THE SHIFTERS - "OPEN VAULT" 2xLP

The Shifters are from Melbourne. After releasing two stunning Full Lengths (one on Future Folklore, one on Trouble in Mind) and a few 7" on Digital Regress, Captured Tracks, a split LP with Parsnip and more ... This DLP collects a 25 songs of odds and ends, home recordings and more. All previously unreleased and those tunes show the wide range of Shifters greatness. Reminiscent of the Mekons, pastoral pop of ‘80s by Australian DIY legends like the PARTICLES and the CANNANES meeting VELVET UNDERGROUND-addled hazed anthems.

"The SHIFTERS’ stark, repetitive minimalism and shambolic charms always owed more than a little bit to the FALL in their early years, and revisiting the material from the cassette now after Mark E. Smith’s passing only reinforces the psychic connection between the lackadaisical post-punk twang in “Captain Hindsight” and the cracked melodies of something like the FALL’s “Your Heart Out” from the Dragnet era." (maximum rock n roll)

Releases were put on hold during 2020 due to covid so it was decided to put out a pay as you feel digital only compilation of odds + some ends, then release it on Bandcamp. Not long after we were approached by Insolito Records from Berlin asking if we were interested in releasing it as a boxed double LP. We thank them very much for giving us this opportunity.

The Open Vault comprises unreleased studio recordings, early demos, live 4 track recordings, live iPhone and solo home demos tunes from The Shifters. All recorded between 2016 and 2020.

Studio songs marked * were all part of an unreleased second album called Pyramid Scheme. Little gold studios consisted of a mud brick and hay igloo of sorts with a control room attached that was inside an old lingerie factory in Brunswick. Most of the album has now been released via singles, compilations etc.

Home recordings marked - are demos and ideas put down onto Garageband with an old macbook. The only microphone used was the inbuilt one on the laptop. The drum ‘kit’ used is a miniature Spongebob Square Pants childrens set that MJ happily bought from a garage sale in Coburg for $25. These demos were not being made under the impression that they would ever be heard outside of the band themselves and more thought of as rough sketches for the band to manipulate and re record (as 3 of these ones were for various releases)
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After sitting on hard drives for some time they started sounding more interesting.