soma: Slowly we find our way to the audience. The previous albums were more shoegaze than post-rock, we just recently started to discover the post scene. We see that post-rock lovers are very receptive, and they are showing a lot of interest to any new stuff, including us and our music.

You and Hegy recently released two outstanding “post” - albums, yours is more post-ROCK, theirs is more post-METAL. Do you know each other? What can you tell me about Hegy?
Dani: When I heard their new album I instantly wrote on them asking for a gig together. It is
definitely on the other part of the post spectrum, but I don’t care about genres or subgenres that
much. Good music is just good music. And HEGY’s new album is for sure that. Fun fact: when i
wrote to them, it turned out the drummer is a former schoolmate of my brother.

Where would you like to go with your band next? Any ideas for a perfect tour? How about a tour with Hegy?
Dani: We have reached out to post-rock festivals around Europe and hoping to get some positive
feedback in the coming weeks. We are happy to play in any place where people truly appreciate
the music we do. Music doesn’t know borders. And sure, we’d love to tour with HEGY.

Is there a special location for post-rock in Budapest? Like a club everybody goes to?
Are there any other epicenters for post-music in Hungary? Cities? Clubs? Labels?
Dani: I couldn’t say any club, label, festival or city which would be a clear post-rock epicenter. But
there are clubs, festivals and labels which are open for that kinda music. The most post-rock bands who played in Budapest were at clubs like Dürer Kert and A38 Ship.

Do you think that instrumental music like yours is able to criticize the current political
system in Hungary with a political leader bordering on the edge of sanity?
Dani: I think we are far from articulating any per say political opinions. Yet I think the atmosphere of the music we make speaks clearly for the values we have. Love of nature. Love for LIFE itself.

Is it easier to publish instrumental music than music with lyrics in Hungary? Do you find
yourself a victim to some kind of censorship?
Dani: Our first two albums had vocals in Hungarian, I think we could reach less hearts from all
around the world with that, than now. Totally not. We are free in creating music.

How vocal are you as a band about your political/ethical ideas?
Dani: We speak clearly about our love for all beings, for the magic of life on Earth. We also joined
Music Declares Emergency; a collective of musicians who say it is time to take the climate crisis
seriously and try to do our best as musicians to contribute to the protection of our home.
Now, a few simple questions (maybe you can also explain those a bit?)

Dream club/location to play in in Hungary?
Soma: We really like A38, I think that’s the perfect place to listen to any kind of music. The sound is superb, and also it’s a ship located at the river Danube. Quite a special club. We also like Dürer
kert, which is home for more metal and post oriented music.
Dani: Ozora, Dragon Nest.

Outside Hungary?
Dani: Dunk! festival forest stage. And VIVID. festival. Ah, and Post. Festival (US).

Wish for 2020?
Dani: Being able to play live to people who appreciate our music. And that our music finds its way
to people who would benefit from the trip of Tükör. To be there for them as a therapy, as it is for us.

Favorite band of all-time?
Dani: Ah that’s hard. The last few years I’ve been listening to pg.lost, Explosions In The Sky, We
Lost The Sea, Pink Floyd, Slowdive. Most recently I discovered Am Fost La Munte Si Mi-a Placut
from Romania and Of The Vine from the US. Tycho. Ah, the list could go on.

Most influential band in terms of influence on your song-writing?
Dani: Our main inspiration for writing music and thus most influential is life experiences. Struggles
we have. Fruitful conversations. But we could say all the bands above. And the fact that all three of us listen to pretty different bands.

Best concert seen in Budapest or Hungary for that matter?
Dani: This year I would say it was MONO.

Which band would you love to see in Budapest?
Dani: Recently we reached out to Oh Hiroshima, to invite them for a gig in Budapest. I really hope
that will work out.

Where do you see your band in 5 years?
Dani: I hope we’ll have the same quality of friendship and “working relation” within the band, which is I think is quite unique. If that is still there, I’m sure we’ll be in a good place in 2024.



​Thorsten

Crippled Black Phoenix is a progressive experimental post rock act from the United Kingdom, led by Justin Greaves, active since 2004. With a complex style, that crosses various genres, Crippled Black Phoenix has managed in just a few years to become a legendary group within the underground scene, breaking soon after into the mainstream, with a moderate degree of success. The band has become notorious for their stage presence and vigorous live performances, acquiring a reputation that made them an icon of contemporary experimental rock. For the entirety of their existence, Justin Greaves has been the only constant member. For live shows, he partners with a competent and dedicated team of musicians, that conceive with epic greatness all the lugubrious, but grandiloquent atmosphere by which Crippled Black Phoenix is well-known. 

