Customer Reviews

Bedsit Tapes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, my eyes nearly fell out of their sockets when I saw this CD on Amazon a few weeks ago. I didn't even know about it and I'm a long time Marc Almond/ Soft Cell collector. Lucky to have both the Mutunt Moments 7" and the original Science Fiction Stories boot CD in my collection, I am able to compare the Bedsit tapes to these other two items I just mentioned.

First off, there are a lot of songs missing from the Science Fiction Stories CD that are not on the Bedsit Tapes CD. Missing from SFS are the following: "facility girls", "living for today", "factory fun", "penthouse pet", "when we go marching", "I am 16" (a sinister take on the song you hear in the moving The Sound of Music!), "a man could get lost", "mix and match", "persuasion". Missing from the Mutant MOments 7" EP is "Frustration". These were probably unreleased due to legal reasons.

The good news is that what's missing from the S.F.S. demos is made up with a lot of songs that I've never heard in my life before like a cover version of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and a number of other goodies.

The sound quality on these demos is slightly better than the Science Fiction stories CD. The tracks are lightly mixed into each other and the annoying cut sound you hear at the end of Potentional track on the Mutant Moments 7" has been removed. Too bad "Frustration" was not included because comparing the Mutant Moments version to the one that eventually ended up on their debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret shows what clean production can due to a rough sounding song!

The Bedsit tapes CD clocks in a little under 46 minutes so there was plenty of space to include more demos. Maybe, there's be sequel to this release. I would love to see the Flexi Pop versin of A Man Could Get Lost and the live fanclub flexi of Say Hello, Wave Goodbye appear someday on CD. Enough said, just want to say thak you to David Ball and Stevo for putting this material out! Hopefully, David & Marc are getting the proper payment from this release. I've read enough about Stevo and his handling of Some Bizarre!

The Bedsit Tapes is a collection of demos live performances that documents the earliest stages of the band. This is even pre- Mutant Moments, so it provides a unique glimpse at the duo. Naturally, the sound quality is less than fantastic (as is to be expected for a collection of demos) but the sheer quality of the material makes up for it. Some of the songs are standard Soft Cell faire, but a few are so excellent that it will make you sad that they never got proper studio treatment ("A Cut Above The Rest", "Bleak Is My Favourite Cliche" and "Walking Make-Up Counter" come to mind). It also includes an amusing cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid".

This is an absolute must for any Soft Cell fan- it explores their roots, and the sound is harsh and electro with hints of the pop brilliance that would come later. Fantastic.

For fans of pre-digital synthesizer pop, the Bedsit Tapes are a valuable historical reference. In the early 80's, commercial digital machines (like the DX7 and Linndrum) wiped this analog sound out for nearly a decade. There were few groups who explored this early form of electronic pop. Though less polished than some of its contemporaries, the Bedsit Tapes is an informative 4-track demo-style compilation of this tenuous genre. These are rough sketches, not fleshed out pop songs, and may disappoint fans of "Tainted Love." This is a collection aimed at synth-pop completists. If you already own the early works of Human League, OMD, Yazoo and Depeche Mode, here is where you may begin to dig a bit deeper into the context of those times.

First off, I wanna say that this CD is NOT even in a typical CD case. It's basically just a cardboard flap over a CD. Also, when I received mine in the mail, the plastic center part that holds the CD down somehow got damaged or it was defective because it was broken! Now my CD won't even stay in the case, and because the case isn't a jewel case, I don't even have the option of switching it to a new one...so, I guess I'm stuck with this because Some Bizzare is cheap and can't afford jewel cases...

In addition, I believe the Worst Album Art Award goes to The Bedsit Tapes! What an unappealing, unimaginative, inartistic cover. And whoever thought putting size 2 pt. font in white over the cover was a good idea...WOW. I have perfect vision and even I could barely see it...

Besides the extremely cheap presentation of the CD, the song tracks are organized in a very "bizzare" way. Basically, the first 2-3 seconds of every song occurs at the END of the previous track. And this is obviously because Some Bizzare purposely had it edited that way. This isn't an issue if you listen to the album tracks in order, but I'm one of those people who likes to "shuffle" my songs on iTunes. Therefore, the songs sound really weird everytime it gets to the end of a track because you start hearing one song play, and then shuffle will bring you to a different track. It's all just really sloppy, and I don't understand why the distributors would intentionally have created it this way.

If you buy Demo Non Stop, which includes TWO of the same tracks from this album (Cleansing Fanatic and Tupperware Party), these versions of the songs are actually complete and do not have their beginnings on another track or another track at their ends.

Also, if you buy The Bedsit Tapes and Demo Non Stop, you will still be missing "Penthouse Pet", "Living For Today", "Purely Functional" (Vocal Version), and "I am 16." Luckily, very kind people have posted the first three of these songs on YouTube, so you will still have a way of hearing/obtaining them. As for "I am 16," I haven't been able to hear that one yet...

The actual quality of the songs is very, very good, considering the equipment used to record them back in the late '70s and early '80s. Also, all of the songs are genuinely GREAT songs. I really love the style that Soft Cell had during this period. All of the songs are catchy, and it's truly a shame they never got a proper release.

Overall, the songs are amazing (I give them 5 out of 5*), but they were organized in an extremely sloppy manner, which forced me to lower the rating to 3 out of 5*.

i love the band soft cell and i try to get every song from them,and this cd has alot of rarities and demos i love every song i cant get enough of this cd.soft cell are one of my favorite groups of all time and i never get tired of them.anybody who likes their music should definetally purchase this cd its worth every penny.

For the 45 minutes of music, there are a lot of (shorter) tracks to hear here, but sometimes you get the feeling that it was better to release a few more early singles rather than letting the demos shelved. However, Soft Cell chose not to do that and waited to sign to a major (Mercury) and put some singles out. Here is an early sign of what you got at the first album (Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret). But let us not forget that there was more than this material, there was this record by Some Bizarre which was called Mutant Moments. Soft Cell fans would want that one to finally collect... this is a hint for Some Bizarre... ;-)