[Link removed 20 November 2012] (39 MB)
A Factory Sample
Factory Records FAC 2
Produced by Martin Hannett
Digital (Genetic Demo) produced by Martin Rushent
December 1978
Tracklisting:
1. Digital
2. Glass
3. Digital (Genetic Demo)
4. Autosuggestion
5. From Safety To Where...?
1, 4, 5 sourced from Nippon Columbia Japan CD Substance COCY-9332
2 sourced from Nippon Columbia Japan CD Still COCY-9331
3 sourced from from the private collection of a longtime fan and associate of the band
Here are the notes from Mr. A.L., who is doing the mastering:
Tracks 1 and 2 were the first collaboration between the band and Martin Hannett, recorded in October 1978 shortly after Hannett received delivery of a then-brand-new AMS Digital Delay rack unit. Innovative to the extreme, the sounds captured - and created - by Martin and the band set the pace for the hugely influential series of recordings that would follow. Slight EQ and volume adjustments only. Please note that Glass features the full intro as heard on Still, while the Substance version lopped it off.
Track 3 is a diligent - and FAST - run through for (and produced by) Martin Rushent, part of a series of demos recorded at Eden Studios, London on 4 March 1979 for Genetic Records. Oddly enough the only track from these sessions not to be released on Heart and Soul, I find this take - while pedestrian - as gravitating as the Hannett recording. Slightly cleaned up from a low-generation cassette copy, originally sourced in the early 1980s from an unnamed band member.
I still rate Digital in my top 5, if not greater, recordings by this band - not only for its innovation, but for its extreme advancement in songwriting and delivery from the sessions recorded just 5 months prior for RCA. Band "historian" and collaborator Jon Wozencroft notes in the Grant Gee documentary that the lyrics themselves are "digital" in the rough interpretation of the title's meaning - "day in, day out, day in, day out." A very astute observation which gives pause to the theory that the track was named after Hannett's digital delay unit.
Tracks 4 and 5 - in-studio compositions written at Hannett's behest to fill out the Unknown Pleasures sessions, so therefore more experimental than their canon to date - are much more dub-oriented and point to yet another interesting direction the band could have taken. I love these tracks, so unlike their album brethren, and while it's understandable why they were bequeathed to Bob Last for the Earcom compilation, I think their inclusion(or at least Autosuggestion) on the debut LP would have made that record even more astounding at first listen. Slight EQ and volume adjustments only.
While Autosuggestion and From Safety To Where...? were recorded seven months after the session that yielded Digital and Glass - then released another six months after that - it makes the most sense to include them here in a nice little bundle of all the band's compilation appearances.
In case anyone is wondering why the Durutti Column, John Dowie, and Cabaret Voltaire tracks aren't included, those songs fall outside the scope of the Recycle project. Most if not all of them were officially released elsewhere, so a little detective work should unearth them.
*EDIT* - there was a typo on the CD label (Rushnet, not Rushent). You can grab the fixed one here
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