Love Of Diagrams Mosaic CD

Melbourne's Love Of Diagrams have been making their mark on the Australian music scene since 2003, with two frenetic, angular EPs, a 7" and an album on the Unstable Ape label. Now after two trips to the US and Europe, they have signed a worldwide deal with Matador. The band's sound reflects the experimentation of No Wave and the immediacy and off-kilter tunefulness of classic UK post-punk. Their stripped-down guitar-bass-drums racket and call-andresponse vocals emit a wonderfully controlled urgency. 'Mosaic', was recorded in Chicago at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio Studios with legendary producer Bob Weston (Shellac, Mission of Burma).

Composers: Sellbach; Horton.
Love of Diagrams: Luke Horton (guitars); Antonia Sellbach (bass instrument); Monika Fikerle (background vocals).
Personnel: Bob Weston (loops).
On its full-length 2007 debut for the revered Matador label, the trio Love of Diagrams offers up an assured set of angular rock. The Melbourne, Australia-based band is clearly influenced by distortion-loving acts such as Sonic Youth and Fugazi, as well as the classic U.K. post-punks that first introduced the concept of "angular" to rock's musical lexicon. The group, fronted by vocalists Antonia Sellbach and Luke Horton, excels at urgent, restless tunes that often pit Sellbach's rumbling bass lines against Horton's searing guitar riffs (see "The Pyramid"), making MOSIAC ideal for those who appreciate aggressive, off-kilter indie-rock.
On Mosaic, their second album and first for Matador, Love of Diagrams expands their muscular, post-punk-inspired sound with even tighter songwriting and performances. Unlike many 2000s bands drawing from the sounds of '70s and '80s, Love of Diagrams remains true to the spirit of that era, never feeling too studied or calculated as they use Pylon, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Real Ramona-era Throwing Muses as inspiration for their own bracing-yet-sleek sound. Two of Mosaic's strongest tracks, "The Pace and the Patience" and "Pyramid," appeared on the Love of Diagrams EP that marked the band's Matador debut, and they still set the tone for the rest of the album. Antonia Sellbach's commanding, careening bass and vocals are the heart of the band's sound, giving each song its pulse and clarion-like intensity, particularly on "Trouble" and "At 100%." However, every aspect of Love of Diagrams gets its due on Mosaic: the mostly instrumental "Interlude" and "Confrontation"'s on-a-dime tempo shifts hone in on the band's tight interplay; "Single Cable" spotlights Luke Horton's serrated guitar work (and "Form and Function" reaffirms what a good vocal sparring partner he is for Sellbach). "Ms V. Export" and "What Was I Supposed to Do?" show that Love of Diagrams can be as vulnerable as they are forceful, and achieve an awkward beauty that underscores the songs' fragile melodies and emotions. The band uncoils even more on "Double," a dreamy, reverberating ballad that offers a breather from Mosaic's highly concentrated rock. Crucially, though, highly concentrated doesn't mean monotonous; Mosaic offers creative variations on a few well-chosen themes, with focus and energy to spare. ~ Heather Phares