NAGY FERO & BIKINI • Hova Lett... LP

Monday, May 11, 2009

Artisjus 1983
Back when I started this blog I used to do this Greatest Songs Of All Time thing - I've pretty much bailed on that because I couldn't find a reliable free host for streaming mp3s (any suggestions?). One of my first posts was NAGY FERO & BIKINI's "Come Off It!!"... fucking amazing song, but since it's no longer available to you (for the reason stated above) I've decided to post the entire album. Here's what I originally wrote:
In 1984, my sister and I gathered up our cash and sent it away to Reach Out International Records in the Big Apple. I got the BAD BRAINS cassette, NEW YORK THRASH compilation, and WORLD CLASS PUNK (I forget what my sister got... prolly EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN or something). At the time I had a penchant for foreign punk bands that didn't sing in English, and the WORLD CLASS PUNK cassette was chock-full of 'em. My favourite track was by an Hungarian band credited as HOVA-LETT NAGYFERO BIKINI. Well it turns out that the band is actually called NAGY FERO & BIKINI, and their 1983 album is called "Hova Lett...". It took me almost 20 years, but I finally found a copy of this record on eBay, and I couldn't pass it up. NF&B are not really a Punk band, as there's elements of ska, jazz, fusion, rock, metal, new wave, and traditional Hungarian folk (at least that's what I assume it is) all mixed into their sound. This is a bizarre record that truly defies classification. The song that's featured on WORLD CLASS PUNK ("Come Off It!!") is also the best song on this album... which is a bummer, cuz I was hoping for 13 more killer songs in the same vein. "Come Off It!!" is a cross between punk (Nagy Fero's vocals), metal (double bass drums throughout, phenomenal guitar solo), and some kinda fucked-up Japanese-sounding cyber-electro shit (check the drum/vocal breakdown). This song still kills me almost 25 years later! The rest of the album isn't total shit (as I had first thought), and in fact, after ripping it today, it's beginning to grow on me. The guitar player's jazz tinged solos are fantastic, and the ultra-modern Devo-esque stuff at the end of Side 2 is truly bizarre
DOWNLOAD: NagyFeróandBikini-HovaLett.rar (70.21 MB)

16 comments:

shermstixx said...

THIS. IS. FUCKING. AWESOME.
I always remembered that song from the world class punk tape too and just randomly looked for "hova lett". you wonder how many more errors like that end up confusing record nerds worldwide... anyway- so glad you put this up. it's awesome... so strange... experimental in all the right ways and just really pleasing to hear... some of the singing reminds me of circle... wicked cool...
anyway- looking for some other nagy fero stuff now... if his other bands were as good as this I'll surely be pleased.
; )
thanks agin, man!

Alcolm X said...

Please let me know if you have any luck tracking down other NAGY FERO records, and if they're any good. I'm pretty sure that BIKINI has released a number of album without NAGY FERO... but I'm not 100% on that.

Anonymous said...

Hi- do you remember the band Copulation from that same ROIR compilation? I looked for the record for years after hearing them on the comp-I ended up finding 2 copies of their lp...The Nagy Fero & Bikini lp is on ebay right now for $4.99 and no one is bidding on it yet

Alcolm X said...

hmmmm... COPULATION isn't ringing a bell. Where were they from?

Dan Silverman said...

Wonderful to find someone else who loves HOVA LETT. Have you seen my essay on the album?
It's been on line for about 15 years:

http://www.seedyroad.com/seedyroad/nagyfero.htm

shermstixx said...

I found another bikini record with nagy fero called "XX. szazadi hirado" which is alright but not as rad as this one. I also found a cd of another nagy fero band called beatrice and it is cool but nowhere near as bitchin' as this record. I must say, i've listened to this one quite a lot since finding it on here. so rad...

Dan Silverman said...

you should buy the cd. it is available from Hungaroton I think.

shermstixx said...

http://bettmenslinks.blogspot.com/2008/09/beatrice-nagy-fer-diszkogrfia.html
here's a link.
; )

Bryan Swirsky said...

nagy fero has a website @ www.nagyfero.hu. there are tons of audio on here. he has a mindboggling discography and most of it's amazing. i just did a wiki search on him and apparently he is now allied with a far-right wing party in hungary. sad, considering the last thing hungary needs is another nazi takeover.

VimFuego said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Hi,

I have this vinyl for sale. Very nice condition. EX/EX. Please send offers for me. My email address at imba71@yahoo.com Or search it on Discogs. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I'm gonna write about Bikini tomorrow. I was looking for "XX. szazadi hirado" for years now and I'm glad that I found this one two.
Thanks again, very useful blog you have here, keep up the good work!

Guy_from_PL said...

It is absolutelly my top-beloved LP from THOSE times. Nice to see, that it's still alive. BTW: The "folk" number is a typical russian folk song "Dolyna" (the Walley), with typically trivial lyrics (where's that street, where's that house, where's the girl with whom I'm fallen in love etc.). The irony in fact, that its russian song in hungary (a bit like "Horst Wessel" in Israel). The Russians made them terrible massacre during an insurection started by Hungarians in 1956

Anonymous said...

Nagy Fero's first band was called Beatrice, they were more punk/hard rock themed. Beatrice disbanded due to the communist government not agreeing with their ways and this is when he started Bikini. Here's a popular Beatrice song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvVAex4r0_8

Anonymous said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H13Zsg3A1g

Anonymous said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H13Zsg3A1g