* Last copies, almost sold out at source * Since its humble beginnings back in 2013, the UK-based imprint Purge, alongside its sub-imprint purge.xxx, has steadily mined murky territories of experimental sound practice, offering particular focus to the junctures of music, sound art, and film. Strikingly prolific within such a historically under-explored realm of creative practice, over the last few years, they've brought us stunning obscurities from Carles Santos, Takashi Inagaki, John Smith, Bruce Gilbert, Trevor Mathison, Jocelyn Pook, Derek Jarman, and numerous others. Earlier this year, they delivered the widely celebrated, first-ever full-length release of recordings by the Hungarian project Trabant: described as "cult band's cult band," who used the context of underground film during the 1980s as a vehicle to sidestep the oppressive conditions of authoritarian communism. Unsurprisingly, it totally blew our minds and left us desperate for more. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait long. Purge.xxx now returns with Trabant II, their second release dedicated to this remarkable band. Drawing from a wealth of never-before-released recordings, this time taking a deep archaeological dive into lo-fi output, culled through homemade, hand-traded cassettes within the Hungarian underground. Raw and direct, featuring engrossing song-craft at its most urgent and prescient, once again the label takes us on a remarkable journey into the shadows of a nearly forgotten cultural history, delivering some of the most compelling sounds that were nearly never heard. A glorious artifact at the junctures of post-punk, synth pop, folk, art rock, experimentalism, countercultural activity, and underground cinema, Trabant II is issued in a beautiful, limited vinyl edition of 500 copies, housed in a stunning craft sleeve and accompanied by extensive photographic documentation of the band by János Vető, new English translations of the song lyrics alongside their Hungarian language originals, and a new long-form interview between Vető and Mihály Víg. It's easily among the most essential releases that have landed in our hands this year.
Active between 1980 and 1987, Trabant was one of the most remarkable Hungarian gestures of countercultural creativity, flowering from behind the iron curtain during the period of its run. A loose collective of young songwriters and amateur musicians, with a continuously evolving lineup of contributors, including Mihály Víg, János Vető, György Kozma, Károly Hunyady, Gábor Lukin, János Xantus and József Dénes "Dönci", the visual artist and actress Marietta Méhes, and numerous others. Forced into the margins by their membership within Hungary's explicitly outlawed, anti-authoritarian underground music scene, the group's only official release, prior to Purge's first collection, was a promotional 7" for a film in which the core members starred. Given the circumstances within which they worked, Trabant rarely performed publicly and never worked in studios, but were remarkably prolific, writing songs and producing a body of hundreds of individual DIY recordings, conceived for future release, and occasional appearances in films. It is this sprawling body of largely (if not exclusively) never-before-released archival recordings from which the label's second collection dedicated to the band, Trabant II, has been drawn.
While their lyrical content — described as "enigmatic, intertextual, grotesque and absurd" — will only be accessible to those who speak Hungarian (and by cross-referencing their English translations in the liner notes), the radical, bristling spirit with which Trabant's music was created retains every ounce of its potency and is easily discerned across the collection of tracks that comprise Purge's Trabant II. Resting at the junctures of post-punk, folk, synth pop, art rock, and experimentalism, the LP unfurls as a journey into the realms of slightly off-kilter, joyous left-field pop, threading territories of expression familiar to fans of roughly contemporaneous bands Young Marble Giants, The Pastels, The Vaselines and The Raincoats — drum machines, synths, jangling guitars, and achingly direct vocals — with more devolved, dense, and nostalgia-laden passages, forming what is easily among the most striking artifacts of 1980s post-punk and indie pop that we can call to mind. Born from necessity, embracing the creative, sonic act as a form of vital resistance that transcends political boundaries, encountered decades since these tracks were first laid to tape in Trabant's makeshift studio — transforming limitation into liberation — each moment feels startlingly contemporary and urgent on both musical and sociopolitical terms, reminding the listener that even the most vital human acts can also be joyful and fun.
While Purge's first collection dedicated to Trabant raised a high bar and left expectations high, Trabant II delivers in every possible way, and even ups the game. Assembled with incredible attentiveness and care, capturing yet another crucial window into the activities of this remarkable band working under the harshest conditions against all odds, every moment is absolutely intoxicating on musical terms, while doubling as a crucial artifact that unlocks a window into remarkable history of countercultural creativity that transpired during the 1980s in Hungary, spanning music and film. Issued in a beautiful, limited vinyl edition of 500 copies, housed in a stunning craft sleeve and accompanied by extensive photographic documentation of the band by János Vető, new English translations of the song lyrics alongside their Hungarian language originals, and a new long-form interview between Vető and Mihály Víg, this is one for the ages and not to be missed.
