HTRK

Marry Me Tonight

Genre: INDIE / ALTERNATIVE

Colour LP

Boomkat Product Review:

Reissued on its 15th anniversary, HTRK's perennially influential debut album - the only one they completely recorded as a trio - stands alone in their catalogue, blending dubwise, PIL-style post-punk with detached, icy electro. One for the ages, really.

Formed in 2003 by vocalist Jonnine Standish, guitarist Nigel Yang and bassist Sean Stewart, HTRK - as their name, pronounced "haterock" suggests - provided a cool-headed antidote to the era's dull, repetitive indie excesses. Their debut EP 'Nostalgia', that they self released in 2005, was a set of syrupy, blown-out half songs that owed as much to Pita and David Lynch as it did Rowland S Howard's 'Teenage Snuff Film'. And when they revisited the material a few years later, it was Howard himself who helped them develop the ideas into bonafide pop songs, co-producing 'Marry Me Tonight' alongside Lindsay Gravina. The album would eventually be overshadowed by Stewart's untimely death in 2010, but it's a testament to the band's early motivations and their wide angle view of the era's sprawling underground.

Just listen to the despondent snarl of opener 'HA', as Standish deadpans "can we get back together" over wheezing amp noise and Stewart's grinding bassline. It's a cleaned-up, slimmed-down version of 'Nostalgia's sprawling eight-minute centerpiece 'Look What's Been Done', and by removing some of the noise, HTRK have only made it more disquieting. When the pebbly distortions do appear there's extra bite, and freed from the brickwall density, Standish's now notorious, instantly recognisable vocal is given the space to flourish. 'Rentboy' meanwhile is a prime example of HTRK's ability to bend pop to their will, both incredibly catchy (it's where the band took the title from) and refreshingly snotty. But it's not the kind of album that lives and dies on the strengths of its best-known tracks, it's an experience that's best enjoyed in full - and it'll no doubt still sound just as breathtaking another 15 years from now.

Colour LP (0)