Lost but Not Forgotten

Being an acolyte of all things On-U Sound & a fan of Mark Stewart (Pop Group, Maffia, or solo), I've posted other MS & M offerings here & here. Now the latest.

In January of this year, Mute Records rereleased 1983s Learning to Cope with Cowardice
by Mark Stewart & Maffia (both 2xCD & 2xLP are already sold out).

Along with this reissue of the original comes The Lost Tapes, a collection that represents the outcome of a painstaking search & the presentation of previously unheard material. Brought together into a sequence of embryonic prototypes, frenzied dub versions, & new archive discoveries, The Lost Tapes chronicles the early ideas & unknown stories that defined the outset of Stewart & Adrian Sherwood's vastly influential work together.

Beginning with the seething assault of "Intro" the collection provides a glimpse into a project Stewart originally intended for William Burroughs whilst "May I" presents a never-before-heard spectacle of raw Dubwise disorder recently discovered on an unmarked tape in an archive in France. Elsewhere there are significant coups in the form of "Paranoia", a pristine yet tough alternate version to "The Power of Paranoia", & "The Weight", another previously unreleased track that, in its forthright lyricism, reveals the vigor with which Stewart has, for many years, been committed to the Campaign Against The Arms Trade. Other revelatory moments include "Conspiracy" the first-ever collaboration between Stewart & Sherwood & "Jerusalem (prototype)", a historic first version of LtCwC's defining anthem, originally aired at the fateful CND rally in Trafalgar Square that signaled an end to Stewart's days in The Pop Group ver.1.0 & initiated his solo career.

Mark himself perceives The Lost Tapes as a document that now possesses a storied significance: "It was a real adventure discovering this forbidden history, a twisted tale of Muswell Hillbillies, French pirates, & a Dutch schizophrenic doctor doing psychic archaeology." Adrian Sherwood describes these works as characteristic of a distinct primitivism: "[The Lost Tapes represent] the early childhood of the songs before Mark & I conducted frenzied, scorched earth, slash-&-burn, twenty-hour mental manic editing sessions at Crass' studios that led to the birthing of the finished album."

Mark Stewart & Maffia - The Lost Tapes 1983, Mute Records 69759 , 2019.

Intro
May I
Conspiracy
Jerusalem (prototype)
Paranoia
Liberty Dub
Vision
Cowardice Dub
High Ideals & Crazy Dub
The Weight

You better grab this while it lasts.

Enjoy,
NØ