The release of Party Dozen's second album " Pray For Party Dozen" is only three days away now, but the group have one final surprise before then. Current single " Auto Loser" has been given the remix treatment by Stuart Braithwaite of Scottish post-rock titans Mogwai. Taking the original's insistent loop as a base, the remix is a four-minute build, starting with solitary pulses of sub-bass before layers of drones and synths slide in and up. The percussive core of "Auto Loser" is stripped way back, replaced by a solemn march which provides a bed for the creeping anxiety Braithwaite creates. "Auto Loser" is perhaps Party Dozen's closest thing to a song you can dance to. The "Auto Loser (Mogwai Remix)" tears it from the dancefloors of Sydney and makes it walk home through the dark alleyways of Glasgow.
Pray For Party Dozen is a typically DIY affair, produced by Jonathan and released on their own label, Grupo Records. The album is the follow-up to their 2017 debut The Living Man, which established Party Dozen amongst Australia's foremost sonic adventurers. Since then they have played incessantly, performing at festivals as varied as WOMAD, Dark Mofo, Falls, MONA FOMA and Farmer & The Owl, and playing shows with the likes of Liars, Viagra Boys and Tropical Fuck Storm.
The album's lead single, ' The Great Ape', which was played by Henry Rollins on his KCRW show, has been referred to as "an absolute noise rock scorcher" by Clash and a "skull-shaker" by Music Week, while also being championed by NME, Tom Ravenscroft and Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone on 6Music and John Kennedy on Radio X.
Pray For Party Dozen is the perfect synthesis of their renowned live show. Tracks like the eponymous ' Party Dozen' act as a bridge from The Living Man, where evil sample loops build the foundations upon which the duo erect a brand new temple of irreverence. Elsewhere, they flirt with electro-Krautrock (' Auto Loser'), stoner ( 'The Great Ape') and even subtlety (' Scheisse Kunst '). It still sounds like Party Dozen, but somehow louder; more hushed; even wilder. Plus there are two songs with lyrics. It's smart enough to make you move and dumb enough to make you think. But it's not greater than the sum of its parts. There are no parts - there is only Party Dozen.
Meanwhile, the original June dates have been rescheduled to the below: