Browse by Label: CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)

Artist:	ESSENDON AIRPORT
Title:	Sonic Investigations Of The Trivial
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CH 043CD

The band Essendon Airport began in Melbourne, 1978, as a duo of David Chesworth (keyboards and electronics), and Robert Goodge (guitar). They released an incredible 7" EP in 1979 called Sonic Investigations Of The Trivial, on Innocent Records, a label run by David Chesworth with Tch Tch Tch's Philip Brophy. A track from this EP was included on Chapter's Can't Stop It! - Australian Post-Punk 1978-82 compilation CD. In 1980 they released a 7" single accompanied by a singer named Anne Cessna. They also had a track included on the Innocent compilation New Music 1978-79. Essendon Airport later gained extra members and released the Palimpsest LP in 1981. They broke up in 1983. Chapter Music has gathered together Essendon Airport's duo recordings onto one CD, along with the Anne Cessna tracks, and five previously unheard live recordings. Sonic Investigations Of The Trivial is a fantastic document of a band years ahead of their time. The reissue features liner notes written by Ralph Traviato of Tch Tch Tch, as well as reproductions of original posters, record sleeves, press clippings and even chewing gum cards given out at their shows.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Can't Stop It! (Australian Post-Punk 1978-82)
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 037CD

Originally released in 2001. A long overdue compilation of Australia's incredible post-punk history, featuring the finest selection of bands from the period 1978-82, with many previously-unreleased tracks. This is a fantastically inventive and dynamic time in Australian music history, a time when Australia stepped out of the shadow of overseas influence and asserted its own musical identity for the first time. All of the bands on Can't Stop It! released their music independently, either themselves or through the handful of visionary labels of the time such as Au-go-go, M Squared, Missing Link or Innocent Records. Unfortunately, much of the music has since been ignored or forgotten ... until now. Restock/repress of this incredibly well done, in-depth and legit comp (which has since received a full-page write up in the Wire) of the elusive Australian scene. Features The Moodists, Voigt 465, The Take, Essendon Airport, The Apartments, Ash Wednesday, Primitive Calculators, Makers Of The Dead Travel Fast, Ron Rude, Xero, The Limp, Fabulous Marquises, The Slugfuckers, Equal Local, Tame Omearas, The Particles, People With Chairs Up Their Noses, Wild West, The Pits and Tch Tch Tch.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Songs For Nao - 14 Bands From Japan
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 046CD

Songs for Nao (pronounced 'now') is a compilation featuring many incredible Japanese artists. Most work in a rarefied world of wide-eyed, folky psych-pop. Songs For Nao includes new tracks by Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Nagisa Ni Te, Tenniscoats, Kazumi Nikaidoh, Yumbo, Andersens, My Pal Foot Foot, Pervenche and more. Songs For Nao is a taste of an incredible music scene. Isolated from the music industry at large, these artists create genuinely inspired music, fresh even to the ears of the most conditioned music-geek. The release is accompanied by a full colour, 16-page booklet featuring extensive liner notes on each band, and beautiful photos by Eigo Shimojo. Other artists featured are Puka Puka Brains, Kinutapan, Merci-S, Eepil Eepil, Place Called Space and G Spot Hunter.

Artist:	PRIMITIVE CALCULATORS
Title:	Primitive Calculators
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 047CD

"Melbournes Primitive Calculators met as teenagers in the early 70s, growing up in the grim outer suburb of Springvale. An older friend who lived in a bungalow behind his parents house provided an oasis of culture, and there they were introduced to music of a kind rarely heard in their neighbourhood. The Velvet Underground and The MC5 were obvious heroes, but they were also inspired by lesser known bands like The Fugs, The 13th Floor Elevators, and The Godz (they went on to dedicate their album to Godz singer Jim McCarthy) as well as the writing of obsessive rock journalist Lester Bangs. Their own debut single was also released in 1978, featuring the songs 'I Cant Stop It' and 'Do That Dance'. Pressed with plain black labels and stark monochrome sleeve, the single introduced many to the impassioned, atonal, electronic chaos that was the Primitive Calculators trademark, and it has gone on to become a highly collectable classic of Australian post-punk. The following year the band attempted to relocate to London, but seeing how difficult life was for fellow expats the Birthday Party and Whirlywirld, they decided instead to take an indefinite break. A 1979 live recording of a gig supporting The Boys Next Door turned out to be the Primitive Calculators swansong. Released by friend and supporter Alan Bamford in the early 1980s, Primitive Calculators is a crucial document of a band whose originality, power and humorously belligerent Australian mindset has never since been duplicated. Chapter Music's reissue of the Primitive Calculators album, twenty-five years after its original release, includes six bonus tracks plus a rarely seen video."

Artist:	BLACKMAN, GUY
Title:	In Japan
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 048CD

2005 release. Guy Blackman In Japan is a ragged but atmosphere-rich document of Guy's time in Tokyo (September 2002 - March 2004). It features five songs recorded in one afternoon, with one microphone, the weekend before Guy got on a plane back to Melbourne, plus three songs recorded at the last live gig he played in Tokyo. Accompanying Guy are members of many of the Songs For Nao (CH 46CD) bands, including Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Tenniscoats, My Pal Foot Foot and Andersens. After the instruments were recorded in Tokyo, vocals were added back in Melbourne with Henry Wagons of former Chapter recording artists Wagons. The EP includes a live cover of Nat King Cole's Answer Me My Love, sung as a duet with Tenniscoats vocalist Saya. Guy's own songs display a newfound depth and subdued intensity quite different to his work in his more pop-influenced bands Sleepy Township and Sulk. Songs like "Older," written on Guy's 29th birthday, and "Mortified," about the confusing world of Tokyo gay nightlife, have an emotional vividness that breaks through the somewhat cloudy fidelity. And as Guy says in the CD's liner notes, "the recordings are very rough, but to me they sound like Japan."

