Various – Can't Stop It! Australian Post-Punk 1978-82 (2xLP)

Originally released on CD in 2001, Chapter's landmark compilation Can’t Stop It! Australian Post-Punk 1978-82 is receiving a deluxe vinyl reissue on 6 June 2025. It is available for pre-order now as a gatefold double vinyl LP on black or limited green and white vinyl.

Can’t Stop It! documents a fantastically inventive and dynamic era, when Australian acts stepped out of the shadow of overseas influence and asserted their own musical identity for perhaps the first time. Remastered with updated liner notes and photos, this deluxe 2LP set expands on the original 20 track CD with six bonus never-before-reissued tracks.

Featuring tracks by future members of bands such as Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Einsturzende Neubauten, Dirty Three and The Go-Betweens, Can’t Stop It! is a vivid survey of the creativity and innovation bubbling away under the surface of Australia’s largely unadventurous mainstream music culture of the time.

All of the bands on Can't Stop It! released their music independently, either themselves or through the handful of visionary labels of the era such as Au-Go-Go, M Squared, Missing Link or Innocent Records.

Bonus tracks include never before reissued tracks by Canberra pre-hardcore youths *****,***** (pronounced "Cough Cough"), eerie Sydney feminist group Electric Fans, Perth's dark prog-punks The Plants, Sydney bedroom synth eccentric Yclept Dinmakers (aka electronic artist Paul Gough who later recorded under the name Pimmon), Brisbane improv art-punks The Voice Of Drama (a project for renowned artist John Nixon) and short-lived Melbourne outfit Synthetic Dream.

On its original release in 2001, the compilation got Chapter Music its first major international attention, written up in The Wire magazine, stocked at Other Music in New York and selling out numerous CD pressings.