Repressed Records

A few foil covers out and about this morning in honour of finally receiving some copies of Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru’s ‘Souvenirs’ and the summer sun suddenly arriving this week!

.m.f.c.fanclub

This reissue of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s Dream House 78’17” takes out my pick for the “Best Listen While Sweeping The Shop Floor” award.

All these snobs that think that minimalism is a music made to sit and stroke your chin to are missing out. Hypnotic drones and slow moving, tightly intonated sine waves are made all the more better by our weird speaker set up in the shop (hi fi nerds be damned) with them placed in opposite corners with one speaker higher than the other, moving around while sweeping really brings out the minimalist’s idea of making the physicality of music and sound more evident.

My only question is, who swept the Dream House?
-Mitch

La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela - Dream House 78’17” (Superior Viaduct, 1974/2024), New LP, $62 / New CD, $29.95

I’m thankful for ESP Mayhem’s mantra of obnoxiousness in these increasingly measured and pragmatic times. Members of Internal Rot, The Kill, Spiteward, Headless Death, Contaminated etc playing “3-synth-no-guitar-future-shock-grind”.

Across these 7 songs in 12 minutes ESP Mayhem confronts both underground orthodoxy and good taste in general with a very singular, actively annoying ethos. But as you can see on the cover, the bloody fist is punching upwards.

As the press release put it, “...extreme music should be treated as an arms race, and ESP MAYHEM just went nuclear baby!” - Nic

ESP Mayhem - ESP Mayhem 7” (Behind The Mountain, 2024) $12

Recent arrivals to our Japanese Pressings section. From Dome to Bowie to Takako Mamiya there’s something here for everyone… [Unless there isn’t - Ed.]

These records are online only but you can inspect/pick up in store ✌🏻

I haven’t listened to Cryptic Slaughter as much as I have in the last week since the shop was in Penrith! There’s a certain wart ‘n’ all recording quality here, or more appropriately zits ‘n’ all. The pimples on their 1986 debut ‘Convicted’ are almost audible.

The general atmosphere is a hurricane of unbalanced teenage hormones that ebb and flow between the raging frustration and having a good time thrashing fast with your friends. Maybe their follow up ‘Money Talks’ is a “better” executed album but there’s a unique charisma here. It’s impressively fast, but exciting how close it is to falling apart.

Maybe out of them all, this is the Hardcore Punk / Thrash Metal ‘Crossover’ record I’d put my name to! - Nic

Cryptic Slaughter - Convicted LP (Relapse Records, 1986/2024) $39.95

Admittedly, since my home tape deck carked it a little while ago, my cassette consumption has dropped off considerably, but here are three cassettes I’m looking forward to getting my head around at work in the next few days!

A long (70 mins - talk about bang for your buck!) collection of recent works from Lisa Lerkenfeldt, including documentation of her 2022 Substation commission and collaborations with claire rousay and others!

Ever great sound works from Absurd Cosmos Late Nite (AKA Mark Groves of Voice Imitator and Red Wine and Sugar fame) that meld through chopped and edited found sound and spoken conversational passages from the true depths of Australiana cultural murk.

The press release for Sean McCann’s latest solo tape on Regional Bears doesn’t offer many clues as to the content on the tape: domestic concrete work? Spoken word segments? Something entirely different? That name alone is a mark of quality considering his history as Recital honcho, so looking forward to delving further in!
-Mitch

Lisa Lerkenfeldt - Suite For Drains (2024), New Cassette, $22.95
Absurd Cosmos Late Nite - When The Sidewalks Are Safe For The Little Guy (Nice Music, 2024), New Cassette, $12
Sean McCann - “Reading Pacifics” (Regional Bears, 2024), New Cassette, $22.95

I’ve been carrying this Horn Of Plenty postcard my child decorated for at least 6 months, and am now putting it to use in a “general appreciation” post for the adventurous London based record label.

There’s no easy way to explain the Horn Of Plenty catalog, but in its wide scope there’s a peculiar cohesiveness. Maybe it’s a focus on artists that fit between marketing categories, fringe acts if you will, that conjure strange and intimate atmospheres.

In our store we highly appreciate the labels dot-joining exercise that links the very far edge of 80s DIY/anarcho punk (The Mudguards, The Apostles), underappreciated avant-garde should-be-institutions (Moniek Darge, Idea Fire Company), contemporary between-sound-work-and-song (Warm Currency, Nein Rodere) and much more!

Hats off to Horn Of Plenty! - Nic

Sun’s out guns out, or better yet compact discs out.
Lots of new music for the discerning listener of the silver disc format!

