Party Dozen – The Real Work (Album and Launch Show Review)

This week I had the pleasure of listening to The Real Work by Party Dozen, Australian Experimental Improve outfit featuring saxophonist Kirsty Tickle and percussionist Jonathan Boulet. I talk about their album launch tour gig and the album below.

The Real Work – Party Dozen (2022)

This group is breaking art and experimentalism into the electronic and rock worlds. With a mixture of pedal laden and roaring saxophone; driving, powerful electronics and pushing, sometimes punishing percussion: their latest offering is a little more structured than their past work. They are known for improvisational output, with head banging force. This album moves more into the rock world, while keeping their work to the right level of weird. With multiple saxophone layers, brutal sawtooth waves and thrashing squeals, the electronic backing features more conflicting frequency rich textures and fuller production in general. Lots of guitars are heard in the backings, which allows the sax leads to rise above the sonic swells. A newer addition to their repertoire is the vocal performances of Tickle, heavily delayed and barely coherent, they add another sonic layer to the madness. Boulet’s drumming is reminiscent of Metal, with a little more control and finesse. It borders into the weird, while acting as another texture, not always keeping direct time. Definitely worth a listen.

While there are too many top tracks to mention, I discuss a few here: Read my review of Macca The Mutt here.

The Iron Boot

This track has an A/B structure that takes the listener PLACES. The driving guitars are loud and obnoxious in all the right ways. The drum fills push between the sections and the sax squeals with joy. What more could you ask for?

The Worker

Listening to the opening grating bells mixed with that bass line, sets one up for something special. The vocals roar and power through, sitting somewhere in the middle of the mix. The track is commanding and gives you something to live for. The drum line that fills the middle section, (before the drop), shows the expertise of getting a listener on the edge of their seat.

Major Beef

The opening to this is like a more distorted Wu-Tang Clan sample. You can hear the layers fade into one another and create this powerful wall of sound. The beat is enough to keep you moving. The focus on snare gives it this march like quality that can’t be denied. Use of space and quiet is just as important in this number.

Risky Behaviour

To close out the album is a more emotional piece. The swelling synth strings fit with more traditional bass. The lead sax line is lovingly laid with delay and reverb (the way alto should always be). It is a sweeter number that leaves you melancholy and wanting more.

The Real Work Tour – 14/07/22 - Black Bear Lodge, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

The opening leg of the East Coast tour was my hometown of Brisbane. The narrow, corridor like shape of the venue helped tunnel the power of their music through the set and into the listener’s ears. The sonic context being at the front of the stage, I could hear the live acoustics of the sax and the drums, and the piped sound was playing overhead and almost behind me. The audience of this gig, was varied: older art folk, ironic young people who looked like venue regulars, and the people who were here for the band. All of whom were chanting, dancing and thrashing to this line up. I got to see Full Flower Moon Band and they were fantastic. They gave me the vibes of the heavier, earlier work of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I missed Doggie Heaven Band, but from what I’ve seen of them in the past, I love their energy and performance.

You could see the (almost) trance like nerves of the performers before jumping into this set, as the opening night of a tour often creates. They exude an arty confidence and stage presence. Tickle looks like she puts on a persona before jumping on stage, zoning in, to command the crowd. Boulet was pacing around and getting into the energy he would need to expel during the show. The stage presences are set and roles that looked played out (in the best kind of way). Tickle uses fist pumps, power stance and the movement of her horn to control the crowd as the front woman. Boulet provides the energy and exaggerated performance movements like standing up at the kit, to keep the crowd moving, even through some of the more experimental sections of the show.

The performance was wild, long, and non-stop. Overall, a good mix of early and new work. The tracks that went especially off were; Auto Loser, The Iron Boot, Party Dozen, The Great Ape, The Big Quit and Macca The Mutt. I really loved the whole set. Their music genre is on the border between rock enough for people to dance and more “normal” crowds to like, but art enough to stand amongst the experimentalists. You could see the extent of what they could get out of their live setup. Boulet had a simple drum kit, and a Roland SP404 sampler to power the electronics. The iconic filter was definitely in play. I never considered that of course a drummer would have the perfect timing to play samples from a controller and drums at the same time. Tickle had a pedal board to take the alto saxophone to new places. Effects included wah, distortion, reverb, delay, octave pedals and more. So much more than what I expected from the recordings. Her control of feedback was incredible. There was plenty of extended technique from them both also. Boulet would use body parts to tune and bash his kit, Tickle would scream her vocals into the bell of her horn to be picked up by the clip-on mic inside. Their live offering is a lot more improvisational, experimental, more feedback and less structured than their albums. Their albums have gotten more structure as they go on, with more complex synths and sample textures. This isn’t a bad thing, just a progression worth noting. Their new album has more merged layers of sax or sax like sounds.

I picked up copies of The Real Work and Pray For Party Dozen on vinyl and got to meet Tickle and one of her sisters. A cool experience I won’t forget. Long live Party Dozen.