Have a few tapes here to share over the next few weeks… Some more rare Italian demos, a 2xK7 French compilation, and much more, but here’s an old classic as donated by Jeffo and re-ripped at VBR for maximum enjoyment. You may have heard this over at Return of the East back in the day, an old favorite blog of all things dark that’s since purged from Blogger. PS- You should all take a listen to The Anxiety of Love if you want to hear more from the excellent chap who ran that blog, here’s to more great sounds from them to come.
This tape, released in 1984, essentially reads like a who’s who of the classic 4AD roster, with some other amazing contributions from favorites such as Pink Industry (and a track by Ambrose working on her own), Vazz, Clair Obscur, In the Nursery, Band of Holy Joy, etc. Many of the tracks that appear here are in demo form, some of which (like the sketch of Cocteau Twins’ sublime “Pearly Dewdrops Drops” and Dead Can Dance’s excellent demo of “The Arcane”) haven’t been compiled in even the most thorough retrospectives.
Pleasantly Surprised, the Scottish label run by Robert H. King, eventually became Cathexis Recordings (Vazz and Clair Obscur vinyl releases), which then turned into Total, a music magazine, by the 1990s. Pleasantly Surprised were notorious for these compilations, as well as for releasing a rare Dif Juz tape and providing reissues/alternate distribution methods for an early Clair Obscur release, just to name a few standout credits. I haven’t heard many of the other VA compilations so I can’t be sure if the versions on those cassettes are demos as they are here, or if they’re studio versions compiled for cassette. If anyone can confirm or deny, please feel free to leave a comment.
Various Artists- Dreams and Desires K7
1. Side A Intro
2. Richard Killing- Nervous Choir
3. Tag Fur Tag (Demo)- Xmal Deutschland
4. Diamonds In the Mine (Live)- Artery
5. Silver- Vazz
6. Sex Gun (Demo)- Colourbox
7. Ecstasy (Instrumental*)- The Wolfgang Press
8. Pain of Pride- Pink Industry
9. A Glorious Morning In Orton Street- The Band of Holy Joy
10. Side A Outro
11. Side B Intro
12. The Pilgrim’s Progress (Instrumental)- Clair Obscur
13. The Arcane (Demo)- Dead Can Dance
14. Can’t Get Used to Losing You- David J
15. In One Move- Illegitimate Sons of Christ
16. Pearly Dewdrop’s Drops (Demo)- Cocteau Twins
17. Iskra- In the Nursery
18. Free At Last- Ambrose
19. Illustrated- Andrew Grey
20. Tree Top Club (Demo)- Virginia Astley
21. Smile- Patrik Fitzgerald
22. Side B Outro
*not really an instrumental at all. But we all know the Rema-Rema gag, right?