High Marks - Rake Me Over The Coals Tonight cassette

High Marks - Rake Me Over The Coals Tonight cassette

High Marks follows up 2020's release Corrosion is the Monument and last year's "When I'm a Mess" single with Rake Me Over the Coals Tonight, a haunting industrial take on his gothic, minimalist post-punk sound. Working with longtime collaborators David Mansfield (Stranded) and SIMNs (downers.), and newer co-conspirators Travis Kuhlman (Yellow Bulb., DUG) and Reila (Obsidian PrintCo), this album came together gradually through multiple sessions in multiple studios, with the lion-share of the work completed near High Marks' new home in rural Oregon. While finishing the set, High Marks remixed tracks for PNW legends Old Time Relijun, ATL's Stranded and the Portland band Freeyons, and simultaneously worked on the production of multiple Yellow Bulb. albums and the debut LP of NYC duo Certain Times. Having released cassettes on labels as diverse as Phage Tapes, Skrot Up, and Wool-E-Tapes, and appeared on compilations for DKA and Fixed Rhythms labels, High Marks brought a wide swath of influences into the recording of these songs.

Naming the album in reference for his tendency to stay up all night criticizing himself, Rake Me Over the Coals Tonight sees High Marks exploring the reigning ID through songs that explore unyielding topics like Police Brutality and Personal Accountability to One's Feelings with equal intensity. Balancing the hard hitting industrial racket of "When I'm a Mess" with the minimal synth experimentalism of "Strict Misery," the fuzzy stomp of "Audible Impact" with the heartbroken longing of "The Bridge," this may be one of the shortest High Marks albums but its diversity makes it one of the most approachable.