Adjustment Disorder – The Institutionalist (self released)
The Institutionalist is a post-punk creation from the sonic laboratory of Ernie O, a gifted but unassuming producer, engineer and musician from the fringes of Melbourne.
At this point we’ll declare that The O Man is the mastering wiz-of-choice for many discerning labels, I-94 Bar Records, among them. His playing history includes Suburban Urchins, The Photon Belt, The Undecided By Default and Vocabularinist, none of which are household names. That’s what you get for misspending your youth in Tasmania. In a fair and just world, however, “Adjustment Disorder” would change that.
This might be a record mostly made in Melbourne but the music is the sort of dystopian musical social commentary that could have sprung from Thatcher’s Britain in the 1980s. The lady might not have been for turning but your ears should be. It’s stark, urgent and sharp. Even a little Real (Ernie) O Mind. Twenty years ago, DJ John Peel would have been all over it like moisture on a Pommy’s towel.
Most of the material was written and is sung by Ernie O but The Institutionalist is nothing if not a collective. Collaborators include Paul Lindsay (Vicious Circle), Matt Piscioneri (Zoo Infantry), Michael Aliani (Chiron, Ikon), Dave Slade (Slug, No Mans Land), Edwin Garland (Waxworks, Dwarfthrower), Yolanda Ingley III, Mick Medew (Screaming Tribesmen) and Ursula (Ironing Music) and Andrew Horne (UNDECIDED By Default, Lava Fangs).
Post-punk is a stupid term. It’s even dumber than Punk. But everybody can get their head around it, right? Your own Post-Punk might vary, but I can hear Gang of Four, (early) Cure, a smidgin of PiL, the restless foreboding of The Fall, the tension of Wire and just a dash of dub on this collection of 11 diverse songs. The one thing I won’t call it is “angular”. NME used that term to death, and nobody in 2025 needs to mimic an “inkie”.
Unsurprisingly if you know the mastering work of Ernie O, “Adjustment Disorder” sounds remarkably cohesive. On the packet it says “powerful post punk songs with a message and infectious hooks” and it ain’t wrong. Apart from that, how does it sound? Might as well start at the beginning…
The title track is the opener and it broods like a jet-lagged psychopath at a Jetstar reservation counter. Ernie O adds Bernard Sumner-style guitar lines over a pulsing beat as he declares:
I can’t sleep, I can’t eat
I can’t sit cos I’m twitching in my fingers and my feet
I can’t work, I can’t think
I can’t be happy doesn’t matter if I’m sober or I drink
If that doesn’t land your mood somewhere in a grey industrial suburb near Manchester, British Airways will.
Syncopated guitars pepper the word salad of “The Algorithm (Is a Dancer)” like waldorfs in a UK hotel salad. It’s a contrast to the darker “Cut It (Over and Out)” where an unnerving O vocal weaves a lyric like a cross between the Velvet Underground’s “The Gift” and na gory part of Brett Easton-Ellis’ “American Psycho”.
The political commentary of the dub-flavoured “Gaza Dub Bombed To Pieces” (featuring a winsome vocal from Yolanda Ingley II) and the proto-metal firestorm of “Tail Wags the DOGE” (Dave Slade on vocal and Steve Reynolds on guitar) both land their payloads with power and precision.
The studio re-tooling of Mick Medew & Ursula’s “Punk Grandma” sounds faster and nastier than the original, and should have you visualising a septuagenarian who’s been taking too many of Granny’s Little Helpers aka angry pills. “No Filter” is a handy reminder that although you’re never alone with schizophrenia, Tourette’s really is the syndrome that wins friends and influences people.
Stinging guitar and a voice-of-doom vocal from Ed Garland (a name familiar to Barflies) gives the breezy “Ward of The State” its class war edginess. The mid-weight industrial hammer of “Work Will Set Us Free” conveys an effective level of ennui with some scuzzy Andrew Horne guitar overdubbed to good effect.
“Join the Car Crash Set (Warm Leatherette)” embellishes The Normal’s stark original and takes it down an entirely different highway.
DR.EM ‘s creeping vocal on the Rich versus Poor planet departure song, “The Age Of No Reason”, carries some irony in a news week dominated by a bunch of downtrodden female multi-millionaires rocketing into space for 11 hot minutes. It also sets the scene for Ernie O‘s Urban Compound to be coverted to a bunker, should it be necessary to call-out The Outer Melbourne Militia in response to Katy Perry kissing the ground anywhere in his vicinity.
