Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Northeast party House, Sony Music, 2020.
Melbourne party band, Northeast Party House, derived their name from a parent free weeks-long jam held at a friend’s house when the band members were in year 12.
From the perspective of the owners of the house it sounds like a potential disaster but from the band’s perspective it set the tone for the two albums they have released since.
It’s music that celebrates that hedonistic lifestyle in an eminently danceable way.
The album was mixed by drummer Malcolm Besley and produced by Kim Moyes of The Presets. For both of them their emphasis is firmly on the beat.
The album is an electronica masterclass with overlapping rhythms, a smorgasbord of synths and a variety of vocal enhancements.
The title track was apparently inspired by the band’s marathon bender at Berlin’s infamous Berghain nightclub. It’s repeated refrain of “keep on dancing” sums up the mood of the entire album. It’s one continuous party night, even including the inevitable comedown the next morning.
The boys are particularly happy with this album because Moyes wanted to record the band in a pseudo live performance mode.
Guitarist and songwriter Mitch Ansell commented “I really thought we’d be sitting at a computer going through different synth sounds and that it would be a little more tech and sterile, but he really wanted to bring the band out of us.”
The result is that the sound is a lot freer although it is still bound by the mathematical certainty of the click track and digital production.
There is the occasional hiatus from the dance grooves – Tear in A Club is a slow synth build that borrows as much from Brian Eno as anyone else and it marks the beginning of a shift in mood in the album.
American Diamond carries the more pensive atmosphere onwards through St Valentine and Take Tomorrow Faster before a return to the party groove in Sunset, which of course sees the protagonist ready for the next night of grooving ahead.
The division of night and day, or night and its aftermath, provides a concept feel to the album which may or may not have been intentional.
Dance, house, party is not usually my scene, but I enjoyed this album.
