Maťkovia's debut album, 1982-1986, recorded in secret during Czechoslovakia's Soviet-era Normalization period, has been reissued in an expanded, remastered form by 42far, a new label focused on artists from Central and Eastern Europe founded by Adam Badí Donoval.
The project was the work of Martin Burlas, a Bratislava composer who studied under Ján Cikker at the Academy of Performing Arts before splitting his time between state-approved institutional work and radical personal projects the establishment viewed with suspicion. Maťkovia was less a conventional band than what Burlas called a "composition workshop," with a rotating lineup built around Burlas as composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist.
Because Burlas had access to professional studios through his day job at the state label Opus, the Maťkovia sessions were recorded there in secret; the material's provocative, ironic tone gave the band no realistic chance of an official release under the communist government, so the recordings circulated on cassette until Zoon Records finally issued them in 1991, after the regime's fall.
Musically, Maťkovia rejected Czechoslovakia's official "soc-pop" and Bratislava's prog rock scene in favor of punk, post-punk and new wave, drawing on The Police, Talking Heads, Gang of Four, The Residents, Devo and This Heat, with Burlas layering in screeching synths and sudden arrangement shifts. The lyrics lean on absurdist and ironic imagery rather than direct political statements, encoding the alienation of Normalization-era life in stories about caged cows and toy boats crashing into bathtub walls.
The band disbanded almost immediately after a brief run of live shows once restrictions eased in the late 1980s, and 1982-1986 is now often cited as one of the first indie rock records to come out of Slovakia. The expanded reissue adds material from Burlas' archives, part of a fresh wave of rock and indie reissues drawing overdue attention to Eastern Europe's underground scenes.
The facts
- 1982-1986 recorded in secret at the state label Opus's studios
- Not officially released until 1991, after communism's fall
- Led by composer Martin Burlas as a rotating 'composition workshop'
- Reissued in expanded form by the label 42far
- Often cited as one of the first indie rock records from Slovakia
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