Sarolta Zalatnay

Following its reissuing of two funkadelic Turkish releases, Finders Keepers goes west but not too far. Sarolta Zalatnay has been an icon in Hungary since the mid-’60s, in equal measures because of her music and her Pamela Des Barres-like lifestyle. Vocally, she veers closer to Janis Joplin. This disc is compiled from her hard rock days of the early to mid-’70s and features screaming, Southern-fried guitars and boogie grooves that make the whole thing chug along. The reason to compile this disc is the break beat intros on many tracks, notably "Hadd Mondjam El.” These are very usable, from a sampling perspective, as the tight, compressed mix pretty much gift-wraps the potential loops for instant freestyling. But musically, this disc falls short. Unlike the Turkish reissues, the various bands represented here just don’t ever rock effortlessly. All the grooves seem laboured and Zalatnay breaks out the histrionics way too early in each song. Despite promising beginnings, there’s no real drive. And don’t go looking for any particularly Hungarian spice to this music either; it’s generic studio rock with 50 percent more cowbell.