The Thousands

Fabulous Diamonds are pun-making heaven for us creatively-starved and unimaginative press types, which might explain why the Melbourne twinkle twins have kept to their ‘no song name’ policy. This time they haven’t even bothered numbering their five neo-psych gems -while male half Jarrod Zlatic’s shirt is only partially off for a glimpse at his impressive body hair promo shots.

While stubbornly giving us even less to work with in defining what the sparkle they’re trying to do, drummer Nisa Venerosa’s album-opening reprimand over Synth-Master Zlatic’s impatience reveals the volatile undercurrent that keeps them captivating.

Where the thrill of their earlier material stemmed from an acute sense of two naïve children blindly groping through musical darkness, this one sounds more like two self-assured siblings competing for attention. Shoving each other through a narrow hallway of Riech-like minimalism the trance-inducing loops to follow have been cut, polished and presented in a dazzling new light.