He’s got the kind of questionable combover not seen since the 1982 Cabinet, but it doesn’t seem to have harmed Harold Martin Tillman any. When you’re a short, balding mensch, how do you get girls like Kate Moss to snog you? Easy – you create a sound that is unmistakeably, lasciviously and famously sexy.
Although Har Mar’s sound is based on 70’s porn-pop, he found a home within the UK indie scene; the scene that loves nothing more than someone with an apparent penchant for irony.
Like Beck’s Midnite Vultures, The Handler is driven with a synthesized pulse. Toying with the same samples that have given Beastie Boys their New York, retro-cool edge, Har Mar suggests where Michael Jackson might have taken his disco sound had things been different. Nonetheless, Har Mar remains stubbornly true to his delightfully lewd roots. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O gives ‘Cut Me Up’ a raunchy edge, and single ‘D.U.I.’ is an infectious marriage of urban cool and soul. On ‘O’, Har Mar demonstrates that he can turn his hand to heartfelt balladry as deftly as any other lothario.
Just goes to show you…tell the girls often enough, and with enough panache, that they want your babies (as he does on ‘Transit’), and they begin to believe you. Cold shower, anyone?