- Can an album’s name give someone a sense of trepidation? That the nomenclature chosen for a particular release can prejudice a listener before the first track drops on their speakers? Yes, it can. When I see the words Hi Viz I get the chill of so-called bogan culture, mixed with a tradie vibe, and that weird crossover in Australia where aforementioned young tradies revel in teasing, homoerotic displays, while being intensely homophobic at the drop of a work helmet, and attending mass outdoor festivals, pinging off their nuts, wearing boardies, backward baseball caps, boots, and raising their hands clutching a Jägermeister in salute to some DJ hero of the day.
So, when Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes (aka The Presets) announced their fourth album, coming ten years after the huge Apocalypso and if not quite as big commercially but definitely quality Pacifica in 2012, the title gave me pause. As did the cover art by long-time collaborator Jonathan Zawada which seems to display a colourful mess of a rave aftermath, not to mention their record company’s promo that starts with “…a hedonistic cocktail of rave nuggets, cyber croons and pub techno…” – I began to worry. Was this an album for someone who was definitely not me?
Hell, even one of the tracks is called Tool Time with the modulated male voice down several octaves intoning “Tools down, pump it up, back to the front, pump it out; tools down, lights up, top down, guns out…hands up, pack it in, turn it out, suck it in, harden up, I’ll show you what it’s all about…” shheeessh… talk about subtle. However… two-thirds of the way through, the crystal clear vocals of Scissor Sister’s Jake Shears cut through to turn this track from a boring evocation of the heteronormative rave culture into something else. So, maybe there is more to Hi Viz than the sensationalist line EMI are running in the pressers?
Yes, there is. Current single Downtown Shutdown features a Sudanese choir, a very different rave beat and more sunshine than Melbourne gets to see at this time of the year. Already the first release that preceded the album, Do What You Want, reran the template that made the big bangers from Apocalypso (e.g. My People) so successful and it would be a boring album if Hamilton and Moyes chose to just repeat past glories. Feel Alone is full on Eurobeat sensible, something the late Robert Miles effortlessly achieved and the vocal talents of Alison Wonderland (whose own works have been through The Preset remix panel) lift Out Of Your Mind away from the usual “female vocal over a DJ’s beat track with synth run” dross.
Same goes for DMA's on Are You Here which has less in it than you expect and allows a tight rhythm track a-la Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe (when the Pet Shop Boys go dark) to work hard against the insistent vocal line. Speaking of '80's duos, when Beethoven kicked off, I wondered if I was hearing a rebirthing of the Eurythmics Beethoven (I Love To Listen To) but, no, this is similar but different and appears to be Hamilton and Moyes paying a sly compliment to their alma mater, the Sydney Conservatorium. There are a couple of fun tracks Martini (hello Client Liaison) and 14U+14ME (the way it’s styled is more annoying modern “culture”, bah humbug!) but it reaches back to the Apocalypso days and does bang on well, especially if you are in that head space (if you get what I am implying…)
The big selling point of the album is that it is sequenced to run seamlessly for fifty-three minutes from go to whoa, and it succeeds – with enough diversity not to be boring but… I am wondering – does this hi viz vest make my middle-aged torso look too old for this?
- Blair Martin.