Given the fact that the experimental character of the group's music — which, by virtue of Justin Greaves' leadership, mostly reflects his creativity and preferences — is exceedingly experimental, and often crosses several genres, like neo-rock'n'roll, neo-psychedelia and ambient music, the sound of Crippled Black Phoenix is thoroughly hard to categorize. Most of all, Greaves' main priority revolves around the desire to develop a personal creative atmosphere that can provide the conception of something very unique, singular and original, capable of making the band's style easily recognizable, which, to a considerable extent, was sucessfully done, and heavily compromised with a degree of authenticity never seen before in the history of underground music. 

As a matter of fact, all efforts made by Justin Greaves seems to be directed at designing something exceptionally singular; indeed, all the band's albums seems to attest the search for achieving superior goals of genuinely authorial standards of artistry, to the highest degree possible.

Since late 2014, Justin Greaves and Karl Demata — a former guitarist for the group — are involved in a legal battle concerning the band's name. This has caused several distresses and considerable misfortunes for Greaves, that frequently addressed the subject in the band's official social media, apparently full of resentment and anger.

Well, now that you know a little about the history of this fantastic band, let's get down to what really matters, the music. Below, I selected my four favorite Crippled Black Phoenix albums — as well as a live performance, as a "bonus" —, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. 

The first of these albums is A Love of Shared Disasters — that, although I'm not quite certain —, I think it's their debut. Released in 2007, this exceedingly extensive album, seventy-seven minutes long, already features the proverbial elements that would make the group's style severely singular and expressively prominent. Smooth guitar lines, slow dispersive melodies, calm, serene and almost minimalist harmonious densities, that discreetly becomes ominously long, and sensible cantilenas diluted in an ocean of everlasting melancholy, all combined to project a magnificent, but almost delusional perception of a terribly vague, but desperate void. 

The record has the following tracks: The Lament of the Nithered Mercenary, Really, How'd It Get This Way?, The Whistler, Suppose I Told the Truth, When You're Gone, Long Cold Summer, Goodnight, Europe, You Take the Devil Out of Me, The Northern Cobbler, My Enemies I Fear Not, But Protect Me from My Friends, I'm Almost Home and Sharks & Storms / Blizzard of Horned Cats. With a very beautiful, but profoundly technical, as well as impeccable musical diligence, the album is inadvertently authorial and highly experimental. Despite the fact that some passages are relatively monotonous, A Love of Shared Disasters manages to be an epic collection of musical symphonies, that seems perfectly aligned to one another, as a majestically crafted opera, that was entirely conceived from the outer elements of a distant galaxy, created especially to supply human existence with the most splendorous and solemn material ever designed for the delight of the soul. 

A fantastically dense, majestic and graciously epic state of the art work, A Love of Shared Disasters will take you to a journey that you never thought it would be possible. But to fully enjoy the voyage, you will have to close your eyes. Your soul and your most introspective sensibilities will undertake the most fabulous journey you could ever do, without leaving your bedroom.  

Released by Invada Records in 2009, 200 Tons of Bad Luck is in fact a compilation, consisting of twelve tracks: Burnt Reynolds, Rise Up And Fight, Time Of Ye Life, Wendigo, Littlestep, Crossing The Bar, Whissendine, A Real Bronx Cheer, 444, A Hymn For A lost Soul, A Lack Of Common Sense and I Am Free, Today I Perished.

With an interesting, but very depressive and melancholic musicality, that displays some elements of blues — as well as progressive rock —, this compilation reunites the very best the band has done in their first five years of existence. With a fantastic ability to make sensationally soft, dispersive and omnipresent melodies, this exceptional masterpiece can be considered one of the band's greatest records; all of its majestic virtues condensate into an invariably smooth, but surreal epicenter of tragic sonorous rapture, whose marvelous appointments with desolation reveals a sometimes abrasive and rude rock 'n' roll, that flirts constantly with its own dramatic and disruptive tendencies. 

