The Brag

Fabulous Diamonds
Fabulous Diamonds II
Siltbreeze / Chapter Music
****

I didn’t think I was going to like this album. I generally find the whole Suicide-esque routine of bands like this repetitive and boring, but something about the way it’s realised on this record is really engaging.

In recording the album, Mikey Young of Eddie Current fame has followed his own band’s ethos of recording live, and not getting too carried away with all the bells and whistles. This resulting album is raw and honest, offering minimal post punk with a strange sort of dub influence coming in through the airy drums and delayed snare hits. This album is by no means accessible – but the way its monolithic melodies and hypnotic rhythms shift and change into something else without you even noticing is visceral and human. While they might usually play with lo-fi punk bands, I’d say Melbourne’s Fabulous Diamonds have more in common with the wavering minimalism of The Necks or Steve Reich, albeit with a much more restricted sense of melody.

Unfortunately this sort of music is always going to garner some shit-flinging from the critics (just go to their MySpace, where they proudly display their bad reviews as proof), usually because music journalists hate anything that sounds so simple they could do it themselves. But this is some of the most interesting music of its kind that I’ve heard in a while.

There’s great subtlety to this record – almost too much, as some of the best parts can slip by without you noticing. But if you listen closely and with the right ears, I think you’ll find one of the best indie Australian releases of the year so far.

Mikey Carr