(Nervous Jerk/Inertia)

Exotic ear candy

Fabulous Diamonds are difficult to review. On one hand I’m enamoured of their music-as-art, sonic impressionism – Jarrod Zlatic’s echoing electric organ and alto saxophone are gorgeous as they dawdle along the stark aural panorama, while Nisa Venerosa’s drums are heavy and steady without groove. On the other I find them a little stagnant, as though the Melbourne duo are no more than the sum of their parts. 7 Songs – for instance – is a lush example of DIY production (by My Disco’s Ben Andrews no less), heavily layered and delayed with underground precision. Yet the operational definition of the record is – as the name suggests – seven untitled tracks taken from the band’s 2007 performance repertoire, and the lack of concept is irksome. For despite the post-punk-era hallmarks of dilettantism and avoidance of rock & roll, the music doesn’t appear to be saying anything – the pair’s quaintly chiming vocals are minimal and repetitive. Perhaps that’s part of subverting mainstream culture – which is obsessed with ostensibly meaning something – but beauty for beauty’s sake seems too close to popular culture’s vacuous beginnings to be a conscious statement. What it leaves handsome, arrhythmic, cerebral music that barely engages the mind, let alone challenges it. The record still stands as clever work of exotic ear candy (which you should listen to), but it’s not subculture affirming. The tragedy is, it could have been.

JAKEB SMITH

Be first to comment on this article

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*