The first track — the epic and spectacular Burnt Reynolds —, is an abrasive and sober anthem of sweet and desperate demise, that easily elongates in the frontiers of its own diffusive harmonies the poetic densities of its conspicuously pleasant and sensible sonorous atmosphere. 

Although this record occasionally falls into more generic and monotonous musical territory — especially because the songs are so long, and here, unlike other albums the band released later, we have a more moderate degree of melodic variation —, 200 Tons Bad luck somewhat manages to be a gracious, serene and enjoyable work, that vividly shows the best qualities the band has to offer to its audience. Their unimaginable versatility, prominently featured throughout the record, also gives the listener sensational sensory surprises.

The third of my favorite albums is I, Vigilante, released by Invada Records in 2010. Giving continuity to their ever restless, evolving, unexpected and experimental nature, Crippled Black Phoenix conceived this spectacular effort in a considerably different fashion from A Love of Shared Disasters. A little shorter too, about forty-eight minutes long, this record has six tracks: 1) Troublemaker; 2) We Forgotten Who We Are; 3) Fantastic Justice; 4) Bastogne Blues; 5) Of a Lifetime; 6) Burning Bridges; with a more serene and unpretentious nature, the sound of this album is a little more clean and less abstract. Nevertheless, the group maintains some of the elements by which they became known, such as exceedingly aggrandizing dispersive melodies and very soft allegorical overflowing densities.

Unexpectedly, some songs transform literally into quasi-ballads, especially while turning into very tender and sentimental tunes. With a certain graceful voracity, which lulls the listener with a certain affability into its dispersing sound waves, I, Vigilante, proves to be a more compact, but also perceptively organic effort, whose strength relies heavily in the imperative uneasiness of its graciously sensible and poetic desire to sculpt slow harmonies in a more diffuse and elongated sonorous diagram. 

A very interesting and majestic album, whose pristine, but proverbial tenacity easily aspires to a more deliberately fugacious type of artistry, I, Vigilante, is an album that goes from the dark propensities of existential lugubrious anthems of splendor to a realm of more dense and mundane sentimental rethorical lyricism, passing by wistfully romanthic serenades, whose gracious harmonies unquestionably float through the darkest ambivalences of the creative diagram of the music, showcasing a very ambitious, marvelous and relevant record, that undoubtedly deserves to be widely appreciated, from the very beginning until the end. 

The fifth track — the song Of a Lifetime, with its powerfully emotional female vocals, and amazingly graceful, but also vehemently rapturous guitar lines — deserves the highest praise, for its incontestable beauty and exceptional majesty, whose wonderfully creative style displays a sensational atmosphere of classic grandiosity. The last track, the friendly sixties-styled rock 'n' roll tune Burning Bridges, closes this album with fantastic and unexpected opulence, exhibiting a versatility that confirms Crippled Black Phoenix polyvalent style as an inherent part of their unquestionable, unconventional and lucid degree of proficient and primordially uncompromising artistry. Undoubtedly, a powerful album, that has no flaws nor blank spaces whatsoever. 

Released by Season of Mist in 2018, Great Scape is the typical Crippled Black Phoenix album, though here they expand the calmness and serenity of the musical atmosphere, that expand almost continuously from the very beginning, probably making this work a little more grounded in post rock than usual. Nevertheless, the band also exhibits heavy doses of dark rock, post-metal and quasi-ballads full of sentimental lyricism, that not only showcases the exponentially epic versatility of the band's style, but also demonstrates the inadvertently sensitive, somber and melancholic elements that their music displays on this release. 

With eleven tracks — You Brought It Upon Yourselves, To You I Give, Uncivil War (pt I), Madman, Times, They Are A’Raging, Rain Black, Reign Heavy, Slow Motion Breakdown, Nebulas, Las Diabolicas, Great Escape (pt I) and Great Escape (pt II), —, this fantastic masterpiece displays a dramatic and very melancholic musical layout, perfectly compatible with the gloriously virtuous harmonies that make up the bulk of this majestic state of the art work. 

