Chapter Music began in 1992 in Perth, Western Australia as a cassette label, founded by teenage impresario Guy Blackman. In 1995, Guy moved to Melbourne to work at Australia's only vinyl record factory, churning out 7"s and LPs by Australia's '90s lo-fi underground (The Cannanes, Sleepy Township, Minimum Chips, etc.). Since then, Chapter has grown to become an Australian institution, releasing late-'70s post-punk, modern folk-psychedelia, and scratchy noise by artists from all over the world. Chapter's current roster includes U.S. folk legend Kath Bloom, Tokyo's acclaimed Tenniscoats, synth-punk cult heroes Primitive Calculators, and minor-key Pitchfork favorites, Crayon Fields. From humble beginnings, Chapter has become one of Australia's longest-running and most respected independent labels.
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CH 072LP
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Reissue of Australian band Twerps' 2009 debut EP, collecting all of its songs on vinyl for the first time. Twerps started off with a "the" in their name some time in 2008, playing their first gig at a warehouse party above a drug store in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick East. Their ambitions were humble and their musicianship was rudimentary, but their songs were touching, cheeky, and instantly captivating. At first it was guitarist and vocalist Martin Frawley, guitarist Julia McFarlane, bassist Rick Milovanovic, and drummer Patrick O'Neill. After releasing some lo-fi home recordings on Myspace, the band received an offer from US label Night People to do a cassette. Guy Blackman and Ben O'Connor from Chapter Music were at their first gig and also asked to release something, but after a while Twerps thought they'd changed their mind -- turns out the band had forgotten to send the label their recordings. Recorded by Mikey Young, the nine-song self-titled EP eventually came out on Night People and Chapter in 2009. Chapter's version took the odd form of a four-song 7" accompanied by a nine-song CD. Everyone loved it. From that simple starting point, Twerps have become one of Australia and the world's favorite guitar pop bands, releasing two much-loved albums, Twerps (CH 091CD, 2011) and Range Anxiety (2015). The band has changed over time -- they dropped the "the," Milovanovic and O'Neill departed and were replaced by Alex Macfarlane and Angus Lord, and McFarlane stepped forward to share songwriting duties with Frawley. It's clear that Twerps captures a special time and a special magic. Out of print physically for years, the 2009 EP is now available on vinyl in its entirety for the first time, with new photos, liner notes, and a download code, plus a bonus rehearsal version of early classic "Little Guys."
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CH 079CD
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Chapter Music presents the first ever collection of recordings by wild and outlandish 1970s LA pre-punk icons Smokey. Featuring cameos from James Williamson of The Stooges, Randy Rhoads of Quiet Riot/Ozzy Osbourne, members of The Motels, King Crimson, David Bowie's Tin Machine, Suburban Lawns, and many others, the Smokey story has to be heard to be believed. In 1973, two wide-eyed young music fans made their way to Los Angeles and were introduced by a notoriously touchy-feely road manager for The Doors. John "Smokey" Condon was a bewitchingly beautiful Baltimore transplant, himself no angel after spending his teenage years partying with the John Waters crowd. EJ Emmons was a budding record producer from New Jersey, already starting to work in small studios around Hollywood. Condon had marched in New York the night after the Stonewall Riots in 1969, and so by the time he and EJ created Smokey, they weren't about to hold back. Released in 1974, debut single Leather/Miss Ray wasn't just openly gay, it was exultantly, unapologetically gay, examining front-on the newly-liberated leather and drag scenes thriving in America's urban centers. The single was shopped around to labels using Emmons's industry contacts, but doors were regularly slammed on the duo. "We can't put this out, it's a fucking gay record, what's the matter with you," said one record exec, while adding, "it's really good though." Undeterred, they self-released five singles that span pre-punk, stoner jams, disco, synth-punk, and more, all stamped with Smokey's fearless candor. 1976 single and compilation title-track "How Far Will You Go...?" features guitar from EJ's studio buddy James Williamson, fresh from his adventures recording Raw Power with Iggy and The Stooges in London with David Bowie. Smokey even remembers a few mid '70s jams with Williamson, with a vague view towards replacing the rehab-bound Iggy as The Stooges' frontman! The live band played almost weekly at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, with a band featuring 14-year-old future Quiet Riot-ers Randy Rhoads and Kelly Garni. Restored by Emmons from original master tapes; mastered for vinyl by Emmons with his own cutting lathe. With extensive liner notes and photos, How Far Will You Go? tells the story of America's greatest '70s should-have-beens, a band so amazing that the only reason you haven't heard of them is because they were faggots, and they didn't give a shit. LP includes download code.
