Kaurna’s/Adelaide’s post-punk outfit Placement are making waves with their pulsing, brooding art rock. The five-piece experiment with twangy dissonant chords and deadpanned spoken vocals, which cumulate into hypnotic grooves. There’s a rawness to their off-kilter rock, recalling everything from Sonic Youth to Patti Smith to Dry Cleaning. Placement’s respect for ‘90s alt-rock bands cannot be understated; they adore that sound and the fact that more of it is emerging from homegrown soil is beyond exciting.
While meticulously honing their craft, they’ve kept busy. Placement just wrapped up a huge 18-month string of dates, performing alongside American alt-rock heavyweights Superchunk and Quicksand, as well as acclaimed Aussie rockers DZ Deathrays and Party Dozen. Now, they return with the heavy and harmonic ‘Inertia / Heavy Lids’ ahead of their debut album Insect due for release later this year. The thrilling track is the typical Placement style that they’ve perfected: angular tunings, haunting sax howls, and frontwoman Malia Wearn's punky, stoic narration—whose intonation resembles Florence Shaw of Dry Cleaning. The song explores the struggle to break free from a tedious rut. “Sometimes we are not really awake but sleepwalking through ritual, continuing the same comfortable routine, particularly if it is something that was once desirable to us,” Wearn shared in a statement explaining the track’s themes. “Maybe there’s a reason we sleepwalk. Maybe it is just our inertia, eyes glued shut with sleep while we stumble through the things we know.”
The gripping queries Placement poses on ‘Inertia / Heavy Lids’ make the song more alluring, especially as it closes with a halting, sprawling crescendo. While packed with many ideas, Placement’s songs aren’t cluttered, but contain breathing room with space for their poetic ruminations. If ‘Inertia / Heavy Lids’ indicates what Insect might sound and feel like, we have a classic full of freeform sonic journeys about to arrive around the corner. You can hear ‘Inertia / Heavy Lids’ below:
Follow Placement on Instagram for tour and new album updates, and check out their songs on Bandcamp.
Photographer Credit: Kathryn Harvy