The Free Mini Album...  First I’d like to state that this mini album is not an actual CD release and never will be. It’s a merely a collection of free MP3 downloads of various recordings of “Out of Control” which was a band I started with my friend Phil Clogg over 30 years ago. Some recordings are of a studio demo tape we did and some are rehearsal tapes. I’ve placed this mini album with all my CDs as this seemed the best place to put them. The usual CD cover image has been replaced by a poster I created.

Out of Control was a unique electronic rock duo. As you can hear it was a mainly high energy aggressive outfit that made use of a punchy electronic backing coupled with a hard edged guitar sound. Strangely our hard rock image was founded on much geekyness on my part. Because what made it unique was the fact that we used one of the first computer micro-processor boards on the market to generate interactive control data for my specially built analogue synthesisers to produce driving mechanical riffs and electronic percussion for the set. The synthesiser, percussion unit and machine code programming to drive it were all my creations specially made for the group. Phil was the song writer and guitarist and we arranged mainly his stuff together. He also managed somehow to play a bass synthesiser with a pedal board and help me build a small PA system to gig with. I played synthesisers. This band was a turning point for me and formed the starting point for everything I’ve done since with electronic music.  I owe Phil a great deal for the experience and for his willingness to go into the unknown! The above downloads are both a way for me to present an idea of what we did and what all it sounded like and to thank Phil for his great contribution to the band and a little part of history.

The Tapes.....  First I’d like to thank Phil for agreeing to let me put these tracks on my site for free MP3 download. I’m pleased he has agreed as several are not perfect polished  recordings. This is why I’ve listed them in two parts. The first part is a three track demo tape we did in a local 8 track studio so is a finished but demo project. The second part is a collection of simple rehearsal tapes. Phil and I used my 4 track tape recorder as a writing aid. Once we had a song in reasonable shape we would record it in the rehearsal room to review it and see what it sounded like. Part 2 contains some of  these recordings. They are not by no means perfect, highly engineered and polished projects; they are merely just straight, one take, recordings of songs in progress when we first got an arrangement, more or less, there and we wanted a record of it before we forgot it. What is on these tapes is exactly what would have gone out to the PA system, only hopefully a bit more rehearsed and polished. After 30 odd years the tapes are not in great condition. Some were OK but one or two were starting to shed oxide and gunge up the tape heads. So  I’ve had to transfer the odd track in sections to the computer and edit them together. Apart from that they are pretty much intact with only the most basic renovation work done to them.

CD 013 tracks :-

PART 1 Studio Demo tape .....

1).   “Losing Control”               
2).   “Fly”
3).   “Lizard King”

Part 2  Rehearsal Tapes....
4).   “Real to Reel”
5).   “Into your World of Dreams”
6).  “Crystal”
7).  “The Edge of Reason”
8).  “Fly 2”

High Res. Jpeg version of poster...