Staff Reviews

Omi Palone - Omi Palone

Review by Jon Clark

A band who manage to sound both tight and loose at the same time, encompassing an almost disdainful nonchalance in the process.»

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Following their long sold-out self-released cassette of 2011 and two split 7"'s in 2012, Omi Palone release their debut self-titled long-player as a joint release between Faux Discx and new label Negative Space. The 8-track record is a frenetic fuzz-tinged pop headrush of barely-restrained punk outbursts. Singer-guitarist Philip Serfaty's deep and sleepy baritone reverberates over urgent, rushing chord progressions and incisive rhythmic precision. Frantic jangling guitar hooks fall away to one-chord motorik chug, hypnotic drone and looming fuzz, giving the tracks a hounded, runaway feel. Finding strength in brevity, the band explores and experiments with what can be expressed in a 3 minute post-punk song; controlled, complex melodies interweaving in amongst simple (but not simplistic) repetitive structures, interrupted only by stomping middle-eights. Artistic allegiances nod towards an Antipodean influence: the output of 80s New Zealand labels such as Flying Nun and Xpressway, as well as the current Australian punk scene. Having aborted two previous recording sessions at two different studios in 2012, the band found a home at Homerton's Sound Savers, where they honed their sound and, under the supervision of Mark Jasper, laid the record down onto quarter-inch tape in late Spring and early Summer of 2013.
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