Új Bála - Energol (2019)

Új Bála is the moniker of Budapest-based musician and visual artist Gábor Kovács. Also known via outfits like Cranky Bow or Dutch Courage, Új Bála is his most prolific project. On his brand new tape on Nona, Kovács presents 10 pieces of sharp and mad techno primitivism where he oscillates between straight piercing kick drums and odd tribal-like rhythms, and makes the ideal soundtrack for the chaos of the hectic time of the early ’90s in Central Europe, the setting of the story of Energol - the Hungarian so-called ‘oil mafia’.

"Like much of the crime in the post-Communist scramble for riches, the lucrative oil scam was childishly simple and entirely predictable. Fuel designated as heating oil was subsidized, while engine fuel was heavily taxed. A 1990 government directive stipulated that oil intended for use as heating fuel be dyed red, but within a year, cases of smuggling were coming to light, and by 1993 it had become one of Hungary’s most profitable criminal activities. Traffickers could either bribe customs officials who were charged with adding the dye but also soon found a way of bleaching oil that had been dyed. Cans of the low-grade but usable motor fuel that was produced in this way could commonly be bought at the roadside."