With sober, wise and marvelously dilated melodies, the songs on Great Scape are filled with an expected density, that levitates beyond the unusual creative paradox of its own excessively fugacious musical diagram. Despite the more allegorical genesis of the album, nonetheless, the work is versatile and displays a majestic degree of eclecticism. For example, the song Madman is a very dark, depressive and lugubrious symphony of dispersive agony, that elongates the sober hardlines of its dense musical algorithms to deliberately exasperate the uneasiness of its dilated darkness. The next track, the extensive Times, They Are A’Raging, continues and expands precisely the same sonorous atmosphere, becoming basically a pristine and poetic anthem of digressive restlessness, that fully disperses the pragmatism of its own hopeless solitude in the marvelous guitar lines of a vast and plural creativity, that conceives a deranged mosaic of somber galaxies. The track Nebula — exceedingly gracious, sensationally beautiful and proverbially sad — deserves special mention, as the best song in the album, at least according to my personal preference. The first part of the title track, Great Escape (pt I), is also an interesting cantilena of tenderness and emotional grace, that showcases the magnificent versatility that has become a trademark of the band. 

A thoroughly magnificent album, that expands in an exceedingly radical level all the general qualities of the band, Great Scape is a spectacular musical work, that certainly deserves to be qualified as a masterpiece. With a technical precision and a singular style amazingly versatile, vivid and dynamic, Crippled Black Phoenix one more time exceeds all expectations, and shows to everyone that they are, indeed, one of the best alternative bands in the world.

Last, but not least, a live performance by Crippled Black Phoenix. In this show, its possible to see the grandiosity of their stage presence, the proverbial synchronicity of their musical style and the dynamic interaction between the sound and the audience. Although I really don't think that their setlist on this gig is the best — I sincerely affirm that they haven't chosen the best songs to perform, at least the first ones —, nevertheless, the concert is absolutely fantastic. It's possible to see the impeccable, lucid and energetic strength of the band's musical dynamism and versatility right from the beginning.

The fact that their formidable and consistent musicality is majestically transported to the stage in an almost effortless performance is something that seems too exceedingly astounding to be true; nevertheless, its easy to comprehend their exceptional stage presence when they start to play, as the sound gradually — but also tangentially — revolves around the dense perimeter of their exceptionally crafted melancholic, but concomitantly vivid symphonies. Definitely, Crippled Black Phoenix is almost as magnificent live as they are on their records. With a sensational vitality and a vigorous musical splendor, this particular performance certainly deserves to be classified as a majestic work of art by itself. The fact that they perform with three guitars brings even more restlessness to their unexpectedly authorial progressive style. 

This wonderful concert is definitely a great gift for all fans and enthusiasts of the band, who are sure to be thrilled with a performance of such astounding level of artistic grandeur. If you haven't watched, please watch. I'm sure you will be exceedingly delighted. 

Well, I hope you have liked the article, especially the albums selected, with their respective commentaries and descriptions. If you didn't knew Crippled Black Phoenix, I hope you have appreciated their work. As one of the most prominent bands in the alternative rock scene, and one of the few to go mainstream — being backed by a record company, something rare for a band of this category —, Crippled Black Phoenix has managed to become one of the most respected and important bands of their generation. We all hope they continue on this fabulous journey of glorious and formidable creativity, releasing more incredible albums, and doing fantastic live performances, realizing the dream of living a life exclusively dedicated to music.    


Wagner

Probably, Blues is one the most amazing genres to listen when we are depressed. Evidently, this marvelous style of music doesn't limit itself to just that, it can be enjoyed regardless of the mood. Nevertheless, it's more easy to appreciate when everything is reduced to the gray ashes of desolation. But, of course, you can listen to the Blues whenever you want to. For your joy and amusement, I selected below five random compilations of "Whiskey" Blues, to listen, while relaxing. 

It's interesting to note that the "Whiskey" description can be considered more than just a concept; after all, the drink is a perfect match, a formidable combination that makes the relaxing moment an even more pleasant and delightful experience. So if you have a bottle of whiskey available, why not enjoy and drink, while you listen to these wonderful compilations that I have selected? After all, these simple melancholy songs seem to have been wonderfully made for such poetic and dismal moments, especially when we can enjoy the comforts of solitude, while tasting the most delicious of all drinks.

The first of these compilations brings about everything that I described above. You can have exceedingly pleasant moments of expressively serene, but dense sonorous delight, with marvelous artists like Adam Holt, Kim Wilson and The Chris Cain Band, artists who are not very famous or well known, but still incorporate the soul of Blues with mastery, in all its ardent and fantastic dimensions

This compilation goes on basically in the same vibe of the predecessor, with artists like Fred James, Roxy Perry and Jimmy Dawkins. The beginning is already majestic, with the first song being Dear Daddy, performed by Ida Bang & The Blue Tears. With an exceptional voice, and a drastically melancholic atmosphere, this tune dilutes the soul in a splendid ocean of nostalgia and reflection. The following songs on this marvelous compilation are no less graceful and remarkable.  

