URH(
meaning Ultra Rock Agency) was a underground/punk/new wave band in Hungary between 1980-1981.
URH was a very special band in early 80s. They often said: "
we came in order that we cancel the 70s!!" These words are surprised the redneck Hungarian rockbands, it marked them, the time has come to new music...
URH wasn't a typical punk band, their lyrics was absolute intellectual and intellectual, speak about politics, sex, drug and poetics. Their name: URH refered the communist police....
News of URH came to Chris Bohn and New Musical Express. Sooner, Chris Bohn went to Hungary and made interview for URH and some banned earlier Hungarian punkbands(
Petting, Spions, Balaton, Beatrice).
Here's the interview:
"....The best moment of the set comes when they're joined by URH guitarist Jenő [Menyhárt], whose one song performance is perhaps the most astonishing thing I've ever seen. Seated, legs crossed, on a low wooden stool, supported by the acapella mouthings of the Balaton pair, his voice barks into a terse rant, which apparently runs along the lines of "Too many police, too few whores" and back to "Too many whores, too few policemen". (The song's words and emotions are far more complex, but not so easy to translate to paper.)
By the end he is bent almost double spitting out the words and most everyone in the room is supporting him, either clapping along or providing the bass parts.
After hearing URH's tapes he turns out an equally compelling guitarist. URH music is the best I heard anywhere during my stay in Central Europe. They make wild, swinging music driven by some wonderfully furious guitar. It's all shaped by the ironically maudlin but masculine noise of the choral singing.
Led by student film director Péter Müller, they come from mixed working class and intellectual backgrounds. Their lively music cuts dead the lumbering rock of officially supported bands in the same way punk cleared the air here a few years ago.
The authorities have already betrayed signs of interest in URH's activities. Just before I arrived they were due to play at Budapest's law school, promoted by the young communist organisation. However their secretary cancelled the gig, apparentlly under pressure from collage professors. They tried to discredit the band by claiming the initials stood for Ultra Radical Bureau or Ultra Reactionary Frequency, although it's commonly known their name means Ultra Rock Agency. It is also the code for the police emergency short wave frequency, someone tells me.
The band's raison d'etre is partly to encounter the reams of misinformation disseminated about rock and roll, hence the name, says Jenő.
" There has never been any precedent for new wave here in Hungary. And we have no proper rock tradition - well, maybe in form but not in content. People here have a very distorted view of it. Thus we try to bring through our lyrics and music and also the kind of life we live the idea of what rock and roll existance really is."...."
Tracklist:
1.Kék fény(Blue light)
2.Betaville
3.Eltemetünk bye! (We bury you, bye bye!)
4.Van-e élet a Földön? (Is there a life on the Earth?)
5.Vigyetek el (Take along me)
6.Szavazz rám(Vote for me)
7.Nagy testvér (The Big Brother)
8.Ismeretlen katona (Unknown soldier)
9.Bon Si Bon
10.Agyamban kopasz cenzor ül (Bald censor sit in my brain)
11.Észak-jemen jó hely (North Jemen is a good place!)
Link:
http://www.mediafire.com/folder/ea2532596111ca6dd5a101cf914073b4387cc8ec1314333e
