I START COUNTING have announced two limited edition cassette releases of demos from 1985 and 1986. The cassettes, limited to 150 and signed by the duo, will be exclusively available from Mute at the 10th Anniversary Independent Label Market on Sunday 18 July at London’s Covent Garden, before they’re available from Mute Bank and Bandcamp from 3 September 2021.
Listen to ‘Talk About The Weather’ from Re-Fused:
I Start Counting are David Baker and Simon Leonard. The duo formed in 1982 and signed to Mute in 1984. Their first singles, ‘Letters to a Friend’ and ‘Still Smiling’, were both produced by Daniel Miller and preceded two album releases, My Translucent Hands (1986) and Fused (1989). By the beginning of the 90s, Baker and Leonard had become Fortran 5, releasing three albums for the label, before reincarnating in 1996 as Komputer, the name they continue to record under.
These cassette releases collate a selection of demos of songs from 1985 and 1986 respectively, some of the songs have never been heard before, others went on to be recorded and released.
Baker and Leonard, through all their iterations, have a very British knack of weaving pop masterpieces from often suburban and mundane subject matter – ‘Talk About The Weather’ and ‘625’ deal with youthful crushes and TV addiction and throughout their releases the duo take on small town discos, big dirty cities, young love and serial killers through the prism of electronics such Korg PolySix and the Greengate DS3 sampler.
Re-fused CSTUMM178
Talk About The Weather
You And I
625
Grass Snake
Pretty Too
Birmingham
The I Can’t Express
Lose Him
Say Something
Ejected CSTUMM193
Charlie
Modern Sunbathing
Is She On Her Own
Cooler Than Calcutta
Red Car
My Sister’s Friend
Million Headed Monster
I’m A Murderer
You Can’t Write That Down
Rawhide
Join Mute, 4AD, Domino, Fire and more at the Independent Label Market on Sunday 18 July – 12-6pm on Carnaby Street, W1