2-CD: RENCD18
RELEASED: 2007
LABEL: Renascent

Disc 1:
01. Mass >>
02. Have You Seen **
03. Work **
04. I Get Excited *
05. The House That... >
06. Red Planet *
07. Specimen No 2 *
08. Eye Of The Lens ^
09. You Never Learn >>
10. Tilted ^
11. Island Heart >
12. Time To Burn ^

Disc 2:
01. Lost Continent >
02. Something's Got To Give >
03. You Move Me >
04. Carried Away >
05. Born Again >
06. Ice Sculpture +
07. She's Invisible +
08. Under The Influence >
09. I.K.T.F. >
10. Transport Of Delight +
11. Venus Hunter >
12. There's Something Going On ++

> band demos done at Input Studios 79-81
* tracks from 1st self-produced single
** tracks done at same session - September Sound Studios Oct 78
^ recorded in cellar of band house ? 65, Hunter House Rd, Sheffield 79 - 80
>> rehearsal recording
+ from limited release album 'Fire On The Moon'
++ early 'My Minds Eye' demo

To Before is an exclusive digitally remastered compilation of Comsat Angels demos, out-takes and other 'deleted' tracks from 1978 to 1993. The material is largely taken from the Comsat's own 'archives'. This set has 17 previously unreleased recordings, several of which had been thought to be lost, Including their ultra-rare 1st single (on CD for the first time), band demos from 1979-81, tracks from their 1st self-produced 1978 single and other tracks done at the same session, tracks recorded in the cellar of the band's house in Sheffield, 1979- 80, rehearsal recordings, tracks from the Limited Edition album 'Fire on the Moon' and early 'My Minds Eye' demos.

The yearning atmospherics of the UK's post punk scene are well documented in the reissued albums from Sheffield's Comsat Angels. Taking their initial influence from the likes of Television, Patti Smith, Chrome and the UK underground scene of a decade earlier Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd and Robert Wyatt, the band, like many from the period saw the musical possibilities that punk opened up. Operating in a roughly similar area as The Sound and Joy Division the Comsat Angels were more tortoise than hare, slowly, surely getting to where they wouldn't to be. Their carefully constructed songs and distinctive back line led by bassist Kevin Bacon and Mik Glaiser on drums, gave them a moody presence and the occasionally sombre voice of Stephen Fellows suits the darker feel of the period. By 1982, the year of the release of 'Fiction', their third album, the cleansing fire of punk may has well have been a century before, and Sheffield's Comsat Angels, were leaving behind their post-punk roots for a more commercially flavoured, brighter coloured, alternative rock.

Influences / Similar Artists:
The Sound, The Chameleons, The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen