Send "Fabulous " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Fabulous Diamonds' self-titled record was a sub-tropical stew of cheapo keyboards, delay pedals, and clumsy percussion. Vocalist/keyboardist Jarrod Zlatic and drummer/vocalist Nisa Venerosa set paranoid lyrics to nursery rhyme-style melodies and balanced lush psychedelia with black-hole drones. There were also, weirdly enough, some pretty good saxophone hooks. It was a prescient record, too-- the Aussies released it around the same time that Northern Hemisphere bands Blues Control, Raccoo-oo-oon, and Pocahaunted were starting to dabble with similar murky and zonked-out stoner vibes. On II Fabulous Diamonds take that sound and develop it in the most natural way possible-- they stretch it out.The duo has always made good use of repetition, but here Fabulous Diamonds indulge their hypnotic impulses even further. II is bookended by tracks that stretch out past the 10-minute mark. "5", the album's final track, repeats a single organ figure for seven dizzying minutes while Venerosa pounds on heavily effected percussion. It's one part Lee Perry and one part Terry Riley-- a smart extension of the duo's original sound, no pun intended....full text |
| Dustedmagazine |
| Hypnotic monotony! It’s been done before, by Can and This Heat and Faust and Swans. It has left behind some awesome artifacts, some distinct statements of purpose, and Fabulous Diamonds II fits easily into that canon. How much does something change – how powerful is it – when it repeats itself over and over again? If you’re considering piano lessons, keep this in mind: Here’s the dark side of learning anything about music: You lose your appreciation for people who bang out the same chord over and over again, for 12 minutes, to say nothing of the people who drone mantras on top of it, for 12 minutes. Come to find out, it’s way too easy. And the world deserves more than the same thing over and over again, right? That loss of appreciation, that’s a loss. Because the effect of hearing the same chord over and over, and hearing someone drone over it, can be therapeutic. Much more therapeutic than someone trying to be creative. The Fabulous Diamonds formula is, basically: Find one chord and plug into it. Chant over it, the same thing, again and again. Before we get started, let’s pump up the drums and organ all the way, so we don’t have to adjust them at all while we’re taping. We will not vary the pace. And we keep going ‘til we’re done, whether it’s three minutes or 12 minutes....full text |
| Noripcord |
| Challenging song arrangements with menacing energy, Fabulous Diamonds are firm advocators of music as a free, abstract art form with self-assurance and experimental prowess. Odd, enigmatic, and wholly idiosyncratic, the Melbourne duo’s acute sound is set out to deface not just the conventions of creativity at a grand scale, but also the ever-increasing conventions of noise pop’s supposed insurgence. Their minimalist set-up speaks more volumes than it should: waves of reverb pierce through post-punk’s volatile conduct, mainly composed of tribal motifs, meager vocal expressions, and claustrophobic distress. Fabulous Diamonds are firm believers of diminishing any form of statement by leaving their compositions to full, open interpretation. They’ve never named a track, seem to end the songs when they've run their natural course, and gyrate the songs through constant forms of repetition. The duo even clashes with perfect synchronization. While keyboardist Jarrod Zlatic shifts through haunting keys and electric organ spooks, percussionist Nisa Venerosa creates a mood instead of merely going through the motions. Venerosa treats her drum kit as a churning factory, pounding cowbells, hi-hat redoubles, and warped snares through Zlatic’s dubbed, harmonic drone effects. Despite the fact that Fabulous Diamonds II contains two extended bookends (both over 11 minutes), the three tracks in between are its core heart. Track 3 is an implementation of different forms of increment - it features Zlatic’s jazz-inspired, augmenting keys, while Venerosa's straight-faced vocal delivery goes through the major scale repeatedly. Track 4 is the closest the duo reaches to pulling off a single, executing a slightly dance-inspired fuse of key fluidity and tropicalia thumps that comes off more caustic than soothing....full text |
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