Department’s third album is a mixed bag.
Hailing from Lalor in Victoria, the duo has no shortage of ideas, but the results are up and down. The accompanying press release, from their own Laboratory label, pitched Bombs in High Places in terms of gaming consoles (Amiga, etc), which had me thinking not another 8 bit record! But that misconception was corrupted and then deleted by the first couple of tracks. ‘We Could Have Been Executives’ rides galloping drums splashed with cymbals; it’s ‘jazzy’ sounding, with everything that suggests. Angsty ’80s rock vocals with a distinctly German flavour come as a surprise. The vocals disappear on ‘Manou in Tongues’ – which is a great, if short-lived progression – replaced with a dusting of high frequency percussion and paranoid synths. ‘Car Crash’ documents the event, sliding across the road, hitting the door, etc.
Eight tracks is a short album, brevity that usually suggests an artist with a good quality control. But although the instrumental pieces are well executed, they’re undermined by songs that simply fail to connect. Their trite observations sound plummy and contrived rather than insightful or inspired.
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