Department is an experimental industrial duo from Australia, who go bythe cryptic personas of Gatz and Spacious. Not much is known abouttheir past except that one of them (Spacious, I think) was in an early'90s Aussie prog-metal band called Vauxdvihl (pronounced: vaudeville)that apparently achieved minor cult status. Department claims thattheir attitude is based on a "punk" aesthetic - "making strongstatements, keeping album lengths short and getting straight to thepoint." Well, maybe, but the music on these two self-released CDssounds more like a modern soundtrack for an apocalyptic student film.Department is mostly instrumental, with industrial drum machine beats,layered synths and guitars, processed samples, and lots of noise thrownin for good measure. On the whole the music sounds a few years dated,but there are definitely some intriguing elements within the mix. On'This Is Tension Avenue,' the first disc, the most notable track is"Detached," where a pleasant guitar line plays over synth drones andwhat sounds like stereo-shuffled radio clips. I could definitely dowithout the overbearing "Cure For the World," the only song withvocals, which makes fairly evident why Department is primarilyinstrumental, but the film-music synth washes of "Pulchrify" areengaging enough that it's worth a few listens.
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'Exiting,' Department's more recent album, takes a step off to one sideby adding ultra-reverbed horns to the industrial jams of "From TheClutches" and "There's No End," and on the whole the music soundsslightly less serious, almost reminding me at moments of Mr. Bunglewithout the frontman/clownish vocal antics of Mike Patton. The mostinteresting track on 'Exiting' is "Baltra," a quiet computer-generatedpiece of bouncing and cycling tones, which is a pleasant departure fromthe intensity of most of the rest of the album. I think Department liketo think that they're more experimental or groundbreaking than theyreally are, which is not a big issue, but it makes me feel like there'sa lack of irony to this music which is sorely needed. Their biographystates, "Anti-corporate paranoia never sounded so good," and I hopethey're kidding, at least a little bit. Department is a nice additionto the industrial canon, though, and with their very tailoredindustrial film score sound, I wouldn't be surprised if they show up onan indie-flick soundtrack in Australia sometime soon. -
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