Adjustment Disorder – The Institutionalist (self released)
For those deluded few wondering how to contact me, try my name at g mail dot com; the phone number on the facebook page has been incorrect for quite a while and I expect it's been on a few toilet walls for yonks.
Anyway, the intro piece on The Institutionalist's Bandcamp page runs something like this:
"You may not know Ernie O, but there’s a good chance that you are familiar with his work. His audio production skills – recording, mixing, mastering, remixing, songwriting and playing – have been heard on close to a thousand releases in the Australian scene since the early ‘90s, from punk, metal, pop, indie rock, folk metal, downbeat, electronica and dance, on labels such as Subversive Records, Grown Up Wrong!, Off The Hip, Popboomerang, I-94 Bar, Savage Beat, Vicious Kitten and Sound As Ever, as well as his own musical collaborations – Oppenheimer, Haethenfolc, Mekigah and Suburban Urchins.
“Ernie has finally come out with his own solo project, The Institutionalist. Ernie O has taken a deep dive into the record crates of history and the darker corners of the human psyche and emerged with a magnum opus that s well worthy of your consideration."
The Institutionalist lays down a series of wicked grooves and licking guitars sometimes reminiscent of J** D******* but more often dipping into records and bands you'll recognise. Sometimes quite distorted and concealed. So “Adjustment Disorder'”sounds both very new, and quite familiar.
For example, while “Cut It (Over and Out)” reminded me of a certain Velvet Underground song, but that trigger is more in a lyrical echo than anything else (mind you, I found myself smiling so much at the twin 'memory plus new approach' that I had to relisten to the song).
Another example would be “Gaza Dub (Bombed to Peace)”, which features Yolanda Ingley II. A relentlessly chirpy bass line accentuates lyrics like: The innocent are all gone now/ their bodies line the street/ the Gaza Strip is silent/ but there is no defeat …which cheered me up so much I started drinking gin and tonic at 7am. I have to get up early to do these reviews, y'see, otherwise I'll be spotted enjoying myself and be “persuaded” away to do something “useful”.
If you've not guessed already, there's a fair few guest vocalists here, all performing to great effect. For example, the second song, “The Algorithm (Is a Dancer)” features superb diction from the singer from Vicious Circle, Paul Lindsay. If you're not familiar with them, they have a Bandcamp page as well. “Tail Wags the DOGE” features Dave Slade and Steve Reynolds (and, musically and lyrically, this one reminds me quite a bit of early Killing Joke...). As does “Work Will Set You Free”.
One element which leaps out at us is the superb, rich production of a collection of songs which would not be out of place on any modern pop LP of any sensibility. Another prominent element is the dry bleak humour, which lances our boils while rotorvating at us like a court jester who knows far more than he lets on. Take the interpretation of Mute founder Daniel Miller's debut single, “Join the Car Crash Set (Warm Leatherette)” with Michael Aliani (of Chiron and Ikon) on vocals - it ain't what you think, not at all. It is, of course, a similarly jolly romp through the windscreen complete with erotic maiming.
A third element which should be clear by now is that the album feels very familiar. You won't have heard these songs before, but there's a lot of your past and present here. And I think this is the most important element, because it absolutely bonds you to the songs. Not that many artists achieve this intimacy, or familiarity, by the by.
Ernie is the main vocalist, and he's a chap who sounds thoroughly frustrated with life, the universe and everything. No doubt this reminds us all of ourselves from time to time. He doesn't do the punker thing of shouting angrily all the time, but lays emphasis to what he's on about. Apart from making you laugh like a drain at the familiarity of it, “No Filter” had me thinking of Dave Warner's from the Suburbs as well as bloody 999. I mean, what a mixture...
“Adjustment Disorder” is a thoroughly enjoyable critter, which can help you do your housework or help you dance around the place. You'll be bellowing choruses in your old fart voice in no time, and when the police are finally called by out-of-patience neighbours, you bastards will blame me. - Robert Brokenmouth
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. - The Barman