The latest from Poison Ruin, Charli XCX, and Fontaines DC. Restocks of classics from HTRK, GISM, Geld, Incantation, Dirty Three, Repulsion, and Suffocation, alongside first time (for us) on Compact Disc titles from Makaya McCraven, Death, Squarepusher, and Oneohtrix Point Never!

A New Town dream arrives in the real-life Newtown…

Bay Area group Neutrals return with a UK-leaning brand of jangling post-punk, putting the social commentary back into Television Personalities worship and continuing on the concerns of UK group, Hygiene.

A concept album of sorts that charts the mundane happenings of a new suburban development, it makes me think that the band were reading Ballard’s High Rise alongside that classic lockdown history tome, Robert Caro’s The Power Broker. Promises of social stability and community erode away into overpasses, drunken violence, concrete, abused public servants, chips and curry sauce, s**tty drugs, and poor wages but with a constant promise of something more.
-Mitch

Neutrals - New Town Dream (Slumberland/Static Shock Records, 2024), New LP, $38

Māpura Music brings a much needed wondrous feeling of messy human expression to the greater sphere of contemporary “experimental” music. A realm that year by year feels more dominated by macbook and linen clad pragmatic arts professionals, if I’m speaking my truth 😉.

Facilitated by Stefan Neville (aka Pumice), Māpura Music is a collaborative and spontaneous music making program for people living with disabilities set in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland. This record does not sound like your usual avant-improv night, I’m imagining a scene closer to the Gaelic Club’s Friday evening trad-jam if all folk standards were removed.

Comparisons will be inadequate but I certainly feel the spirit of Henry Fylnt, Breakdance The Dawn Records, Sam Esh, plus a cosy oddball atmosphere conjured by many of our NZ section staples (Funke, Galbraith, Knox etc). A spirit lifting record! - Nic

Māpura Music - Māpura Music LP (Horn Of Plenty, 2024) $44.95

I intended to give a detailed initial reaction to Daryl Hall & John Oates debut album, ‘Whole Oats’, but the cover has got me wishing I ate more breakfast and wondering what my favourite Amercian popular music duo eats in the morning.

Have either of them ever jumped on the overnight oats trend? Porridge on a cold Philadelphia morning makes sense. Both Daryl and John have stayed in great shape over the years, but I can’t imagine them as “health nuts” so the occasional bacon and eggs are not out of the question. I’d imagine John as more of the sweet tooth, waffles and pancakes etc.

Anyway, ‘Whole Oates’ (1972) is probably their least essential album until 1988s ‘Ooh Yeah!’. It kind of sucks. Too much SImon & Garfunkel. The real beginning of this duos dream run is 1973s ‘Abandoned Luncheonette’, fusing British Invasion guitar pop with a deep appreciation of Soul and R&B, a recipe similar to Big Star when you think about it.

Yes I’m putting Hall, Oates, Chilten and Bell in the same category. Welcome to my twisted mind. - Nic

I did not have enjoying bands that could slot into the Spiderleg Records (Flux Of Pink Indians, Amebix etc) roster on my 2024 bingo card, but here we are! Along with Vampire and Bad Breeding, Subdued bring a real sense of urgency to the Anarcho Punk framework.

I reckon that urgency, the feeling that this is something beyond flaccid subcultural fandom and rehashed lukewarm political indignation, is more important than having a bombastically new spin on things.

The USHC approach to recording (done at D4MT Labs, NYC where modern HC high point Nosferatu’s Society’s Bastard was recorded), serves them very well! Much better than a ricky ticky lentil commune sound if you know what I mean? - Nic

Subdued - Abattoir LP (La Vida Es Un Mus, 2024) $39.95

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Lives Of Angels’ 1986 LP got a flogging on our shop turntable late last year when it got reprinted but I’m only realising never got a proper write up!

An album taped with a weird odds-and-ends array of strung together gear units (read about it in the liner notes) it’s got that odd DIY charm that comes with tinkering with guitars and drum machines and infectious melodies at home.

Overwrought genre signifiers like “minimal wave” only go so far in describing this collection. Think songwriting that approaches the Go-Betweens but with a motorik-esque drum machine underpinning the whole thing, or for the more locally inclined, the a precursor to Orion/The Lewers!
-Mitch

Lives Of Angels - Elevator To Eden (Dark Entries, 1983), New LP, $44.95

Hats off to the visual team of Nancy Donald, Lou Beach and Keith Williamson, this is one BEA-U-TIFUL album cover!

