Donald's House: 37 Degrees South | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- It’s not cool to ask a band what their name means, I think you’re just supposed to know, which I hate: because I never know and I always want to. Fortunately someone else asked Donald’s House, so I don’t have to. It’s the childhood home of brothers James and Peter Isaacs grew up, on Donald Street in Brunswick. Telling you is probably uncool too, but I’ma deal with it. I have other questions, just as pressing, like what the hell Balearic is, in reference to the exotic but ultra-relaxed smoothness of Donald’s House on their new EP, 37° South.

Oh, and the 37th Latitude South is a little line around the planet, which runs through Chile, New Zealand, a lot of water, Naarm / Melbourne and I guess through that little house on Donald Street, too. It is, for you trivia enthusiasts, also the place at which solar irradiance equals the global average: not too hot, not too cold, just right. Although if you’re down there right now you might dispute that. The music of Donald’s House may well warm you up a little, they dub their style Balearic, which treks back to the time it packed out clubs and beach parties on the balmy Balearic island of Ibiza. At its origin it was already an eclectic type of house music, irreverently chucking in all sorts of styles, even -shockingly to dance purists- increasing levels of rock’n’roll. Perhaps it was this versatility which opened the sound to shameless exploitation, becoming ever more of a meaningless catch-phrase that promoters would try and hook punters with. It got to the point where -for me at least- I couldn’t work out what Balearic was, outside of something you’d find Shaun Ryder listing drunkenly to in the discotheque, shortly before vomiting all down his front.

Honestly? I don’t know how much more ‘authentic’ Donald’s House’s version of the Balearic Beat is, but it’s pretty pleasant. On 37° South they're presenting it in long, lazy cuts and none more so than the opening and title track. Honestly Melbourne begins to sound like Miami here. The opening mimics the beach breeze with the drum kit and lilting rhodes. It goes on this way for at least three minutes and you might be fooled into thinking this was some kind of ambient exotica, before the drummer gently kicks things into gear. It’s still very easy-going, the most laid-back kind of electro-boogie you’re ever going to hear. It almost doesn’t qualify as ‘dance’, but when you’re this chill, honestly, who cares.

I think that’s Phil Stroud on the drums there? A percussionist and electronic musician who’s been messing around with sounds similar to this for a long time. He contextualises it differently, talking about dub, techno and trance. Actually, it’s interesting, he’s also worked with OK EG, the other duo on Donald’s House’s label for this, Wax’o Paradiso, which I think is an itinerant party that’s branched out into the record label thing. All of the artists concerned here are deeply into retro and fusion sounds. They all talk about them slightly differently however, though even then I noticed none of them seem to mention krautrock. Listen to the next cut, Aurora Australis with its repeated scalic patterns and driving beat and tell me you’re not thinking of Neu! or Tangerine Dream. Giorgio Moroder’s Italo disco or Vangelis are also, obvious touchstones. That may all go some way to explaining why there such a soundtrack quality to this record.

That could be a complaint, but it isn’t. For all the time they allow to each number on the EP, Donald’s House never allow loops to drag on ad infinitum. As they said, recently, in interview with Torture The Artist, they have a specific fascination with disco, just at the point it was reinventing itself as electronic music and when electronics weren’t seen as a crutch for producers but rather another instrument to be played virtuosically. “That’s not to say that we don’t love repetitive dance music” James quickly and diplomatically pointed out.

If you’re looking for dance music per se, you’ll probably want to head to advance single, the delightfully titled Budge-E Beat, which weighs in at an only slightly friskier 110bpm, but presents a snapping electro and house piano licks which are bound to make you itchy for the dancefloor. On the Bandcamp version of this release there’s even a distinctly syncopated, dubby and rather ‘90’s sounding remix, too.

I’m such a sucker for this kind of thing, even if I’m not any more convinced this is what Balearic is than I was at the beginning. I might leave that one to horrible, drunken Brits abroad, but this, I’ll take as much as I can get. Now, I understand that Donald’s House have a long back catalogue on various European labels, excuse me while I go and check those out.

- Chris Cobcroft.