HTRK: Hearts Series Review (HTRK Songs) – Friends From Liars to Callie Malone remake their rocking gems | music

HTRK has been making their brand of melancholic and sensual music, at the intersection of electronic pop and rock for 22 years. To celebrate this milestone comes String of Hearts, a collection of covers and remixes featuring an all-star cast of friends and collaborators, from next-gen underground favorites like Coby Sey to fellow old-school experimentalists Liars. This brilliant, genre-agnostic record allows you to trace the breadth of the Melbourne band’s shifting sound, echoes of which can now be found throughout underground and commercial music, without relying too heavily on nostalgia.

The record spans from HTRK’s early hits through to their most recent album Rhinestones, a period in which they shifted from a dark industrial palette into warmer territory. Not that you’ll be able to tell that here: the instrumentation has been reshaped by Loraine James’s IDM-style glitches and Zebrablood’s atmospheric breaks, while Jonnine Standish’s disaffected vocals are transformed into desperate alien wails by Liars.

Some tracks are distorted beyond recognition, using a mere synthesizer or lyric as a starting point. Sound artist Perrella reinvents the raspy, chunky Ha in a composition so ambient and sublime that it veers toward the sublime—the only tangible resemblance remaining in the layered presentation of those once satirical songs. Siren Song, originally a 49-second interlude, was extended by Callie Malone and Son O))) Stephen O’Malley into a six-minute soundscape, in which simple, mumbled lyrics are repeated like an absent-minded incantation.

Others lurk closer to the original tracks, but with interesting tweaks: Sharon Van Etten’s cover of Poison has less smoke and more kick; “Double Virgo” on “Rentboy” adds percussion, strings and energetic discord. These are standout moments, but it’s hard to fault any of the clips here: they all feel surreal yet true to HTRK’s charm.

Also out this month

The mysterious Belgian-Italian duo Sex and fantasy They reshaped their low-key, cosmic sound into something darker on their brilliant third album Trabajando El Flex (Pinkman). Icy synths, robotic vocals and creeping dub beats, coupled with their distinctly sexy themes, conjure an image of some seedy haunted club. Radioweaver is the latest record from a London-based artist Narratoralso of the self-proclaimed collective and brand “gesamtkunstwerk” “Life is beautiful”. Across the eight tracks, dreamy sounds intertwine with beautiful yet eerie instrumentals, as heavenly melodies coexist. Strings are sometimes interrupted by faulty samples and unexpected turns. Inspired by theatre, Fellini and dreams, Cinecittàx (Disques de la Spirale), the debut album by the Brussels-based artist Chi Fui As eccentric as you might expect. In these tense collages, there are elements of spoken word, post-punk, cabaret, and downtempo electronic music, complete with nature samples and Toybox beats.