HTRK - Nostalgia (Fire Records) (Web)

Inspiration for hard-up, avant-garde noiseniks.

Album Review by Darren Carle | 11 May 2007
Album title: Nostalgia
Artist: HTRK
Label: Web
HTRK (pronounced Hate Rock) seem impeccably cool. Based in Berlin and London (though originally from Melbourne), all three band members come with model-good looks, an education in the Krautrock scene second-to-none and, seemingly, a total indifference to wearing clothes. Then they effortlessly knock out Nostalgia, a seven-track debut EP, apparently recorded live using just two microphones and an old tape deck. Inspiration for hard-up, avant-garde noiseniks aside, it's a technique that produces an otherworldly, abrasive but none-the-less, wholly immersive end result. Jonnine Clementine Davis' ethereal vocals and some cinematic synths are the only respite here. Nostalgia is all about teeth-rattling basslines and funeral paced, martial drums, drowned in wall-of-noise guitar reverb as austere as Auschwitz. Imagine Suicide and The Kills soundtracking a John Carpenter film. If that sounds like your cup of tea then God help you, but in HTRK you'll have come to the right place. [Darren Carle]
Release Date: Out Now.
HTRK play Sub Club, Glasgow on 20 May. http://www.yourcomicbookfantasy.com/