Gelka - the new low-fat milk alternative best Hungarian chill-out act you’ll hear this week

It has officially been something of “a scorcher” in Blighty this week (i.e. the temperature rose above 20 degrees centigrade). While it’s been a pleasant shock to the system to be able walk around in shorts, it has posed a problem - what music to listen to? How can the stuff I’ve been listening to for the last couple of dreary months possibly fit with such delightful weather conditions?
Fortunately it was around this time that an album called Less Is More landed on my desk. It’s by some folk calling themselves Gelka. They might sound like a brand of soya milk or summink, but Gelka are actually a pair of Hungarian types who create what is bound to be termed chill-out music, but which bears more repeat listens than most of the drippy stuff within that genre.

Using elements of world music as well as woozy yet groove-based electronica, Gelka’s stuff is mainly instrumental but adds vocals from Ghanaian singer Sena among others. The album isn’t out until September 15th, but with Nightmares On Wax imprint Wax On handling the release there’s a good chance it’ll be required listening for laidback hipsters (i.e. caners) everywhere before too long.
To ensure you’re one step ahead, check out their MySpace page, which has a background that uses, if I’m not mistaken, an Andreas Gursky photo. Fancy!
Oh, by the way - if you’re curious as to what Gelka actually means: according to the press release accompanying the album, “it was the name of the general repair service for all household electronics (from your washing machine to TV and radio).”
And it doesn’t get much more glamorous than that.