Holiday Party – Holiday Party
Holiday Party mark a career milestone with the release of their highly anticipated self-titled debut album. Eight multilayered songs long, Holiday Party serves as an episodic track by track inspired by the many stages of a relationship breakdown.
Holiday Party is representative of the duo’s signature brand of intelligent, junkyard pop. Lovers of popular culture and creating sparkling aural soundscapes, Mel Tickle and Luke McDonald present a superlative body of work that cleverly depicts the duality of human nature; oscillating between poisonous rumination and happy resolution. “The album chronicles a breakup. Whether that’s with a partner, a friend, or a version of yourself,” explains Luke.
Presented as a Side A and B, Holiday Party unravels as an emotive journey, much like a movie soundtrack to a broken-down relationship, and draw notes from their influences The Avalanches, J Dilla and Beach House. To break up the two sides, acting as an intermission, the track ‘When I Think About Love’ however is an experimental sound that sits between genres and is reminiscent of post-rock/electronic artists like Vessels and Flying Lotus. Luke explains this track as: “..built from rhythm-sparse fragments of the record. It’s a chance for reflection, an introduction to Side B. It serves as an anxiety-ridden stream of consciousness that pulls threads of the album together.” Holiday Party also includes their previously released tracks ‘Dream State’,an Alice In Wonderland-esque ode to internal turmoil, ‘No One’ featuring local Brisbane singers for what Mel explains as: “an indulgent “Like A Prayer”-esque choral moment”, their most recent single‘Let Down‘ and ‘I’m Still Here’,their very first release as a band.
The two have been busy the past few years, with notable achievements such as playing at BIGSOUND, full rotation on Double J for ‘Let Down’ and ‘No One’ as well as airplay on triple j and community radio stations 4ZZZ, FBi Radio, PBS and Triple R. The band have been branded a triple j unearthed feature artist, and also receivednominations two years in a row forthe electronic/dance category at the Queensland Music Awards. ‘No One’ was added to Spotify playlists Broads Chords, New Music Friday AU & NZ and Indie Mixtape, and chosen as rage’s ‘Wild One Of The Week’.
To put their best work forward, the duo has surrounded themselves with pioneers of the Australian music industry including; the co-writing skills of Peter Bernoth & Scott Bromiley (The John Steel Singers),mastering by Jonathan Boulet (Party Dozen, The Holidays, Wolf & Cub), and mixing from Miro Mackie (Cold War Kids, St. Vincent, Mallrat). They’ve also received praise nationwide from the likes of Mixdown Magazine, NME Australia, Happy Mag, rage and most recently Belgian outlet Dansende Beren. Join in the journey and get your heart and ears around the latest offering from Holiday Party.
