Dance
Like A Star (first version)
**
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Interface
** |
Looking For The Black Haired Girls
*
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The Circus Of Dr Lao
*** |
4JG
**
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Reach
Out [I'll Be There] (instrumental)
** |
Blank
Clocks
*
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New
Pink Floyd
** |
Cairo
*
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Once
Upon A Time In The West [Funeral March]
** |
Dominion
advertisement
**
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Overkill
Disaster Crash (first version)
** |
Dada
Dada Duchamp Vortex
*
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The
Year Of The Jet Packs
** |
Daz
*
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Pulse
Lovers
* |
Future Religion
*
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King
Of Kings
** |
Disco
Disaster
**
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The
Last Man On Earth (excerpt)
** |
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*
The Future, ** The Human League (many tracks featuring only
Martyn and Ian), *** Philip Oakey
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This
album, credited to The Future + The Human League, compiles
recordings the two groups made between 1977 and the moment
The Human League signed to Virgin Records in 1979.
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The
project began soon after producer and recording artist Richard
X contacted this site in early 2001 after noticing it
features the sleeve of his first Girls On Top single, Being
Scrubbed, which mixes Being Boiled
with TLC's No Scrubs. After he expressed an interest
in releasing the early works of The Future and The Human League
on his Black Melody label, I contacted Martyn and Philip to
find out how they felt about the idea, and both seemed interested.
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Richard
and I then began gathering unreleased recordings from our
collection of bootlegs, and following my visit to The Human
League's Sheffield studio in October 2001, I was kindly given
copies of further unreleased material by the League's long-standing
engineer, David Beevers, including a copy of The
Future Tapes, some of which had never been bootlegged.
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As
the project began to gather momentum, David volunteered to
explore the many master tapes stored in the League's studio
and found many more unreleased recordings, some of which had
probably not been played since the 1970s. While David was
busy restoring and cleaning up these tapes, many of which
were in bad condition, Richard and I met with Martyn and Ian,
who also looked through their collections for other recordings
and photographs which could be used for the artwork.
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After
much deliberation, Richard arrived at the tracklisting above,
though the album contains some additional snippets of material
not listed above or on the sleeve. These are as follows:
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before
Dance Like A Star:
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a
spoken introduction by Philip, taken from the legendary
'Taverner
tape' |
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after
4JG:
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a
bizarre recording of a young child, reciting the nursery
rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep and attempting to pronounce
"The Human League" while one of the League
members tinkers with a synthesizer in the background |
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after
Dada Dada Duchamp Vortex:
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a
spoken introduction by Philip (interrupted by Martyn),
taken from the fourth version of Dance Like A Star
(see the transcription) |
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after
Disco Disaster:
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the
'Dominion jingle' |
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after
King Of Kings:
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Philip
and Ian recording screams, possibly for use on Introducing
or Almost Medieval
(unconfirmed) |
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after
The Last Man On Earth:
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an
excerpt from the introduction of the radio broadcast
of the League's Festival Of Fools show in Amsterdam,
June 1980 - one of the original line-up's final live
shows |
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Unfortunately,
the sound quality is uneven throughout the album; this is
due to the variable quality of the tapes available. Of the
tracks listed on the sleeve, Philip's The Circus Of Dr
Lao is probably the most lo-fi, as the only good quality
recording of this track which could be located was missing
Philip's vocals. The only available vocal version was actually
taken from a bootleg cassette, and this appears on the album.
Thankfully, the other recordings were taken, if not directly
from the original master tapes, then from good quality DAT
backups of those masters.
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While
many more unreleased recordings remain in the League's archives,
this album does provide the listener with a good overall introduction
to both The Future and the League's early recordings which
led to their publishing and recording contracts with Virgin
companies.
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Incidentally,
if you're wondering why the album has this title, check the
introductory
narrative for The Future Tapes. Also, if you have any
difficulty reading the sleeve notes on this CD's inlay card,
you can read the original notes (which are almost identical)
at the end of the plain
text version of this site.
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The compilation was reissued in September 2008 as the sold-out original
release was commanding such high prices among collectors. Many tracks were
remastered, leading to a slightly improvement in sound quality in some cases,
as the original compilation master had been destroyed in a fire. The reissue
was also made available as a digital download, albeit with an edited version of
The Last Man On Earth, due to unreasonable pricing regulations imposed by
certain digital music vendors on long tracks.
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Writing
credits: * The Future, ** Marsh/Ware, except Dance Like
A Star, Dominion advertisement and Disco Disaster (Oakey/Marsh/Ware),
Reach Out (B Holland/L Dozier/E Holland), Once Upon
A Time In The West (Ennio Morricone) and King Of Kings
(Miklos Rozsa), *** Philip Oakey
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Produced
by Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, except * The Future, Dance
Like A Star, Dominion advertisement and Disco Disaster
(The Human League), and *** Philip Oakey
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Available
on CD from Black Melody
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