Artist:	TENNISCOATS
Title:	Live Wanderus
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 049CD

2005 release. Many Tenniscoats fans say that the band's meditative intensity has never quite been captured in the studio. It is for this reason that Chapter Music is releasing a compilation of their live work. Live Wanderus (named in Saya's imaginative English to reflect the words Wander, Wonder, Wondrous and Us) presents songs from each Tenniscoats release in distinctive new forms, as well as a number of previously unreleased tracks. It also depicts band in its many shifting lineups, and includes collaborations with members of revered Japanese groups Acid Mothers Temple, Stars and Maher Shalal Hash Baz.

Artist:	MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ
Title:	Live Aoiheya January 2003
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 050CD

2005 release. Live Aoiheya January 2003 documents an entire brief performance by this unique band, incidentally the first Maher show that Chapter boss Guy Blackman saw after moving to live in Japan in 2002 (he returned to Melbourne in 2004). It captures the band in a variety of guises unusual even for them, including an extended abstract instrumental, songs based on conversations between band members, passages by Japanese composers, vocal relays and a Brahms waltz. In the EP's 26 minutes, Maher Shalal Hash Baz manage to cover more ground than most bands do in their whole career, all the while maintaining a spirit and idiosyncrasy that is identifiably their own.

Artist:	LAKES
Title:	Lakes
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 052CD

2005 release. Lakes' debut self-titled album is a completely self-recorded affair made at home on one-track tape decks. All overdubbing was achieved by putting the first track through Sean Bailey's home stereo and playing along. Despite this, the sound on Lakes is huge, claustrophobic and powerful, sidestepping any issues of fidelity through sheer dynamism. The album alternates between structured works and more freeform, often instrumental performances. It includes an excoriating version of "Song Of Investment Capital Overseas" by late '70s highbrow prog-punks the Art Bears.

Artist:	ALWAYS
Title:	Cruising + Gross Odour
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	7"
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	CH 053EP

Nine songs recorded on cassette four track with Lakes' Sean Bailey. "The googly eyes, nude photos, and hand-drawn rainbow crayon squiggles that adorn the cover of this beguiling artifact point in several directions at once: outsider art, gay rainbow flag, childhood diary, amateur porn. Always is a guy named Alex Vivian making 'extreme lo-fi' acapella that stands poised on a lonely 4-track precipice, with just a microphone and some footstomping to keep him company?Simple, powerful, and very odd." -- Pitchfork

Artist:	KANENOBU, SACHIKO
Title:	Misora
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 054CD

Originally reissued in 2006 by Chapter Music, this is the 1972 debut album by Sachiko Kanenobu, an artist generally acknowledged as the first Japanese woman to release an album of her own songwriting. It's a near-perfect folk masterpiece, alternating full-bodied arrangements (produced by Harry Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra and Happy End) with Sachiko's lonesome guitar and pure, soaring vocals. Discovered as a precocious 18 year-old in Osaka, Sachiko was signed in 1968 to Japan's first real independent record label, URC (Underground Record Club), who changed Japan's musical landscape irrevocably in the late '60s and early '70s with artists like Happy End, Folk Crusaders and Kenji Endo. Sachiko was the only female artist on this era-defining label. But just a few months before Misora (roughly translated as "Beautiful Sky") was released, Sachiko left Japan and secretly emigrated to America to marry music critic Paul Williams (Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone). She did not record again for almost a decade and didn't release another album until 1992. Instead, she settled with Williams in small-town California and raised two sons. Misora was released in her absence and promptly disappeared. World-renowned science fiction writer Philip K Dick, a Williams family friend, actually encouraged Sachiko to return to music in the early '80s. He was executive producer for a single recorded in 1981, but sadly died before he could realize his ambition to produce Sachiko's comeback album. Still, Sachiko was inspired by his encouragement to reinvent herself as a "folk-punk" singer, forming new band Culture Shock in the mid-'80s. Sachiko still performs to this day, and since Misora was rediscovered by Japanese fans in the early '90s, she has returned to her homeland many times to perform. Misora is now regarded as a landmark in Japanese musical history, and Sachiko is revered there as a true underground folk pioneer. Truly mellow, still relevant, and sounding as fresh as the day it was recorded, Chapter Music's edition of Misora is the first for the English-speaking world, featuring extensive liner notes, lyrics translated into English by Sachiko herself, and never-before-seen photos from the singer's own archives.

Artist:	PRIMITIVE CALCULATORS
Title:	Primitive Calculators And Friends 1979-82
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 055CD

Originally released by Chapter Music in 2007. After reissuing the landmark 1979 live album by Melbourne's ferocious synth-punk snarlers Primitive Calculators in late 2004, Chapter Music follows up with a crucial compilation of tracks by Primitive Calculators and their friends from the legendary Melbourne Little Band scene. Including the Calculators' only studio recording, the single "I Can't Stop It" b/w "Do That Dance," plus the Little Bands compilation EP (both originally released in 1979 and now highly-prized collectors items), plus numerous live and rehearsal recordings, this CD examines a particularly fertile and distinctive time in Melbourne music history, which has been discussed in hushed tones ever since. It takes in bands with names like Thrush & The Cunts and Too Fat To Fit Through The Door, and ranges from disaffected Fitzroy art-punk to Sudanese tribal chanting recorded in London. With liner notes culled from a revealing interview with Prim Calcs members Dave Light, Denise Hilton and Frank Lovece, plus rare photos and song lyrics, Primitive Calculators And Friends is a revelatory companion piece to their live album, which received a rave review from Maximum Rock'n'Roll and a 10 out of 10 "Album of the Month" feature in the Australian version of Vice magazine, amongst other stellar reviews. Other crazed offshoots chronicled here include: Morpions, The Take, Ronnie & The Rhythm Boys, Zye Ye Ye, Take Two and The Egg.

