Party Dozen – 21 Bum Salute

Party Dozen's 21 Bum Salute is the fifth album from the Sydney duo of Kirsty Tickle and Jonathan Boulet, and it arrives as a deliberately self-directed statement. Built from saxophone, drums, vocals and loops, it condenses years of jam sessions and improvisation into a tight half-hour set, while its title draws on a larrikin ritual from Australia's Northern Territory. That mix of local mischief and physical intensity suits the record: this is Party Dozen sounding liberated, pushing further into their own version of psych-noise, no wave abrasion and twisted pop.

What makes this release especially compelling is how completely it belongs to the band themselves. Tickle and Boulet wrote, performed, recorded, mixed and mastered the album on their own over a three-month stretch, turning a semi-improvised practice into something more distilled and direct. Sources point to spooky old recordings, ESG and Bikini Kill as touchstones, and you can hear that tension between groove and confrontation in the sharp, danceable attack of tracks like “Special Unit,” “Euro Stomper” and “Mad Rooter.”

21 Bum Salute also fits neatly into Party Dozen's wider story. Since emerging from Sydney's experimental scene in 2017, they have kept stretching a minimal setup into something unruly and surprisingly expansive, with past tours alongside Amyl and the Sniffers, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Tropical Fuck Storm and Algiers, plus collaborations reaching from billy woods to Nick Cave. Here, that restlessness feels focused rather than chaotic: a duo refining its own language without sanding off any of the friction.