Claire Birchall returns with a new solo album of dark & personal pop songs. A “gothic” tapestry of carefully articulated layered melodies adorned with intricate vocal patterns. The Haunting is an emotionally complex album. Inspired by nightmares, fairy tales and ghost stories, exploring themes of fear, loss and anxiety. Blurring the boundaries between rock and pop, electronic and analogue. Traversing a heady mix of genre, tempo. Invoking everything from edgy disco to anguished torch song.

Written and performed by Claire Birchall
Produced by James Saunders and Claire Birchall
Mastered by Mikey Young
Cover art by Luke Fraser/AHR+

Claire Birchall - The Haunting

Off the back of his 2024 EBM meets rockabilly greaser album Moto Zone. Cong Josie returns with a new partner in crime : the legendary Garry Gray, aka Garry Sacred of seminal Aussie swamp-rock outfit Sacred Cowboys. The two met in early 2025 when Cong fessed up to ripping off the Cowboys’ track ‘Nothing Grows in Texas’ on ‘1300 Scorpio’, the two recognise a kindred spirit, bonded over their love for Alan Vega and 70’s oz-boogie and next thing you know, we’ve got this scorchin’ EP.

The record kicks off with a re-recording mash-up of the aforementioned ‘1300 Scorpio’ & ‘Nothing Grows in Texas’ in ‘1300 Texico’. Like leather clad twins mysteriously separated by a decade or two, there is an undeniable synchronicity at play. If you know these two musicians, you can imagine the burning heat they produce together. It feels right, it feels inevitable. What follows just gets better. 

Sacred Money conjures the dread power and unrelenting pull of money-seduction. Next is a triplet of on-theme cover versions starting with the lead single from the record, a sleazy and sinister cover of the canonic Oz-boogie-era song, ‘I’ll Be Gone’ (originally by Spectrum 1971). Side two smacks you straight in the face with a blood pumpin’ rendition of Suicide’s ‘Fast Money Music’ followed by a deep cut from The Kinks underrated 1974 concept record Preservation Act 2 : ‘Money Talks’. The record closes with the title track ‘Sacred Money’ a tripped out ode to/ lament for/ rail against, you guessed it… money. 
Strap in for a one of a kind modern classic of uncompromising punk vision calling for action while demonstrating the heart and the power of community and creativity. Rise up, rob a bank and pull out those leathers, this one’s two punch banger.  


Cong Josie & Garry Sacred - Sacred Money

We’ve got one last banger before the rekkid drops this Friday. In case you still haven’t been acquainted yet, the cowboy futurist of Oz, Cong Josie, is back to make darn sure you know his name and his game with ‘Cong the Singer’ the final single from his eponymous album Cong! It’s 4 minutes of Cong madness and malarky after which we think you’ll count yourself a co-conspirator, partner in crime or just need a cold shower. 

This thrusting synth-punk stomper is a timely manifesto announcing the imminent release of his debut LP, Cong!  Crooning, yelping and cooly fantasising in spoken word, Cong serves up his most blistering joy-ride yet. Imagery is invoked of a speeding Eastern Freeway drive in a crowded clown-car/Ford Laser with Giorgio Moroder in the back seat squeezed in with a strong-man chanting choir and a lush disco chanteuse whose voice floats crystal clear with hope. Cong is at the wheel of course, all hopped up on 7/11 one dollar coffees singing Roy Orbison too fast at 78rpm while Johnny Cayn is the front passenger playing a hillbilly slide guitar with complete abandon - wind flowing through his curly locks.

The origin story told in ‘Cong The Singer’ of Cong coming good as a gun-for-hire singer who becomes infamous at the parma-night mega pubs of the suburban sprawl doing a sort of Elvis-does-pub-rock karaoke show may have only a thin veneer of irony about it though. Cong’s daylighting alter-ego Nic Oogjes (NO ZU) grew up driving daily on the freeway mentioned, and it could be said that his own insecurities as a singer, and that of perpetually feeling like an outsider who (fruitlessly) seeks acceptance via creative output, of which will never actually align with broad definitions of 'good' in the ‘burbs, could be fuelling this trip. This is just a theory though. For now, let’s just thrust along to Cong, the “stiletto singer, moonlighting in the dead of night”.