Artist:	CRAYON FIELDS, THE
Title:	Animal Bells
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 056CD

Originally released by Chapter Music in 2006, this is the debut full-length album by Melbourne quartet, The Crayon Fields. Lead singer, guitarist and songwriter Geoff O'Connor is a myopic boy genius whose record collection consists almost solely of op-shop vinyl LPs released before 1970. Consequently, The Crayon Fields play intricate, atmospheric pop songs that recall the minor-key majesty and close-knit harmonies of '60s maestros such as The Zombies, The Byrds and The Beach Boys. The album title refers to the animal-shaped toy bells that were used throughout the album, linking its 12 concise songs. Basic tracks were recorded at Sub Studios with engineer Simon Knight, then taken home to be polished into their final shimmering shapes. Animal Bells is an unruffled, dreamy pop masterpiece. Geoff's often falsetto vocals and ringing 12-string guitar are ably accompanied by Brett Hudson's nimble bass, Chris Hung on second guitar and Neil Erenstrom on drums. Nicole and Julian of fellow Chapter artists Minimum Chips also provide guest vocals. With this multi-layered, resonant and gorgeous album, The Crayon Fields are one of Australia's finest, most intriguing bands.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Can't Stop It! II: Australian Post-Punk 1979-1984
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 057CD

Originally released in 2007, this is the second installment of Chapter Music's acclaimed Australian post-punk compilation series, Can't Stop It! -- another incredible array of inventive and often previously-unheard music from the period of 1979-1984. This was a fantastically rich and dynamic time in Australian music history, a time when Australia stepped out of the shadows of overseas influence and asserted its own musical identity for perhaps the first time. Can't Stop It! II features tracks by bands such as Severed Heads, The Systematics and Scattered Order, and early works by the likes of Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard, Hunters & Collectors' Mark Seymour and Candy soundtrack composer Paul Charlier. The CD includes a 16-page booklet with extensive liner notes, rare photos and Josh Petherick's striking design. Other artists include: International Exiles, Asphixiation, Tactics, The Goat That Went "Om", Use No Hooks, Microfilm, The Jetsonnes, Rhythmx Chymx, Brrr Cold, SoliPsiK, Wild Dog Rodeo, Belle Du Soir, Ya Ya Choral, Essendon Airport, The Swell Guys, Scapa Flow, and Nuvo Bloc.

Artist:	PIKELET
Title:	Pikelet
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 059CD

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.

Artist:	HIT THE JACKPOT
Title:	Soul Money Gang Vibe
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 060CD

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.

Artist:	BLOOM, KATH
Title:	Terror
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 061CD

Originally released in 2008 on Chapter Music, Terror is the first official album of new material by Connecticut folk legend, Kath Bloom -- recorded at Barking Spider Studios in Warren, CT with Kath and her husband Stan Bronski. Kath was born and raised in New Haven, CT, where she learned to play guitar among the headstones of her local cemetery. She met avant-garde guitarist Loren MazzaCane Connors in 1976, and together they recorded six limited edition albums of fragile folk and blues melodies between 1981 and 1984. Her new songs, however, reveal a singer and songwriter as accomplished and affecting as Lucinda Williams or Gillian Welch. Most tracks primarily feature Kath's gentle guitar-picking, haunting vocals, and mournful harmonica, although guitarist Marty Carlson, husband Stan and long-time collaborator Tom Hanford added finishing touches to many tracks. The material ranges from vintage to brand-new to as far back as her days with Loren ("Something To Tell You"). After her collaborations with Connors, Kath entered a period of child-rearing and family life, returning to recording in the early '90s. Director Richard Linklater discovered Bloom's music and featured her song "Come Here" in a pivotal scene in his 1995 film Before Sunrise. By then, Bloom had begun recording again in earnest, self-releasing a series of cassettes and CD-Rs. Finally, released on Chapter Music in 2006 was her first non-CD-R release since 1984. This is arresting, simple, down-to-earth folk music from a poetically-skilled lyricist with a beautifully-frayed voice.

Artist:	BLOOM & LOREN CONNORS, KATH
Title:	Sing The Children Over/Sand In My Shoe
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CH 063CD

Originally released by Chapter Music in 2008, this is the first of two double disc reissues by extraordinary early-'80s folk duo Kath Bloom and Loren Connors. Meeting in 1976 in their hometown of New Haven, CT, Bloom and Connors formed a creative partnership that has haunted psych-folk fans ever since, releasing six albums of fragile, avant-garde folk-blues in miniscule quantities, all of which now change hands for huge sums. At first, Kath would act out monologues while Loren played his free-form guitar, extrapolated from Mississippi Delta and Chicago blues. But while Loren worked on his now-legendary nine-volume series Unaccompanied Acoustic Guitar Improvisations, he and Kath's performances gradually became more song-based. Kath began practicing guitar among the headstones of New Haven's Grove Street cemetery, while Loren's idiosyncratic style had been developing since the 1960s. By the early '80s, after self-releasing two limited-edition live albums, the duo were playing occasionally outside of New Haven, and soon Boston independent label Ambiguous Records approached them to record their first studio effort. Acclaimed jazz critic and music historian Nat Hentoff wrote sensitive, insightful liner notes and Sing The Children Over emerged in 1982 and Sand In My Shoe in 1983. The albums mixed traditional folk and blues songs with Kath's originals, revealing Kath to be an accomplished and moving songwriter. It also set up the dynamic template that she and Loren would follow over their remaining recordings -- Kath's fragile voice and subdued finger-picked guitar set against Loren's playing: abstract, skittering, sometimes atonal but always intuitively supportive. Together the duo created a sound almost impossibly emotional and haunting, one unlike anything created before or since. By 1984, however, Kath was married with a young son, and Connors himself was entering a new relationship, so the duo found themselves drifting apart. And now, after almost 25 years, these original recordings are again available to be soaked up, marveled at and relished. Completely remastered, and containing extensive liner notes, original photos and artwork, and a treasure trove of bonus tracks.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Loving Takes This Course
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CH 064CD

Subtitled: A Tribute To The Songs Of Kath Bloom. Sixteen artists from around the world come together to pay tribute to the arresting, gorgeous songs of Connecticut folk-singer Kath Bloom. Since the mid-'70s, Kath has beguiled listeners with her haunting voice and powerfully honest songwriting. In the 1980s, she made six albums with avant-garde guitarist Loren Connors which are now highly-prized collector's items. Then in the 1990s, her bewitching song "Come Here" transfigured the Richard Linklater film Before Sunrise. But it is in the last few years that Kath Bloom has truly come into her own. Beginning with the Chapter Music album Finally in 2006, Kath has begun to reach a whole new generation of fans, including many who make music themselves. Compiled over two years by Chapter's Guy Blackman and San Francisco filmmaker Caveh Zahedi (who first met Kath in 1980), Loving Takes This Course features artists such as Bill Callahan, Devendra Banhart, Mark Kozelek, The Dodos and Scout Niblett. Loving Takes This Course is a 2CD set, featuring one disc of covers and one of the original versions of Kath's songs. Other artists include: Laura Jean, Mick Turner & Peggy Frew, Josephine Foster, Mia Doi Todd, Corrina Repp, Marianne Dissard, Joey Burns, Amy Rude, Tom Hanford, Meg Baird, and The Concretes.

