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Product Description afterimage 1 �� Disc 1 • Significant Others 2 Hit The Pavement 3 A Separate Reality 4 Give God Some Praise 5 Whitefriars (early version) 6 Watching The Time 1 �� Disc 2 • Occam’s Razor 2 Renespeak 3 The Miracle Power 4 The Perfect Window 5 Oppression 6 Oppressed Dub 7 Carole 8 Sell the Earth 1 �� Disc 3 • Notes From Underground 2 The Lines On Your Face 3 This Old Country 4 Just A Feeling 5 Dream 1 6 Nothing Goes Unsaid 8 7 The Falling 8 Pieces 9 Dream 2 10 Shadowland 11 Nothing Goes Unsaid 2 12 Weltuntergangstimmung 13 The Lines On Your Face (reprise) 14 My Friend (early version) 1 �� Disc 4 • Rarities 2 Illusions 3 Journey of an Exile 4 Broken Backs 5 A Second At A Time (early version) 6 Balance (early version) 7 Seventy Years (early version) 8 A Different Light (early version) 9 Give God Some Praise (intermix) Genres: Alternative, College Rock, Indie, 80s RIYL: Pale Saints, New Order, Eno/Byrne The Arms of Someone New formed in 1983 in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, when college students Mel Eberle and Steve Jones combined their introspective artistry into music marked by atmospheric guitars, minimalist synthesizers, vintage drum machines, and tape loops. This collection of 33 tracks, recorded before their 1985 album Susan Sleepwalking, evokes the romantic intensity of Half Japanese and Beat Happening, yet bears a quietly seductive charm all its own. In early 1983, Mel was in the band The First Things, managed and produced by Steve. As the two grew to be closer friends they started making music independently of what Mel was writing & recording for The First Things. The idea for The Arms of Someone New was to combine their varied interests in The Beatles, psychedelia, blues, new wave and post-punk to create a sound that wrapped around the listener like fog. Disc 1 of TAPE 83-85 contains some of the first tracks they recorded in a small apartment in Champaign. The first four tracks were released in December 1983 as the Significant Others cassette on The First Things’ label, Hysterical Records. The release’s title was one of the names they had considered for the band. Disc 1’s final track, “Watching The Time,” is an unreleased outtake from those sessions. They followed Significant Others two months later with another cassette on Hysterical, Occam’s Razor, disc 2 of this album. The previously unreleased “Sell the Earth” was recorded live-in-the-studio. Their ambitions turned toward a concept album with songs tied together sonically and lyrically, chronicling a day in the life of a person struggling with alienation, consciousness, and psychological darkness. The resulting Notes From Underground cassette, their final recording for Hysterical, was released in the USA in April 1984 and in Germany on Devils Dandy Dogs. Underground, Disc 3 here, was a creative peak; the song “My Friend” in particular became a fan favorite and was re-recorded for their 1985 Burying The Carnival vinyl EP. Disc 4 features unreleased and rare tracks from the span of The Arms of Someone New’s cassette years. May 1983’s “Illusions” was the first song Mel and Steve recorded together before they formed The Arms of Someone New; it ended up on an album by The First Things and became a staple of their live set. “A Second at a Time,” “Balance,” and “Seventy Years” appeared on a cassette given away with a local fanzine in May 1985. All three presage the harder, more electric sound they were to favor on Burying The Carnival. Fans of ethereal darkwave, minimal synth-pop, and the experimental spirit of 1980s cassette culture will find this remastered collection an essential rediscovery. Discography: SIGNIFICANT OTHERS, December 1983, 4-song cassette OCCAM’S RAZOR, February 1984, 6-song cassette NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, April 1984, 13-song cassette HOLY DANCE, August 1984, 2-song 7” vinyl single BURYING THE CARNIVAL, January 1985, 6-song 12” vinyl ep Auhtistic Chainsaw Gazette, May 1985. 4-song cassette with fanzine SUSAN SLEEWALKING, September 1985, 11-song vinyl LP LOVE, POWER & JUSTICE, July 1986, 17-song CD of early unreleased tracks BLACK & WHITE, April 1987, 7-track cassette PROMISE, December 1988, 10-song vinyl LP Projekt release: March 20, 2026
Vinyl
