So I got to thinking just now after what I posted on the other '83 image thread…
Al scrapped/didn’t release/record in the studio a LOT of material from those days.
Nearly an album’s worth of stuff easily. Between the Wax Trax singles/Earl Trax and all of the leaked stuff Bisquit has posted here…with maybe a few B-sides like Primental/Walk in the Park, you could almost actually burn the “83-'85 Ministry album that wasn’t” Tracklist recomendations/suggestions here might be interesting!
Don’t forget stuff like SOM or the Eyes of Christ either! I’ll post my dozen tracks in a bit.
excellent idea! You could nearly make an album of Twitch era stuff too-
Eyes of Christ
Ricky’s Hand
I See Red (takes 1 + 2 )
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
He’s Angry (early trax)
Move (early trax)
and the alternate versions from Twitched
Sean, you could add the Hizbollah intro played in 1984 to that list, too.
Here’s some more 82-84 Ministry material that would be nice to have on a compilation CD (though a few of these probably don’t have proper studio recordings):
Walk In The Park
Same Old Madness
Never Asked For Anything
Love Change
What Is The Reason
America
Overkill
So So Life
I’ll Do Anything For You
Do You Even Like It
Excellent list and a near-mirror of mine:
(this is more or less “my” order too…a good mix of poppy & darker songs)
Same Old Madness
I’m Falling (the superior, earlier Cure-esque version heard on Early Trax)
I’ll Do Anything For You
Love Change
Never Asked For Anything
Walk In The Park
What Is The Reason
Do You Even Like It
Ricky’s Hand
Overkill/Just Kidding
So So Life
America
Thrill Kill Kult (or did this come too late for inclusion with this group of songs? If so stick it on the pre-Twitch EP!)
Primental
Great lists so far, guys. Bisquit, any songs we’ve left off or overlooked? What would your personal mix disc look like?
I think the existence of Hizbollah as the “bridge” song between the two incarnations of Ministry is pretty cool as well. I’d rather have seen the Wax Trax 12" stuff stay on its original compilation and all of Early Trax be devoted to previously unreleased material. Anyone know how the Ryko sales figures were for those two Trax collections? Did they do well enough to warrant a 3rd volume? I am sure Al’s got PLENTY in the vaults!
I’d rather have seen the Wax Trax 12" stuff stay on its original compilation and all of Early Trax be devoted to previously unreleased material
me too! Cold Life is one of my favorite early Ministry tunes as well (I’m a huge funk fan! ) and let’s face it…if it weren’t for that one track alone, Early Trax, or any other Ministry trax wouldnt exist [:P] But yes, Al probably does have a huge vault by this point. It’d take him months to sort it out etc. Perhaps, IF there’s anothe early trax, it’ll be mostly, if not all, demos/outtakes/etc.
And give us a mid trax while you’re at it Al [:P] LORAH-Psalm era.
I would love to hear some demos/alternate versions of 1000 Homo DJs/Pailhead tracks written during the LORAH sessions. they have to be on a reel of tape somewhere.
One of the most underwhelming efforts ever in the canon of both Al & Paul and Cabaret Voltaire was the AcidHorse single. Both versions of “No Name, No Slogan” were pretty weak considering the monumental amount of talent involved.
Of course, staggering amounts of drugs can always be blamed, as could CV’s house fixation of that period or Al’s unwillingness to associate with an “electronic” group as he was ramping up his metal machine.
At any rate, I wonder:
A. If anything more was recorded during their time together in the studio or if it was just two weak takes on one song.
B. If so, who has it (Al or Richard)? I’d figure RHK to be the one to hang on to something like that as he seems to have bottomless vaults of unreleased material.
I’ve always had this idea for whatever reason that the guitar songs were done at the end of the LORAH sessions. As in, perhaps the whole 2nd half of the album (pretty much after GoldenDawn) those were the first tracks done during the recording process. Then, Al decided to throw a guitar in on Flashback for instance, and said “holy shit…I might be on to something” . I dunno…I could be totally off. I think I’m just going on a tyraid to say this: it’s a great album with a perfect blend of electronics/guitars [:P]
so, demos from that period would be interesting. was everything still all electronic at that point? hmm…
Didn’t Ministry scrap an album’s worth of material while making Dark Side?
I heard that they spent six months in the studio working on ideas but ended up ditching them because they were “too ambient”! I have spoken to a guy from Texas over the internet who claimed to be close to the band and to have heard tracks from around this period with names such as: Tinsel, Monkey Brains, Welt, Indian, Trailer Smell, Happy Dust and Yes You Are.
Does anyone know anything about these tracks? I have read interviews where Al talked about Tinsel and Welt not making the Filth Pig album, but assured that they would turn up on the next album. They never did, apart from Happy Dust which was a b side to Bad Blood. Also, I am led to believe that ‘Yes You Are’ later morphed into ‘Lockbox’.
Actually, I think there’s two albums worth of stuff out there.
Pre-Arista full-length album: This would include “Same Old Madness”, “Love Change”, “America”, “Never Asked for Nothing”, and the demos of “Revenge”, “Effigy”, and “Work for Love.”
Wax Trax! era full-length album: “Do You Even Like It”, “I’ll Do Anything For You”, “Move”, “He’s Angry”, “The Eyes of Christ”, “I See Red”, “Halloween”, “All Day”, “The Nature of Love”
That leaves “A Walk in The Park” and “So So Life” without a home. They would probably fit better on album #1, but could also work on #2 if they were cut in the studio after the Arista contract ended.
why not to release a collection similar to Ministry Box?
for example:
CD1 12 Inch Singles/Twitch outtakes/singles
CD2 LORAH/Mind outtakes/singles
CD3 PSALM69 outtakes/singles (this is the album that has the most remixes and song versions!!)