Artist:	BLOOM & LOREN CONNORS, KATH
Title:	Restless Faithful Desperate/Moonlight
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CH 065CD

Restless Faithful Desperate/Moonlight is the second of Chapter Music's double disc reissues by extraordinary early-'80s folk duo Kath Bloom and Loren Connors. Meeting in 1976 in their hometown of New Haven, CT, Kath Bloom and Loren Connors formed a creative partnership that has haunted psych-folk fans ever since, releasing six albums of fragile, avant-garde folk-blues in miniscule quantities, all of which now change hands for huge sums. At first, Kath would act out monologues while Loren played his free-form guitar, extrapolated from Mississippi Delta and Chicago blues, but gradually he and Kath's performances became more song-based. Kath began practicing guitar among the headstones of New Haven's Grove Street cemetery, while Loren's idiosyncratic style had been developing since the 1960s. After self-releasing two limited edition live albums, the duo recorded Sing The Children Over for tiny Boston label Ambiguous Records in 1982, and then in 1983, self-released fourth album Sand In My Shoe. Early on, their albums mixed traditional folk and blues songs with a handful of Kath's vulnerable, moving originals. But by the later albums, the songs were all Kath's -- her fragile voice and subdued finger-picked guitar set against Loren's abstract playing: skittering, sometimes atonal but always intuitively supportive. Together the duo created a sound almost impossibly emotional and haunting, unlike anything created before or since. Their last two albums Restless Faithful Desperate and Moonlight both emerged in 1984, in editions of 200-300 copies on Loren's St. Joan label. As her creativity accelerated, so Kath's songs became looser, more intuitive, with a darkening of tone and an eventual abandonment of intent to shape the music. The songs were still there, however -- Restless... contains one of her most gorgeous compositions, "Look At Me," while Moonlight includes an early version of Kath's signature tune "Come Here." After a quarter of a century, Kath Bloom and Loren Connors' incredible recordings are finally available again. The reissue includes extensive liner notes, original photos and artwork, and six bonus tracks taken from a rare 1982 compilation and an unreleased 1984 live session.

Artist:	CRAYON FIELDS, THE
Title:	All The Pleasures Of The World
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 066CD

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.

Artist:	ROBISON, CHRIS
Title:	Chris Robison And His Many Hand Band
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 067CD

Chris Robison And His Many Hand Band, released privately in 1973 and reissued now on CD for the first time, was one of the world's first records by an openly gay songwriter. Coming just a few years after the Stonewall Riots of 1969, Many Hand Band is a dazzling feat of musical daring. But Chris Robison is not just a pioneering gay musician, he has been an all-pervasive presence in New York rock from the late-'60s onwards, having played with everyone from Elephant's Memory and Steam to Kiss, the New York Dolls, John Phillips and Bob Dylan. Not only that, Many Hand Band is a totally freewheeling and unique album, coalescing all the sensory overload of downtown New York City life in the early-'70s. It touches on folk, psychedelic rock, Latin funk and more, all filtered through Robison's sly and cheeky personality. There is no "woe is me" self-pity here, just an uplifting sense of fun and natural self-expression. Recorded almost totally by Chris himself late at night in a cut-rate studio, Many Hand Band is one of the few remaining undiscovered classics from the period, gay or otherwise. It's difficult to appreciate now, more than 35 years later, how daring and how groundbreaking songs like "Looking For A Boy Tonight" and "Italian Boy" were upon their release. In the album's comprehensive liner notes, filled with rare photos and a frank interview with Chris, he talks of RCA records turning him down because they didn't want another "faggot" on their roster (aside from Lou Reed and David Bowie). Meanwhile, he became a poster boy for the burgeoning gay lib movement, playing Washington Square Park with Bette Midler in front of thousands in 1973. Chris would go on to play with pre-Kiss group Wicked Lester, as well as join the New York Dolls for their Japanese tour of 1975. His later band Stumblebunny toured Europe supporting the Hollies and wrote their later hit "Stormy Waters." Bonus tracks come from a rare single released in 1974 on Buddah Records, featuring the all-time shoulda-beena classic "I'm Gonna Stay With My Baby Tonight," subsequently covered by Ronnie Spector and George McCrae. It's a wild and fascinating story, but Many Hand Band contains the seeds of it all -- all the hedonism, passion and beauty of Chris Robison's life condensed into one incredible record.

Artist:	DANNY & THE PARKINS SISTERS
Title:	Danny & The Parkins Sisters
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 068CD

Chapter Music is proud to resurrect from undeserved obscurity the scratchy beatnik art-punk stylings of early-'80s San Francisco trio Danny & The Parkins Sisters. Surrounded by the classic SF punk sounds of the Dead Kennedys, Pink Section, Flipper and the like, Danny & the Parkins Sisters opted instead to head in a very different direction. Brash Arizona transplant Danny Vinik and chic, alluring sisters Debra and Beverly Parkins strummed on detuned guitars, banged on whatever was close at hand, and declaimed hilarious, incisive lyrics dissecting the scenes and tribes around them in visceral early-'80s San Francisco. Their high-performance shows played out in legendary venues such as the Sound Of Music and Club Generic, with guests including Dead Kennedys drummer DH Peligro. In 1982, the band released an 8-song mini-album on the Modern Masters label, run by Richard Kelly of the cabaret collective Club Foot Orchestra. It included the all-time shoulda-beena classic, "War (Is On Your Doorstep)," a pounding, tribal punk-chant that sums up all the paranoia and posturing of the post-punk era. By 1983, the band were over, with Danny heading to South America and the Parkins sisters to New York, but their brief SF moment shone with a peculiar, musically naive but still knowing charm. Fans of angular post-punk luminaries like the Bush Tetras, The Raincoats or Y Pants will love this CD, which comes filled with bonus demo, live and rehearsal recordings.

