|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
CH 110LP
|
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.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
7"
|
|
DESIRE 082EP
|
Cult Melbourne band Primitive Calculators cut a single in 1979 before splitting in the true punk fashion. A posthumous eponymous live album was released in 1981 and that was it. These two tracks are as fresh now as they were more than 30 years ago: in a style not dissimilar to the Screamers or Cabaret Voltaire (circa Nag Nag Nag), Primitive Calculators used raw monophonic synth lines with scratchy guitars and screaming vocals, but the songs stood on their own (as the unplugged version of "Do That Dance" that appears on the Primitive Calculators and Friends 1979-82 could testify). The original 7" is now incredibly rare and hard to find and this reissue is its exact replica. First pressing limited to 500 copies.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
DESIRE 061LP
|
2014 repress. The Holy Grail of the '70s punk/synth-punk Australian scene is now reissued in its original form for the first time on vinyl. Desire is proud to release the very first Primitive Calculators debut album. Originally out in 1982 in a very limited edition vinyl including a postcard, the eponymous album was recorded live in 1979 at Hearts, North Carlton, supporting the Boys Next Door. Often described as the "Australian Screamers," Primitive Calculators were one of the few Aussie bands to mix minimal synth, bass, scratchy guitars, repetitive drum machine beats reminiscent of their California cousins and also touches of Cabaret Voltaire. This impossibly hard-to-find item is now available on vinyl for the first time since 1982 and this second pressing includes an exact replica of the sleeve -- black vinyl with black labels, and a postcard. Limited edition of 210 copies. Last pressing with the postcard.
|