HTRK, Duke Garwood
Keep Mother 6

This, the sixth heavy-duty, 10” vinyl to emerge bearing the brand of Fire Records’ Keep Mother series, is surely the most indulgent episode to date, finding room in its tracks for two ten-minute-plus dirges from HTRK and Duke Garwood.

Side A, as it’s known, seems ill-fitting for something as essentially ridiculous as ‘K, Ksext, Erghh’, the contribution from the split’s vowel-baiting, neu-noise trio. Side X, Side Y, Side Z are all probably still too mundane as labels for the multi-movement sound bin that HTRK cling to the side of, like the last ever sentient human arm in a skip full of bombed out black death. Better to break it off at the knuckles and have six pestles to hammer away at the record with. Infinite noise, infinite rhythm; HTRK are at their best when they find shimmer in the shit and jetsam; a sequined Neubaten.

Side B is equally as solid, if slightly more human; Garwood’s incoherent, spluttering guitar creating shadows he can murmur and woo away in, seemingly trapped drunk in the very last of his days. Death folk? Yes, I think so. This record is a hideous, lunken, pungent mess. Stirring stuff.