Artist:	VA
Title:	Strong Love: Songs Of Gay Liberation 1972-1981
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 070CD

Strong Love explores the first wave of openly gay songwriting, emerging after New York's Stonewall Riots kickstarted the modern gay rights movement in 1969. It took just a few years for the defiant chanting and interlocked arms of early '70s pride marches to reverberate onto record, and Strong Love begins with the earliest-known example, 1972's "A Gay Song" by London hippie collective Everyone Involved. Across 15 tracks, the compilation takes in disarmingly personal folk, uplifting soul, outsider country and dark synth-rock. But tellingly, none of its songs could be considered well-known. New York's Steven Grossman released the first major label album by an openly gay artist in 1974, and Tom Robinson hit the UK Top 20 with the fiery "Glad To Be Gay" in 1978, but these are the exceptions. The coy ambivalence of Lou Reed and David Bowie was about as sexually adventurous as the 1970s music industry got, and most Strong Love artists released their own self-funded recordings in very limited numbers. Unlike their lesbian counterparts, who joined forces to create long-lasting record labels, strong distribution networks and considerable sales figures for artists such as Cris Williamson and Holly Near, gay male musicians in the 1970s existed largely in solitary bubbles. Which doesn't mean they didn't carve out niches of their own. Eccentric one-man band Chris Robison played with the New York Dolls and Elephant's Memory, while L.A. glam seducer Smokey saw members of the Stooges and Quiet Riot pass through his backing band. Steven Grossman was covered by Twiggy and Scrumbly & Martin are justifiably infamous for their work with San Francisco drag hippies The Cockettes. Whether known or not, what the songs on Strong Love illustrate is the vision, talent and raw courage that drove 1970s songwriters to sacrifice popular careers for the sake of honesty and self-expression. Compiled by Chapter Music's Guy Blackman, with an evocative introduction from drummer Richard Dworkin (who played with Blackberri and Buena Vista and is one of the few to have witnessed many Strong Love artists firsthand), the album is a powerful tribute to pioneering artists whose music has been neglected for too long.

Artist:	DICK DIVER
Title:	Arks Up
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	7"/CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	CH 074EP

The second in Chapter Music's new EP series, featuring a vinyl single accompanied by a CD with extra tracks, is by widescreen guitar pop newcomers Dick Diver. Melbourne fourpiece Dick Diver have only been at it for less than a year, but already have the hallmarks of a modern classic. There's something in their combination of widescreen Australian sweep, '70s New York punk edge and scratchy '90s indie rock that transcends influences to become truly rare and exciting. Maybe it's the dual songwriting of guitarists Alastair McKay and Rupert Edwards, which lobs Dick Diver up alongside Go-Betweens heroes Forster & McLennan. Or perhaps it's the epic but non-ridiculous guitar solos they trade off, with faint echoes of Television or Yo La Tengo. It could be the punk credentials of bassist Al Montfort (UV Race, Straightjacket Nation) that give the band some extra heft, or even the laconic drumming and casual harmonies of Steph Hughes (ex-Children Collide). Whatever it is, Dick Diver are definitely making a big impression, including being recently handpicked to support one of their icons Stephen Malkmus at his Melbourne solo show. Arks Up kicks off with instant classic "Walk For Room," one minute and 57 seconds of pure lazy pop magic, followed by the eerie "The Keys" and the genius songwriting of "Tender Years." The CD adds three extra tracks for a perfect introduction to one of Australia's most instantly engaging young bands.

Artist:	TULLY
Title:	Live At Sydney Town Hall, 1969-70
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 076CD

Chapter Music presents two rare live recordings from quintessential Sydney prog group Tully, including their 1970 performance of Australia's first-ever rock opera. These recordings capture the band in their first incarnation, before they joined forces with members of revered folk-psych band Extradition to explore more contemplative territory. Formed in late 1968, Tully The First were wild, expansive and unpredictable, their live shows now the stuff of legend. Terry Wilson (vocals), Richard Lockwood (reeds), Michael Carlos (organ), John Blake (bass) and Robert Taylor (drums) employed extended improvisation, spacious dynamics and an intuitive intensity, so impressing Australian jazz icon John Sangster that he called them "the best band in the world at the time." In mid '69, Tully became the house band for love-rock musical Hair, recording the original cast album later that year. They also starred in a six-part live-in-studio series Fusions, which premiered on ABC TV in August 1969. "Sights & Sounds Of 69," from a May show of the same name, is the only live Tully recording to have survived the intervening four decades, and documents a typically far-ranging, mind-expanding performance. Ken Firth (later of the Ferrets) replaced John Blake on bass in December 1969. Perhaps Australia's greatest living composer, Peter Sculthorpe wrote "Love 200" specifically with Tully and vocalist Jeannie Lewis in mind. The work, commemorating Captain Cook's expedition to map the Transit Of Venus in 1769, was dismissed by the stuffy classical establishment at the time, but Sculthorpe now calls it simply "one of my best works." Heard here for the first time since the early '70s, "Love 200" is an astounding piece, both elegant and jarring, serene and chaotic. After Tully's 1970 self-titled debut, Wilson and Taylor left the band, which then assimilated Extradition's Shayna Stewart and Colin Campbell before releasing two more albums, Sea Of Joy (1971) and Loving Is Hard (1972), both markedly different from their fiery and often thunderous early form. Live At Sydney Town Hall, 1969-70 is a fascinating insight into the early work of one of Australia's most heralded, but least-heard bands.

