Work (Work, Work)

The Australian band HTRK (pronounced \"hate rock\") lost co-founder/bassist Sean Stewart to an apparent suicide in 2010, and a star collaborator—The Bad Seeds\' Rowland S. Howard—died of cancer in late 2009. Clearly, the group\'s second LP, *Work (Work, Work)*, wouldn\'t be the one to lead HTRK out of the gloomy, post-industrial terrain from which it had sprouted. Its earlier releases, including 2009\'s *Marry Me Tonight*, were brooding, sinister things, with spidery legs of fuzzed-out bass and icy synths crawling under Jonnine Standish\'s cold and detached vocals. That formula\'s little changed here. Atmospheric, reverb-saturated guitar and metallic keyboards circle and spiral, rendering three- or four-minute tunes like \"Slo Glo\" and \"Poison\" tantalizing and hypnotic. Tracks like \"Eat Yr Heart\" and \"Ice Eye Eis\" borrow liberally from the sensual, pulsing, whip-cracking vibe of late-\'70s pioneers Suicide (the former) and Throbbing Gristle (the latter). They teeter on the edge of a black abyss, balanced by the wispiest updraft of beauty and foreboding desire.

Written 2006-10, Berlin / London.

After the suicide of bassist Sean Stewart last year, the no wave-leaning art noise duo pushes forward with its second full-length. Here they sport a noticeably minimal sound, with dark groaning and clanking that draws from coldwave and a host of other creepy signifiers.

HTRK is pronounced "Hate Rock," FYI (the omitted AEOC seem to be available for a band name, if you're looking).