Demos & Studio Outtakes

Notes

This page contains samples of every demo or studio pre-mix which is circulating and that has not been commercially released. Tracks are presented in chronological order by the album they are related to, then ordered according to the album's track listing. Unless otherwise noted, each track is a sample or excerpt of no longer than 150 seconds. All tracks are encoded from lossless sources to MP3 320kbps CBR, or in the case of MP3 tracks, cut losslessly using mp3directcut. Only three WMA files from Svenner's demo page (now defunct it seems) were re-encoded to MP3 in order to be able to play them on the site. Even though a track may be "lossless" on the bootleg CD it was ripped from, it still very well may be lossy or have destructive noise reduction applied to it; the Behind The Wheel studio pre-mix is one such example.

If you have the following bootleg:

• Depeche Mode - A Perfect Frame (1998) 2xCD-R

Please contact admin [at] depechemode-live [dot] com as this bootleg contain demos and studio pre-mixes which may upgrades in quality compared to the sources used for the samples below.

1980 / 1981 Speak & Spell Era

Composition Of Sound demo tape

• Four tracks appeared on Composition Of Sounds' first demo tape. Vince Clarke sings lead vocals, as Dave Gahan had not joined the band yet. The entire demo tape has not yet surfaced; only the four snippets found below are available. These snippets are the original files shared in this thread on depmod, courtesy of Recoil19.

Unknown Track (Demo)

• The beginning of this track bears a musical resemblance to Reason Man.

Let's Get Together (Demo, entire track)

• Unreleased track written by Vince; he later rewrote the song for the group Girl Authority which covered it as a single in 2007; watch on YouTube.

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Summer 1980 Demo Tape

Ice Machine (Demo, entire track)

• Andrew Fletcher plays bass in this track.

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Radio News (Demo, entire track)

• Lyrics available on the Radio News page.

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Demo-rn.mp3"

Photographic (Demo, entire track)

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Demo-photo.mp3"

1983 Construction Time Again Era

All By Themselves (Demo, entire track)

• This demo is a track often in dispute by fans who are unsure whether it's really one of Martin's demos. I firmly believe it is, but I cannot furnish absolute proof of that. It definitely sounds like Martin Gore's vocals, in my opinion. It's a very gloomy, depressing sounding song with vocals subdued and difficult to comprehend (which is why I have not transcribed lyrics for this song yet).

1984 Some Great Reward Era

Lie To Me (Demo)

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Master And Servant (Studio Pre-Mix)

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Alan Wilder's 1984 "Some Great Reward" Demo Tape

Alan Wilder provided at least four demo tracks for "Some Great Reward". Find more information here. You can click on any song title below to find lyrics.

1985 - 1986 Black Celebration Era

World Full Of Nothing (Alternate Version)

• This version was uploaded to Soundcloud (file private/removed) as an "alternate" version with an additional background melody. From Svenner's demo page

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1987 Music For The Masses Era

Strangelove (Studio Pre-Mix)

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• Martin's backing vocal "it's important" before the line "pain, will you return it / I won't say it again" is present on this pre-mix. It is not present on any mix of Strangelove until the Strangelove '88 single releases, where it is present on the "Hijack Mix" (aka "Tim Simenon / Mark Saunders Remix") and possibly others. The excerpt below depicts this.

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I Want You Now (Studio Pre-Mix)

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Agent Orange (Studio Pre-Mix)

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1989 Martin's Counterfeit e.p. era

I Love You Love Me Love

• It it unknown when exactly or why Martin covered this song. It is rumored to have been recorded for a friend as a birthday gift.

Down In The Boondocks

• Martin covered this song for his first Counterfeit e.p. but it did not make the album.

1989 - 1990 Violator Era

Enjoy The Silence (Demo, entire track)

• The "Harmonium" mix of Enjoy The Silence closely resembles this original demo version.

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Interlude #3 (Studio Pre-Mix, entire track)

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1995-1997 Ultra Era

Barrel Of A Gun (Demo / Rough Mix)

• This version of Barrel Of A Gun is strikingly similar to the final album verison, but has Martin singing lead vocals. There is also an instrumental break in the middle of the song not found in the album version; the second excerpt below depicts this.

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• Instrumental break

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2001 Exciter Era

Freelove (Studio Pre-Mix)

• No guitar; from Svenner's demo page.

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2007 - 2009 Sounds Of The Universe Era

Hole To Feed (Demo)

• This demo closely resembles Dave's "Hourglass" solo album in style, which is why the SOTU era is described as 2007 - 2009 in this section's heading.

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Fragile Tension (Studio Pre-Mix)

• This pre-mix / rough mix is seemingly identical to the album version, although the penultimate verse misses Martin's backing vocals; the excerpt below illustrates this.

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Come Back (Demo)

• This is a different demo than the one that was released on the "Sounds Of The Universe" boxset. It more closely resembles Dave's "Hourglass" solo album in style, which is why the SOTU era is described as 2007 - 2009 in this section's heading.

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Fake demos & tracks

This section contains demos which are commonly attributed to Depeche Mode or one of their solo members, but are really other artists' demos. This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of fake demos.

Will The New Baby Grow

• This track is attributed to Composition Of Sound, but is commonly accepted as fake. Appears on the "Rarities Of Mode" CD bootleg, but this one is a higher-quality version transferred from a tape.

Return To Oberkorn (Instrumental)

• An instrumental bearing some musical resemblance to Oberkorn (It's A Small Town), but it's not Depeche Mode. Appears on the "Rarities Of Mode" CD bootleg.

Transcanadian Track (Instrumental)

• Another instrumental attributed to Depeche Mode or Recoil (I don't remember which specifically). Appears on the "Rarities Of Mode" CD bootleg.

Nodisco (Instrumental)

• A very good instrumental cover apparently done by "Depeche's Cover", appearing on a release titled Nodisco 12". Not sure if it's actually vinyl-sourced or not; there are the occasional light pops & clicks, so it may truly be. I have seen this claimed to be a demo on one bootleg and it was in much worse quality than this MP3 below. If somebody happens to have a lossless version of this track or knows who the author is, please feel free to email me.

Get The Balance Right (Instrumental)

• This is a fan-made instrumental cover version, not a real demo. There are many instrumental cover / "demo" versions, but this one was occasionally thought as genuine given its closeness in melody and overall sound to the real track.

Treadmill Of Time

• This track is falsely claimed to be Alan Wilder's circa 1981. The actual performer is unknown.

Here To Have Fun

• This track is falsely claimed to be Alan Wilder's circa 1981. The actual performer is unknown.

Chart Rundown

• This track is falsely claimed to be Alan Wilder's circa 1981. The actual performer is unknown.

Shake The Disease (Martin's Demo Version Instrumental)

• This is a very well made instrumental cover of Martin's original demo. It appears on the CD-R bootleg Shake The Disease (20 Years Edition). If somebody happens to have a lossless version of this track or knows who the author is, please feel free to email me.

Black Celebration (Khoa Ho Version)

• This is Khoa Ho's piano cover of Black Celebration, appearing on "MODEified 1 - The Strangest Devotion". It's not bad. I've seen it claimed to be Alan Wilder's demo on some bootleg, obviously false given that it doesn't sound like him and that Martin wrote the song, anyway.

References

• Svenner's demo page contains further information about demos as well as some info about unreleased mixes, fake demos claimed to be Depeche Mode's, some backing track samples, etc. Several samples are from his site and are credited as such. The page seems to be defunct now.