It’s ironic, isn’t it (in the Alanis Morissette sense) that I love love LOVE a band named HTRK, or Hate Rock as you’re supposed to say it? I love this band so much I want to send it flowers, I want to write it haikus, I want to drunkenly tell everyone I know how amazing they are and then curl up beside their first record at night and dream sweet, sweet dreams of actually watching the band live and in concert. “Wait, WHO?” you’re saying. WELL, you obviously haven’t been exposed to the wonder that is drunken me.
HTRK is a London by way of Melbourne noise/electronic/hooooooly drum machine band whose first album, Marry Me Tonight, was recorded by Birthday Party legend Rowland S. Howard and released on the Mute imprint Blast First Petite. It’s a searing, brutal fusion of electronica and noise and their live shows are like walking into a sweat lodge and discovering your spirit animal, only to realize that it’s a honeybadger, or maybe a super psychotic crocodile on meth. They’ve shared the stage in the past with Lydia Lunch and Alan Vega.
And now, thanks to Ghostly International, the band’s second album Work, Work, Work will hopefully introduce music fans in these fine U States of A to this totally awesome band that is totally not paying me to throw all these adjectives around. (In case you thought they might be. Sorry. I can’t restrain myself.) The new LP comes out September 6 in the States. It was recorded in London and Berlin from 2006-2010.
Work, Work, Work tracklisting:
01. Ice Eyes Eis
02. Slo Glo
03. Eat Yr Heart
04. Bendin’
05. Skinny
06. Syntheik
07. Poison
08. Work That Body
09. Love Triangle
10. Body Double
• HTRK: http://www.myspace.com/htrk
• Ghostly International: http://ghostly.com