Album Review: Slumberjack - Fracture

For all their talk about writing music that isn't just built around drops, Perth electronic music producers Morgan Then and Fletcher Ehlers have written another collection of songs that are full of the same tired tropes we've grown familiar with.

While their music may contain some interesting melodic components, largely thanks to Then's background in classical music, the nature of the aforementioned drops still seems largely incongruous with regards to what's happening with the songwriting. As a result, the dynamics of the songs feel overbalanced, as intrusive blasts of synths and bass displace any sense of coherence.

The problem with gimmicks like these is that we know they're coming. This genre found its popularity through its extreme novelty, but the surprise quickly dwindled. Using abrasive electronic sounds to embellish songs about fading, fracturing, dissolving, or falling apart in any sense has grown stale and predictable.

It's then only the interlude track that starts to feel like some type of coherent emotional statement. Even then, its ending is incomplete, as it runs into the beginning of Fracture. The pair invite a guest vocalists on tracks like this one and Take Me, courting the triple j crowd with indie favourites. It's a formula that's proven to work, but it's certainly not exciting.