Regurgitator's Unit

Regurgitator’s second full-length album, Unit (1997), was produced in a DIY warehouse studio at a time when this was unusual for a major label band. The album went three times Platinum in Australia and won five esteemed ARIA Awards in 1998, including Album of the Year. The album’s success is indicative of a particular point in time in popular music trends, when the world was recovering from the impact of grunge and post-grunge bands.

Regurgitator’s subversive attitude toward pop music, punk aesthetic, unique lyrical narratives and an ironic view on their own creative product made their music potent in an alternative market defying the prevailing music trends. Unit and Regurgitator were the focus of divisive critical reviews, yet they continue to rank highly as a quintessentially Australian band. This volume situates the development of Unit amongst the DIY culture of a politically charged Brisbane scene, and breaks down the album through the lens of recording and songwriting processes. This book outlines the impact of Regurgitator’s music locally and globally, by discussing what made Unit a success at the peak of the alternative music genre.

Author Biography

Lachlan Goold is a recording engineer, producer, mixer, popular music educator, researcher and lecturer in Contemporary Music at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. His research focuses on practice-based music production approaches, theoretical uses of space, and the music industry specifically relating to government legislation. In his creative practice, he is better known as Australian music producer, Magoo, a two-time ARIA award winner. Dr Goold worked with Regurgitator as their recording engineer across seven releases.

Lauren Istvandity is a researcher in popular music heritage. She is the author of The Lifetime Soundtrack: Music and Autobiographical Memory (2019) and co-author of Curating Pop: Popular Music in the Museum with Sarah Baker and Raphael Nowak (2019, Bloomsbury), and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Popular Music History and Heritage (2018). She is currently a Lecturer in the School of Business and Creative Industries at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia.