I took the reels into my brother in law’s professional recording studio and transferred all four tracks at 24 bit/96khz, mastered them myself (I should be getting a mastering credit) and sent these digital files to Cleo.
It sounded great for a 30 year old tape that survived everything, including a fire at my house in the 90’s.
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I’m beyond impressed. This is great news, as Cleo frequently releases second generation recordings and other dupes without much transparency as to how they were sourced. Knowing this comes from a format better than a cassette and was handled by someone who cares is appreciated.
Did the “I See Red” instrumental come from your reels as well?
Yes, as well as the two new Halloween mixes. It should be an excellent sounding 12"
Very cool. Does Al end up getting unexpected royalties out of something like this?
Hopefully Al gets a cookie or two from this.
Are you able share the tracklist for the 12/31/81 show? I’ve been trying to dig up information on that one for years.
Also, out of curiosity, is the recording audience or soundboard?
I’m pretty sure it’s an audience recording. The trackist is:
1 She’s Got a Cause
2 Primental
3 Make Up Your Mind (My Guess at song title)
4 First True Love Affair by Jamie Ross (partial)
5 Cold Life (partial)
6 Jodie Foster
7 I’m Falling
8 OverKill
9 Orangotango
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Wow…cool TY…
Took a chance on a weird listing and got a test pressing of this…Playground sounds like a great lost Twitch outtake to my ears.
How about sharing it…
It appears the release date has been pushed back to November 20, 2020. 
I think the digital version is still on track for Friday. Can’t wait to check it out.
Yeah, you can stream the whole thing on Bandcamp now.
I’d like to pick up the physical too, but this is ridiculously expensive for an EP, to buy it on Bandcamp and have it shipped to Canada is $58. Hopefully one of my local record stores will be able to get it.
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Yep, digital version is out.
The Halloween remixes are nothing special. At this point you’d have to do something really dramatic to that song to impress me anymore.
Playground is a cool relic from that era of the band. A little long, maybe.
I See Red - Instrumental is OK. It’s exactly what it says on the package, y’know?
So maybe more over hyped grabbing bullshit to pass on?
Definitely some cool stuff on this one. From the layout is seems this content was planned as a 12" but was ultimately replaced by Halloween Remix/Nature of Outtakes.
The two mixes of Halloween were combined into the final “Halloween Remix” that we all know, there’s a few bits in the dub version that didn’t make the cut and are kind of cool.
Playground is one I’ve only known by name over the years, so it’s awesome to finally hear it. Al’s vocals kind of remind of Bill Leeb a bit. Definitely done on the same gear as the Twitch album. It’s a fun track, but does go on a bit too long.
I See Red Instrumental sounds more like a dub remix of the song. Again, some cool bits not in the original, mostly towards the end.
Pretty cool overall, I love stuff like this.
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So, the Halloween remixes weren’t all that different, but fun to hear. Kind of like the different remixes of “All Day” that showed up on “Twitch” and “Twelve-Inch Singles.” “Playground” feels like it could have shown up on “Twitch”, Revco’s BSL or a PTP release. Good stuff for $3 on Bandcamp.
Al sure knew how to construct a good dance groove.
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Playground’s percussion is very similar to that of a track Al did for Major Malfunction (M.O.V.E.):
…and let me tell you, it is screwing me up. I get thrown off-guard whenever I prepare for the tense bits I’m used to in the original song and they turn out to be placed differently
Definitely too long though, I’ve considered editing it down to 5-6 minutes to remove all the superfluous parts for personal listening
Holy crackpipes, is it my birthday again? I feel like there’s an alternate universe where Ministry recorded at least a couple more albums worth of material in that “missing link” period between With Sympathy and Twitch, and pieces keep falling through a wormhole and ending up here.
I love “Playground”, even though it goes on forever. It definitely sounds very much like “M.O.V.E.”. And I’ll never say no to an alternate version of “My Favorite Things”…I mean “I See Red”.
Anybody have the physical vinyl in their hands at this point?
–SKot
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For sure, just when you think you’ve heard everything, more comes out of the cracks.
There’s around 12 known early songs that still haven’t been released yet, it wouldn’t surprise me if that number was even higher.
I should have my copy of this tomorrow, looking forward to hearing it on vinyl.