GENRE : No Wave, New Wave, Post-Punk, Synthwave, 
RIYL: Alan Vega, The Cramps, Chrome, The Birthday Party 

‘Cong the Singer’ single releases October 15th on all digital platforms. Cong!  the debut LP is out October 22nd 2021. On digital CD and ultra-limited hot pink vinyl through It Records
Contact: Kate Reid itrekkids@gmail.com

Pre-order now at itrecordsmelb@bandcamp.com

Cong Josie -  Cong The Singer

“The ceiling doesn’t know it’s being watched by so many liquid-sick eyes”

Cult duo VACUUM turn their gaze from the mechanical to the mortal with their second single ‘I’ll Call You’, which explores Western end-of-life rituals.

Cavernous soundscapes are cut razor-sharp and met with Andrea Blake (ASPS/CHROME DOME) and Jenny Branagan’s (NUN) dual deadpan recitations, reminiscent of early Anne Clark. An ominous sub-bass sets the tone while the squeak of a rubber sole on waxed hospital floors is dressed in an echo of New Wave delay. Empty platitudes are uttered down the phone line - diegetic and delivered like an infernal Shangri-las. The anticipation of a flatline extracts the sacred from the mundane – the Temenos of a waiting room, the Oracle of the Yellow Pages and an Ambrosia of instant coffee.

The album VACUUM S/T will be out Feb 18th 2022
credits
released November 25, 2021
Recorded by Josh Wells (Naarm Melbourne) and mastered by Enyang Urbik (Berlin).

Cover Photograph by Nicole Reed
Design by Luke Fraser at Grin Creative

VACUUM - I´LL CALL YOU

On the second slice from their upcoming debut album, Brisbane/ Melbourne cult synth-pop trio 100% gives a pulsing precision to 'Prisoner', previously heard on their 2014 demo cassette. In this new rendition, Chloe, Grace and Lena's call to dance and connect beckons with questions about power, belonging, and safety. Charged with that familiar glistening synth and amped up beats to pull you out of your comfort zone that 100% are known for, 'Prisoner' gives as much as it takes.

Prisoner

100% Prisoner

"Moving Now Now Now" is the third single taken from the album CLEAREYE SHINING showcases the band's epoch of expressionist impulse. Released with a fantastic and stylish video.

see video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KADkIfp1h50

Monochrome silhouettes are met with chess stylistically doused in Hollywood Regency. Bitumen’s Kate Binning embodies slick femme fatale with a choreographed performance emphasising Binning’s affinity for stage and camera.

Produced by Jenny Branagan and Andrea Blake and edited by Bitumen’s very own Bryce Maher. “Moving Now Now Now”, connects the dots between Anger’s scandalous expose ‘Hollywood Babylon’, Bob Fosse, Klaus Naomi, and the golden age of glamour noir in the MTV Music Video. 

Cleareye Shining is out now via: Heavy Machinery and It Records

GENRE: POST-PUNK, SYNTH-PUNK, SYNTH-POP, DARKWAVE, GOTHIC, ELECTRONIC ROCK, INDUSTRIAL, ALTERNATIVE

RIYL: SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES, BOY HARSHER, KILLING JOKE, CURVE, MEDICINE, DEPECHE MODE, DRAB MAJESTY, MOLCHAT DOMA, SEXTILE, MALARIA!, RIKI, PATRIARCHY

Bitumen -  Moving Now Now Now

The sleaziest grinder this side of your local coffee roaster. The intro alone will have uncontrollably ordering pellets of Snake Oil (lucky you've got me on speed dial now) and then keep your hips shifting for three months (admittedly it does hurt after some time, but thats not my problem). Like your very own Whitehorse Council version of White Horse by Laid Back. A new theme for Monday mornings. I adore Premium Fantasy so much. So deep and inventive. - Cong

