HTRK [HATE-ROCK-TRIO]

HTRK became in 2003. Early music spawned from basement sessions: omnipresent electronic drum sequences, ostinati basslines and twisted guitar loops based on repeated rhythms that make you move. Nigel Yang and Siam Scream found a beautiful muse in Jonnine D, who joined the band shortly after its inception. New alias the Hate Rock Trio: drone moored by Jonnine's listlessly simple vocal melodies.

Songs played at shows in Melbourne and Sydney were finally recorded in December 2004. A single live take captured on borrowed equipment in HTRK's cave, NOSTALGIA in its original form is the closest document of the band's uncompromising live shows (and a reverb-drenched middle-finger to 'production values'). Its abrasive sound manages to produce submission, carried by a hypnotic stability that always threatens collapse.

Scream's bass riffs are pure, slow rock and roll, Yang's guitar is insidious, the 808 is perpetual and often piercing. HTRK could provide the soundtrack to a Reifenstahl movie, a modern day marching band for immaterial cyber armies. Jonnine leads, striking floor tom with commands:
"Ha!"
"Dance!"
"Everybody let's go!"


At other times, NOSTALGIA's control effects irresistible groove, dance hits and dream-pop laments. When the songs end, un-foreshadowed, feeble silence marred by feedback leftovers and the dead static of the drum machine leaves the spectator in a rude state of torpor. HTRK's music feels like an indian gift of torture for a masochist, given then carelessly withdrawn. And it's an airy type of mercilessness, the worst kind.

Videos

HTRK live

HTRK live