Artist description Halaka is a permanently unsigned band that has been recording and playing music since the late 1970s. There is no good description of a style for the music that can't be immediately contradicted by some album or other they've done. Sometimes improvisational, sometimes painfully overthought, the only real common thread running through the material is that it is performed by whatever group of people is calling itself halaka at the time. Or sometimes it's not that, either.

Music Style Experimental

Musical Influences Mitch Miller, Dvorak, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, John Cage

Similar Artists Jackson Pollock

Artist History Too embarrassing, too long, too stupid, too internally-conflicting. Wait for official site, and then there MIGHT be something a little better to clear up 1 or 2 things.

Group Members Sacky Jamboree - percussion, keyboards ; Dan Rodgers - programming ; David "Tray Getter" Anderson - Guitar ; Jim "Fanch" Taylor - Exotic Stringed Things, keyboards ; Eugene Matsumura - Bass ; Shank - Vocals, Guitars, other things ; Lacky Daisical - percussion ; Darius Emmanuel - Electronics

Instruments drumkits, electronic drums, acoustic guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar with busted headstock, classical guitar, classical guitar with busted nut(s), 6 and 7 string ibanez guitars, 7 string schecter guitar, ibanez and peavey bass guitars, VHT guitar amps, Peavey guitar amps, Peavey bass amps, POD, tascam, Pile - includes (but is not limited to) various record players, various reel-to-reel tape players from junk heaps, various cassette players, cassette recorders, tape player heads, vintage junky effects, MXR digital delay, Peavey delay thing, also PVC flute, PVC saxaphone, PVC bass saxaphone, PVC tambourine, PVC kazoo, kazoo, tapefingers, guitar-less/bass-less pickup configuration, wooden pile guitar, plastic 2-liter bottles, glass bottles, broken glass bottles, wooden xylophone thing, balalaika, various other stringed instruments, various other electronic noise devices, various home-made and circuit-bent effects boxes and noise devices, someone's ass, someone's cheek, someone's teeth, vocals, broken fan, broken blow-dryer, some toy walkie-talkies, Alesis keyboards, various synths, baby monitor, intercom, someone's penis, bad cables, nose, Tequila, Jaggermeister, Rum, Guinness Stout, gum, Heineken, cardboard boxes, file cabinets, plastic wall covering, insulation, heater, weight bench, Guinness Stout cans, plastic boxes of push-pins, broken microphones, pantyhose on a hanger, metal bowl, chord organs, plastic harmonicas, rubber bands on plastic things, styrofoam, waffle iron, box of tide, washing machine, silvertone guitars, fender guitars, dan electro guitars, photographs of daisy fuentes, various

Albums Gelatin, Slightly Used (1981) ; BUCKINFITCH (1985) ; Flabbergastastrophe (1990) ; Fantastic T-Shirt Juice (1992) ; A Skintight Malevolence (1997) ; God, I am the Lunatic (1998)

Press Reviews "oh, beautiful noise. in a day where everyone thinks they're sooooo "experimental," halaka truly are. some tracks make sense. most don't. banjos, noise, singing from the back of the room, televisions, accordians? not an accessible record in the least, but a fine inaccessible one it is. there's hard stuff, and there's soft stuff, and there's stuff you can't hear. what else would you expect from an actual experimental group. the members don't even live in the same states! do you love them yet? the title track definitely stands out on this album and shows that halaka does know what they're doing. find them. try them." - tom, fuckeroo records ; "Here's a prime example of flaring tempers inside the studio. This was probably an excerpt from the live tape roll that Halaka created when they visited the studio to destroy the world. The sole intention of this track now is that of an inside joke, [...] if you don’t get it, you simply don’t get it. I’m not sure what to say about the musical qualities to this track, because there actually IS something going on, basically the guitarist picking [...] while everyone bitches at each other about the levels and how the computer is supposed to be set up. Take a good look at their web page, [...], and this joke makes all the sense in the world. The only thing it reminds me of is Korn, [...] but I think Korn was a little more contrived. Or it may possibly be just a déja vu kind of hint back to the old days when I used to play live, and our drummer and bassist would just have it out, full on. This in no way really depicts the talents of Halaka, [...]." - Integrated Arts Radio VIII ; "To Original - I hate to say it's a stupiest song I've ever heard. But I could put this song in an elevator cause people would probably end up killing each other. I will say it's far and beyond the most original song I've heard in a long time. But perhaps too original. You need to familiarize yourself to somebody or an audience will rarely recognize you. Bit if you don't care about selling records them go for it." - some guy on GarageBand.com ; "i wish i had some of your drugs." - Eric, Forced Attrition ; "I can see a lot of potential in other songs you might have written..." - some other guy on garageband; "At eight min, your song borders on death by spork." - Yet another Garageband Reviewer

Additional Info Album listing is only representative. Halaka has rarely released anything officially, and there are bootlegs of sessions we don't even remember floating around. Halaka is strictly a non-profit organization. All proceeds go to Great Sandwiches for the Dumb. Halaka likes nothing more than to slam Halaka's head into Halaka's ansu. Except fish. Halaka loves fish.

Location Germantown, MD - USA

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