Collector - Lowered Ute. LP [MADE IN NEWCASTLE]

Collector - Lowered Ute. LP [MADE IN NEWCASTLE]

First Pressing Black Wax Edition - 200 units

 Collector is the project of Jason Campbell of Newcastle, Australia. Recorded over the span of a year and a half, Lowered Ute draws on blue-collar narratives and the industrial malaise of his home town. Newcastle, once globally renowned for its booming steelworks, is also home to the largest coal export port in the world. 

 The title, a tongue-in-cheek nod to uncouth Australian car culture, recalls the devastating hopelessness of suburban boredom amidst a haze of overheated engines, neon energy drinks and cigarette smoke. The track titles ‘Lockout Law’ and ‘Wrong Place’ hint at the grim underbelly of Newcastle nightlife, a city is torn between its harsh industrial lineage and its desperate recent attempts to embrace cosmopolitanism. 

Using a hardware-only approach, Collector’s Lowered Ute focuses on pummelling industrial rhythms over six tracks with hints of light coming in the form of slowly evolving minor-key melodies. An analogue drum machine pushed into the red is underpinned by harsh noise filter sweeps, modular synth pulses, meticulously sequenced field recordings and delayed clangs of metal that spiral out of control. 

Although informed by the spirit and chaos of local legendary Newcastle label, Bloody Fist, Lowered Ute is a decidedly unique, no-nonsense approach to heavy electronics that shifts between the pace of a dance floor and more foreboding ambient movements. Half an hour of uncompromising industrial electronics direct from Australia’s real Steel City. 

Mastered by Daniele Antezza at Dadub Studio, Berlin.