Meat Beat Manifesto - Early Archives

If you're not familiar with Jack Dangers and Meat Beat Manifesto, you should go get Storm The Studio, 99% and Armed Audio Warfare now! All three are representative of late eighties and early nineties industrial/dance music with a serious hip-hop flair as well as experimental, dubby textures that would later become prevalent in modern electronic music. MBM is just as essential today, although their sound is far more hypnotic and dub-influenced than it previously was, so while they sound notably different they're still a tremendous force in electronic music, though it's easy to miss that hip-hop and sample-heavy crunch from their early years. The fact that most of the singles from that era aren't easy to locate doesn't make it any easier, even with two rarities compilations available, so I'm hoping to fill some cracks with the following upload which compiles most of the content no longer available from the Storm The Studio era and before it. That said, if you love that Meat Beat sound you should definitely grab Armed Audio Warfare, which collects rare and unreleased tracks from that era, and Archive Things, self-released by MBM, which features tons of unreleased demos and pre-MBM recordings as well as an anthology of Perennial Divide, the pre-MBM band, named Purged. Otherwise, if you'd like to learn more about Meat Beat Manifesto, Jack Dangers and his collaborators past and present, you can visit their official site, their "other" less frequently updated official site, their historical archive, TapeLab, and the Wikipedia references for MBM and Jack Dangers.


Meat Beat Manifesto - Early Archives


01 Untitled (Drum Machine Test '88)

I'm not certain where this track came from, but it's not available anywhere officially at this time. Funky little workout that would fit nicely on Storm The Studio.


02 I Got The Fear (Titanium Mix)
03 I Got The Fear (Without Jack)
04 I Got The Fear (The Missing 'F' Word Wireless Mix)
05 I Got The Fear (Burnt Version)

The Titanium Mix and Without Jack versions are mixes of what would become I Got The Fear (Part 4). The 'F' Word and Burnt versions are from a promo-only single nicknamed the Absolutely Fucking Free edition. To clarify, the single wasn't a giveaway, it featured clean versions of the song where the "break your fucking back in two" line was re-written. More about these tracks and their releases are available here.


06 Strap Down (Roar Of The Underground)
07 Give Your Body Its Freedom (Original Version)
08 Wall To Wall
09 Strap Down (The Sound Defence Policy Remix)

Both mixes of Strap Down are rather similar to each other, but the Sound Defence remix, which was released after the Roar Of The Underground version, is a much better organized track. Both have tons of samples and are a lot of fun, but the Sound Defence remix is the clear winner of the two. Wall To Wall is a slowed-down reinterpretation of Strap Down with added emphasis on the lyrics. Give Your Body Its Freedom is actually available on Armed Audio Warfare, and while that version is pretty much the same, it's missing the intro contained here. More info on these releases is available here.


10 Re-Animator (Test-Pressing Version)

The origin of this version is unclear, but it's assumed that it was featured as part of an unreleased single of which more information is available here. Another version from that unreleased single is available on Armed Audio Warfare.


11 God O.D. (Single Version)
12 Mars Needs Women (Single Version)
13 Feelin' Dangers

These are all from the God O.D. single. The version of God O.D. is clearly a completely different recording of the song, but it's very similar to God O.D. (Part 1) from Storm The Studio. Mars Needs Women is similar to the version on Armed Audio Warfare but seems to be an edit/remix of that version. Feelin' Dangers features part of the rap from Mars Needs Women which is also featured in some versions of I Got The Fear. More release info here.


14 Strap Down (Part 3)

Not from a single, this version of Strap Down was featured only on the vinyl and cassette releases of Storm The Studio. Some CD issues of Storm The Studio claim to feature this track, but they are misprints. I assume the reason for it's absence from initial CD pressings was due to time and space constraints on early CDs, but it's odd that it hasn't been included on later re-pressings or digital editions. More info here.