LEXIKON

I'm not familiar with Laszlo Benko's previous band, Omega, but this album Lexikon I is fantastically spacey and quickly paced progressive electronic that sounds similar to the symphonic progressive rock of country-mates Solaris. One thing that stands out front on Lexikon I is the uniquely Hungarian flavor. It's all very folk-dance sounding, almost like B. Bartok's more accessible compositions, but purely electronic and spacey. All of the tracks on this album are mid- to fast- tempo tracks, and that helps keep this album from becoming boring. Lexikon I isn't about atmosphere at all, unlike most progressive electronic music, but is focused much more on interesting keyboard compositions.

This album is like Solaris' masterpiece Marsbeli Kronikak in another way: although this is an '80s recorded album, there is no new-age or pop additions included on this album. It seems as though that Hungary was the place to be for progressive music in the '80. The music and sound quality of this album sounds much more like an enhanced '70s album than anything from the '80s, and Lexikon I is definitely one of the best albums from the '80s. Honestly, this album's unique Hungarian sound mixed with spacey electronic elements makes this album both interesting enough and great enough for me to call this a masterpiece (again, like Marsbeli Kronikak).

Anyone who loves Solaris should definitely check this album out.

LÁSZLÓ BENKÖ is a Hungarian legend for his multi-decade career that started in 1957 with the Budapest based Benkó Dixieland Band and he achieved national stardom as the founder and band leader of Hungary's most famous rock band of all time, namely Omega. Amazingly BENKÖ started Omega all the way back in 1962 and stayed with the band until his passing in 2020 making Omega one of the longest running ands in rock history. While Omega itself has become known outside of the confines of Eastern Europe, what's less known is that BENKÖ released a number of albums as a solo artist beginning with this 1982 debut LEXICON.

LEXICON was technically a double album except it was released as two separate albums with "Lexicon 2" coming out two years later in 1984. Unlike Omega's mix of hard rock, psychedelia and space pop with progressive rock, BENKÖ's solo albums featured his foray into the world of progressive electronic and film soundtrack music. This album is basically the BENKÖ show with him alone going crazy on the various mixes of keyboards, piano, synths (Roland Jupiter/SH1000, Korg Mono/Polisix, Yamaha CS70, MiniMoog, ARP Omni) and drum machine however a female vocalist contributes some wordless utterances on "Fata Morgana." As a stand alone the first chapter of the LEXICON albums featured 11 tracks at about 36 minutes of playing time.

Unlike much of the Berlin School and French electronic experiments that were dominating the scene throughout the 70s and into the 80s, BENKÖ delivered a lighter less alienating style of progressive electronic based on melodies tapped from classical Hungarian artists such as Bartók as well as the synth-heavy prog rockers Solaris. The album features light melodies, basic drum machine accompaniments and placid atmospheres however the danceable pop-oriented grooves do remind a lot of the new wave and synthpop bands that were dominating the MTV airwaves during the day. The album is all-instrumental except the occasional scattering of wordless vocals and the album has that Jean-Michel Jarre crossover appeal but unfortunately ends up sounding a bit cheesy in its execution.

Essentially LEXICON is a series of minimalistic electronic grooves with the keyboards dominating all aspects of the spectrum which includes a bouncy bass groove, tinkling melodies of the treble keys and a rather nondescript monotonous drum machine. In many ways some of the tracks sound like the vocal-free karaoke versions of new wave bands like The Human League or Berlin. Overall i'm not terribly impressed with LEXICON as it sounds rather amateurish especially coming from one of the godfathers of Hungarian rock and prog. It's an ok album that doesn't sound particularly bad in any way but it fails to excel beyond a generic cheesy 80s synthpop style of execution. If you come here expecting Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream and their multi-layered spaciness effects then you will be sorely disappointed as this is basically pop music translated into electronic sound effects.