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CH 110LP
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LP version with download code. Thirty-five years after they first crawled out of dark, suburban Springvale to spew their synth-punk filth over Melbourne and beyond, Primitive Calculators have made their first-ever studio album, aptly entitled The World Is Fucked. Stuart Grant, Denise Hilton, Dave Light, and Frank Lovece formed Primitive Calculators in 1978. They existed in bitter antipathy and vile hedonism in St. Kilda and Fitzroy until 1980, reformed briefly to appear in the 1986 film Dogs in Space (starring INXS' Michael Hutchence), and then reconvened more permanently in 2009, at the invitation of the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds-curated All Tomorrow's Parties festival at Mount Buller. Their original releases, classic synth-punk single I Can't Stop It/Do That Dance in 1979 and a posthumous live album from 1982, are now Holy Grails for collector scum around the world. French label Desire Records reissued both records in limited vinyl editions. Despite their vicious reputation, Primitive Calculators actually nurtured a thriving community of impromptu bands around them, now renowned worldwide as the "Little Bands" scene, including groups like Thrush And The C**ts, Too Fat To Fit Through The Door, and the incredible Take. Recorded with Neil Thomason (My Disco, The Slits) and mastered by David Walker (Lost Animal, Pikelet, Twerps, etc.), The World Is Fucked pulls no punches across its nine one-word songs. The sound is a kind of shimmering ball of white noise and malice, a floating miasma filled with all the bile most people never let emerge from their subconscious. The album also includes their version of a song they have been playing since the late '70s, "Nothing" by New York outsiders The Fugs. Thirty-five years later, bleaker, harsher and more desperately hilarious than ever, Primitive Calculators present The World Is Fucked -- the ultimate aural statement of aging, despair, and futility.
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CH 116CD
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Melbourne scratchy pop foursome The Stevens formed in 2011 around guitarist (and now Twerps drummer) Alex Macfarlane and NZ-born axe-slinger Travis MacDonald. The band now also includes bassist Gus Lord (Boomgates) and drummer Matt Harkin. Earlier this year, Chapter Music reissued the band's 2012 self-titled EP, six insanely catchy songs that haunt your ears for much longer than the record's 13-minute duration. Now Chapter is very excited to announce A History of Hygiene, The Stevens' debut album. A History of Hygiene is markedly different from the EP, an impressionist whirlwind of song fragments and frenetic anxiety-pop classics, sequenced almost without pause in a heady 24-song, 44-minute rush. First single "Hindsight" was premiered in early October by Ad Hoc, and was picked up by the likes of Pitchfork and the Guardian and played on BBC 6. Drummer Tam Matlakowski (Pop Singles) and bassist Callum Foley appear on the album, but departed the band in late 2012. The Stevens are now made up of two pairs of childhood friends -- Alex and Gus have known each other since they were babies, and Matt and Travis went to school together in Victoria's Central Goldfields. The Stevens formed when Travis moved to Melbourne, met Alex, and the pair decided to combine their respective solo projects into a single band. Much of the album was recorded by Eddy Current/Total Control guitarist Mikey Young (whose vast recording CV includes Chapter bands Dick Diver, Twerps, and Fabulous Diamonds), and the rest handled by the band themselves. A History of Hygiene was mastered by MacDonald family friend Tex Houston, who has worked with the likes of the Clean, the 3Ds, and the Verlaines.
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CH 083CD
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In the beginning, there was South Auckland's own Coolies, three teenage school chums Tina, Sjionel and Melissa, playing the kind of racket that might have caused Johnny Rotten himself to spin in his grave, had he actually been dead (might as well have been). Back then in the mid/late-'90s, the Coolies' punk/rock'n'roll/was inspired, it must be pointed out, by nobody... nobody at all. Nonetheless, their signature was a sweet and swinging rah-rah sound (a rah-Ramones/rah-Ronettes car-crash). That, and a burning teenage desire to actually burn things down. The trio recorded a 10-song tape on a ghetto blaster... the tapes circulated Auckland's oh-so-hip & scenester K Road and the Coolies built up a cult following amongst the crowd who were, er, not their peers at all. For a while, the band played support to virtually every decent touring band to come thru AK, and a bunch of terrible ones who deserve their fate languishing in obscurity. Eventually they got it together to release a self titled 7'', with timeless fucking hits "Madonnas The Bomb," "Yr So 1960s," "Go! Hot Metal" and "Pimpmobile." Also around the turn of the century, Kill Rock Stars put a Coolies song on the Fields And Streams compilation which, at the time, was a big deal. So, not for the last time, the Coolies seized defeat from the jaws of victory and Melissa split. The Coolies either took the first of many breaks or just couldn't be fucked carrying on. In 2004-ish, Tina & Sjionel recruited Fiona to "man" the drums -- a real life drum machine. The Coolies ripped up the plans and returned with a fresh new sound for a new-era/new/no/wave -- Sjionel switched it up with synths and samples, Tina stuck with basic blitzkrieg guitar & blah blah lyrics. With a new buzz, the Coolies set off to take on the world. Like lightning, they released a self-titled album (produced by nobody), and toured NZ, Australia + America with a bunch of bands (Erase Errata/Ariel Pink/Bobbyteens/Wives/Mika Miko/Weird War/Coachwhips/Deerhoof). Later, the trio put out a tour EP, Bless The Babies And The Mothers, which was well received in the SF region. They decided to recruit legend mate and drummer Stefan (of Pumice un-fame), and their first show was at Sjionel's house with Calvin Johnson. This reinvigorated line-up was the perfect scenario band-wise... new/old attitude to music/underground noise staple/post-punk/oioioi like a Shangri-Las and Crass tea party. Master is a collection of Coolies at their finest -- raw, lo-fi, annoying, brilliant, monumental, and totally necessary. An accumulation of material recorded and mixed by Stefan Neville reel-to-reel at random places around Auckland....mastered by Rachel Shearer (Lovely Midget) and loved by all.
