Various - Can't Stop It! Australian Post-Punk 1978-82 (2025 Edition) 2LP

This morning I was trying to figure out how to communicate the influence that this collection had in digging up a lineage of Australian post-punk and experimental music for a new generation (and a swathe of reissue labels in their wake), or to use the words of a former PM, taking these groups “from nowhere to obscurity.”

I don’t think I could have articulated it better than Jen, who walked in this morning, took a look at the track list and said, “Gee, so many great bands that are now in the domain of being mansplained on dates or in record stores — something I’m guilty of too!”

-Mitch
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Made it onto our ‘Best of 2025 (So Far!)’ list. View collection here

Chapter Music's landmark collection of Australian 70s-80s post-punk, originally released in 2001, gets its first ever vinyl release!

Can’t Stop It! documents a fantastically inventive and dynamic era, when Australian acts stepped out of the shadow of overseas influence and asserted their own musical identity for perhaps the first time.

Featuring tracks by future members of bands such as Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Einsturzende Neubauten, Dirty Three and The Go-Betweens, Can’t Stop It! is a vivid survey of the creativity and innovation bubbling away under the surface of Australia’s fairly unadventurous music culture of the time.

All of the bands on Can't Stop It! released their music independently, either themselves or through the handful of visionary labels of the era such as Au-Go-Go, M Squared, Missing Link or Innocent Records.

On its original release in 2001, the compilation got Chapter Music its first major international attention, written up in The Wire magazine, stocked at Other Music in New York and selling out numerous CD pressings.

Remastered with updated liner notes and photos, this deluxe 2LP set expands on the original 20 track CD with six bonus never- before-reissued tracks.