This compilation features nine tracks, from mostly unknown, but nevertheless competent and very skilled artists, like Ty Curtis Band, Rob Tognoni and Brett Ellis Band. Here, the dehydrated melancholy saturated atmosphere is even more organic and elongated, with abrasive guitar lines, that revolves around lucid harmonies, designed over a flexible and tenacious sonorous layout. The classic blues traditional sensibility outline the vast majority of these melodies, with a sober respect for the cohesiveness of the genre, despite the authorial and modernist tendencies that prevail in some of these tracks.

A little more energized than the others, this compilation is full of rhythm and dynamism. With seventeen tracks, this selection of blues songs is a little more extensive than the others, being seventy-two minutes long. It features artists like Mary-Ann Brandon, Billy Earl McLelland and Jimmy Dillon. The general style is gracefully simple, polished and balanced, displaying exceedingly vibrant tonalities and a masterfully expansive musical atmosphere. 

Last, but not least, a fantastic compilation, with ten tracks, featuring amazing artists like Gene Deer, Chris Bell and Luther Johnson, to close the deal in superb style. Already in the first track, we listen to the amazingly crafted guitar lines of the magnificent song Slightly Hung Over, that could well be considered a classic of the genre. This terrific tune is followed by the equally majestic Midnight Healing, by  Gene Deer, whose wonderfull lugubrious atmosphere embraces the night in the volatility of its sensible and sad splendor. Definitely, one masterpiece after another, this compilation has everything to entertain with grace and compliance the enthusiasts of the genre.  

Well, I hope you have enjoyed all these formidable compilations featured above. Blues enthusiasts certainly cannot complain, as they are very well served with the all the excellent songs that are part of these selections. Fortunately, these compilations can be appreciated endlessly, time and time again, until you become tired of them, which is something very hard to happen, given the magnificent nature of all these wonderful compositions. Blues is a fantastic genre of music, that renews the spirit and strengthens the soul with a pungent and salutary degree of powerfully serene and spectacular sensibility.  


Wagner

Londonbeat is a British-American dance-pop act, that achieved mainstream success with their hit single I've Been Thinking About You, released in the early nineties. The song — that entered the music charts of several countries — made the band to be known worldwide; however, as with many other artists in the music industry, they were unable to duplicate the success with their following releases, and the band quickly faded into obscurity. Today, Londonbeat is mostly known as a One-hit wonder. 

Nevertheless, led by American singer James Helms — best known as Jimmy Helms —, the band remains active. Nowadays, however, the group's career is mostly dependent on live concerts, where they perform their old hits, since the band hasn't released any new material for more than fifteen years. Formed in the late eighties, the band's first album was the lackluster Speak, released in 1988. In 1990, they released In the Blood, the album containing the single that made them famous. They followed with the 1992 full length Harmony, that although was unable to match the success of its predecessor, still managed to produce two minor singles, "You Bring on the Sun" and "That's How I Feel About You". 

Two years later, they followed with the self-titled Londonbeat. Unfortunately, it was too late. Too much time without a significant single meant that the band had already been forgotten by the vast majority of the public. The release passed by without receiveing any notice from the audience nor the music critics. In 1995, the band participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, but again, they were largely ignored. Without any mainstream success to back them, Londonbeat disbanded soon after.  

Some years later, though, in the early 2000's, the band reunited, when German record label Coconut offered them a deal. Since then, the band released two more albums, Back in the Hi-Life, in 2003, and Gravity, in 2004. Back in the Hi-Life featured re-recordings of their most significant successes, including, of course, I've Been Thinking About You. Both albums were largely ignored by the public, the music industry and the critics, and were commercial flops.

Currently active — performing occasional concerts in mostly small venues —, Londonbeat is now seen as a nostalgia act. Unfortunately, unable to break through the One-hit wonder category, Londonbeat certainly would always be known by their greatest hit, I've Been Thinking About You, which is relatively unfair, since the album Back in the Hi-Life is a very formidable release, and has fantastic songs, like 99 and Where Are U; tracks that, in my humble opinion, are even more amazing than the hit that made them famous. In the present day, the band is a trio, consisting of original members Jimmy Helms and Jimmy Chambers, alongside Charles Pierre.