Artist:	FABULOUS DIAMONDS
Title:	Fabulous Diamonds II
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 077CD

This is the second album by Melbourne duo Fabulous Diamonds. This odd duo makes overtly hypnotic music, full of lulling, sensual repetition, but there's also an edge of irritation, an undercurrent of friction that cuts through the drone and propels the songs forward. Fabulous Diamonds II begins with drummer/vocalist Nisa Venerosa yelling at keyboardist Jarrod Zlatic, as he counts in the first track, but they still start together in perfect unison. It's this combination of tension and intuitive understanding that makes Fabulous Diamonds so special. They have been playing and arguing together for more than five years now, and their musical bond has grown deeper and more expansive since their 2008 self-titled debut. That album made it into revered UK mag The Wire's top albums of the year, and got glowing reviews from the likes of Pitchfork and The Fader. But this new record is still a remarkable development. Of its five untitled tracks, two extend well past the ten-minute mark, sustaining a kind of grumpy intensity that never lags. The album was recorded with budding producer Mikey Young of Eddy Current Suppression Ring, and was mastered by Qua's Cornel Wilczek. Like their first album, it will be released on vinyl by venerable U.S. label Siltbreeze. Fabulous Diamonds toured the U.S. in 2008 with Times New Viking and Psychedelic Horseshit, playing 26 dates in one month. In 2009, they were invited to perform at Belgium's Kraak Festival alongside Wavves, Kurt Vile and others. They also played in the UK, Holland, France, Switzerland, Portugal and Sweden on their 2009 European tour. In Australia, the band have played with Deerhunter, Yeasayer, Akron Family, Beach House, and many more.

Artist:	JEAN, LAURA
Title:	A Fool Who'll
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 078CD

The first sound you hear on A Fool Who'll, the third album by transcendent Australian songwriter Laura Jean, is something never before heard on a Laura Jean record -- it's the sound of an electric guitar. A Fool Who'll was initially intended to be an acoustic album, much like its acclaimed antecedents Our Swan Song (2006) and Eden Land (2008). Laura moved to a cottage in Victoria's Central Highlands in 2009 to write, but despite composing on her trusty steel string, the songs just didn't sound right. It was then that Laura remembered her pastel yellow guitar. "When I'd pictured myself playing an electric, I'd always imagined I'd go for a Strat or a Telecaster," she says now. "But somehow, the crunch, the almost brattinesss of the SG, seemed to impart something to the songs that they needed. And the ridiculous color was kind of perfect as well." You could say Laura Jean went to the country and came back with a rock record. Opener "So Happy" surprises with its thunderous drums and dueling saxophone solos, but there's no rock posturing here. A Fool Who'll is a dark album, claustrophobic and even menacing at times, but suffused with a fierce beauty that is pure Laura Jean. She thinks of it as the dark twin of her first album. "Our Swan Song is about naivety, while Eden Land is about coming of age," she says. "A Fool Who'll is about realizing we're at the mercy of factors that we can't understand or control, but learning to surrender to that unknowing." A Fool Who'll was recorded with Melbourne engineer Simon Grounds, whose CV spans from '80s Oz classic My Pal by God, to recent records for the likes of Kes Band and Teeth & Tongue, as well as Laura's 2006 debut. They recorded at Head Gap and Dollhouse Studios in Melbourne, but then sent the tracks to Canada to be mixed by the renowned Darryl Neudorf (Neko Case, New Pornographers) and mastered by the equally esteemed Peter J. Moore (Neil Young, Joni Mitchell). Her band is the Laura Jean Trio, featuring longtime collaborators Biddy Connor (viola, piano accordion, keyboard and vocals) and Jen Sholakis (drums, guitars and vocals). Guest spots on the album include a duet on "Spring" with Paddy Mann, aka folk eccentric Grand Salvo, and the gorgeous harmonies of "My Song," sung with Magic Silver White's Jojo Petrina and Monica Sonand. A Fool Who'll is a landmark album for Laura, a reinvention of sorts, but also the starkest and most concentrated expression yet from an artist who grows bolder with each release.

Artist:	CLAG
Title:	Pasted Youth
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 082CD

Pasted Youth is the first digital-era re-examination of early '90s cult figures Clag, from Brisbane, Australia. Formed around high school friends Bek Moore, Rachael Cooke and Alison Bolger in the very early '90s, Clag played a kind of psychotic kiddie-punk, full of one-note Casio keyboard solos and lyrics about cows, goldfish and gravy-covered hot chips. Their apparent innocence, however, was merely a front, disguising examinations of the human psyche that grew darker as the band progressed. Live, the band would face away from the audience and play with masks taped to the backs of their heads, or dress in hospital gowns and bedeck the stage with fluffy Mr. Men toys. Musically, they were equally confusing, staking out a bizarre middle ground between The Shaggs, Bikini Kill and The Banana Splits. In short, Clag were one of the most head-scratchingly strange bands in the world, and those who came across them either recoiled immediately or developed a lifelong obsession. The band released three vinyl singles and were beginning to make an international mark, with releases on U.S. and Canadian labels, before they disintegrated in the mid-'90s. Clag members went on to play in bands such as Beaches, Panel Of Judges and Minimum Chips, but in the intervening years, a considerable legend has grown up around their first musical venture. Copies of their original singles are now treasured artifacts. This 23-track reissue comes with a 16-page booklet packed with photos and extensive liner notes. It includes all their officially released recordings, plus a whole raft of bonus material, including a live-to-air session on Brisbane's 4ZZZ-FM, and a chaotic, foul-mouthed live recording from Melbourne's Empress Hotel. Finally, one of Australia's oddest and most compelling bands is available on CD for the first time.

Artist:	COOLIES
Title:	Master
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 083CD

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.

Artist:	COOLIES
Title:	Master
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CH 083LP

LP version. 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.

