Žagar

Žagar (or Zagar) is a headliner group of the Hungarian indie and electronic music scene. Their sound is based on contemporary electronic music, jazz and indie rock adding with experimental scratches by DJ Bootsie. The results are heavy beats, atmospheric mood and sound clips from the psychedelic era of the late 1960s. Andor Kovács and the leader of the band Balázs Zságer were the co-writers of the Yonderboi album Shallow and Profound.

History

Local Broadcast

Their debut album, the Local Broadcast (UCMG/Ugar 2002) was selected for the chart of the 50 all-time most important Hungarian records by the music magazine WAN2. They made many soundtracks for short and feature films; the most important of them is Eastern Sugar (Fillcell/Universal 2004) that was the best soundtrack in 2005 in Hungary. Their music has been used in the US television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and its spin-off CSI: NY.^[1] The band released their second studio album, Cannot Walk Fly Instead (CLS Records), in September 2007 and 2009 worldwide on the German label, Mole Listening Pearls.

Their masterfully crafted albums combine powerful hit-driven tracks with cinematic moods, which blow up when performed live. No wonder they’re sought after performers on festivals and clubs all around Europe. The band has been performing since 2001. Apart from Hungary they have already played in UK, The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Italy, Greece, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Russia. They supported Depeche Mode at the Budapest leg of the Tour of the Universe 2009. Its first single Wings of Love, featuring the Underground Divas - six of Hungary's most popular independent singers - earned heavy radio airplay and secured a no1. spot on MTV's video chart. They have earned numerous awards for this record, most notably the Hungarian Record Industry’s Fonogram Award and prize in the International Songwriting Competition. They were nominated for the Regional Award in the MTV European Music Awards 2008 and 2009 also. Their tracks were remixed by Terry Lee Brown, Jr., Moonbotica, Eriq Johnson or Cottonmouth among many others.

The band is releasing their next LP worldwide in 2013 February. The first brand new single is coming out in 2012 November.

Reviews

„Genius electronic band from Eastern Europe. Zsager is a cool guy, but on the stage he becomes fucking nuts!“ Alan McGee (Creation Records / Poptones UK)

"Wings of Love is a lovely track, really like it!" Laurent Garnier

"Zagar is a great band, Wings of Love is an awesome track!" Pedro Winter aka Busy P (Ed Banger)

“Really like the freshness of their tracks. One of the regular plays on my iPod. Clever innovative pop...me likey!” Daz-I-Kue (Bugz in the Attic/ The Goodness, US)

“A breath of fresh air coming from East Side” ED2000 (Bln.fm Berlin)

„At the moment they are the coolest band in Budapest - whatever that is supposed to mean.“ HVG (the biggest Hungarian Culture magazine)

Discography

Studio albums

• Local Broadcast (2002)
• Eastern Sugar (Soundtrack) (2004)
• Cannot Walk Fly Instead (2007)
• Light Leaks (2013)

Singles

• Wings of Love (2009)
• Learn to Fall (2010)
• Space Medusa (2012)

Remixes

• Bosssa Astoria/Revolution Remixes (2003)
• Wings of Love Remixes (2009)
• Cannot Walk Fly Instead extended version (w. Wings of Love Remixes) (2009)
• Prophet is a Fool Remixes (2011)
• Never the Same Remixes (2012)

Music videos

Filmography

Current band members

• Balázs Zságer (rhodes piano, keys, electronica, programming)
• DJ Bootsie (scratch)
• Tibor Lázár (drums)
• Ákos Zságer-Varga (bass)
• György Ligeti (vocals, guitars)

• Zsófia Hutvágner (Lyrics)

See also

• Hungarian indie

References

External links

• Official Žagar Site
• Facebook Žagar Site
• MySpace Zagar Page
• Official YouTube Channel