Only two days left until the kick-off of Balaton Sound where you'll find everything from tight techno beats through Ghanaian dance music to stoner rap. We looked at radio rotations and our own playlists and put together a list of 8 of our most favourite songs to show you why we are looking forward to the most summery summer festival.
Pusha T – Numbers On The Boards
10 July, 21:00 – Jager Aréna
When King Push raps, every word hits home, and not only because he actually started out as a drug dealer: you’ll know from his voice that it’s a good idea to cross the street when you see him coming. Even though his debut album is not as much of a classic as Clipse’s Hell Hath No Furry, Numbers On The Boards definitely makes up for it: the base of Kanye West is basically nothing more than an irregular beat and a murmuring bass line, but it works, and Pusha is just being himself: the result is a perfect and chilling classic. This one track alone will make standing in the crowd through the whole set worthwhile.
Hercules & Love Affair - I Try To Talk To You (Seth Troxler Remix)
12 July, 01:30 – B My Lake Terasz
Seth Troxler took the house ballad of Andy Butler and John Grant, which was catchy to begin with, and he made a dragged out, but – if possible – even more funky version that Frankie Knuckles would have been happy to play at Paradise Garage. The subject matter of the song is pretty sensitive – the singer talks about finding out he was HIV positive –, but the Detroit-based DJ-producer carefully finds the balance between melancholy and dance floor euphoria as the song builds toward the climax. You can expect a similarly smart set with lots of new tech-house treats.
RedRed – Ghetto
9 July, 16:00 – Jager Aréna
RedRed is the joint project of M3nsa, one half of Ghanaian FOKN Bois, and Élő Márton, aka ELO, the trombonist and producer of Irie Maffia. This is not the first time the duo has joined forces: they’ve worked together before, on the EP The Fokn Dunaquest In Budapest. The rapper has recently moved to Budapest, that’s how the new project was brought to life. The new tracks are consistent with the EP’s afro-techno-dancehall-hiphop-cumbia-house direction, and they will instantly get your legs pumping. It might sound a bit strange on paper, but after a few minutes you’ll be dancing like crazy – especially because of the festival setting.
George Fitzgerald – I Can Tell (By The Way You Move)
10 July, 00:00 – B My Lake Terasz
Despite the fact that George Fitzgerald’s most successful tracks so far fit best into the slow, emotional, pan-erotic house genre, his first Double Six release became a huge club anthem that Tensnake or Jon Hopkins could only dream about. Pounding bass drums, a spot-on Fuzzy Logik sample, pulsating synthesizers and an attitude that never fails to get the audience going. Both the original and Paul Woolford’s reinterpretation will lure you back onto the dance floor “one last time” at the early hours of dawn.
Rae Sremmurd – No Type
12 July 12, 17:30 – Jager Aréna
“SremmLife is a less of an album and more of a way of life,” a critic on Pitchfork wrote about the debut record of the Slim Jimmy-Swae Lee duo that was released earlier this year – there’s no point in denying he’s right. Instead of serious themes, the two twenty-something dudes rap about things like getting stoned, emptying the ATM and drifting in the hills. What sets them apart from all the YouTube heroes blabbering on about the same stuff is the team’s carefree attitude, the fact that their material doesn’t feel forced at all and the bases of producer genius Mike WiLL Made-It. One of the freshest performers of this year’s Balaton Sound!
Joey Badass - Christ Conscious
9 July, 21:00 – Jager Aréna
Joey Badass will be there too – he’s the guy who likes to stylize his name as Joey Bada$$ and that’s pretty telling. Currently, he’s one of the most prominent performers on the East Coast hip hop scene: barely 20 years old, he is already being compared to such heavyweights as Nas, Jay-Z or The Notorious B.I.G. Associated with Progressive Era, the rapper uses and puts a modern spin on the characteristic boom-bap sound of the 90s, which results in something that is luckily more than simple nostalgia. No wonder he’s worked with such names as Kendrick Lamar, Danny Brown, A$AP Rocky or Action Bronson.
A-Trak – Ray-Ban Vision (feat. Cyhi Da Prynce)
12 July, 00:45 – Jager Aréna
Alain Macklovitch was the first person to win the three most important DJ competitions (Vestax, ITF and DMC – the last one at the age of 15), and by 20 he was on tour with Kanye West. Later he founded the label Fool’s Gold, which has been the best place to find tracks and performers blending party compatible dance music and hip hop ever since. He is also one half of Duck Sauce, which produced one of the indispensible tracks of the next few summers from a Boney M sample.
