(06.01.05) Rossz Csillag Alatt Született is the closest Aaron Funk has ever come to being Unplugged. While on vacation in Hungary, Funk experienced a moment of avian displacement and vanished into a metaphysical consideration of life as a pigeon. I don’t know if this moment was the impetus for Rossz Csillag Alatt Született or it it was the wealth of local ethnic music poured into his head, but the resulting record is a orchestral collision between Funk’s well known drill ‘n’ bass and a panopoly of decaying folk motifs.
“Öngyilkos Vasárnap,” based on a funereal love song by Hungarian composer Reszo Seress, lifts the haunted despair from Billie Holliday’s version of the song, drapes a possessed violin across Holliday’s exhausted voice like a burial shroud, and sends both out to troll for coins in a cart pulled by a one-legged beggar. “Felbomlasztott Mentökocsi,” a brooding piece of groaning tones and gut-plucked notes, indulges a string quartet’s penchant for melancholy with its gloomy soundtrack. In “Hajnal,” Funk drops a clusterbomb of beats in the middle of the orchestra pit but it’s a surgical strike that takes out the brass section as if it were custom-ordered by the strings. The brass section, resurrected by some foul Transylvanian mysticism, provide stabs and flourishes during “Szamár Madár” like they were some channeling Wagner while a cellist bravely attempts a heartfelt solo before getting steamrolled by Funk’s percussion and a string section in game pursuit of a runaway soprano.
Rossz Csillag Alatt Született is Funk’s most assured release. Even as a track like “Kétsarkú Mozgalom” veers into John Zorn’s Naked City territory, we never lose hold of the thread which Funk has used to sew modern breakcore to the back of an Eastern European gypsy minstrel. Highly recommended. Especially for a track like “Szerencsétlen” where you can fool your classical music loving friends with your daring appreciation for a 21st century approach to the cacophony of Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring. That is, until the breakbeats bust down the doors of the recital hall and take the conductor hostage; then, it’s every instrument for themselves.
Rossz Csillag Alatt Született is out now on Planet Mu.
