Party Dozen: The Real Work | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Party Dozen are on a very deliberate path to overachieve as much as possible for their sonic weight. For the two piece, the combination of saxophone, drums, bass, and anything they can get their hands on will march them towards this goal. Noisy duos have existed before them and will continue after but much like Adam Gilchrist redefining and permanently changing the definition of a keeper / batsman, I won’t be able to listen to another two piece without invoking the name Party Dozen. Now onto their third full length, the Sydney-siders aren’t slowing down their strike rate. The Real Work does something with this turbo energy button bashing: each divergent track across the record is a variation of the visceral viands served up as a whole.

True to its name, The Iron Boot begins on the back of colossal stoner riffs and drums that crash and crunch everything under foot. The track does feel like scurrying instrumental animals are fleeing as best they can before the inevitable boot descends again because when not being utterly battered, everything is a frantic scramble. Nick Cave’s vocals on Macca The Mutt are about the closest thing to a sung melody on the whole record and they only arrive in the final fifty seconds. Prior to that, it’s an adept execution of the quiet / loud structure. Good thing too, because Fruits of Labour is a proper juggernaut of pocket groove and buzzing bass. Saxophone and guitars hover around it like flies making the most of the situation and boy do they what.

To offset the madness, Party Dozen slow things down and run three numbers that have an unsettling sound you could use to soundtrack film noir. Earthly Times has a pensive rhythm with bass and drums in lockstep. Once again, guitars and saxophone swirl around to ever so slightly increase the tension. Major Beef has a major swell of grandeur akin to the third act; or to bring it back to Gilly, guiding Australia to victory in the 2007 World Cup. I’ll touch on the final track and third in the cinematic triumvirate shortly but The Worker’s airtight performance must be mentioned. A hyperactive bass line is its bedrock and the manic accompaniments are in pure service to that. A wonky beat plonk commands The Big Quit, swaggering along and only breaking twice as the saxophone starts to wail. Once Balance kicks into gear, it’s the most straight forward on The Real Work. A driving banger that blasts away without wavering. Now, Risky Behaviour closes out the record sans any of the chaos we’ve come to expect. The synth pads are disarmingly gorgeous and wane away under expansive instrumentals to send us off into a serene dreamscape.

As I mentioned -and it could be unfair to do so, but- I’ll be using Party Dozen as my measuring stick for not only duos but for any non-jazz band that uses saxophone, or any brass for that matter. They’ve accomplished their mission to do the most with their two pronged attack and have gone above anything I had expected from them. The watertight performances, never fazed no matter how chaotic the music is, elevates this to something truly special. Its freedom and effortless strike rate will be a hard act to follow.

- Matt Lynch.