​Wagner

Eric Roberts is one of the most prolific actors of all time. He has participated in more than three hundred films, and about ninety television productions throughout his career. He has literally appeared in almost all important television shows since the late seventies, including Oz, Touched by an Angel and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — to name just a few —, and has participated literally in all kinds of motion pictures, from relevant blockbusters like The Dark Knight and The Expendables, as well as other very successful movies, like Inherent Vice and even films from horror franchises, like The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence). Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Eric Roberts' extensive filmography is mostly made up of irrelevant made-for-television films, mediocre low-budget independent productions and straight-to-DVD releases, that have largely gone unnoticed. And most of all, he does mostly small participations of only a few minutes, since he is never the protagonist of any project on which he is involved, with a few notable exceptions. 

Most of all, Roberts seems to be a "twig breaker" — a potentialized version of Christopher Walken, an actor also known to be prolific, and who is friends with Roberts —, which means someone who is always available for a job, doesn't matter how bad it is. The most important thing, after all, is the salary. In 2016 alone, Roberts participated in thirty-two films. For comparison, this is Leonardo DiCaprio's entire filmography. But of course, let's be fair, DiCaprio rarely does mediocre movies, and he is always the protagonist of all the productions upon which he becomes involved. All this unbridled level of work, in the end, doesn't seem to compensate, since for a lot of people Eric Roberts is still known as the brother of Julia Roberts, and the father of Emma Roberts, both being way more famous than him. 

Despite the fact that Roberts now is wasting his time doing movies so bad and so lackluster that nobody wants to see, he is a very dedicated and talented actor, who had a brilliant start. Initially, doing mostly lead roles — in severe contrast to his current situation —, Roberts received Golden Globe nominations for movies like 1978 King of the Gypsies and 1983 Star 80. He also received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role in the 1985 movie Runaway Train. Two years later, he had his Broadway debut in the play Burn This, authored by Lanford Wilson. For his performance, Roberts won the Theatre World Award. From then on, his career would continue in perfectly good standards, almost without any interruptions. Already a hard-working man, in the beginning of this decade, the demand for Roberts work increasingly expanded, and for a long time now, he rarely has a day off cameras. The actor can be in three different movie sets in a day, since his agenda is always full of work. So he has to mantain a flexible schedule, and is always running against the clock to meet the demands of the productions on which he is involved. Currently, the actor accumulates in exceess of five hundred credits in film and television, being a potential candidate for a place in the Guiness World Record as the most prolific English-speaking actor of all time. 

Of course, Roberts has battled severe problems in his personal life, like drug addiction, for which he sought treatment. He was a guest-star in the television show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, where he — alongside his family —, discussed the way his addiction on medical marijuana was affecting their lives. He also had a troubled relationship with his famous sister, actress Julia Roberts, well documented in the press, that now seems to be working towards reconciliation. The estrangement between Roberts and his sisters, Julia and Lisa, who is also an actresses, apparently had started when their parents divorced, and Roberts stayed with his father, while the girls went living with their mother. So each one of the siblings built their lives separately, moving away naturally. Moreover, both Julia and Eric had seemed to have natural differences, as a result of character and personality mismatches, whose friction caused them to grew apart from each other over time, which is something relatively normal in any family. Nowadays, however, they seemed to have resolved their differences, and are no longer deliberately ignoring each other.  

Being an actor in such a high demand is a very impressive achievment, especially for someone like Roberts, who is now sixty-three years old, and is no longer a youth full of energy, vitality and health, as he once was. Nevertheless — if he goes on like this —, making dozens of movies a year, Roberts could double the credits he has accumulated so far, making him undoubtedly a potential candidate as the most prolific actor of all time, at least in the English-speaking world. The most important thing, though, is the fact that he is a terrific and very talented actor, which will continue to entertain us in dozens of interesting and remarkable movies, as well as other productions of inferior category, and, well, let's say, of questionable quality. 


Wagner

Felipe D'Oliveira — born Felipe Daudt de Oliveira, in August 23, 1890 — was a Brazilian poet, journalist and pharmacist, born in Santa Maria, a city located in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of the country. Now, a mostly forgotten man of letters, he has enjoyed a moderate degree of fame and celebrity during his lifetime. 