CD4 FILTHPIG/DSOTS stuff.
to include the stuff the original ministry box didn’t, like TV3, paisley, Step 12", Nursing Home 12", TVSong1, etc etc etc etc etc.
just don’t release that on fucking rykodisc… just bought the “remastered” bsq and son of a bitch, god damn, THEY ARE HORRIBLE.
Didn’t Ministry scrap an album’s worth of material while making Dark Side?
I heard that they spent six months in the studio working on ideas but ended up ditching them because they were “too ambient”! I have spoken to a guy from Texas over the internet who claimed to be close to the band and to have heard tracks from around this period with names such as: Tinsel, Monkey Brains, Welt, Indian, Trailer Smell, Happy Dust and Yes You Are.
Does anyone know anything about these tracks? I have read interviews where Al talked about Tinsel and Welt not making the Filth Pig album, but assured that they would turn up on the next album. They never did, apart from Happy Dust which was a b side to Bad Blood. Also, I am led to believe that ‘Yes You Are’ later morphed into ‘Lockbox’.
What about the others?
[crazy]
That sounds pretty cool, would love to hear some of that work. Lockbox’ first title was Dead Practice, thats what it was called on A.I. film.
What I wouldnt give to hear a Ministry song from that era called ‘Trailer Smell’
Didn’t Ministry scrap an album’s worth of material while making Dark Side?
I heard that they spent six months in the studio working on ideas but ended up ditching them because they were “too ambient”! I have spoken to a guy from Texas over the internet who claimed to be close to the band and to have heard tracks from around this period with names such as: Tinsel, Monkey Brains, Welt, Indian, Trailer Smell, Happy Dust and Yes You Are.
Does anyone know anything about these tracks? I have read interviews where Al talked about Tinsel and Welt not making the Filth Pig album, but assured that they would turn up on the next album. They never did, apart from Happy Dust which was a b side to Bad Blood. Also, I am led to believe that ‘Yes You Are’ later morphed into ‘Lockbox’.
What about the others?
[crazy]
Wow that sounds fucking AWESOME!!! Ambient?? Hmmm I would kill to hear this shit. Seriously I know I would love it…
I don’t think any of these tracks people are talking about willl ever see the light of day, but I do think a remastered Land of Rape and Honey is a definite possibility down the line.
Also I keep hearing about these tracks like “Eyes of Christ” that came around between Twitch and LORAH and I’m dying to hear them cuz I really like stuff from that era.
I’d love to hear some of Al’s earliest recordings…this article made me really interested:
By the time he’d completed the sessions, Al had bandied about a number of band names. The Silly Carmichaels actually drew a crowd of 290 to their debut at Club 950. But soon it was the Not So Silly Carmichaels, the Carmichaels, Fallen Pillar, Ministry of Fear, and P. Funk-esque alter ego Ministry of Funk. Finally, plain Ministry seemed to stick, combining the doom / gloom chromosomes of Fear and the dance feel of Funk. In quest of an up-to-the-minute definition of funk, we ask Al to give us the state-of-the-funk address. Is it James Brown? James White? Gang of Four?
“No, no, no,” he retorts, “It’s Chic, y’know, ‘Le Freak.’ To me, Chic is the best band ever. As far as I’m concerned, theirs is the only kind of upbeat music on the radio that made me move. It certainly isn’t hard-core punk; maybe I’m too over the hill or whatever, but you can’t dance to that. It was just loud trash. It was good for when it happened, but now it’s just retreading and pointless to me. I don’t care how many enemies that makes me.”
In all fairness, we mention, Ministry’s “Cold Life” doesn’t exactly sound like the soulmate of “Le Freak.” And what happens when funk meets doom / gloom? “It’s intelligent music,” Al says of the latter, “It really involves a mood. It just takes over. You’ll be in a great mood, and all of the sudden you’ll be entranced with the hypnotic effect…”
But doesn’t dwelling on any one mood get old?
“How can you tell if you’re hypnotized?”
“I think the Cure is a good example of that. Chic and the Cure, of course, have different concepts. At one time, I was considering splitting up the bands and getting two sets of people – Ministry of Fear and Ministry of Funk. However, I found some people who were into both types of music so we consolidated. We also found that the synthesizer can handle so much of the workload of a song without having to have all these people up there when you’re touring. We’d originally envisioned a huge horn section, but eventually we did more tapes and it involved plain economics to get rid of those people and start concentrating on the synths.”
By now, they’ve probably finished recording a new 12 inch single produced by Psychedelic Furs drummer Vince Eli in collusion with Ian Taylor, who is Roy Thomas Baker’s right hand man and produced Romeo Void’s “Never Say Never.” It will include the following tracks: “Same Old Madness,” “Never Asked For Nothing,” “Revenge,” and “I’m Not An Effigy.” In addition, the UK version will include “Julie Burchill.”
“I’m sure she’ll love us, ha ha ha.”
I’m not sure if that reference to “Julie Birchill” was just an example of Al’s humor, and the interviewer took it as an actual song, or if it truly was recorded. (I did a quick google search and I see that Julie Birchill was a writer for the New Musical Express)
Whether that track was a joke or not, it sounds like the Same Old Madness single was almost ready to be released, so I’m sure the unreleased tracks are sitting in the vault.
Why can’t they just put all this stuff up on iTunes? I’d gladly buy these tracks!