The first remix from the upcoming remix album CONG ON! by Cong Josie - out digitally this Friday 16th September. We are releasing 2 tracks a day all week. The album will be available in an ultra-limited  ADULTS ONLY bootleg vinyl edition of only 150 worldwide on October 7th. Pre-order your copy at https://itrecordsmelb.bandcamp.com

Cong Josie -  Flamin' Heart (Premium Fantasy Mix)

Anchor and Adjust is the debut album from, Australian synth-pop duo Syzygy; Rebecca Maher and Gus Kenny both formerly of beloved Melbourne synth-punk band Spotting. This new project explores a more unadulterated electronic aesthetic combined with an unabashed pop sensibility.

“Gus was listening to a lot of 80s synth music and minimal wave, while Bec was deep into mainstream 80s pop divas and new wave.”

The resultant album sits at a crossroads of genre. The melodies of new wave pop meet the synth tones of 80’s coldwave, the vocal dynamics of post-punk and the DIY ethos and raw edges of punk. Layered synths twist and weave. Featuring celestial, emotive vocals, the album is often bright and upbeat, danceable, but also moody, thoughtful and clever. It is  sparkling and edgy electronic pop.

The album’s lyrics explore the power dynamics in relationships, including the relationship with yourself. It is about control and being controlled. Attempts to unravel years of ingrained behaviour and decision making to try and see the world another way. It yearns for clarity, asking questions and searching for definitions to try to understand what is perception, what is manipulation and what is truth. 

“I was speaking to myself, through myself. Both aware of having these feelings and disconnected from how they were making me feel. Making this record allowed me to create order and meaning. It was both my wake up call and my pep talk for changes I desperately needed in my life.”  Rebecca Maher

Syzygy - Anchor And Adjust - 10 Reorder

Syzygy - Anchor And Adjust - 06 Anchor And Adjust

Syzygy - Anchor And Adjust - 04 Social Fence

Syzygy - Anchor And Adjust - 02 Memory Distortion

The new LP by White Hex : "Gold Nights" will be out June 24th through it Records (AUS) and Felte (USA).

This, the second sneak peak track from the record " Gold" is a shimmering flame in the dark. It's Killer we can't wait for the album to drop next month.


Gold

Time to the Brim is the final single ahead of the upcoming psychedelic, synthpop magnum opus ‘Here is one I Know You Know’ from beloved Aussie cult singer-songwriter SEJA. It is a squelchy, danceable, super-catchy pop song that culminates in a glorious kaleidoscopic synth v guitar freakout.

Written, produced and performed by Seja
Mixed by John Lee
Mastered by Ryan Dahle
Percussion - George Browning (Velociraptor)
Backing Vocals - Georgia Mooney
Cover by Fraser Ahr+
Photography by Luke Henery

SEJA - Time To The Brim

Liam Kenny - Eyes Without A Face

It Records is excited to announce the forthcoming release of Reliquary of Dusk, the 4th album (second on IT) from Dunedin/Melbourne experimental darkwave duo Ov Pain (Tim Player/ Renee Barrance). ‘Silver Gate’ is the first taste of this dark and brooding work.

Ov Pain are a band that explore, each new album sees them treading a new path. From the cold wave, post-punk of their debut self-titled album (2017), through heavier territory in the gothic drone on The Churning of Blue Noon (20121). This new album expands on the minimal rhythmic soundscapes of Kauri Island (2022), to weave and fold new colours into the Ov Pain tapestry.


On ‘Silver Gate’ Barrance floats an ethereal incantation of doom across a bed of slowly building synthesizer drone that eventually cascades into a post-trip hop groove. Hissing, simmering synths weave between the beats like smoke, resolving in a wall of synthesized organ.