Pharmacist by profession, he moved to the state's capital, Porto Alegre, when he was eighteen years old. Early in his youth, he started to collaborate in several newspapers and magazines under his own name, and under several pseudonyms as well, which was a normal habit back then. He also wrote poetry, possibly being remarkably influenced by the European symbolists. Soon thereafter, this literary school was perfectly integrated into his personal style, while he also became a member of the Grupo dos Sete — which means 'Group of Seven' —, a circle of intellectuals and friends dedicated to spreading symbolism in Rio Grande do Sul. In 1911, he published his first book of poetry, titled Vida Extinta.  

The poetry of Felipe D'Oliveira is generally simple in substance, but marked by a sensibility of splendor, grace and perception of reality that becomes tangentially circunspect, as he hides underneath the surface of the words an intricate cosmogony of vulnerable restlessness, that subtlety rises to the forefront of the genesis of his emotional horizon. Despite the fact that at twenty-one years old, he could be inadvertently considered a young and talented poet on the rise, his second volume of poetry — titled Lanterna Verde — would be published more than fifteen years later, in 1926. 

Besides the fact that he was an an accomplished intellectual, Felipe D'Oliveira also displayed fitness for physical activity. He was an avid fencing practitioner, and founded in Rio de Janeiro the Federação Carioca de Esgrima, an association dedicated to this sport. 

Felipe D'Oliveira was also a politically minded and active individual. He was an ardent suporter of the 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution — despite the fact that he was not involved at all in this event —, an uprising that took place in the state of São Paulo, against the government of fascist dictator Getúlio Vargas. For his political convictions, Felipe D'Oliveira was pursued by the police, but managed to evade them succesfully. After getting into exile at an embassy, he went to France, where he would die in a car accident, in February 17, 1933, at forty-two years old. 

He had some books published posthumously, of which we can highlight Alguns Poemas, a collection of poetry, released in 1937, and the prose work titled Livro Póstumo, released the following year, in 1938. Unfortunately, as soon as he died, Felipe D'Oliveira was immediately forgotten by the public and the literary establishment, something that sadly happened to most of his contemporaries, in Brazil. 

In the recent past, however, more specifically during the nineties, some of these forgotten authors — including Felipe D'Oliveira —, had their works rediscovered by a new generation of scholars and intellectuals, who were willing to rescue the literary legacy of once notable, prestigious and relevant writers, who had been entirely neglected for decades by the public, the publishing market and the universities, to introduce them to a whole new audience, who never had the opportunity to read them. Although far from being as comprehensive as it deserved, this work was fundamental to rescue important parts of Brazil's literary canon, that had been entirely forgotten by the sands of time. Now, the formidable work of poets like Felipe D'Oliveira, as well as several other equally magnificent authors, can be properly appreciated, as they weren't for a long time. 


Wagner

Alcântara Machado — whose full name was António Castilho de Alcântara Machado d'Oliveira — was a Brazilian modernist writer who, despite having died too early, at the age of thirty-three, on April 14, 1935, was probably one of the most brilliant, innovative, audacious and relevant man of letters of his generation. He possibly could also be considered the best author in the regional context of the Brazilian modernism, in this case, São Paulo, upon which he arose. However, probably because he died very young, and left an ostensibly concise literary legacy, he never achieved the degree of notoriety and appreciation that he certainly deserves. He remains as one of the most underestimated authors in Brazilian literature. His most notorious works are the short stories collections Brás, Bexiga e Barra Funda, and Laranja da China. 

Alcântara Machado was born in São Paulo, at the dawn of the 20th century, in May 25, 1901. Very precociously, he manifested intellectual tendencies. At nineteen years old, he began his literary career, initially as a critic for a newspaper, reviewing books and theatre plays. Despite graduating in law, he would never follow the profession. In 1926 — after returning from Europe —, Alcântara Machado published his first book, Pathé-Baby, a travel journal about his personal impressions and experiences from the old continent. The preface for this book was written by Oswald de Andrade, a playwright, novelist and poet, that was one of the pillars and axial forces of the Brazilian modernist movement.  

