The World Is Fucked

About the album

35 years after they first crawled out of dark, suburban Springvale to spew their synth-punk filth over Melbourne and beyond, Primitive Calculators have made their first ever studio album, aptly entitled The World Is Fucked. Stuart Grant, Denise Hilton, Dave Light and Frank Lovece formed Primitive Calculators in 1978. They existed in bitter antipathy and vile hedonism in St Kilda and Fitzroy until 1980, reformed briefly to appear in the 1986 film Dogs In Space (starring Michael Hutch- ence), and then reconvened more permanently in 2009, at the invitation of the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties festival at Mount Buller.

Their original releases, classic synth-punk single I Can’t Stop It/Do That Dance in 1979 and a posthumous live album from 1982, are now holy grails for collector scum around the world. French label Desire Records recently reissued both records in limited vinyl editions. Despite their vicious reputation, Primitive Calculators actually nurtured a thriving community of impromptu bands around them, now renowned worldwide as the Little Bands scene, including groups like Thrush & the C**ts, Too Fat to Fit Through the Door, and the incredible The Take. Recorded with Neil Thomason (My Disco, the Slits) and mastered by David Walker (Lost Animal, Pikelet, Twerps etc), The World Is Fucked pulls no punches across its nine one-word songs. The sound is a kind of shimmering ball of white noise and malice, a floating miasma filled with all the bile most people never let emerge from their subconscious. The album also includes their version of a song they have been playing since the late 70s, Noth- ing by New York outsiders the Fugs. 35 years later, bleaker, harsher and more desperately hilarious than ever, Primitive Calculators present The World Is Fucked – the ultimate aural statement of ageing, despair and futility. Surprisingly, it’s really fun to listen to!