Herzschlag



Blending micromusic naivete with hardcore vocals, GTUK throws out albums of surprisingly melodic and wistful electronica, perversely humorous and frighteningly accomplished. Behind the GTUK moniker is one Bastian Hagedorn, a German guy with a love for the naive genius of 1980’s electropunk. Wearing homemade superhero costumes on stage, screaming through the microphone of his belt-buckled My First Sony cassette-player, GTUK is a startling live artist who carries his performing energy across on tape. The first result was Herzschlag (Heartbeat), an incessantly weird and catchy collection of nine tracks ranging from the manic ”In der Schwebe” via the funky ”Verfall” and on to the inexplicable finale ”Fasto”, taking in all points in between. The next one was Wir sind Glücklich? (Are we happy?) which came in 2006. It offers cleaner yet more harsh sound and features wider range of sounds, showing ever evolving musical expertise of Gtuk. From noise progression of Introuu through Immer Weiter Weg, the first track featuring Gtuk's unaltered vocals, to breakcore quintessence of Phantomm and brain-squeezing Ignoranz Part II — this album yet again proclaims Gtuk as one of the kings of the genre. Illusions to the Max was ready in 2008 and it is his last album to date. With this album Gtuk digs deeper into the mind of his listener with lyrics touching such subjects as religion, freedom, objectivism, existentialism, behavioral therapy, war, gender equality and dresscodes, apparently. It's hard to discern at first, though, as vocals are as distorted as ever, and beats are as thumping as never before. And he also uses pitch-shifting now, so good luck figuring out what it's all about. In-between his major releases, Gtuk is no stranger to putting out some EPs with his fellow musicians. So came Bad English Tour with Nes and Fyoelk in 2006, split-cassette with Fyoelk in 2008 and a split-EP with Robotron in 2009. About as DIY as it gets, these releases were printed in very limited amounts and are so hard to find, that some believe they never even existed in physical form. Gtuk is a whirlwind, a tsunami, a hurricane. His music sweeps you off your feet and leaves you laying down, trying to figure out what the hell has just happened. His vocals rip you ears apart and his music is for no weaklings either. Yet, it leaves you feeling longing, craving for more. Why? The world will never know Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.