Yonderboi

by Dean Carlson

Budapest-based Yonderboi recorded his debut while only 19 years of age, notable to his admirers considering the album's mature reading of lo-fi jazz and conceptual trip-hop. An equally modest and self-assured figure in the world of downtempo electronica, Yonderboi spent much of his youth in individualistic pursuits, disregarding the symphonic training of his peers and routinely seeking out the inexplicable pleasures of Rhoda Scott and lip-synching at choir practice. The old-school hip-hop sounds of the Beastie Boys and De La Soul eventually took hold, however, and an interest in homemade self-production blossomed. He soon submitted his first demo to Juice Records and landed a slot on the label's Future Sound of Budapest compilation at the age of 16. In the summer of 1999, considered by some to be a Hungarian version of µ-Ziq (as if brought up on disco) with the sonic abilities of an East German Goldfrapp, Yonderboi joined friend and keyboardist Balázs Zságer to complete his first full-length for Mole Listening Pearls, the highly acclaimed Shallow & Profound.