Enjoy Tanczene!
"Tanczene" means "Dance Music" in Hungarian and this is how Hungarians referred to all kinds of pop music right until the advent of rock. It's also the title of this compilation of long out-of-print instrumental tracks from Hungary, most from the late 50's-mid 60's period. All tracks are transferred from old vinyl, so expect a lot of hisses and cracks. Also, expect a unique perspective on life and entertainment in a Warsaw Pact country, where anything associated with that side of the Berlin Wall was perceived as exotic.
The Warsaw Pact is long gone, Hungary is a member of both NATO and EU, the musicians heard on these recordings are either dead or rather old, the "presszo"-s, where the people of Budapest had smoked their cigarettes and drunk their liquor and where most of this music had been played are closed now. There remain some dusty 7" records, relics of a bygone, black-and-white era.
You can hear the longing, the sadness, the happiness of an oppressed but very living city, reluctantly going to party after the tragedy of the 1956 revolution (historical note: drowned in blood by the Russian army). Sometimes they're groovy, sometimes they're funny (sometimes unintentionally so), sometimes they're based on outright misunderstanding of third-hand international musical forms. And they all helped the listener to believe that he/she is somewhere else.
Tanczene
Instrumental Music from Hungary in the Cold War Era
Click here for track by track notes
Tracklist
01 Ez sztereo!
02 Bergendi: Magyar tancok
03 Ez sztereo!
04 Antal Varhelyi: Malom a Fekete-erdoben
05 Studio 11 featuring Harmonia Vocal & MHV String Orchestra: Eldorado
06 Peter Hajdu: Vidam hangok
07 Budapest Harmonica Trio: El Relicario
08 Lajos Martiny: Marvellous Mambo
09 Club Ensemble + Studio Vocal: Presszo Csa Csa
10 Vilmos Kormendi: Braziliana
11 Koltay-Papp Ensemble: Kling-Klang
12 Illes: Protonok tanca
13 Harmonia Vocal: Selejtezo szam
14 Ez sztereo!
15 Metro: Volgai hajosok dala
16 Andor Kovacs: Tabu
17 Mihaly Tabanyi & His Soloists: Mambo
18 Hungarian Radio Dance Orchestra featuring Imre Zsoldos: Bakfis
19 Hungarian Radio Dance Orchestra: Mezes macko
20 Jozsef Szabo & Jeno "Bubi" Beamter: Mambo-cocktail
21 MHV String Orchestra: Tango
22 OSZK Dance Orchestra: Broadway
23 Visszhang Vocal with rhythm ensemble: Mambo
24 New Year's Eve, 1965
25 MHV Small Ensemble: Je t'aime
26 Imre Zsoldos: Delibabos Hortobagyon
27 Jeno "Bubi" Beamter & Lajos Martiny: Les feuilles mortes
28 Janos Koos: Zug a Volga
