HTRK - Rhinestones
Release date: 17 September 2021
Labels: N&J Blueberries, Heavy Machinery
references
fiction
Bennet, Claire-Louise. Pond. Pan Macmillan, 2016.
Cutler, Ivor. “Your Hour has Come”. Is That Your Flap, Jack? Arc Publications, 1992.
Maria Machado, Carmen. Her Body and Other Parties. Serpent’s Tail, 2019.
non-fiction
Beard, Paul. Living on: A Study of Altering Counsciousness After Death. Pilgrim Books, 1987.
Davey, Moyra. Moyra Davey. Steidl, 2019.
Laver, Jane & Young, Danny. John Entwhistle Tattooist: Melbourne, Australia. Inkship Books, 2010.
poetry
Myles, Eileen. I must be living twice. Serpent’s Tail, 2018.
mist
Elfhame Florida Water
music
DJ Sundae. No Weapon is Absolute, NTS.
Levi, Mica. Blue Alibi. 2021.
Loopsel. The Spiral. 2019.
Van Zandt, Townes. “Flyin’ Shoes”. Flyin’ Shoes. Fat Possum, 1978.
Wipers and Greg Sage - Best of. Restless Records, 1990.
Young, Neil. Live at the Cellar Door. Silver Bow Productions, 2013.
Young, Neil. On the Beach (side B). Reprise, 1974.
Zebrablood. Grand Entry. Zerobalance, 2016.
skincare
Weleda Wild Rose Smoothing Day Cream
The latest by iconic slowburn Australian duo HTRK (and first for their in-house imprint N&J Blueberries) is an elegant nine song suite of windswept emotion and heartbreak noir, crafted in skeletal arrangements of guitar, voice, metronomes, and FX. Inspired by a recent infatuation with “eerie and gothic country music,” Rhinestones moves from whispered lament to acoustic eulogy to downtempo vignettes, tracing muted embers of loss and lust through haunted city streets. Taking cues from the economy and brevity of western folk but skewed through a narcotic, nocturnal lens, the album maps enigmatic badlands of strung out beauty and lengthening shadows.
Nigel Yang cites friendship as a central muse, “particularly the forging of it, and its potential for new feelings of telepathy and trust.” Jonnine Standish’s wounded, alluring vocals echo similar mysteries of connection and unknown crossroads, poetic but direct, dream diaries faded with age and rain. The rhinestones of the title evoke the glittering plastic of cowboy glamor, yet “made precious somehow;” Standish cites as an example a baby blue star brooch from Texas, gifted to her “from a stoned friend on New Year’s Eve 10 years ago in Brighton – cheap keepsakes can be more valuable than diamonds.”
Even for a group as enduringly versatile as HTRK, Rhinestones is a revelation, condensing their lyrical alchemy to its simmering, magnetic essence. “Sunlight Feels Like Bee Stings,” “Reverse Déjà vu,” and “Gilbert and George” in particular are masterpieces of drama, delivery, and distillation, dried flowers clouded by smoke, the candle’s flame flickering but unforgotten: “Some things are not like the others / Some friends are not like the others / did I ever say / did I ever say / did I ever say thank you?”
Written and produced by Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang
Mixed and engineered by Nigel Yang
Design by Jonnine Standish with assistance from Thalia Economo
Mastered by Joe Carra