Influences: Gnork

Normal parents tend to avoid the experience of bringing their small kids to a 3 hour symphonic concert, but not mines, luckily. So I had my first life changing musical experience at 4 which was St John’s passion by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Decades later my musical interest have changed a lot, but i still consider him as one of my main influences. This is one of my fave tunezz from him. Such a banger. Damn bro, look at those arps and chord changes!

My relationship with Alice in Chains started around ‘92 with the Singles soundtrack and reached its full potential with their EP called Jar of Flies. As I still find it hard to talk about this relationship, I’d rather tell you about my Alice in Chains T-shirt. It was probably the first piece of clothing I bought myself, and I was wearing it every second day (on the others it was in laundry) for a couple of years while it lasted.

I remember how much i tried to hate this tune. Someone who listens to Alice in Chains just couldn’t call this music, right?
But secretly, I was totally crazy about it. And I am still, now, Please all dj’z out there, play this instead of Music Sounds Better With You by Stardust.

Doing this feature I found myself listening to music i wouldn’t normally. Like Awake, by Dream Theater, the first CD I ever bought. I have listened to the full album at least 5000 times in my life with full attention. Not having done this for the last 20 years, i still remember every detail.
Though this vibe feels like a distant universe to me now, I’m still amazed about the musical richness of this record. So much happening there and just listen to those amazing rhythm changes and virtuosity. Plus If you have the patience to go through this song, you’d definitely recognize some early gnork vibes and chords in this one.

Again, the cognitive dissonance. You can’t listen to this if you wear a Dream Theater T-shirt, right? Decades later, I’m starting to acknowledge what a masterpiece this is. Not just the powerful vocals and this massive bassline. But that It was so catchy that it could actually become a massive Euro Dance hit without following the genre’s rules. The rhythm pattern, the chord progression, the vocals are way more unique and way deeper than you should be if you are an Euro Dance hit.

My second CD ever bought. This is a record I still listen to quite often, for 25 years now. And when those rhodes chords kick in, or even, when you hear that Stuart Zender bassline, you will understand why. (Okay, yeah, i’m aware that there is a guy singing and dancing in this band, too.)

Okay, so we arrived to the first tune i don’t feel the slightest embarrasment talking about. This song is plain amazing in every bit but for me the highlight was always Jaco Pastorius’ bass. For me he is one of the few bass guitar players who could play basslike bass while in the same time being able to steal the show with his power, unique approach and virtuosity. This song is definitely in my all time top 10.

For years before finding Tilos Rádió in and before the mp3 and napster kicked in, my main source for new music was MTV Europe. That time it was 95% trash and overplayed hits but if you had the patience to get yourself through 3 hours of Mister President and Dj Bobo, you might have had the luck to hear a song by Smashing Pumpkins or Portishead. One night I turned it on randomly and they were in the middle of this tune. OMG, I had not the slightest idea what this was but I still remember the awe I watched it with. I got the feeling that i just had a glimpse of another musical galaxy. And for years, i just couldn’t know how to connect this world that was definitely light years away from the early mid-nineties Budapest.

That one tune by Portishead.

Then one evening i was just lying in my bed in 97 and scrolled hopelessly through the radio stations, which played music varying from plain shit to trash, suddenly i discovered a channel that has not been there before. It played music that sounded like both from the future and from another galaxy and i knew i just found it again. I took the first cassette i found and recorded this fresh mix on it, just didn’t care what i recorded on.
One of the tracks was this tune, but that night they played all kinds of beautiful underground music from trip hop to deep house and jungle. Off course I didn’t know what they were, not even a vague idea about the style. And above all I had no idea where could i get more of this music as there was no one around me who knew or even just gave a fuck.

From this night i always checked FM 98 if there is something but and it didn’t play every night. But I put lot of effort and 100s of hours in this challenge and and eventually, this distant galaxy opened its doors up to me.
I found out this station was called Tilos Rádió and that there was a shop called Trance Wave that also sells this kind of music. Where I could discover stuff like this. Happy End.