Monday, new week and it's time to present "Record Of The Week"
THY CATAFALQUE has visited Tune Of The Day several times, both as today's tune and "Record Of The Week", now it's time again to ascend the throne and receive the fine award. THY CATAFALQUE do not pretend to produce easy-listening music that comes as easy as it quickly fades out of the mind again. "Vadak", is the Hungarian act’s tenth full-length album, demands to be listened to with full attention, but with every new spin this masterpiece reveals more of its secrets and rewards the listener with a rich treasure of fascinating details.
I can only marvel at the creative vein that "Tamás Kátai" possesses as his project is extremely consistent when it comes to album releases.
"Vadak" is just marvelous, a fantastic mix of all different styles that are composed with both style and finesse. From the groovy electronic opening of "Szarvas" with some blackended spices to the folkish following "Köszöntsd A Hajnalt" to the blackended metal in "Gömböc" to the more furious industrial metal "Az Energiamegmaradás Törvénye" and the ten minutes "Móló" gives this record a marvelous start. The second half starts with the jazzy "A Kupolaváros Titka" followed by gypsy folksih piece "Kiscsikó (Irénke Dala)" with marching drums and a lovly guitar playing. "Piros-sárga" a synth feel good tune until it's time for the next monster "Vadak (Az Átváltozás Rítusai)" a twelve minute blistering thing, with glorious guitar, hard hitting drums, marvelous keys, that includes both metal, folk and beautiful passages between the furious technicality and the guest vocals by Martina Veronika Horváth’s that you can hear throughout the album are just stunning and she sings lovly in the album closer "Zúzmara" where a piano shares the musical present. "Vadak" is marvelous journey where you can expect the unexpected and still, you’ll be surprised by his compsions. The album is not for everyone, but those who has a open musical mind will get themselves greatly rewarded by the experience "Vadak" can give you as a listner.
Sum: A marvelous musical labryinth to enjoy in the hammock.
"Vadak" was recorded in Budapest, Hungary | Edinburgh, Scotland | Újvidék / Novi Sad, Serbia | Kolozsvár / Cluj-Napoca, Romania | Kharkov, Ukraine | Tuapse, Russia | Alicante, Spain | Quarten, Switzerland | Haifa, Israel | Austin, Texas, U.S.A. | São Paulo, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2020 / 2021. Mixed by Tamás Kátai in Budapest, Hungary, January, 2021. Mastered by Colin Davis at Imperial Mastering, Texas, U.S.A., February 2021. Cover artwork by Tamás Kátai. The album was released June 25th, 2021 via Season of Mist.
Today's tune "A Kupolaváros Titka", taken from "Vadak"
"Naiv" is another spectacular musical album release by the Hungarian eccentrics THY CATAFALQUE, the brainchild of Hungarian Tamás Kátai. "Naiv" is inspired by the “Naïve Art” movement.
One thing I love about Tamás Kátai, it's his ability to create innovative, interesting and very irresistible music. From his newly gained bag of lego, where the blocks contain diversion of genres like gothic rock, ambient, electronica, folklore, jazz, and funk amongst others, where all the pieces have wisely assembled together to create the musical landscape of well-working crossovers.
"Naiv" is just as unpredictable as his earlier works and demands to be listened to with full attention. That it can then be a sprawling story for someone who is unfamiliar with wilder textures, I can buy that, but I can almost promise that one can easily be sucked into the magical madness of the flow of rhythms with unknown and quite tricky instruments. It's a playful and very easily accessible record and still delivers on some good, old fashioned heavy riffs.
That album is a real adventure with many guests on various positions, like the vocalist Zoltán Kónya (GIRE) the progressive death metal band who appears on the album opener murderous blasting "A Bolyongás Ideje" spiced up with some psychedelia, like the unpredictable "Tsitsushka", that have many shifts from gothic metal to funk but still keep the focus also contains some fretless bass by Badó Réti (GIRE). The electronic intro in "A Valóság Kazamatái" takes one of the radar, until the heavy riffages take place in the middle eastern theme that this tune takes its path. The chamber rock piece "Számtalan Színek" where the guest musicians take the center with cello and creates a classical atmosphere. "Embersólyom" has a folkish touch with proggy flutes and some beautiful vocals from Martina Veronika Horváth (ex-NIBURTA, SALLYANNE, NULAH). She can also be heard on rocker "Napút" where she does an excellent job. "Vető" is eight minutes of old school avant-death metal, a heavy piece with some odd but pretty well-executed shifts. The extra bonus on the album is that all the lyrics are in the native Hungarian language. The album can feel complex and confusing but with some time and patience it will grow and the enjoyment will be much richer.
"Naiv" was released January 24 through Season Of Mist. Recorded, mixed and mastered in 2018-2019 in Edinburgh (United Kingdom) Makó, Budapest, Debrecen, Szentendre, Szombathely (Hungary) and Athens (Greece). Cover art: Irene Saíz Guerrero
Sum: "Naiv" is a magical album, requires some time with full attention, but with a little patience comes the rewarded.
Today's tune "Embersólyom" is taken from the ninth full-length album "Naiv", enjoy!
"Sgùrr" is the 6th album release by THY CATAFALQUE. Was released October 16, 2015.
For those new to THY CATAFALQUE, it is the solo endeavour of Hungarian multi-instrumentalist Tamás Kátai, who moved to Scotland several years ago. He plays a version of black electronic folkish avant-garde metal world music.
"Sgùrr" (the title of which is Scottish Gaelic for “The Top of a Mountain”).
"Sgùrr" is an violent poetic and atmospheric dark journey true the Scottish Highlands all the way to the Hungarian Lowlands, the songs are about water, mountains, their interrelationship, and the symbols attached to them. The album is very playful with a joyful ambient harmony and gritty, pummelling black metal and monumental doom-inspired riffs.
The album starts and ends “Zúgó” (Pt.1 and Pt.2) with a narrates words by Viktória Varga, in Hungarian about the passage of rapids, the sounds of water carving through mountains over eons of time. "Alföldi Kozmosz" is an electronic folkish tune, beautiful melody with almost a dancing beat. "Oldódó Formák a Halál Titokzatos Birodalmában" is a more than 15 minutes, were hard-driving drum rhythms coupled with hard and lightly aggressive guitars with a blackness feeling. "A Hajnal Kék Kapuja" is an instrumental piece, here he shows the beauty of his travels. "Élo Lény" is a more intense piece, heavy and hard with folkish approach. "Jura" is black-ended all the way, fast and heavy, dark and ugly. "Sgùrr Eilde Mòr" continues where "Jura" ends, but with a much bigger spectrum and length. "Keringo" is the last proper tune, a half pace until the drums and guitar enters half the way to give the tune some contrast until is almost fades out in a beautiful violin solo.
Vinyl of "Sgùrr"
Sum: "Sgùrr" is something totally different, if you do not listen with blinders so you should definitely try this.
Today's tune "Oldódó Formák a Halál Titokzatos Birodalmában" is taken from "Sgùrr", enjoy!
