Scene and Heard – CCCX: I Want You To Die – Hatchatorium (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

For someone who lists a whole lot of grunge and alt-rock bands as influences, I Want You To Die sounds a lot like a band that you would have found touring with Depeche Mode in the late eighties. That same stark sound, dark sonic heart and pulsing electronica, the same mix of sleekness and sleaze, like the music you might find playing in a futuristic brothel! And I mean that in a good way, better the soundtrack to a futuristic brothel than the lift music and unadventurous conformity that has become the norm today.

For there is nothing at all conformist about I Want You To Die, even the title is all up in your face, and lined up behind that are raw-edged electro pulses, bleats and beats that sound like the product of a keyboard that has been wired up wrong or an amplifier about to blow. It seems to saunter rather than drive, drips with sultry groove rather than dance floor moves, is confident enough to run at its own half-pace and is all the better for it.

As the third track off of the band’s album Circus of Hell it makes for a great calling card, it is wonderfully out of keeping with modern fashion and reminds us that the music industry might thrive on people following the rules and pandering to expectation but music itself evolves because of people not playing by those rules. Welcome to Hatchatorium’s very own future apocalyptic, doom disco.