Artist:	BUM CREEK
Title:	AL
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CH 084LP

AL is the debut album by gonzoid Canberra immigrants Bum Creek. Relocating to Melbourne from their hometown a few years back, Sam Karmel, Trevelyan Clay and Tarquin Manek have made a reputation for themselves as one of the strangest, stupidest and most amazing live bands in town. They turn every show into a triumphant, lurching mess of synth squiggles, Kraut percussion, confrontational stage antics and vocal gibberish. The question, though, with this kind of performance-heavy, musically nonsensical behavior, is always whether it can be translated into a listenable record. This has been answered by the somewhat surprising fact that, sequestered away in their own studio far from prying eyes, Bum Creek make amazing music. Available on limited edition vinyl only, with a digital download card inserted into each copy, the largely improvised AL is sophisticated, wide-ranging and even subdued in places. The loping, only slightly spastic riff of Bollywood is as close to a pop song as the band will probably ever get, while the drifting vocal monologue of "Weird Prince" is alternately hilarious and haunting. Across its six extended tracks, AL hints at the band members' rich and varied musical backgrounds, which range from minimal techno production to free jazz. This Bum Creek tension between live dementia and musical smarts has not gone unnoticed. The band were chosen to support the Boredoms at the Melbourne International Arts Festival in October, and even gave guided "Art Walks" at the National Gallery of Victoria as part of the 2009 Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Now with AL, Bum Creek are ready to leave their hometown and spread throughout the universe like a particularly infectious musical rash. Includes free download code.

Artist:	APARTMENTS, THE
Title:	Black Ribbons
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	7"
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	CH 086EP

Peter Milton Walsh and his band The Apartments return with their first new recordings since 1998. "Black Ribbons," presented here in two distinct versions, is the first evidence of a newly-invigorated Walsh, who has been the sole constant in The Apartments since the band formed in Brisbane in 1978. The "Spring Mix" was recorded as a duet with Natasha Penot, vocalist for Parisian electro-pop group Grisbi. The "Autumn Mix" is darker, recorded with former Go-Between John Willsteed in the producer's chair.

Artist:	ESSENDON AIRPORT
Title:	Palimpsest
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	CH 087CD

Chapter is very excited to announce a 30th anniversary reissue of Palimpsest, the one and only album by Melbourne post-punk icons Essendon Airport. Recorded in December 1981, Palimpsest is now reborn as a double disc package with a whole bonus CD of live and unreleased studio recordings spanning 1980-1983. Formed in 1978 as a minimalist duo of guitarist Robert Goodge and keyboardist David Chesworth, Essendon Airport released their landmark 7" EP Sonic Investigations Of The Trivial on Chesworth's Innocent Records in 1979. Chapter Music reissued Sonic Investigations way back in 2002, as a CD including second single "Talking To Cleopatra" (with vocalist Anne Cessna) and a raft of bonus tracks. Originally gentle and inquisitive, with beats supplied by a drum machine ripped from a home organ, Essendon Airport began to expand after Sonic Investigations and explore the possibilities of rhythm. First came classically-untrained drummer Paul Fletcher, and then saxophonist Ian Cox, to form the four piece line-up heard on Palimpsest. With its dryly-intoned vocals, flailing polyrhythms and a postmodern fascination with appropriation and quotation, the album is an eccentric post-punk classic. The album title means "a manuscript page from which the text has been scraped off to be used again," while the original liner notes state "all" "songs" "written" "and" "produced" "by" "Essendon Airport." After Palimpsest, Essendon Airport added bassist Barbara Hogarth and grew to become one of inner city Melbourne's premiere live attractions. "Creative differences," however, saw them disband in 1983, with Cox, Goodge and Hogarth forming I'm Talking that same year with singer Kate Ceberano. The bonus "Live+More" disc collates 18 recordings, from the duo period to the impressively muscular, previously-undocumented five piece line-up. The original 1982 vinyl version of Palimpsest was presented in a screen-printed plastic cover, and this has been faithfully replicated in 2011 as a nifty clear plastic overlay.

Artist:	O'CONNOR, GEOFFREY
Title:	Vanity Is Forever
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	CH 088CD

Vanity Is Forever is Crayon Fields frontman Geoffrey O'Connor's first album under his own name, and his most ambitious, dynamic and sophisticated work yet. O'Connor's fractured romantic reflections and lustful tributes play out over vast synthscapes, colossal stadium drums and flanged orchestral sweeps, creating a world that is at once ethereal and strikingly vivid. With a combination of restraint and fearless abandon, O'Connor embraces the conflicts of modern love in a manner as ambiguous as it is blunt, and as shameless as it is generous. His songs indulge in ecstasy, love, pride, failure and all the glamorous contradictions they become. He is both an adult with a juvenile mind, and a geriatric in the body of a young man. Painstakingly refined over two years, Vanity Is Forever is O'Connor's most fully-realized album to date, an epic pop melodrama that shifts seamlessly between seductive, high-production dance hits, suave funk joyrides and modern synthetic power balladry. Recently, O'Connor has mesmerized audiences with an extravagant live show of dueling synthesizers, lasers, light sculptures and hypnotic projections. His diverse solo output -- under both his own name and previous solo moniker Sly Hats -- has seen him handpicked to support the likes of Fleet Foxes, Jens Lekman, School Of Seven Bells, Andrew Bird and First Aid Kit.

Artist:	O'CONNOR, GEOFFREY
Title:	Vanity Is Forever
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	LP
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	CH 088LP

LP version. Vanity Is Forever is Crayon Fields frontman Geoffrey O'Connor's first album under his own name, and his most ambitious, dynamic and sophisticated work yet. O'Connor's fractured romantic reflections and lustful tributes play out over vast synthscapes, colossal stadium drums and flanged orchestral sweeps, creating a world that is at once ethereal and strikingly vivid. With a combination of restraint and fearless abandon, O'Connor embraces the conflicts of modern love in a manner as ambiguous as it is blunt, and as shameless as it is generous. His songs indulge in ecstasy, love, pride, failure and all the glamorous contradictions they become. He is both an adult with a juvenile mind, and a geriatric in the body of a young man. Painstakingly refined over two years, Vanity Is Forever is O'Connor's most fully-realized album to date, an epic pop melodrama that shifts seamlessly between seductive, high-production dance hits, suave funk joyrides and modern synthetic power balladry. Recently, O'Connor has mesmerized audiences with an extravagant live show of dueling synthesizers, lasers, light sculptures and hypnotic projections. His diverse solo output -- under both his own name and previous solo moniker Sly Hats -- has seen him handpicked to support the likes of Fleet Foxes, Jens Lekman, School Of Seven Bells, Andrew Bird and First Aid Kit.

