I’m totally on the fence about Alphabeat. And after a few months of listening to various releases I still can’t make up my mind. At the heart of the conundrum is the fact that I usually go apeshit for any semi-gayish Scando pop (loosely: Lo-Fi-Fnk, Le Sport, et al), so my instinct would also be to jump on board with a semi-gayish Danish outfit that comes along. Nevertheless, there hasn’t been any clincher for me. The 10,000 Nights single is in my mind okay but nothing amazing, and when the Bloody Beetroots remix bubbled up I had a brief level of excitement but again it kind of falls flat for me. I’m left with the feeling that Alphabeat is a slightly less bimbo version of Aqua. Harsh I guess, but at the moment it’s where I stand.

The one track I properly dig is the Daft Punk cover they did with Frankmusik and Leon Jean-Marie… it’s a cover with a point to it — thoroughly upbeat and enjoyable.

Anyhow, what’s my problem here? Why is Le Sport okay but Alphabeat borderline? Have a listen and help me out.

Alphabeat – 10,000 Nights of Thunder [zshare] // Alphabeat – 10,000 Nights of Thunder [ysi]

Alphabeat – Boyfriend (Bloody Beetroots Remix) [zshare] // Alphabeat – Boyfriend (Bloody Beetroots Remix) [ysi]

Alphabeat, Frankmusik, and Leon Jean-Marie – Digital Love (Daft Punk Cover) [zshare] // Alphabeat, Frankmusik, and Leon Jean-Marie – Digital Love (Daft Punk Cover) [ysi]

Too often the Kunk boys are looking outside their own borders for shizz we wanna blog about — mostly stuff we play at our parties. And by ‘too often’, i mean, ‘all the time’. And by ‘outside their own borders’, i mean, ‘France’. But in all seriousness, there’s some local stuff of late that’s worth having a listen to — today that takes the shape of a young jockey with the moniker We Plants Are Happy Plants, and the Hungarian version of a noise pop supergroup, Hammer of Gods.

We Plants is off to an auspicious start, laying down attractive melodic lines across a variety of tracks. He doesn’t destroy the originals but gives them a subtle enjoyable punch… i expect in the coming months he’ll be finding his feet and turning it up a notch. He’s a member of the local Ektiv crew who are on top of all things fidgety and ravey ’round these parts — with my fave edit to date being dropped on the ubiquitous Frenchies Daft Punk, Superheroes.

Daft Punk – Superheroes (We Plants Are Happy Plants Remix) [zshare] // Daft Punk – Superheroes (We Plants Are Happy Plants Remix) [ysi]

And with that, Cigi I hand it over to you for some more local love…

Well, thank you, Brandon. Now it’s almost like podcast in writing. We should publish a book.

But before we do, let’s turn to Gods. Not for sacrifice or salvation but for a unique highlight of the basically non-existing Hungarian good-pop music-scene. First Audio Broadcast is the limited LP which was completed last year and self-releasing on concerts, etc, you know how it goes. It wouldn’t have to be like that, of course. If we had been in a better world it would’ve come out on Rough Trade or something. The supergroup involves Gergo from The Moog, Arpi from EZ Basic, Mezo and Andris. They self-declared themselves as “funeral folk” which is nice. Their influences include Syd Barrett, Guided By Voices and Sonic Youth. For me, this could be the Hungarian Arcade Fire. The sound is like a blend of noise, pop, distortion and experimenting punk-attitude. As for mood, every song has a blurry atmosphere of childish playfulness with older melancholic half-smiles, drunken pseudo-happiness, and some summer love. But the whole thing swims away with giant guitar-waves and heavy drums. The album was finished in winter but could be a perfect summer soundtrack.

The LP has a girl side and a boy side. Exciting, huh? I’ve chosen the hit pop-gem from the girl side which is titled Top 40.

Hammer of Gods – Top 40 (zshare)

Hammer of Gods – Top 40 (y. s. i.)

“we were more than this
the whim of your first kiss
kiss burn the scenes the story we used to be
what we’ll never be again again”

We’ve already posted the awesome remix of the classic ‘She’s a Maniac’ track. The Bloody Beetroots are definetly interesting. They have a weird sense of humour and they love the guitar and other bizarre stuff as well. Check out this video (with Congorock) and download their new song called ‘We Are From Venice’.

On one hand it’s a cover of a baroque style fusion orchestra, Rondo Veneziano’s composition from 1983. Here’s the video. Strange, huh? (However, somehow I can understand what Justice and Daft Punk likes in it.) On the other hand, it’s probably a statement cause I can imagine how annoying it must be when some fans mistake them for Paris. ‘Are you French?’ Haha. Nevertheless, the song is cool and still has a funny/epic style and synth sound. And there are claps and everything you need for a dirty club hit. Not as hard as you might expect but everyone needs to rest the ears tired from experimenting with hard-harder-hardest electro. No one will be disappointed though the second half is weird.

The Bloody Beetroots – We Are From Venice (La Serenissima) (zshare)

The Bloody Beetroots – We Are From Venice (La Serenissima) (y. s. i.)

So, we’re in budapest. And, things are okay. But, could be better. There’s this party, KUNK, that’s being upgraded from its previous informal operation, into a fully fledged monthly. The resident djs, and authors of this blog are brandon (american) and cigi (hungarian). We like good music, which can be at times, difficult to stumble upon in these parts. So, if you’re an artist, dj, or just passing through town, check us out!

As a first step, a woefully inadequate introduction to KUNK flavor:

Justice – DANCE (mstrkrft remix)

Late of the Pier – Space and the Woods (neon plastix mix)

Crystal Castles – 1983

Datarock – Fa Fa Fa (shakes remix)

Daft Punk – Da Funk

L7 – Pretend We’re Dead

Hot Chip – My Piano (diplo remix)

Billy Ocean – Loverboy

(yes, that last one is Billy Ocean, mad props for the BO!)