File Under : Experimental, Ethereal, Dark Electronic, Neo-folk
RIYL: X-TG, Hiro Kone, Muslimgauze, Nico, Pan Sonic, Coil, Threshold HouseBoys Choir, Current 93, Death In June, Gazelle Twin, NYX, Heather Leigh, Lucrecia Dalt, Soisong, Golem Mecanique.

Reliquary of Dusk

Silver Gate

Ov Pain - Silver Gate

Fred Soque remix of Eyes Without a Face
from A Kenny For Your Thoughts by Liam Kenny

Fred Soque aka Old Mate aka Pat Telfer : Sometime band mate to Liam Kenny ( Bitch Prefect / Silly Joel and the Candymen ) gives Eyes Without a Face a bit of razzle dazzle.

Eyes With Out A Face FRED SOQUE REMIX

There's a new dance in town and it's about to hypnotise your mind and your hips…it's called The Turantula. Listen closely and Cong will tell you exactly how to do it. Athina Uh Oh of Gut Health fame joins Cong on vocals, providing both sultry approval of the dance and Patti Smith-like poetic flourishes. It’s a swampy stomper crawling and creeping to a Greek zebekiko rhythm. Athina summons the ancient ancestors of the dance and lets them wild. Cong, croons and wails using the dance to yearn for the “sweet bliss” of oblivion. 

Luckily for us, we now have the way into an immediate flow-state, it has eight eyes and is eight times reality : The Turantula.

MOTO ZONE is out August 30th, on digital and “Exhaust Fume” vinyl.

pre-order at https://congjosie.bandcamp.com/album/moto-zone

Written & Performed by Cong Josie & Athina Uh Oh
Mastered by Nao Anzai
Layout and design by Luke Fraser/AHR+

Cong Josie feat. Athina Uh Oh - Do The Turantula

Melbourne singer Cassandra Kiely (Pearls, Ladydreams) has teamed up with producer B. C. Slumber and cellist/composer Prudence Rees-Lee (Popular Music) to re-imagine the wonderful ‘Come to Me’ from Björk’s 1993 album, Debut. It was recorded to honour the life of Aaron McDonald, who passed away in 2024. Aaron and Cassandra were close friends who spent many a late night or early morning discussing the finer points of the Cocteau Twins, Guru Josh, and above all, Björk. As such a singular and untouchable artist, any attempt to cover her work is an ambitious move, but Aaron’s love for Björk could not be forgotten or ignored. This project insisted itself into being and we are glad to have this luminous and beautiful rendition. 

Very much a collaborative work, Cassandra and B. C. Slumber have crafted a dramatic reinterpretation, vast and haunting. The stability of the backbeat is stripped away, leaving only faint pulses and undulations of electronic signal to guide the way. Prudence Rees-Lee contributes spectral backing vocals and cello. Aaron’s voice can be heard within the track through an incidental recording taken during a kick-on, feeling as though he’s being overheard conversing in the next room: near, but not close enough. There is a palpable danger in the air, an uneasiness around the edges of perception. Cassandra promises a spiritual protection which cannot be tempered by distance or time. As her verses finish, the electronic ensemble rears up climatically and begins to move. The backbeat returns to dispel the stasis, momentum builds, and soul and memory are given safe passage.

PREVIEW - OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE FEB 21st 2025

Cassandra Kiely - Come To Me (single)

Watch out for the Cong Oil salesman and the Sacred Cowboy. Aussie synth-punk, rock’n’roll rebel Cong Josie teams up with Garry Sacred aka Garry Gray of the seminal Melbourne post-punk group Sacred Cowboys for a new EP. The first taste of which is a sleazy and sinister cover of the iconic Oz-boogie-era song, ‘I’ll Be Gone’ (originally by Spectrum 1971). 

The first single from their forthcoming Sacred Money E.P. sits somewhere in the zone where darkwave cabaret meets punk rock. A wrong turn off the highway into a dimension beyond. Garry is playing ‘I’ll Be Gone’, and Cong is hypnotised by the “dream” of money and security. Knowing that an artist, a rebel rouser, an antagonist can never align the two. Fifty years on and the lyrics are even more desperately in vain, yet Cong and Garry recognise the same knowing - that they will keep on and keep fighting for what is real.