I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the music that’s on Weather Report’s seventh studio album ‘Heavy Weather’ but every time I see the album art I can’t help but smile. What a glorious creation! - Nic

Stacks landing from the International Underground Music Powers That Be during the week!

New punk and metal titles c/o La Vida Es Mus, Static Shock, and Me S**o Un Ojo, the latest from Horn Of Plenty & co. the latest Straight Arrows and a reissue of Scientists’ 1985 LP You Get What You Deserve!

Wish I could say more about these but I’m already late to post and wish to apologise to the Real Powers That Be (the algorithms, sorry)! (But just enjoyed my first listen to the new Neutrals record!)

Latest from Efficient Space is here and collects the extant recordings of Coventry group S***t.

Taped back in the early 1980s and not heard at the time and barely heard outside of a short reissue run last year, the group walk the fine line between minimalist post-punk and twee. Noir-ish reverb meets skittering drum machines and Kay Booth’s fragile vocals delivered in a way that almost makes you feel as though you’re eavesdropping.

FFO: Karen Marks (or the Sky Girl/Someone Like Me comps), Young Marble Giants, or a less angular Pylon.

S***t - Simple Reality (Efficient Space, 2024), New LP, $39.95

***t

‘Septic Worship (Intolerant Spree Of Infesting Forms)’ is a mind altering, seriously significant slab of Grind! While it would best be situated in the crude tradition of Carcass, Exhumed, Impetigo and Autopsy, within the boggy blasting inferno I feel the hard-to-conjure languid atmosphere of Darkthrone’s debut ‘Soulside Journey’.

Denmark’s Septage embrace the absurd in a manner reminiscent of the eccentric and demonic pre-Black/Death Metal thrashers. They’re full of phlegm-y defiant creative energy, pushing juvenile gore-obsession into real affecting art in the avant-garde tradition! - Nic

Septage - Septic Worship LP (Me S**o Un Ojo, 2024) $42.00

Incredible art by

I love to think about how shocking this album must have been to many listeners when it came out in 1971. Given her relationship with John Lennon and the fact he helped produce it so many people would have given it a chance that normally wouldn’t be anywhere near this kind of avant-garde release. Her oscillating voice reverberating in their head as they figure out whether to stay on this wild ride or jump the hell off.

- Damien

Secondhand Japanese Pressing 2LP $120

Up on our website now.

If I heard Melbourne’s Katorga without the cultural knowledge of them being members of the Crust Community I might’ve pictured them having long luscious locks and motorcycle jackets. What I’m saying is that if Crust = Celtic Frost sign me up!!!

Whether you’re a part of bum flap/single dreadlock sect, or just a slightly morbid cleanshirt with a passing interest in parts of the Peaceville catalogue (Amebix, Axegrinder), or current locals like Reaper, Ironhawk and Living Sin you should get a thrill out of Katorga. - Nic

Katorga - Hellfire 7” (Black Against Night, 2024) $12

Annelie’s Monseré’s solo LP, Mares, was a mainstay on the shop turntable last year, so exciting to finally get a chance to sit down and properly listen to her return!

‘I Sigh, I Resign,’ takes many of the elements of last year’s LP—droning keyboards, half-chanted vocals, and nods towards traditional folk musics—but this time with a shift towards more electronic instrumentation and ever-so-slightly more pop orientated melodies, as though Nico’s Desertshore was rethought by HTRK.
-Mitch

Annalies Monseré - I Sigh, I Resign (Horn Of Plenty, 2024), New LP, $44.95

Marie Kondo was recently in the shop stocking up on metal LPs and she couldn’t help but notice our 7” section. It’s true we’ve kind of neglected the signage even as we’ve put more love into what we stock. With Kondo’s help we threw out any dividers that didn’t spark joy (all of them) and whipped up some custom replacements.

There were tears of joy when we realised how now the baby vinyl section has the space and confidence to reveal its true self.

*This is a satirical post. We have never met Marie Kondo and have no idea if she likes metal (although she seems like the type).

Another stacked six months of releases and we’ve each picked a couple of our favourites that we’ve taken home so far this year and a collective list to round it out!

CAM:
Paprika - Let’s Kill Punk LP (Iron Lung)
Th Blisks - Eliza LP (Efficient Space)

GRACE:
J. McFarlane’s Reality Guest - Whoopee LP/CD (Felt Sense/Hobbies Galore)
Thomas Bush - The Next 60 Years (Jolly Discs)
David Nance & Mowed Sound - David Nance & Mowed Sound LP (Third Man)

JEN:
Famous Mammals - Famous Mammals LP (Inscrutable)
Program - It’s A Sign LP (Anti Fade)

MITCH:
Rosali - Bite Down LP (Merge)
David Nance & Mowed Sound - David Nance & Mowed Sound LP (Third Man)

NIC:
The Pheremoans - Wyrd Psearch LP (Upset The Rhythm)
OSBO - OSBO 7” (Blow Blood)

.galore    .au  .25th .sachet.sachet

Swell Maps and Television Personalities are to 2024 what comparisons to The Fall were back in 2015—a little bit overwrought, dull, and more often than not missing the point of what made the original groups so great.

