Essendon Airport was a product of the Clifton Hill post-punk scene that loitered in the shadow of the more lauded late ’70s St Kilda punk scene. While it lacked the tabloid attitude of its south-side cousins, Essendon Airport was a punk band in the broader philosophical sense, acknowledging conventional song structures just long enough to cast them to the winds in favour of an eclectic mix of jazz, rock, funk, electronica, disco and punk.
Palimpsest was Essendon Airport’s only full-length album, released originally in 1981 and largely ignored outside the pages of fanzines and Melbourne punk histories. Having re-released Essendon Airport’s earlier 7″ EP Sonic Investigations of the Trivial, Chapter Music has releasedPalimpsest on the 30th anniversary of its original release, accompanied by a bonus disc of live tracks and unreleased material. Palimpsest is replete with catchy rhythms (Re-funkt, Science of Sound), off-kilter pop (Jig, Beguine) and post-jazz madness (Trad Jazz). The sampled spoken-word tracks (Correct Pitch, Science of Sound intro) precede Big Audio Dynamite by half a decade; Entrance of the Gladiators starts in esoteric territory and edges further out into the ether.
The bonus disc includes various live tracks, including five tracks recorded at the band’s final gig at the Crystal Ballroom in 1983, Fragment … Waiting recorded at the band’s spiritual home in Clifton Hill, a PBS live to air and some genuinely confronting live explorations (Waiting in the Clouds being a suitable example). Essendon Airport could only have existed at a point in time; that time has gone, but the relevance of Essendon Airport lives on.
In A Word: Post-funk.
If You Like This: You’ve probably already immersed yourself in the M Squared recordings.
Key track: Re-funkt .
