Diamonds Are Forever

Jarrod Zlatic, one half of experimental duo Fabulous Diamonds, is having a normal day. That's how he describes it at least. In one word – “normal”. He's at work when he fields our call, on his lunch break in the midst of the latest round of promotional duties for his third release with partner in crime drummer/singer Nisa Venerosa – the curiously titled Commercial Music. It's a striking record, taking the duo's now signature synth-based minimalism and stretching it beyond its own confines. The record is arguably their most accessible work to date and, if not quite signalling a shift in direction, it certainly adjusts their palette.

True to form though, Zlatic is more interested in talking about his job than his band for this particular interview. Keep in mind, this is an outfit that once spent a whole day posting bad reviews on their own MySpace. “I work at Arthur Daley's Clearance Warehouse,” Zlatic explains. “I had a friend who worked there and a position came up so I took it. He [Arthur Daley] was kind of funny at the Christmas party last year. He made this speech. When I used to work for Roy Morgan at a call centre, Gary Morgan used to do that as well. He was very pro Howard and neo-conservative and had this campaign that he illegally ran through a call centre as a fake survey – he's just this old school blue blood.”

In between these call centre and warehouse shifts, Zlatic and Verenosa have garnered a fair amount of adoration for their particular line in esoteric pop. Their previous releases (2009's self-titled debut and last year's Fabulous Diamonds II) have eschewed things like track names and lengths in favour of surreal experimentalism featuring rolling percussion and historically vague synth work. The records have seen them in demand all over Europe and America, garnering a clutch of glowing reviews. On Commercial Music, the duo have chosen to title their tracks for the first time, with everything except album centrepiece, ???, getting a name. Does this move, and the album's eye-catching title, signal some kind of industrial concession – or is it all just a bit of well placed irony? “I dunno, you know? You get bored of things and you change them around. I didn't really think about it,” Zlatic deadpans. He's similarly elusive when questioned about Fabulous Diamonds' choice to call this record Commercial Music. “I thought the title was pretty self-explanatory. It's a commercial-sounding record. There are some pop-sounding songs on it and I guess it's not un-commercial sounding music.” While it's unclear as to how much “commercial music” he actually listens to (we're assuming Arthur Daley's warehouse aren't pumping Krautrock through their inhouse stereo), there's credence to his claim. Commercial Music does feature some distinctly pop moments and this sensibility is something that's always been on the outskirts of Fabulous Diamonds' records. They even supported Swedish pop monsters Miike Snow earlier this year.

Teaming up, as always, with in-demand producer Mikey Young, Zlatnic and Verenosa chose to record Commercial Music in the upstairs band room of Lygon Street's famous John Curtin Hotel. An historic and aurally pleasing room to be sure, but not exactly your run of the mill recording studio. Zlatnic is coy when explaining the clear step up in recording quality on display, and whether or not the band themselves had personally driven the improvement.

“I don't have much input – with someone who's recording there's only so much I can control. I'm not sure I'd be able to quantify his input either. Mikey is better at recording now I suppose. He has new and better equipment. A microphone is going to sound how a microphone is going to sound though. I mean, I can't even remember.”

Fabulous Diamonds will be playing the following shows:

Friday 3 September - Burst City, Brisbane QLD