I Start Counting

Two New Ltd Edition Cassette Releases – Re-fused & Ejected

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

www.mute.com