Read more
List of contents
List of Permissions
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Unit Track Listing
Preface
Introduction
1. Alternative Nation
2. The Dirty Room
3.Phase One
4. Phase Two
5. Phase Three
Conclusion
Glossary
References
Index
About the author
Lachlan Goold is a recording engineer, producer, mixer, popular music educator, researcher and a lecturer in Contemporary Music at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. His research focuses on practice-based music production approaches, theoretical uses of space, and the music industry specifically relating to government legislation. In his creative practice, he is better known as Australian music producer, Magoo, a two-time ARIA award winner. Since 1990, he has worked on a wide range of albums from some of the country’s best-known artists, achieving a multitude of Gold and Platinum awards.Lauren Istvandity is a lecturer in the School of Business and Creative Industries at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She is the author of The Lifetime Soundtrack: Music and Autobiographical Memory (2019) and co-author of Curating Pop: Popular Music in the Museum with Sarah Baker and Raphael Nowak (2019, Bloomsbury). She is the co-editor of two The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History and Heritage (2018) and Remembering Popular Music’s Past: Memory-Heritage-History (2019). She is a past recipient of the John Oxley Library Fellowship, State Library of Queensland (2017).
Summary
Regurgitator’s second full-length album, Unit (1997), was produced in a DIY warehouse studio at a time when this was unusual for a major label band. The album went three times Platinum in Australia and won five esteemed ARIA Awards in 1998, including Album of the Year. The album’s success is indicative of a particular point in time in popular music trends, when the world was recovering from the impact of grunge and post-grunge bands.
Regurgitator’s subversive attitude toward pop music, punk aesthetic, unique lyrical narratives and an ironic view on their own creative product made their music potent in an alternative market defying the prevailing music trends. Unit and Regurgitator were the focus of divisive critical reviews, yet they continue to rank highly as a quintessentially Australian band. This volume situates the development of Unit amongst the DIY culture of a politically charged Brisbane scene, and breaks down the album through the lens of recording and songwriting processes. This book outlines the impact of Regurgitator’s music locally and globally, by discussing what made Unit a success at the peak of the alternative music genre.
Foreword
Defines the impact of Regurgitator’s music locally and globally, by discussing what made Unit a success at the peak of the alternative music genre.
