Inside Australia and New Zealand’s Reissue Record Label Scene

Meet the passionate music fans on an obsessive quest to dig deep into the record crates and unearth forgotten gems

Selected Works is a weekly (usually) newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell, aka Yours Truly. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately and some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken + some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.

In 1977, Leong Lau had Sydney’s cosmopolitan nightlife grooving to a singular fusion of Malay folk music, jazz and psychedelic funk sung with a cheeky Aussie accent. That year, the Malaysia-born Chinese Australian musician released his second album, That Rongeng Sound, before continuing a circuitous life journey that has seen him spend stints playing flute with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, working in theatre in the UK and conducting stem cell research in Switzerland.

In the mid-2000s, Lau’s albums acquired a cult reputation among record collectors and DJs as some of the most interesting, rare, and highly sought-after Australian records from the late 1970s. Thirty-eight years after it was first released, two Melbourne music lovers, Chris Bonato and Anthony Walsh, launched their label Left Ear Records with a remastered vinyl reissue of That Rongeng Sound.

When we talk about Lau, Bonato tells me that due to wear and tear, they had to locate three copies to restore the audio. Despite the challenges, after they met with Lau, his idiosyncratic sound and mercurial mode of existence made the music impossible to put down. “Half the story is the story of the artists,” Bonato enthuses. “You try to find someone genuine who you really believe in. They haven’t just created a persona; they really live it.” Since then, Left Ear Records has reissued equally fascinating records by an American electro-funk musician dressed as a spaceman, a collective of soundtrack musicians from 1980s Brisbane, and a mysterious Arabic wedding singer from Sydney, among others.

Welcome to the world of reissue labels, a culture of deep music obsessives who trawl record stores, op shops, garage sales, and YouTube channels. Constantly searching for neglected, unappreciated, and forgotten gems from the past, they work with the artists and networks of like-minded DJs, broadcasters, journalists and film and television music supervisors to give these moments of magic the recognition they deserve.

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone Australia/New Zealand, I dug into the world of Antipodean record labels, DJs and artists who celebrate the rare beauties of a good reissue release. You can read the full story online here.

DAZED DIGITAL:

Four times a year, I write a recap of ten interesting and possibly underacknowledged new albums and EPs released over the previous three months for Dazed Digital. My Q2 2024 recap is live on the website now. You can read it here.

AN UPCOMING DJ GIG:

On Saturday, the 13th of July, I’m playing at an all-vinyl DJ gig at Fortune Favours in Wellington with DJ Kerb, Mikki Dee, and Dujon Cullingford, who will be playing a special matariki set. We kick off at 5 pm. Free entry. How about the poster? Special thanks to @moskonreview for his graphic design and illustration work.

FIN.