1/7
Anima Sound System
As Hungary’s best-known electronica band, Anima Sound System keeps audiences dancing for some 20 years now. Perhaps the band’s greatest strengths are this ability to make people dance, the passionate atmosphere of their concerts, and their courage as artists, as shown in their capacity for periodic renewal. In concert, they manage to remain an entertaining pop group appealing to many generations. Anima was formed in Szombathely in 1993 by Zsolt Prieger, Szabolcs Prieger, and Gergely Németh, creating the band’s core trio that remains unchanged to this day after ten records and 20 years of working together. What continues to make the constantly changing character of their music special is primarily their sense of playfulness, the colorful texture of their music, and its mix of styles, embracing modern electronic dance music, reggae and dub, hip-hop and pop, traditional songs, and musical experiments. In two decades, Anima featured many different singers who went on to prove themselves in other styles, while today’s front woman is Zsolt’s daughter Fanni.
2/7
Animal Cannibals
The Hungarian rap band Animal Cannibals was formed in 1989 by three members (DJ UBY, Qka-MC, and Richie). They composed their first rap song in 1990, the anthem of a teen club in Budapest. Unlike most of the Hungarian hip-hop acts that popped up during the ’80s and the ’90s, this group takes their influences from jazz, funk, and bands with a positive attitude and style. DJ UBY left the band in its early years, but the other two MCs went on and succeeded in becoming one of the most popular bands in the genre, mainly because of their eagerness (they often play nearly 200 concerts yearly) and because of Fila Rap Jam, a Hungarian showcase festival for extreme sports and hip-hop, founded by Animal Cannibals in 1996. FRJ later evolved into festivals like Offline Battle, Hip-Hop Mission, Radio Deejay Microphone Mania, It's Rite! talent shows, the Routes and Roots project, and a lot of other projects that helped bring the genre to a wider audience. The band is still active and currently working on new material.
3/7
Bëlga
Although they don’t like to be called a hip-hop band, Bëlga started as an offshoot hip-hop project at Tilos Rádió. As lyrical innovators and phenomenal parodists, they gained wide popularity for their extremely explicit criticism of Budapest’s public-transport company, as well as hilarious wordplays and irony. While their first album was full of swearing, it was more than your typical hip-hop group cursing their rivals and talking about the genre’s usual topics; instead, Bëlga wrote nostalgic songs about childhood, being a vegatarian, football, and Hungarian history. Their ability to cover any topic in a catchily well-written and funny song earned them a huge following, and it helped that their resident DJ Titusz never stuck to simple clap beats: the band’s rappers spat rhymes over acid-disco bangers or jazzy joints. Since their debut, they’ve become a lot less explicit, but don't let that fool you: ther are still sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued observers.
4/7
Heaven Street Seven
Heaven Street Seven (also known as HS7) is a Hungarian alternative-rock band founded in 1995 by Krisztián Szűcs, Róbert Kiss, Róbert Németh, and Gyula Orbán. Later that year Gábor Balczer joined the band, while Endre Kiss left the band not long after its formation. In 1998, Zoltán Takács – aka Jappán, who later became one of the most important Hungarian producers – joined the band. In 2004, Gábor Balczer was replaced by Zsolt Ábrahám. In 2006 Heaven Street Seven won an EBBA Award and released their most outstanding album, which was also released in an English version called “Sordid Little Symphonies” (although the band actually recorded three other albums in English before switching back to Hungarian on their millenial album, “Cukor”). While their early material was clearly influenced by the Britpop boom, they developed their own original sound over the years. Unfortunately, they’ll disband on August 1 with a huge farewell concert at Budapest Park.
5/7
Kispál és a Borz
Kispál és a Borz is a Hungarian alternative-rock band founded in 1987, which continually gained popularity in the decades that followed. Members went and came frequently over the years, but the two founding members, András Lovasi and András Kispál, never quit the band. Although Kispál és a Borz announced their retirement after a gigantic farewell concert in 2010 at the Sziget Festival, the band toured again in 2014 and promised that they’ll perform at a small number of places every year, including the Fishing on Orfű festival organized by András Lovasi. The group is still considered as one of the most influential alternative bands in Hungary, mostly for their simple-yet-catchy beats and lyrics, which dealt with the questions of life and simple things in a way that was missing from the era’s music scene.
6/7
Korai Öröm
It’s safe to say that as far as this list is considered, Korai Öröm is the best-known band in Europe. The group’s sound could be described as a mix of folk mixed with tribal-psychidelic-groove-heavy rock, along with hints of ambient soundscapes and electro – not surprisingly, they are welcomed both at Goa festivals and concert halls. VJs that accompany the band have been making their concerts even more spectacular ever since the band’s inception. Most of their album titles are basically the years in which they are released (like “1995”, “1997”, and “2005”), and they don't really care about song titles either. Sometimes they DJ as Korai Banditos or play an acoustic set as Korai Acoustic Instrumental, but they also play with a more percussion-heavy lineup as Korai Ütősök.
7/7
Quimby
As one of Hungary’s most popular alternative-rock bands, Quimby is present at every major music festival nationwide over the last 20 years. The roots lead back to Tibor Kiss and Livius Varga’s school band Október in the once-industrial town of Dunaújváros. They founded Quimby in 1991, and recorded their first material after two years of gigging. After recording their first two albums only in English, the band switched to Hungarian and are still sticking to it. They are famous for their deep, poetic lyrics and colorful sound, in which jazz, pop, funk, rock, Tom Waits-esque beat, and blues are mixed together into something unique and exciting. Although it’s been a long while since they first started performing, they are like the Rolling Stones: each of their albums are good, but the band really explodes on stage.