While SM and TP are the obvious go-to comparisons for Cuneiform Tabs, there’s something more than a rehashing of the past that makes this LP worth your time. Cracked shards of song and melody drift through in a dream-like haze of tape hiss, fading in and out with hints of AGW Eno synths and healthy doses of Flying Nun reverence.

Again, all these touch points feel naff! An album that slips through my grasp every time I try to describe it, but worth your time!
-Mitch

Cuneiform Tabs - Cuneiform Tabs (W.25th, 2024), New LP, $44.95

.25th

The debut long player from Sydney’s Negative Gears is a must have for anyone whose record collection contains both Japan’s ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ and Abrasive Wheels’ ‘When The Punks Go Marching In !’.

Let’s widen the net a bit…. are you a No Trend and early Echo & The Bunnymen enjoyer? More directly: if you have had an intimate relationship with Australian groups that’ve straddled the Punk, Noise/Art Rock and New Romantic line like Total Control, Low Life, True Radical Miracle and Diat, (Molly Meldrum voice) do yourself a favour and check out Moraliser!

It feels a little demeaning spelling out NG as being in that Aus Underground lineage, as you could see some creative entrepreneurial s**t heads capitalising on this gap-in-the-market, but it’s a long haul journey with trials and tribulations that have landed them at a sound that’s both organically and with deep perseverance, their own.

The albums press release speaks of ‘gross things that exist in this city’, Sydney, but I can’t help think about the members pre-existence bands in the periphery cities of Canberra and Newcastle, and a stint in the cold creative hub of Melbourne as experiences that inform both their sound and the perspectives expressed in this fine record. - Nic

Negative Gears - Moraliser LP (Urge / Static Shock, 2024) $37.95

@urgerecords

The fun of the Lou Reed bootleg is you never REALLY know what you’re gonna get. A speedy version of Good Time Together with the cheesiest horns section imaginable? A live rendition of parts of Metal Machine Music? Perhaps a performance of that old “Red Joystick” doozy off New Sensations?

Even bad Lou is good Lou in my books.
-Mitch

Lou Reed - On Trial … As Recorded By His Lawyer LP $50

Lou Reed - Older Than Yesterday 2LP $70

Lou Reed - Metal Machine Sound (Live) $50

Up on the website now (If you want to pick up in store they are behind counter so just ask).

Back in stock! You know ‘em, you love ‘em.... the Swiss sensation that is Kleenex / (then for legal reasons) LiliPut!

Or maybe you don’t know ‘em? Maybe they’re someone you’ve seen as a “for fans of” reference but have never fully engaged with? Perhaps you’ve seen stylish people wearing their iconography on a knitted jumper (sweater for our international gram fam)? If so, rectify your situation with this collection!

It’s easy to hear why Kleenex have become a mainstay reference point of contemporary D-I-Y / post-punk groups. This micro girl gang provides a wonderful template for embracing idiosyncrasies and inventing a creative language with a group of friends. It’s a beautiful and exciting thing to hear! - Nic

Kleenex / LiLiPUT - First Songs 2LP (Kill Rock Stars / Water Wing) $44.95

P.S. Down to the last handful of the excellent Kleenex/LiLiPUT book!

Contrary to our poorly worded joke yesterday, Jen and I aren’t leaving any time soon (dunno if even a lucrative modelling contract can drag me from behind the counter…)

Instead, we’re spending the day listening to four recently landed releases from the very good Discos Nada label (and associated sub labels?). From tape manipulation and Robert Wyatt/Brigette Fontaine-esque strangeness of Brazil’s Cinema through to D-Day’s new wave-meets-bossa-outta-Japan, to South American 80s punk reissues from Emotions Clandestinas and Maria T-Ta Y El Empujon Brutal!
-Mitch

-Day

It’s with a deep sadness that we let you know that Jen and Mitch will both be leaving Repressed. Clearly they are destined for bigger things as international models…

Oh yeah btw we have a new shipment of classic Repressed t-shirts back in stock. Printed on higher quality nice and soft 100% cotton Gilden ‘Hammer’ tees by local screen printers . Instore and up on the website now.