Love of Diagrams - 'Mosaic'

After generating a decent amount of hype in Collegian (a total of four articles in one semester? Yowza!), Australian post-punk act Love of Diagrams has released its Bob Weston-produced Matador debut, Mosaic. Chock full o’ swirling guitars, ambient noises and No Wave-style singing, Mosaic delivers everything promised by the band’s promotional EP, Love of Diagrams, released back in January. While the album is at times derivative of the early ’80s New York No Wave movement, Mosiac is still at least a promising stateside debut from one of Australia’s more popular post-punk bands.

Mosaic opens with “Form and Function.” For new listeners, the track might prove confusing, if for no other reason than that it’s not sung by the group’s frontwoman/bassist, Antonia Sellbach, but rather by backup vocalist/guitarist Luke Horton. Regardless, Horton leads the track well, and the playing on the tune is a good summation of Love of Diagrams’ sound: slightly dreamy, kinda rocking and generally jawesome.

Tracks two and three, “The Pyramid” and “Pace or the Patience,” should be familiar to those who already purchased Love of Diagrams, as they were originally made available there. At times recalling a less-reggae influenced version of The Slits, the two tunes are perhaps some of the strongest ones Mosaic has to offer, and are again atypical of the post-punk style.

Aside from the odd choice of opening the album with “Form and Function,” Mosaic is sequenced fairly well. The post-punk pep of “Pace or the Patience” segues adequately into the more primal, punk-y number “At 100%,” which in turn leads nicely into the instrumental interlude entitled, aptly enough, “Interlude.” The trio briefly jams out while Sellbach drops some sweet, succulent melodica over the whole thing.

By this point, however, Mosaic will have become a tad predictable, perhaps even stagnant, to listeners. “Ms Vs. Export,” “Confrontation” and “All the Time,” while adept, are also interchangeable. Slight variety shows up on tracks like “Double,” which ups the haunting reverb that hangs over the entire album, while the bonus track “Bonus Track” (how about them direct titles?) turns the whole thing down to a whisper.

In comparison to most new millennium post-punkers, Love of Diagrams seems ahead of the curve. But compared to the group’s forebears like Wire or Sonic Youth, the trio still has a ways to go. Mosaic is an entertaining enough listen, but Love of Diagrams has yet to progress beyond their influences.