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CH 059CD
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Originally released in 2007 by Chapter Music, Pikelet is Evelyn Morris, a musical wunderkind from the outer suburbs of Melbourne who began life as a hardcore-obsessed drummer, and who still currently serves on sticks in such heavy-hitting Melbourne institutions as Baseball and True Radical Miracle. But a couple of years ago, something tickled Evelyn's brain and she felt compelled to grab an old accordion, a guitar and a delay pedal, and launch a decidedly un-hardcore solo career. The name comes from Evelyn's mother, who used to spoil her kids with pikelets (sort of a cross between a pancake and a crumpet) when she was a little strapped for cash. Engineered and produced by U.S. uber-producer Casey Rice (Tortoise, Sea & Cake, Ben Lee and countless others), Pikelet's debut self-titled album is a gorgeous, multi-tiered work of swirling and shifting melody, layered harmonies and charming story-telling, almost entirely performed by Evelyn herself. All in all, a uniquely assured and distinctive debut. Since its release, Evelyn has spent much of her time touring, embarking on a large-scale European tour in June 2007, and in Australia supporting international acts such as Sufjan Stevens and Beirut, while playing festivals from Golden Plains to the Blue Mountains Folk Festival. These are absolutely dizzying songs, containing sweet, multi-tracked vocals, a mass of tinkling chimes, glockenspiel, almost tribal drums and layers upon layers of subtle instrumentation and some truly bomblasting accordion.
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CH 066CD
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This is the long-awaited second album by Melbourne, Australia's minor-key pop magicians, The Crayon Fields. In 2006, their airy, chiming debut Animal Bells (CH 056CD) was one of the year's most acclaimed releases, earning a 7.8 review on Pitchfork and voted #2 in Australia's Mess+Noise end-of-year critics poll (#4 in the general readers poll). They released a sneak preview of the new album in the form of a limited edition vinyl single, featuring the majestic pop ballad "Mirrorball," which sold out almost immediately. "All The Pleasures Of The World" was also released as a single, earning another Pitchfork rave and "Single Of The Week" in magazines around Australia. The album is delirious, UK rainy-day melancholy psychedelic indie, with some Stone Roses, Belle and Sebastian and Zombies thrown in for good measure, with its loping bass lines, swooning strings and eerie, hypnotic harmonies. Basic tracks were recorded at Head Gap studios in Melbourne with Neil Thomason (The Slits, My Disco, Ned Collette), and the album was then finished at home. Mixing and mastering was done with Lachlan Carrick (The Necks, Gotye, Architecture In Helsinki) at Moose Mastering. The album is a beyond-stunning development on Animal Bells, both poised and precocious. There's a newfound confidence and lyrical openness from vocalist Geoff O'Connor, and some of the most luscious backing ever heard on an Australian pop record from bassist Brett Hudson, guitarist Chris Hung and drummer Neil Erenstrom. Strings come courtesy of rising pop star Jessica Venables, aka Jessica Says, on cello, and her brother Nick on viola and violin. Crayon Fields have toured basically everywhere and have become a favored support band of choice in Australia, playing with the likes of Cornelius, Stereolab, Built To Spill, New Pornographers, Deerhoof, Mount Eerie, Electrelane, Unicorns and many more.
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CH 060CD
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Originally released in 2008 by Chapter Music, this is the second full-length album by Adelaide trio Hit The Jackpot, who play simple, noisy pop songs, swapping instruments and sharing vocals. They believe that enthusiasm and sincerity are more important than technical proficiency, and take inspiration from the likes of Beat Happening, Dinosaur Jr. and The Clean. The ten tracks on the album were recorded in the second half of 2007 at the band's own home studio. Hit The Jackpot formed as a two-piece in early 2003, comprising young couple Jess Thomas and Kynan Lawlor. With a sparse but dynamic line-up of drums and guitar, they played just a handful of shows before supporting Sonic Youth on their 2004 Australian tour. They released a self-titled EP around the same time, which ended up in the #3 spot on Adelaide radio station 3D's "Top 100 For 2004." Hit The Jackpot were joined by Sebastien Calabretto (and a bass guitar) in 2005 and released their debut album Clowns in 2006. With Seb leaving for the grey shores of England early in 2008, Hit The Jackpot recruited Scott O'Hara (Lindsey Lowhand, True Radical Miracle). In this formation, Soul Money Gang Vibe is a sparse, yet often heavy swathe of noisy, feedbacked guitar scrawl and jangle, My Bloody Valentine moodiness, and off-kilter male/female vocal harmonics.
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