Adelaide outfit Placement have released their debut album Insect via Clarity Records.
The album follows a busy 12 months for the post-punk/noise-rock band, which included performances at OK Motels alongside Tropical Fuck Storm and a #7 ranking on Double J’s Most Played list.
The 10-track record draws on themes of mortality, decay, and existentialism, incorporating clarinet and saxophone alongside angular guitars and spoken-word-style vocals. According to the band, the album moves their sound “deeper into the shadows” while still revealing moments of warmth.
The title track, also released as the album’s final single, opens with a subdued introduction before shifting into sharper guitar tones and layered woodwinds. Placement describe the song as among their most experimental work to date, “brutally shedding perspective on what life truly means in the grand scheme of things.”
Vocalist Malia said the track was inspired in part by the death of her cat:
“I had a cat called Cash. He was hard to live with, stinky, wild, murderous and uncontainable. He would disappear sometimes for days and we would wonder if he would one day disappear forever. But I found him straight away that morning, draped across the pavement. I had to wait for a car to pass between us before I could reach him. Did they see him as they sped past, one of the many insects crushed on the road, drawn to the light, to the furnace. How long did he lie there in a halo of streetlight, just outside the cemetery gates? He had jaws that bit and teeth that caught, an insect like me.”
Alongside earlier singles “Inertia/Heavy Lids”, “More a Curse”, and “New Disease”, Insect weaves in new tracks linked by instrumental interludes, with moments like “This Weak” revealing a gentler side without losing the band’s raw edge.
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Placement supported the release with a string of live shows.
Placement’s Insect is out now via Clarity Records.