Feeling affinity with the modernists, and appreciating the general trends and core proposals of this cultural insurgence — which in turn was highly influenced by an Italian artistic revolutionary movement known as futurism —, Alcântara Machado partnered with Oswald de Andrade to run a literary magazine called Revista de Antropofagia, upon which they would publish and promote the stylistic and artistic concepts associated with modernism. Some years later, he would run another magazine, Revista Nova, with Mário de Andrade, another cornerstone of Brazilian modernism. These magazines were usually short-lived, as modernism itself would be, given the fact that by the late twenties, the movement rapidly dissolved, and each of its members went their own way separately. 

The main objective behind modernism was the establishment of a cultural revolution in the fields of art and literature, whose proposal was to break with the classic elements that for such a long time had been common pratice among the intellectual elite, but now were considered to be ordinary, archaic, anachronistic and obsolete. The more restless, innovative and refreshing creative talents of the younger generations were highly influenced by the anti-establishment trends that were coming out from Europe, and were absorbing those concepts and ideas into their own work. On his two most famous works, the short stories collections Brás, Bexiga e Barra Funda, published in 1927, and Laranja da China, published in 1928, Alcântara Machado — with a superb degree of originality, virtuosity and splendor —, sucessfully conceived an exceptionally fluid, organic and colloquial style of prose, consecrated with a masterfully genuine level of observation and humor, that certainly places him as one of the greatest exponents of Brazilian literature ever. 

The literary art of Alcântara Machado also displayed another important part of the country's culture, immigration, focusing specifically in the Italian immigrants, a subject that the author has developed with resourcefulness, authenticity, wit and mastery, like no other writer has ever done, at least of his generation. Describing with genuine, colorful and poignant mordacity the boiling cultural cauldron that was the São Paulo of his time, Alcântara Machado conceives a vivid portrait of this new type of person that began to transform drastically the urban atmosphere of his hometown, the Italian-Brazilian, incorporating this character into a radically colorful, but realistic chemistry of dynamic sensibility. This individual, for his part, is the son of the Italian immigrant, a man who adapted wisely his lifestyle, habits and work to the cosmopolitan environment of the then emerging metropolis, turning it into his home, yet projecting into the future of his innermost hopes all the temperance and glory of a simple, captivating and genuinely ordinary life.

Alcântara Machado was certainly a man of his time, and despite the fact that he died very young, his work — albeit very concise, given the fact that he didn't had the time to fully improve his art —, deserves to be widely appreciated, and to be considered one of the most originally colorful, masterful and graceful authors of his generation, that needs to have a place of honor in Brazilian literature. 


Wagner

Regrets

The young middle-aged man with his shirt stretched across his broad chest came home late in the evening after an extensive battle with his boyfriend who had accused him of being starstruck with the Fab Four. He had argued that his lover couldn’t understand that as he was too young to have experienced the magic of the Liverpudlian lads. He hadn’t been there when he had sat in front of the TV with his older sister who still was an avid Beatlemaniac. When she had screamed in seeming agony and then held him close to her, had stroked his hair and had told him, how much he reminded her of Ringo with his prominent nose and his narrow eyes. This had always made him smile and had made him feel, well, special. 

His lover hadn’t understood it back then when they had gotten together and he couldn’t understand it now, after nearly four years. Whenever he was here, was sitting in the living room with the nearly larger than life poster of Sergeant Peppers and the seemingly endless row of vinyl with so many doubles and triples and quintrupials – of course the different labels and the different colors and the little differences mattered! – his lover couldn’t understand him and often referred that the owner of such a place right here in the middle of nowhere, in Smalltown America was living in the yesterday only wanting to get back to the hey-days searching for a day in the life of someone else. That’s why they hardly met here and those continuing struggles had been the reason why he had not gone to see John a few years back in New York.
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He turned on the TV and listened to the news that had just begun. The anchorman was not smiling his usual half-smile. Not welcoming like he always did. He was very serene, very smitten and he looked straight at the camera, not reading off anything but merely speaking words that did not make sense. He spoke of an assassination in New York City and of a fan turned murder. The news did not only drop like a bomb or a bullet, they struck like a knife and the wound they tore was deeper than any before. The tears were welling up in his eyes before he could even notice. He fell down to the ground and started crying. He should have gone to New York, to that concert and maybe he would have met him at the Lakota, too. Now it was too late, forever. He hadn’t imagined that. Never in his life. 

Thorsten