Portland –Tara Green and Jimi Kritzler are an Australian duo who, under the moniker White Hex, have been making sleek, cold music that seems at odds with the bright-sunshine-and-blue-water image of their home country. It’s a contrast they’re fully aware of; labeling themselves, tongue planted firmly in cheek no doubt, as “tropical goth.”
If White Hex is any indication, then tropical goth is a moody blend of high fashion attitude and darkwave influences. Green and Kritzler began making music in Brisbane, but eventually they decamped to Berlin, as did the original Aussie goths, The Birthday Party, in the eighties. A winter in East Germany resulted in the first White Hex album, Heat, in 2012. Not unlike one of Kritzler’s svelte suits, Heat was dark, minimalist, and released on a tiny Italian label (Avant). The album’s sound is sparse: drums, bass, high twanging guitar, and space, lots of space, for Green’s detached voice to bounce around in.
Green’s uniquely subdued vocals are still the centerpiece in White Hex’s new LP, Gold Nights, but they’ve also been joined by a new host of sounds. White Hex have traded their analog instruments for a synth, and Gold Nights is populated by burbling bass lines, big echoing eighties snares, and sighing, climbing keys that wouldn’t sound out of place on the Twin Peaks soundtrack.
The album’s brighter palette does not mean that White Hex have gone and gotten themselves happy, though. Gold Nights is simultaneously lush and grey, like a black and white picture of a sunset. Green may sing of starting over in nirvana on the single, “Paradise,” but her melancholy tone gives you the feeling that even there the relationship is doomed as she sings, “memories they just multiply and now a pattern has emerged.” Hopelessness escapes and dire circumstances pervade the lyrics of several synth pop jams like, “Only A Game,” “Sisters,” and the closer “Battleground.”
Two of the most interesting tracks on the album, however, have less lyrical content and seem to come from a different place than the rest of the piece. “United Colours of KL” and “Burberry Congo”—tracks six and seven respectively—both take their names from fashion brands combined with exotic locales and both push the boundaries of White Hex’s sound. “United Colours of KL” begins with a spooky, metallic pinging that builds into a looping pseudo-industrial piece unlike any of the prior tracks. “Burberry Congo” then builds on that sound by bringing in a syncopated chirp and some dubby fades to great effect.
Atmospheric and eclectic, these song’s last two unexpected explorations add an extra layer of intrigue toGold Nights and are a peek at what you’d hope for from a band labeled tropical goth.
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