nic dalton

DONAT TAHIRAJ
Owner of Phase 4 Records and Cassettes store and the LCMR Records label
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 

There’s no need to explain what a slightly weird year 2020 was. Sadly and for my back pocket’s sake, Phase 4 Records had to close for most of Autumn which meant I wasn’t as often held captive by some stinky guy banging on about the greatness of some rockist act they read about in "The Wire" at the top of their voice scaring our innocent customers away while I desperately needed to go to the toilet.

Our record label LCMR managed to squeeze out only three 7” EPs for the year – one by a hopelessly obscure Toowoomba punk group, Brian, and two by Xiro, the Brisbane band of the early post-punk era who should’ve gone on to have a great international career but decided not to for the sake of art; or something.

It was a great pleasure putting them all together for those who were all too familiar and the ones who were brave enough to try some music that was completely unknown to them.

Venerable Australian label Half a Cow has moved with lightning speed to respond to the floods that have devasted parts of the Australian east coast this week.

One-hundred percent of the proceeds from the digital release of the quickly-assembled, all-Australian “Flood Zone” compilation will go to Queensland and New South Wales victims of the inundation, via the GIVIT platform.

Copies downloaded during Bandcamp Friday will be exempt from Bandcamp charges. It can be purchased here.

Participating acts are The Lovetones, Crow, The Ramalamas, Key Out, The Finalists, Darren Hanlon, Froggy Prinze, Bum Spa, Claire Birchall, Baby Blue, Montana, Tim Guy, Thee Cha Cha Chas, Adele & The Chandeliers, Turnstyle, Lost In The Woods, The Nature Strip, Monnone Alone, Victoria, Stressless, Bambino Koresh, La Huva, Smudge and Falling Joys.

Says label head Nic Dalton:"Thanks to all the acts for helping out! Some songs are old, some songs are new and some have never seen the light of day before."

Great pop music is timeless. The proof is right here in the 37 rare or previously unreleased tracks on this compilation of Australian bands from Melbourne label Popboomerang.

Ask yourself this question: When did Pop - as the ‘60s defined it - become uncool with the masses? Who forced it to go sit in the naughty corner with its rowdy sibling Rock and Roll and its odd cousin Free Jazz? Best guess is when the corporatised music industry ate itself in the 1980s and all the people with emotional intelligence were replaced by spreadsheets. 

Melbourne pop fan Scott Thurling and his prolific label just deals with it. With more than 100 releases in the back catalogue, for almost 20 years it’s been the go-to place in Australia for “real” pop - not the soulless pap that passes for the same for most people. As you might work out from the title, “Shake” is the third volume in a series and the label’s fourth compilation. A handful of these tracks date back 20 years but you'd never know.