Hlukár / hLukáš SPLIT

Published July, 2014
by b.arctor

Hovering on the fringes of Slovak experimental music, the Noize Konspiracy collective remains uncompromising in their ethos and works. The punks of the noise scene, kind of. “The whole idea for the release came about, when I staggered around the Fuga Club in Bratislava and Lukáš [from Noize Konspiracy] told me he is Hlukas and I am Hlukár, so we should do something together. We decided that each of us will get one side of the tape and will do a ‘remix’ and include our own stuff,” says Hlukár.

Hlukár comes from Rožňava, a small town in eastern Slovakia, one of these local Twin Peaks versions, a zone of nothingness that is also a wonderful source of inspiration resulting in creations laced with a certain nihilistic flair. His split sidekick, Lukáš, is from Noize Konspiracy, the aforementioned subterranean collective.

The split is veiled in noisy darkness, but also offers a respite in the form of various ironic samples – sourced from random instruction tapes and sonic ephemera. Kicking off steadily with a 38-minute monster of a track is Hlukár. Apparently, he made the whole thing using solely the Elektrosluch instrument, created by the Bratislava-based sound artist Jonáš Gruska, since all of his other gear got stolen. A characteristically noisy and rhythmical ride ensues, hypnotic and spiced up with samples about religious freaks.

Lukáš’, based in the capital Bratislava, side is more mellow and ominous, but before all of this a blissfully inapt saccharine start off with a sample about boosting your business. It also includes some distant flickers of light on tracks like “Rajda”. Trippy slabs of noise appear and reappear, tweaks and knob-twisting, mangled samples with quotes like “Don’t be the message. Be the messenger.” The medium is the message this time – in a meta way and literally – the tape, aides the lo-fi nature of the content and the intent, though you still can download it – digitally – here as well.

This article was supported by the Intenda Foundation.