Music Frames – Postfolklor review from the Nederlands

PONK, they come from the Czech Republic and play some new folk experience. They mix and mingle folk with pop and funk. Of course, it’s been done more often, but PONK puts it more confident into an epoch of motion where the audience listens to lovely folk orientated delights.
In 2015 the CD ‘Postfolklor’ has already been released but now the album is also available in the Netherlands. PONK is a band from Moravia (eastern Czech Republic), founded in 2013 and two years later the trio releases their début album. Innovative (traditional) folk with main instrument, the cimbalom which emits a distinctive sound with it’s characteristic and quirky twinkling music. That’s also small pitfall of this album with a bit too much lingers to the cymbal-color and you might long for one or two songs without this plucking instrument. There is double bass, violin, guitar and effects added with strikingly beautiful vocal harmonies which are tight and striking. And, although no percussion is used on this album, the music is very rhythmic which is mainly determined by the cymbal, sometimes funky and tasty virtuoso (Yanyczko). PONK easily puts old traditional music back into the musical arena, where it belongs, so that the audience can enjoy it. Great sparkling music!

http://www.musicframes.nl/2017/01/de-postfolklor-van-ponk/

Distribution in Benelux & reviews from the Nederlands

Xango music started distribution of Postfolklor in Benelux. And there are first reviews written in Dutch.

Great review of Ponk’s album ‘Postfolklor’, written by Eric van Domburg Scipio on the Dutch magazine Heaven website week 52, 2016.

A quote: “….Ponk sounds more like a modern indie band than as a folk trio. Warm and compelling.”

http://www.popmagazineheaven.nl/albums-van-week-52

Mixedworldmusic.com

http://www.mixedworldmusic.com/recensies/?id=1144

De Subjectivisten

http://subjectivisten.nl/?p=6104

Beautiful review from Hungary

English translation of the beautiful review:

“Ponk: Postfolklor (CD)

First time I heard about this Moravian band was at Womex this year. I was listening to the official CD of Womex and I was making notes about the bands I liked. I fell in love with Ponk’s music because of one specific song. The song „Sibenicky” unexpectedly starts with the cimbalom then violin and double bass. They play music with folklor roots but they present it as for example Góbé- uptodate, pure, fresh and youthful music. After the first impression it was only the matter of time when I will finally listen to the band’s own CD. This is a quality and uniqe music therefore it is really a big mystery for me why they couldn’t find a single creative record company to release their CD. Recently I was writing about Ukranian folkore songs and some of their sad lyrics but those lyrics are cheerful compare to Ponk’s lyrics. Basically the Posfolklor album doesn’t contain any joyful song. In each songs somebody dies or some other terribe things happen. This was probably a conscious decision of the band, it is unusual but it establishes the style of the album. Athough the lyrics of the songs are about the same topic, the trio gave colour to the album and the musical scoring is fantastic. Some times the cimbalom sounds like piano (thanks to Eduard Tomaštík) the doublebass reminds of drums (thanks to Jakub Nožička) and Michal Krystýnek’s voice perfectly fits to their music. As a result of the trick they often use, the folklor turns into rock, jazz, blues or other kinds of music. Furthermore, it is another advantage that all 3 of them sing and sometimes I felt that they could play some of their songs even on electric instruments,- it would still work and be enjoyable. It is completely understanable that they use a new name for their music: postfolklor. I have seen it couple of times that new, ambitious bands are creating a new name for their style however for Ponk it is completely reasonable because what they do is so original. They do what they need to do and I hope that they will continue this musical experiment and release a new album. Recommendation: Interesting new version of folklore music,modern sound mixed with other style of music therefore it can be an ideal choice for everyone who likes Czech/ Slavic foklore or a fan of Góbé.”

http://www.ekultura.hu/hallgatnivalo/ajanlok/cikk/2016-11-06+10/zenek-a-nagyvilagbol-avagy-vilagzenerol-szubjektiven-46