I've been going through some old cassette tapes (ask your parents) of stuff I recorded years ago and found a 4-track tape that I had used to record a demo of a song for my band Elsie Marina. I had the 4 track recording at high speed and when I played the tape on a standard cassette deck it only had the samples & some very tinny drums, plus a bit of rumbling bass crosstalk. Listening to it now it sounds a lot better than the real version!

Uncertain Dilemma - dawdling mix

Recorded on a ghetto blaster with a coat over it in the corner of Ram rehearsal studios in Hayes, Middlesex sometime during 1991. Performed by "Crawl" who were Stuart McLean on vocals/guitar, Paul Cripps on tapes/percussion/noise and Phil Madge on bass & drum programming. We never got round to recording this in a "proper" studio, but our rehearsal tapes always sounded better than studio recordings. Contains the odd pop surface noise, which only adds to the charm.

Taste

Recorded on a ghetto blaster with a coat over it in the corner of Ram rehearsal studios in Hayes, Middlesex on Feb 24th 1991. Performed by "Crawl" who were Stuart McLean on vocals/guitar, Paul Cripps on tapes/percussion/noise and Phil Madge on bass & drum programming. This song was never the same twice, Stuart always made the vocals up as he went along until it descended into noisy chaos. At least the drum machine knew what it was doing...

Assassination Time - crawl

Recorded on a ghetto blaster with a coat over it in the corner of Ram rehearsal studios in Hayes, Middlesex sometime during 1991. Performed by "Crawl" who on this track were Stuart McLean on vocals, Paul Cripps on bass and Phil Madge on guitar & drum programming. We had only just written this and it was the first time we'd managed to get through it without any mistakes. Contains the odd pop surface noise, which only adds to the charm.

Whirling head - crawl

Recorded in my bedroom, probably sometime in 1990. This was one of the first songs that Stuart & I wrote together as what would become Crawl (via a brief flirtation with Third Mind) after our previous band, Charming Snakes, finished. The levels are a bit shot on this recording and we did do more professional sounding versions of it later, but I find this one has a certain charm.

Pillowhead (bedroom version) - Crawl

Recorded in my bedroom, probably sometime in 1990. This was another one of the first songs that Stuart & I wrote together as what would become Crawl (via a brief flirtation with Third Mind) after our previous band, Charming Snakes, finished. It's very sub-Buzzcocks, and we moved on from this style very quickly but looked at from a distance of 20-odd years it's quite amusing.

Anal Bassist