Various – Can't Stop It! II: Australian Post-Punk 1979-84 (Deluxe Edition) (2xLP, Deluxe Edition)

Can't Stop It! II: Australian Post-Punk 1979-84 captures a period when Australian underground music was starting to define itself on its own terms rather than echoing overseas models. Originally released on CD in 2007, this second Chapter Music survey returns as its first vinyl edition, expanding its portrait of the years 1979 to 1984 with a broader sense of just how unruly, inventive, and regionally varied that scene could be.

Rather than chasing one tidy definition of post-punk, the compilation moves across wiry guitars, minimal rhythms, electronic experiments, pop detours, and stranger fringe ideas. Familiar touchstones such as Severed Heads' "Lamborghini" sit beside harder-to-find material, including Use No Hooks' "Do the Job," described in the source material as a proto Oz-rap classic. The set also catches early work connected to later well-known figures, including Lisa Gerrard and Mark Seymour, which gives it extra weight as a document of a formative moment.

This deluxe edition adds six bonus tracks, including This Five Minutes' "How" and Chainmale's "Freakout," and pairs the music with new liner notes and archival photos. More than a period sampler, it plays like a documentary of a scene defined less by a single sound than by what one source calls anarchic creativity: a rich snapshot of Australian music discovering its own identity.

Features

• 2xLP, Deluxe Edition
• First vinyl edition of the 2007 compilation
• Expanded with six bonus tracks
• 16-page booklet with liner notes, rare photos, and design by Josh Petherick