Fabulous Diamonds – Seven Songs

Presenter

Sarah Delfante

Published

Friday 16th May

Nervous Jerk / Remote Control

If you had a back this hairy would you put it on the cover of your debut album?

Jarrod Zlatic bears all alongside musical partner Nisa Venerosa – together they are Fabulous Diamonds and this first full length offering from them is somewhat a contradiction. Whilst the album is emotively raw and stripped back, in harmony with the unpretentious title Seven Songs (made up of seven untitled tracks), it is also densely layered at times with loops and delays and generally just a lot going on.

Steady rhythmic percussion drives Seven Songs, which is a marked departure from the 7” released by the duo last year. Middle eastern nuances come through with Zlatic playing sax and harmonium coupled with the chanting style of Venerosa’s vocals – which can start to get a little samey and dare I say, grate? However, with the entire album coming in at under 25 minutes it is something I can get over pretty quick.

Seven Songs was recorded by My Disco’s Ben Andrews and the ‘Diamonds have a cameo appearance on the new Guy Blackman record, Adult Baby.

Fabulous Diamonds are set to hit the road, touring the US before some Australian dates, including Perth, tentatively scheduled for August. From Seven Songs I get the impression Fabulous Diamond’s strengths lie in their live performance and gain an appreciation of a couple of dudes daring to experiment and coming up with something truly different.