PARTY DOZEN 'Crime In Australia' CD

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Sydney’s PARTY DOZEN (saxophonist Kirsty Tickle & percussionist Jonathan Boulet) are back with a new album,  Crime In Australia – the follow-up to their international breakthrough album, The Real Work (2022). That album  included many new developments in the band’s evolution that earned them significant praise - most notably the Nick-Cave-featured “Macca The Mutt”, the surprisingly radio-friendly skronk of “Fruits Of Labour,” & the  epic string-drenched beauty of “Risky Behaviour.”

As with its predecessor, Crime In Australia was written, recorded, produced and mixed by the duo themselves in their studio in Marrickville, Sydney. This time, the location was more of an influence than on previous  occasions, as Boulet explains: “Marrickville in the 1960s-70s was a notorious crime hot spot. If a car was stolen, or someone was missing, they’d look for them in Marrickville. Since then, the area has been highly gentrified and slowly the once grimy industrial warehouse lined streets are being swapped for monstrous apartment blocks with palm trees. We began without any theme in mind, just the beginnings of some song ideas.  As we were discovering the songs for this album, each song felt more and more at home in an old cop tv series soundtrack. The Crime theme quickly became apparent.

The record feels split into two contrasting  sides: The first half is ‘order’, being as listenable as Party Dozen has ever been. Each song is law abiding and dignified in its own place. The second half is ‘disorder,’ becoming more unlawful, unhinged, louder and noisier.” While plenty of people all over the world have found Party Dozen to be perfectly listenable, even at their loudest and wildest, the first side does feature some of their least abrasive moments to date. Certainly, album opener “Coup De Gronk” – described by the band as both “as catchy and danceable as we’ve ever been” and “one of Jono’s many dumb ideas” – is a lower barrier-to-entry than what introduced any of their first three albums.

Crime In Australia will be Party Dozen’s 4th studio album, following on from The Real Work (2022), their 2017  debut The Living Man and 2020’s Pray For Party Dozen. The Real Work was Album of the Week in Stereogum,  Bandcamp and Brooklyn Vegan amongst others. It was the Feature Album across five Australian community radio stations & received support globally from 6 Music, KCRW and KEXP, who filmed a live session in Seattle.