by David Wilikofsky
The world of music is vast and wide; for every great artist’s discography you’ve savored, there are twenty more that haven’t even crossed your radar. Up until a few weeks ago, HTRK fell into the latter category for me. The duo of guitarist Nigel Yang and vocalist Jonnine Standish originally formed in Melbourne nearly two decades ago as a trio; they’ve since relocated to London and tragically lost founding member Sean Stewart to suicide. They’ve made everything from buzzy post punk to spectral electronica, but their latest album, Rhinestones, might be the perfect entry into their catalog for the uninitiated because of its laser sharp focus. It’s a sonic fever dream that stretches country and western sounds into haunting, hallucinatory visions.
Each song on Rhinestones is built out of a few component parts: guitar, voice, and a metronome. While there’s some inherent danger to this minimalist approach (will each song just sound the same?), HTRK manage to wring a surprising amount of variety out of this simple formula. Standish’s longing, sensual vocals are a constant. Often they’re crystal clear, a beam of light through the darkness spinning tales of friendship and longing. Other places they seem to fray, spectral echoes eating away at their edges (“Valentina”); occasionally they struggle to entirely emerge through the murk (“Straight to Hell”). There’s similar variation in the instrumentals, which range from the crispness of opener “Kiss Kiss and Rhinestones” to the narcotic blur of “Siren Song”. Though the ambience remains the same, the sonic textures are constantly shifting.
After listening to Rhinestones many times over the past few weeks, I’d be hard pressed to name you a standout track (although if you twisted my arm I might point you towards the waterlogged stutter of “Straight to Hell”); at times the fact that there are nine distinct songs barely even registered. This album was inspired by “eerie and gothic country music,” and you can hear it in each spectral ballad that billows out of the remnants of its predecessor. It’s music that submerges you into a dream world of hallucinatory visions and siren songs, never relaxing its grip until the album’s final notes ring out. HTRK may have been inspired by country music, but they’ve ended up with something otherworldly.