Client Liaison: Divine Intervention | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- It’s surprising to consider that Client Liaison have only released one album prior to Divine Intervention – and that was way back in 2016 with the similarly “title-initialled” Diplomatic Immunity. Perhaps the feeling that they have released more content than just two albums arises from the fact that since they emerged in 2009, they seem to be regularly releasing material, so it doesn’t appear they have been away from the musical spotlight for the five years it has been between albums. Monte Morgan and Harvey Miller dropped the first single The Real Thing from the album some two years ago and over the intervening months a further five songs have been released intermittently. The overall sound of the album isn’t dissimilar to Diplomatic Immunity and effectively avoids the mythical “difficult second album” syndrome. Their shtick is to plunder the decade they were both born in – the 1980s – and frankly, they have no right to be this perfect in reimagining the decade of pastels, Spandex, glitter, drum machines and synthesiser dance floor antics.

The duo have crafted a theme for the album without being enslaved by it. The first track is the title track – but it is more a theatrical entrance to the collection of disco bangers, with a pleading voice calling for someone, something, some entity to stage a Divine Intervention because life, the world, the listener, who knows, but they all damn well need it. So, the album kicks off in a Baz Luhrmann-esque blaze and drops you into Club Called Heaven, naturally. The fourteen tracks are all beat-based, even the two closest things to a ballad: Eulogy for the Living and Prisoners of the High Life quietly chuff along and you will find some extremity tapping away (whether you like that sort of thing, or not – Client Liaison have you in their grasp and you will not be able to escape).

Collaborating with a glittering roster of mostly Antipodean musicians-cum-producers and songwriters give the album a sheen that is like the Australian light that artists have raved about since the first white feet set foot on Koori land. It’s brighter than bright, the colour of the music is vibrant and spins you round and round. There’s a crystal clear sparkle across most of the tracks that you couldn’t imagine coming out of Europe or some self-important studio in the USA. One such collaborator is Dann Hume -the youngest of the Hume brothers- from the band Evermore. Since that NZ crew went on a long hiatus, Hume has become a very successful writer and producer with a diverse range of acts across the globe. On Client Liaison’s last album he contributed to their funky yet slinky Off White Limousine, here he dabbles in a similar groove with The Beat Supreme and lends both production and writing credits to another four tracks, Strictly Business, Cold To Touch, Champagne Affection and The Real Thing. Every one of those showcases an aspect of '80's pop/dance – the jangly Prince-like guitar, the chugging bass line, the snap/crack of the Linn drum and Monte will even drop a pseudo-rap verse too (as he does on Strictly Business which could have appeared on the Miami Vice TV soundtrack).

Nick Littlemore of PNAU and Empire of the Sun fame does some excellent work on Elevator Up (can anyone forget Andrew McCarthy’s schoolboy being seduced by Jacqueline Bisset in 1983’s Class?) and House of Holy. Add in Australian film composer Francois Tetaz who co-produced those two tracks, along with Intervention which has a co-writing credit from The X Factor Australia winner Cyrus Villanueva and we've still yet to mention Eskimo Joe’s Joel Quartermain and his contributions as a co-writer on Club Called Heaven, Unloaded and Eulogy for the Living. It’s a quality-heavy line-up and the proof is in the pudding: a very juicy, rich pudding at that, where second and third helpings will be de rigueur

Should any further encouragement be needed, Client Liaison have effortlessly channelled Prince at his '80's best on Intervention and Strictly Business. Throughout the album there are also echoes of the next decade, with sounds of the momentarily huge Australian dance act Euphoria. Actually, you can hear a band that might just crack the big time in yet another Aussie collaboration: the trio Glades with their gorgeous groove on Cold To Touch.

Divine Intervention has arrived just as summer starts to peak its head over the northern horizon, and provided discombobulated-by-COVID governments can get their act together, party people will be finding their feet, hips and head bands bopping hard to this fourteen track takeaway of '80's heaven. This intervention is so needed and its divinity is attested and affirmed. Australia’s party people are crying out for a lift, which Morgan and Miller provide it in spades.

- Blair Martin.
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