Eat Yr Heart / Sweetheart

NOTE: The 12" is hand-numbered and limited to 350 worldwide. The vinyl is inserted into black dust sleeves. The record is protected inside a Japanese mylar clear record sleeve instead of shrink-wrapped.

This double A-side single is the first from HTRK's Work (work, work), the London via Berlin via Melbourne duo's second album—and first for Ghostly—of phantasmagorical, slowed-to-a-crawl electro. That the two "A-sides" fall second and third in the tracklist is deceiving—"Eva," built during the album sessions but absent from the final version, is a minute-long collage of noise, crackle, and messed-with snippets from seminal anime epic, The End Of Evangelion. It's an immersing prelude to the stark, gnawing dirge of "Eat Yr Heart," a dip of the toe in the pool of obsidian ink HTRK swim in.

"Eat Yr Heart"'s black and ballooning bass rumble makes it a Work standout, but here all roads lead to a cover of Suicide's "Sweetheart." (Or "Love You," depending on how up to snuff on rare Suicide release details you are. Obviously, it's important to these three.) The original is practically doo-wop, but HTRK's version, while reverent in tone, has only hints of optimism. Chords have been warped, the group's signature, between-consciousness textures have been added, and it ends up feeling like a slow dance on sleeping pills.