TRABANT - II

Purge return to the vaults for a second archival collection of uncanny DIY artpop from 80s Hungarian outfit, Trabant. While these guys didn't release much during their lifecycle, mostly as a result of authoritarian Communist measures, they did still manage to record an awful lot of music - head to YouTube and you'll find evidence of an iceberg that this latest nine song compilation further confirms. How and why these songs were written and recorded is tied to a very specific set of historical circumstances which is of course interesting in itself, though it should also be noted how unusually prescient their sound is. It's unclear how much of what else was happening in Europe was reaching the group, and as such their music exists in its own unique liminal space, bearing some resemblance to the melody-driven, artrock experimentation of both a neighbouring German underground (Can mostly, some Faust) and the related axis of Cale, Reed, Ayers and Nico, as well foreshadowing the kind of hypnagogic pop that's become prevalent in the internet age. This isn't so much dreampop in its accepted form as it is woozy and dream-state aligned, perhaps in part because it's music transmitted from a world that's now mostly gone - dispatches from an alien past, the east's hidden reverse to its western counterpart, if you like. Without sounding much alike, Trabant evoke a similar feeling to that of, say, Cukor Bila Smert' or Velly Joonas, a distant new pop dialect that carries echoes of a wider culture but retains its own independent otherness. As such, these nine songs are simultaneously both familiar and elusive, and it's that uncanny assembly that, regardless of the language or backstory, is ultimately what keeps drawing you back.  
 
FFO: Can, John Cale, Velly Joonas, Cukor Bila Smert', Kevin Ayers