Artist:	TWERPS
Title:	Twerps
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 091CD

This is the debut album from Melbourne pop foursome, Twerps. Up until now, a large part of Twerps' charm has been their rough edges. Recording to hissy four-track tape, singing songs about enjoying the "occasional quiet drink" and then throwing up on your friends, the group has released a series of loveably lo-fi vinyl singles and cassettes on labels around the world. But now, with their self-titled debut, there might just be a little bit of growing up going on, as this is the biggest-sounding recording Twerps have ever done. Unlike their early manifestos, Twerps was recorded in a bona fide studio, with the help of engineer Jack Farley (Beaches, St. Helens). But it's not just the sound, it's the songs. Tracks like "Through The Day" and "Dreamin" contain instantly recognizable Twerps elements: the fascination with New Zealand's 1980s Flying Nun era, as well as U.S. bands like The Feelies and Galaxie 500. But they also contain a kind of Australian pop timelessness that harks back to the Go-Betweens, Paul Kelly and the Sunnyboys. This is something new for the band, and it's deep and resonant. Every Twerp is stepping up in their own way. Guitarist Julia McFarlane (once of NZ dirge-monsters Batrider) takes a rare vocal turn on the disarming "This Guy," while her high-treble guitar lines slice through main vocalist/guitarist Marty Frawley's endearing brashness to reveal the pulsating heart beneath each song. Bassist Rick Milovanovic is a deep melody master, while drummer Pat O'Neill provides the most sympathetic of accompaniment. Then there are the guest appearances, such as sweet harmonies from Super Wild Horses' Hayley McKee and Amy Franz on "Bring Me Down," and the rousing group chorale from members of Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Beaches, Panel Of Judges and others on "Don't Be Surprised" and "Who Are You." Panel's Dion Nania also contributes some keyboard and guitar flourishes across the album, while Peak Twins' Joel Carey and Liam Kenny sing back-up on "Dreamin."

Artist:	DICK DIVER
Title:	New Start Again
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 092CD

New Start Again, the debut album by Melbourne foursome Dick Diver, is warm and understated, shot through with casual grace and supported by real backbone. It's an intriguing combination of widescreen Australian sweep, '70s New York edge and '90s indie-rock scratch that transcends its influences to become truly honest and exciting. The respectively wry and poetic songwriting of guitarists Rupert Edwards and Alistair McKay lobs Dick Diver up alongside Go-Betweens heroes Forster & McLennan, while their often epic fretwork bears echoes of Television and Yo La Tengo. But bassist Al Montfort's impeccable punk pedigree (UV Race, Total Control, Straightjacket) roughs up the band's bookish proclivities, while drummer Steph Hughes brings a similarly frayed-edge appeal. Her background in bands from Children Collide to Boomgates gives the band an offhand, subtly swinging charm. Their first EP, 2009's Arks Up, enjoyed Triple J rotation and community radio thrashing, and brought shows with Stephen Malkmus and a Boogie Festival appearance, amongst other plaudits. Rupert and Al Mc hogged the songwriting duties on the EP, but New Start Again, recorded with Eddy Current Suppression Ring's Mikey Young at an old homestead in country Victoria, is a much more even-handed affair. The band share songwriting, swap instruments, and introduce new sounds like pedal steel, piano, and slide guitar. Steph and Al Monty's title-track duet, especially, provides a laidback, cheeky counterpoint to their bandmates' more considered efforts. Rupert, meanwhile, provides lovelorn-but-snappy first single "Through The D" and sook-pop classic "On The Bank," while Al Mc displays impressionistic lyrical flair on tracks like "Hammock Days" and "Seagulls." And on closing track "Head Back," the four loosen their collars to create probably the funnest five minutes of music released in Australia this year.

Artist:	DICK DIVER
Title:	New Start Again
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	CH 092LP

LP version. New Start Again, the debut album by Melbourne foursome Dick Diver, is warm and understated, shot through with casual grace and supported by real backbone. It's an intriguing combination of widescreen Australian sweep, '70s New York edge and '90s indie-rock scratch that transcends its influences to become truly honest and exciting. The respectively wry and poetic songwriting of guitarists Rupert Edwards and Alistair McKay lobs Dick Diver up alongside Go-Betweens heroes Forster & McLennan, while their often epic fretwork bears echoes of Television and Yo La Tengo. But bassist Al Montfort's impeccable punk pedigree (UV Race, Total Control, Straightjacket) roughs up the band's bookish proclivities, while drummer Steph Hughes brings a similarly frayed-edge appeal. Her background in bands from Children Collide to Boomgates gives the band an offhand, subtly swinging charm. Their first EP, 2009's Arks Up, enjoyed Triple J rotation and community radio thrashing, and brought shows with Stephen Malkmus and a Boogie Festival appearance, amongst other plaudits. Rupert and Al Mc hogged the songwriting duties on the EP, but New Start Again, recorded with Eddy Current Suppression Ring's Mikey Young at an old homestead in country Victoria, is a much more even-handed affair. The band share songwriting, swap instruments, and introduce new sounds like pedal steel, piano, and slide guitar. Steph and Al Monty's title-track duet, especially, provides a laidback, cheeky counterpoint to their bandmates' more considered efforts. Rupert, meanwhile, provides lovelorn-but-snappy first single "Through The D" and sook-pop classic "On The Bank," while Al Mc displays impressionistic lyrical flair on tracks like "Hammock Days" and "Seagulls." And on closing track "Head Back," the four loosen their collars to create probably the funnest five minutes of music released in Australia this year.

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