‘I’ll Be Gone’ is a stone cold classic of the Australian rock canon, it perseveres as a prophetic call to those on the margins and those that will never succumb to the meaningless consumerist push that society celebrates, speaking to the moment we are in as much as it ever has.

‘I’ll Be Gone’ Releases Worldwide on all digital & streaming platforms June 6th 2025 through It Records. 
It is taken from the forthcoming E.P. Sacred Money out August 1st.  


Cong Josie & Garry Sacred - I'll Be Gone (single)

Buy the 12" EP

1300 TEXICO

Fast Money Music

Money Talks

Sacred Money

I'll Be Gone

‘Projects’ is the lead single and first taste from the highly anticipated debut release from Melbourne duo Time For Dreams, who are Tom Carlyon ( Standish Carlyon, Devastations)  and Amanda Roff (Harmony, backing vocalist for The Drones and Moon Rituals). Their debut album 'In Time' is due for release in early 2017.

Time For Dreams are celebrating the release of the 'Projects' with a free show this coming Monday (28/11/16) at Monday Night Mass at The Northcote Social Club. Joined by Premium Fantasy, AVOID and Pregnancy.

https://www.facebook.com/events/369889546681200/

Time For Dreams - Projects (Single)

Second single from the highly anticipated upcoming Time For Dreams album : In Time which is out July 27 2017
pre-order it here: https://itrecordsmelb.bandcamp.com/album/in-time

Time For Dreams - Stranger (single)

3rd single from the hotly anticipated debut album by Melbourne Duo Time For Dreams. Lighthouse is a delicate breath of melancholy pop that swirls around and gently blows your hair back as you stand on the cliff and look out to sea. 

'In Time' will be out June 27th through It Records

pre-order it here: itrecordsmelb.bandcamp.com/album/in-time

Time For Dreams -  Lighthouse (single)

NEW RELEASE: The debut album from Melbourne duo Time For Dreams: In Time is OUT TODAY! It is an extraordinary slice of sophisticated and deeply sexy pop music, In Time, is transit music for imagined journeys through humid, dystopian landscapes; where nightclubs pulse slow and dark in the dense tropical heat; where the Mediterranean meets the sky; and where the metropolis meets the desert.

Buy In Time HERE: https://itrecordsmelb.bandcamp.com
Limited vinyl edition of 300
Also available on, CD and digital

Time For Dreams - Move It

TIME FOR DREAMS :  I Love That Tiger

NEW RELEASE: The debut album from Melbourne duo Time For Dreams: In Time is OUT TODAY! It is an extraordinary slice of sophisticated and deeply sexy pop music, In Time, is transit music for imagined journeys through humid, dystopian landscapes; where nightclubs pulse slow and dark in the dense tropical heat; where the Mediterranean meets the sky; and where the metropolis meets the desert.

Buy In Time HERE: itrecordsmelb.bandcamp.com
Limited vinyl edition of 300
Also available on, CD and digital

Time For Dreams : Orders

Hypnotic, mesmeric cover of The Smith's 'Death of A Disco Dancer'. 
Time For Dreams put a beautiful spin on this melancholic classic, painting it in their own colours. The perfect b-side to their new 7" single 'You've Got A Freind' out on June 15th through It Records.
https://itrecordsmelb.bandcamp.com/album/youve-got-a-friend-death-of-a-disco-dancer-single

Time For Dreams -  Death Of A Disco Dancer

A little over a year out from the release of their stunning debut album IN TIME, Melbourne duo TIME FOR DREAMS are set to release an ep of remixes from the album in conjunction with announcing a re-press of the very quickly sold out VINYL edition.

