Kampec Dolores
Koncert!
(Petrys)

"There was something slightly off in him, like a Russian playing jazz" was still a widely quoted sentence in the Western World when – it was the first half of the ’80s – the music from Eastern Europe started having a wider circulation. Probably the first name that comes to mind is that of the Ganelin Trio – and of Leo Feigin, the man who was mainly responsible for our knowledge of jazz from the East; if we talk about rock music, then it’s the post-Velvet group called The Plastic People Of The Universe.

But before the long article on (USA) Keyboard magazine (July 1987), before Eno "discovered" Zvuki Mu and Pulnoc got an American contract and a Rolling Stone review, a decisive role was played by a record label from UK, ReR: first they started including "unorthodox music from the East" in the ReR Quarterly – their magazine/record album combination; then there was a dedicated label, Points East.

From that period there are two albums of electroacoustic music that I’d definitely like to see mentioned more often: Raab, by Jaroslav Krcek, and the album that features the works Aide Memoire, Folk Music and Sonaty Slavickové by George Katzer, Zygmunt Krause and Jaroslav Krcek. And while in my opinion it can be said that the label Points East did not fully maintain the promises it had made, it’s true that just their being responsible for our knowledge of the Latvian collective (from Riga) called ZGA was well worth it. If ZGA (1989) was more a stimulating promise than a reality, their highly original "home-made industrial music" was fully realized on Zgamoniums (’91) and on the even better The End Of An Epoch (’92).

It’s a bit funny to remember that while the part of the press that was more aligned with the political Establishment made sometimes a "political" use of the music (and the musicians) from the East – those being the years of the Reagan Administration, and of his definition of Russia as the "Empire Of Evil" – some of us were maybe a bit too hesitant to call some of those albums "mediocre".

And talking about mediocre, what about Hungarian group Kampec Dolores? I had completely lost their traces after their first album, only to find them again three years ago on a CD called A Bivaly Hátán, a co-production by Bahia and ReR: the album was mediocre, mannered, sterile, quite à la sing-along. Even more perplexing for me is their new one, Koncert! Mostly recorded live, it has similar line-up and repertory to those of the previous album, to which it adds percussionist Grencsó István. Here we have a saxophone player who in his best moments reminded me of Didier Malherbe on a bad night; a funky rhythm section, complete with slappin’ & poppin’; a guitar player who by his use of echoes makes it apparent that he’s heard of The Edge; a singer who reminded me of Teresa De Sio. "Popular" melodies, open-air parties arrangements, a genre – that a poster on the CD cover calls Etnojazz – that’s the perfect background for a dinner of Basmati rice with fish and vegetables.

Just one question: why is the ReR logo on this rubbish?

Beppe Colli


© Beppe Colli 2004

CloudsandClocks.net | March 9, 2004