It's probably fair to say that Hungary is better known as the home of goulash, Franz Liszt and the Rubik's Cube than for its dance music scene. And after listening to Gelka�s debut album, you could be forgiven for presumptuous the creators hail from the Balearics rather than Budapest, so effortlessly does the music here epitomize the kind of pleasant but flat fare served up by endless Ibiza-themed chill-out compilations over the last 15 years.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gelka (named after Hungary's erstwhile state-owned electronics furbish up service, in case you were concerned) first surfaced five age ago on a Caf� Del Mar album and it's non hard to see wherefore the couple has appeared regularly in the series since. Lazy beats, lackadaisical Groove Armada's At The River � style horns and relaxed, ever-so-slightly funky guitars master here, with the casual mildly soulful vocal thrown in for good amount, mostly good manners of Ghanaian-born chanteuse Sena.
The non exactly typically Magyar-named Alex and Sergio of Gelka are now signed to Nightmares On Wax's DJ Ease�s Wax On label, but there's very little of the Yorkshire band's eclectic experiment in evidence on Less Is More. Most tracks just ramble along quite pleasantly; the odd sliver of soft melody here, the occasional toe-tapping rhythm there, with respectful nods to Kruder and Dorfmeister and Air's Moon Safari flitting in and out of the ! mix.
Gelka's few attempts to branch out from their well-tried and tried and true sound are decidedly interracial. Burlesk's skewed, stoned oompah band vibration brings some welcome oddity and personal identity, but last number Tea Kettle's Dream is a baffling 21st century reworking of Pink Floyd's thankfully largely forgotten 1970 curio Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, culmination proceedings with a purposeless and unfunny collage of snoring and kitchen appliance noises. What went before was barely groundbreaking either, but fans of the now rather tired simmer down genre may find Less Is More is more or less the kind of narcotic fix they are looking for for.
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