The IN TIME REMIX EP features 5 of Melbourne’s most exciting electronic artists :

DREAM KIT: aka producer Declan Kelly, remixes ‘MOVE IT’ into a minimal dub slow jam, while devcore electronic producer
GERYON warps Amanda’s vocals and takes the track ‘LIGHTHOUSE’ on a glitchy and sparkling journey into a cloudless sky. VARIOUS ASSES deconstructs ‘NEWSCENE’ in remix that confounds the very notion of tempo, Nice Music label head SIMON J KARIS’ interprets the track ‘PROJECTS’ through a hazy lens of burnt out party addled euphoria, and Time For Dreams’ own electronic producer; TOM CARLYON takes the moody ‘STRANGER’ and drops it into a cavern where it bounces off itself, echoing and weaving into something new entirely.

IN TIME REMIXES will be available as a digital EP on December 14th through Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify and across all streaming platforms and will also come as a bonus download when buying the album re-press.

Time For Dreams - The Stranger (Tom Carlyon Remix)

Dunedin/Melbourne experimental darkwave duo Ov Pain (Tim Player/ Renee Barrance). ‘Excess and Expenditure’ is the first taste off their forthcoming sophomore album The Churning Blue of Noon due for release in 2021. Building on the cold wave, post-punk sound of their debut album, ‘Excess and Expenditure’ sees Ov Pain wade deep into heavier territory enveloping the listener in a languid wave of gothic drone. Barrance’s deadpan vocal radiates in incantation above a dense wall of humming synth and echoing drums, later accented by Player on sax.

Inspired by both the slowness and heaviness of doom bands but without the presence of rock’s holiest instrument, the guitar, Ov Pain weave a soundscape thick and heady. The lyrics spell out a cryptic, largely first-person narrative, that plays the dystopic off against the uplifting. This is a tactic the band makes good use of, on this track, throughout the album and especially performing live. ‘Excess and Expenditure’ distils this tacit experience and presents the tonic in a pop-form bullet. The experience is cathartic rather than depressing. Keeping the listener suspended, floating, not knowing if they are slowly (so slowly) falling or rising.

OV PAIN -  Excess And Expenditure

Running In Slow Motion, the new record from Claire Birchall is an album of contradictions, a perhaps surprising new direction from a stalwart of Melbourne’s indie rock scene. A darkly emotive synth-pop record, recorded entirely to 4-track, alone in her bedroom, the album is  Birchall’s first foray into electronic music and it’s pretty hard to put your finger on. Sometimes it sounds like the soundtrack to an unknown 80’s sci-fi movie, sometimes you could certainly throw the term “darkwave” at it, post-punk maybe, but the songwriting is a bit more classic pop. Owing as much to the influence of The Beach Boys or Big Star as Alan Vega or Depeche Mode. The simplicity of it’s production sits in juxtaposition to the complexity of her songcraft. Rough edges cut through beautiful, layered melodies. Birchall is a master of pop songwriting. Largely known for her melodic rock songs with bands Paper Planes and The Phantom Hitchhikers. A multi-instrumentalist, devotedly DIY, Claire wrote, played and recorded the entire record herself, with the exception of the stark ‘Pretty Boy’ which is a striking cover of a Randy Newman deep cut from his 1979 album Born Again. A record collector and lover of music with broad taste you’ll catch the influence of widely disparate music styles and artists, from the dark Portishead like drone and pulse of ‘Hang It Up ‘ to the Bacharachian splendour of ‘Song For The Man In The Moon’. Claire recently took this new material on a national tour supporting Kim Salmon (The Scientists, Beasts of Bourbon) and was compared to the likes of Jonnine Standish (HTRK), Nico and Lana Del Ray, none of which really hit the mark but it’s interesting to see what people are hearing in these songs. Running in Slow Motion is a remarkable record and unique take on the synth pop idiom.  Out now digitally on It Records.

Running in Slow Motion will be released on LTD ED Vinyl and CD next month, Corona madness having set things back a bit. Pre- order your copy now at itrecorldsmelb@bandcamp.com

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