Minimal Wave Records

[quote author=“Ollie_Stench”]Someone on my workplace itunes network has 6 DM songs.  I’m trying to find out who it is because they are studio quality, not the shitty live bootlegs that have been circulating.

Television Set
Addiction
Reason Man
Tomorrows Dance
I Like It
The Price Of Love

According to his/her itunes they are from an album called Television Set.

Heres a link to these tracks.  I had to record them out of itunes so there is a wee bit of background noise.

http://download.yousendit.com/7CF857BC55695038

And unless it’s some weird b-side I’m not familiar with I don’t think “Price Of Love” is a Roxy Music cover.

thanks for these… There is only one remark - some of these tracks are damaged (for now I noticed some strange random screwup in ‘Reason Man’ and ‘Tomorrow’s Dance’)... Is this accidental due to zipping, or are these tracks unfortunately this damaged in original form?

Thanks

Respects

SI )

The master I recorded from itunes is damaged.  The next time this user is sharing their music I will try again.  I just used some free-ware wav recorder that took its signal from my soundcard.  Since its a work computer I was running a bunch of applications at the same time and I think that is what damaged the files.

Addiction

I realised that too yesterday, but hey, I hadn’t heard “Addiction” before. Not even as a lousy live recording. All the other were old gold so to speak, but not in this quality.

Let us know if you get your hands on them again.

electroncially yours, jesper

If you have slsk you can look for the demonstration tapes in my archive.
Username: suono_di_stiletto

Hello there,

is there any chance you might put those from your Slsk as a download link to this forum for some of us (me personally in this case), cannot download through Slsk…

Respets, SI )

yes please

Like David Sylvian would say: “I second that emotion!”

Here you go: Depeche Mode - Demonstration Tapes

I finally got a good rip of the songs.  Let me know if these get garbled in the upload.

http://download.yousendit.com/3368E7227BCA4017

There is talk on the New Wave Outpost that this might not really be DM, but whatever, its decent synthpop in a genre usually loaded with crap.  I’ll post details if anything comes up.

I also thought of starting a discussion whether these tracks are DM or not. I cannot tell from the singer’s voice, but i wondered about the KORG KR-55 high-hat programming. DM sometimes used the snare of it and hardly the high-hat and if so I think it wasn’t altered from the preset pattern. But the alteration is the case in those demos. Anyway, it was possible to change the preset patterns and program the KR-55, e.g. METAL Y CA and CENTRAL UNIT did this!

Anyway, in the end it doesn’t really matter (though I don’t like to be fooled, do you ?), nice to listen to.

My thoughts too…

I also wonder who the vocalist is. It’s clearly not Dave nor Martin. Might be Vince though (compare with “Happy People” by Yazoo). He was never any good at the singing role…
Or it’s another band, but how stupid is that. Making covers and posing as someone else on the net. I’d rather be liked for my skills and own interpretations in such a case…

BTW AnnaLogue, shouldn’t you carry some of my releases. I sold a bunch of Camera Obscura you know!

Thanks both of you for uploading. I’ve taken both packs down and listened to them, they’re the same recordings but in one case the songs are edited.

As for the recordings themselves I’m absolutely certain:

This is a forgery.

It’s interesting, and it’s not bad, but as Depeche Mode demos from 1980, they’re fake. Probably made by a Swedish band (judging by the vocalist’s accent and nasal delivery) in the last few years.

Listen to the extra drum coming in for the last verse of Television set; it is sampled from the JCGEnough 12, and put on top. DM had no facility for using one drum as a solo instrument in 1980 did they? If so, they sure never used it.

Even the sound quality gives it away - this sounds like a digital recording. Not a trace of cassette tape hiss or compression. Especially the huge fat sounds on “The Price of Love” sound very “now”.

Besides, these are not the “first tracks” - they’re just what’s left over from the first LP + 3 singles. If it was a complete demo, Ice Machine and Photographic would have been there. Probably New Life and Dreaming of Me too.

The song “Addiction” I had already from the Southend-on-Sea bootleg MC, where it is called “Ghost of Modern Time”. Closer all the time, Ghost of Modern Time, whatever.
For the life of me I can’t find the CD I made of this recording though, and my tape deck is dead, so I can’t be sure it isn’t “Ghost” which is the misheard lyric… :cry:

As for the motives in the recording; a) I’m sure it must have been heaps of fun! b) ...and a way to see if you have the same equipment DM had in 1980? c) how about, your talent lies not within song writing? d) Could even be money in it; press up 200 LPs and auction them at eBay as “Depeche Mode FIRST DEMO - perfect sound quality” or something? e) not to mention it would be a great tribute band!

So, all in all, someone here knows more than he says he does - do you at this point have any more info you wish to give the jury?

Interesting, detective Moe 8)

It did sound a bit too clean i have to agree and I couldnt place the vocalist as well…thanks for the insight !

When I read this all, I can only say one thing : Thank God I’m not a Depeche Mode fan ! :D Apart from the fact that every song exists in about 101 versions (“Boss, I need a salary increase”), you have to be careful to waste no money for the 101 versions of fake DM songs. :?

Hey Oyst,

having started this topic does it make me a suspect ?  8)

Actually we did a cover of Photographic which we played live a few times and which was aired once by Veronica on EastVillageRadio. It’s based on the Some bizzare version with its original KR-55 galore   :D