Unit(1997) …Art(1999) Release date 17 November 1997 | Genre Dance/electronic Label Warner Music Australasia | |
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Released November 1997 Unit19 October 1998 Re-Booted Length 36:17 Unit50:50 Re-Booted Similar Tu‑Plang, Mish Mash!, Love and Paranoia, Eduardo and Rodrigue, Dirty Pop Fantasy |
Regurgitator everyday formula
Unit is the second full-length album by Australian band Regurgitator, released in November 1997. Its style is a mixture of 1980s style synthesised popular music and alternative rock, with some hip-hop influences. It was widely successful, receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews and five of the songs featured broke into the commercial mainstream, mostly due to their popularity with alternative radio stations (Triple J especially). On 19 October 1998, the album was re-released as Unit Re-Booted, which included the album's five video clips. In 1998, Unit won 5 ARIA awards, and in 1999, it went triple platinum, eventually selling over 240,000 copies.
Contents
- Regurgitator everyday formula
- Hp everyday formula
- Prior to recording
- The Dirty Room
- Writing and recording
- Video clips
- Cover art
- Track listing
- Singles
- Legacy
- Songs
- References
The album was re-issued on vinyl by Valve in October 2013.
Hp everyday formula
Prior to recording
Regurgitator had just completed their eleventh extensive Australian tour (with The Fauves and Tomorrow People), when they planned to...art recording a follow-up to their first album, Tu-Plang. This was delayed when the band decided to make their third trip to America to do a tour with bands Helmet and The Melvins. Yeomans said of the tour, "I remember being completely frightened the whole time. They were real hard-arses. Helmet were a little army unit, and their fans were fucking really intense, really aggressive guys. Yeah, really full-on. So maybe it did have an effect." In 2008, manager Paul Curtis recalled that Yeomans had also stated "thank god Grinspoon came along because they took all the male angst away from our shows".
The Dirty Room
Upon return, the group rented a condemned warehouse in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley to write and record Unit. They affectionately named this studio "The Dirty Room". Yeomans said, "Martin did a lot of the set up – Magoo as well – and they put in carpet underlay that they'd found somewhere that was just filthy. Ergh! It had this real soporific effect as soon as you walked in and you just wanted to fall asleep. One of the funny stories is Rob Cavallo coming in to have a listen to one of the tracks, and he just fell asleep on this piss-stained mattress we had lying on the ground. It was a really dingy vibe."
Writing and recording
Regurgitator had begun experimenting with drum machines and synthesizers on their first album, Tu-Plang. Amongst the gear that Yeomans and Ely were using at the time was the Clavia Nord Lead, the Akai S3000XL, the Farfisa Super Bravo Organ and the newly released Roland MC-303 "Groovebox, which featured on a number of tracks including "Unit" and "Polyester Girl". Ely stated that the track that ultimately helped the band decide the change in musical direction was the ironically-titled "I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff", which began as a punk rock track with some keyboard but gradually "breaking it down with a more minimal keyboard heavy sound, leaving off most of the distorted guitar attack, and adding a vocoder gave the song something we were excited and terrified by at the same". After 6 weeks of recording, the album was completed on 2 August 1997.
Video clips
The bonus video clips featured on the 're-booted' release of Unit featured 3D animation produced by Yeomans and his then-partner Janet English of Australian rock band Spiderbait:
Cover art
The cover is a large, plain yellow circle centred on a plain silver background. On the outside surface of the jewel CD case is a transparent sticker with the words "REGURGITATOR" and "UNIT" printed in black for identification in stores. This minimalist design, credited to "The Shits" (Quan Yeomans and Janet English) and Ben Ely, won the 1998 ARIA award for best cover art.
Unit Re-Booted has very similar cover art, and came in four bright colour variations – lime green, purple, royal blue and peach-orange. On the re-releases, the title text was printed directly onto the paper.
Track listing
This was the second, and last, Regurgitator album to be pressed on vinyl until 2011 when SuperHappyFunTimeFriends was released.
Singles
The singles from this album in Australia are:
A rumoured fifth single, "Just Another Beautiful Story", was never released.
Legacy
"Everyday Formula" was featured on The Wildhearts covers album Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before, Vol 1. In October 2010, the album was listed in the top 30 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums. In July 2011, the album was voted 10th in Triple J's Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time.
Songs
1I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff2:37
2Everyday Formula2:12
3! (The Song Formerly Known As)3:27