Portastudio Demos 1982
A recording session that took place in September 1982 with John Ashton at Strawberry Studios, Stockport.
Just as the name indicates, these songs were taped on a four-track recording machine, most likely a Tascam Portastudio.
The Tascam Portastudio was the world's first four-track recorder based on a standard audio cassette tape and
cleared the way for easy-going low-fi gravations.
Even in the field of professional music making (as it is the case with the Sisters of Mercy and the Portastudio Demos), this technique was appreciated and finally led to the birth of a new genre of rock music characterized by its minimal production cost: Lo-fi music
These demos were used later for several bootlegs such Hard Reign (LP), Before The Flood, Rare Obscurities,
Acoustics From The Beehive which is subtitled Portastudio Demos/Floodland Demos, and plenty others.
As a matter of fact all these verions are recordings with a moderate sound quality.
The demo tracks recorded on this occasion were:
| Track | Duration | Available for a listen under |
| Valentine - Version 1 | 4:18 | Valentine (Portastudio Demo Version 1) |
| Body Politic aka Fix | 2:47 | Body Politic aka Fix (Portastudio Demo) |
| Lights | 5:20 | Lights (Portastudio Demo) |
| Anaconda | 3:05 | Anaconda Demo |
| Driver | 3:17 | Driver (Portastudio Demo) |
| Good Things | 4:00 | Good Things - Strawberry Studio Demos 1982 |
| Phantom | 3:01 | Phantom (Portastudio Demo) |
| Burn aka Burn It Down | 2:53 | Burn It Down (Portastudio Demo) |
| Burn - instrumental | 5:31 | called Kiss The Carpet (Instrumental) on various bootlegs |
| Valentine - Version 2 | 4:10 | Valentine #2 - Before the Flood |
Remarks
- The two versions of Valentine are relatively similar, but clearly at different pitches. Possibly just EQed differently.
- Driver is an unreleased song. The first two lines are the same as in Heartland, the rest of the song is about how
they'll drive away, at high speed down the highway, not caring about anything. - Good Things is a slower mix.
- Phantom is shorter than the Anaconda/Alice version, lasting only three minutes.
- On Burn, the drumbeat is slightly different (the characteristic Burn drumbeat does play once or twice at the end),
and the only part of this song officially released was a few lines, recycled as the backwards part of Burn)
