purge.xxx #36 - trabant by trabant

purge.xxx releases music. It has been celebrated by The Wire magazine for its ‘disregard for the music industry, self-promotion and prevailing cultural norms,’ and an ‘ability to elevate distinct works and the obscure artists behind them.’ purge.xxx only releases music physically, unless a digital alternative has specifically been requested by a collaborating artist. It considers even the recording a compromise, but advocates things.

Running weekly, the series will broadcast the entire catalogue so far in chronological order, continuing here with trabant by trabant.

The cult band’s cult band: Trabant were formed in Hungary in 1980. The closest the group ever came to producing a record was in the form of a promotional 7” vinyl for a film in which the core members starred. At the centre of an anti-authoritarian—that is literally outlawed—underground music scene in Hungary, this film soundtrack represented an opportunity to distribute their music without acquiring the recording and distribution license demanded by the censorious Communist regime.

Trabant measured their own success through independence and fun, as a circle of artists recording a significant body of work with rudimentary recording equipment and instruments (much of which was purchased in a toy store), always behind closed doors. The band had an ever-changing line-up formed around co-founders Gábor Lukin, Marietta Méhes, and János Vetö, and latterly with Mihály Víg (of Balaton; soundtrack composer for BÉLA TARR). TRABANT shared some of these recordings through a clandestine cassette tape network, but resisted releasing an album… until now.

This vinyl release represents the first collection of music by Trabant, compiling some of their best known and loved songs, newly transferred and gently restored from the original tapes, in a package with extensive photographic documentation of the band by János Vetö, and new English translations of the song lyrics by George Szirtes (best known as a translator for his work with László Krasznahorkai).

This series for Resonance Extra is the first time much of the label's catalogue has been available to hear outside of its material form. It accepts the invitation by Resonance on the basis that none of these sounds are stored. If you want to hear it you need to be able to access the radio at midnight every Thursday.