DEPECHE MODE - COMPOSITION OF SOUND- SUMMER 1980 DEMO TAPE - CLEAR 10" VINYL
£
34
$
45
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Description
These three demo tracks were recorded when Depeche mode were known as "Composition of sound''. An unreleased track, " Radio News" is included on this demo tape. Lyrically, the other two songs are identical, though Dave sings "the ice machine, ice machine" twice during the end of Ice Machine, as he similarly does during early live shows until the end of the song. Andrew Fletcher surprisingly plays bass guitar during these tracks.
At least two early Composition Of Sound / Depeche Mode demo tapes existed in 1980:
- a 4 track tape (containing Photographic, "Television Set" and two unknown/unnamed songs) with Vince singing, recorded before the arrival of Dave in the band.
- a 3 track tape (containing Ice Machine, Radio News & Photographic) with Dave singing, recorded after the arrival of Dave in the band.
The second demo tape was recorded at Lower Whopping Conker Company on Victoria Road in Romford, Essex during the summer of 1980 (Jonathan Miller erroneously states that the studio was called "Lower Wapping Conker Company" and that it was located in Barking). However, Dave Gahan says in this interview that he remembers it being recorded at Rockstar studios, owned by John Springate of The Glitter Band, which was on Tottenham Court Road in London. Vince Clarke and his friend Gary Smith were interviewed by Jonathan Miller in 2002:
Clarke: "I was the experienced one, because I'd been in a studio once before. From what I remember, we did four songs in the demo studio. But none of us knew what reverb was, so we couldn't work out why it didn't sound as good as the demo I'd done before, which did have reverb on, making everything sound great."
Smith: "They paid £50 for one tape at the studio and I was the only person with a tape-to-tape recording machine at home, so I made a copy for each of the band members, so there were originally five tapes in total. Talking to Fletch, he thinks they've all gone and seems to think mine is the last one. He hasn't heard it for years. Anyway, if you hear the demo, it's very... raw."
Martin Gore admitted in Sounds magazine, November 7th, 1981 issue, that he had his synth for a month and didn’t know he could change the sounds. “You know that sound that goes – WAUGH? I was stuck on that for ages. And when we made our first demo all the tracks have the same sounds on it.”
Tracklist
- Ice Machine
- Radio News
- Photographic
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