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 these bootlegs 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.

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

Summer 1980 Demo Tape

Ice Machine (Demo, entire track)

• Andrew Fletcher plays bass in this track.

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

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)

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Demo-ltm-sample.mp3"

Master And Servant (Studio Pre-Mix)

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Premix-mas-sample.mp3"

If You Want (Demo)

• This demo features Alan Wilder on vocals.

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

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Premix-wfon-sample.mp3"

1987 Music For The Masses Era

Strangelove (Studio Pre-Mix)

• Martin's backing vocal "it's important" before the line "pain, will you return it / I won't say it again" is present in the demo. 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 second excerpt below depicts this.

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Premix-strangelove-sample.mp3"

• Martin's "it's important" backing vocal

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Premix-strangelove-excerpt.mp3"

Sacred (Studio Pre-Mix)

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Premix-sacred-sample.mp3"

Behind The Wheel (Studio Pre-Mix)

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Premix-btw-sample.mp3"

I Want You Now (Studio Pre-Mix)

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Premix-iwyn-sample.mp3"

Agent Orange (Studio Pre-Mix)

Html5mediator: error loading file:"premix-ao-sample.mp3"

1989 Martin's Counterfeit e.p. era

I Love You Love Me Love

• It it unknown when exactly Martin covered this song, nor is it known why he covered this song.

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.

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

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

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Premix-interlude3.mp3"

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

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Demo-boag-excerpt.mp3"

2001 Exciter Era

Freelove (Studio Pre-Mix)

• No guitar; from Svenner's demo page.

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Premix-freelove-sample.mp3"

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.

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Demo-htf-sample.mp3"

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.

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Premix-ft-sample.mp3"

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.

Html5mediator: error loading file:"Demo-cb-sample.mp3"

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.