Driller Killers

Test Department - Beating The Retreat

Ripped from a double 12" vinyl box set released on Some Bizarre (TEST 2-3) in 1984 to high quality and high resolution lossless 24-bit FLAC. This is a re-post so those who grabbed this first time can look away .....for now.

TD at their most original and best! Originally performed in an archway at London's Waterloo Station in 1983, Beating The Retreat is, in my humble opinion, the truest form of industrial music ever to be recorded as an album. It was actually recorded at a studio in the stockbroker belt town of Farnham in Surrey. The mike set-up in the studio must have been interesting. Pounding sledgehammers on metal sheets and girders work in sync with road drill rhythms, horn and cello overdubs add some sort of melody, taped loop samples and manic cries (and whispers), and then earsplitting grinding of metal against metal all add to the chaos. Then add in the occasional military snares and conventional keyboards (and I'm sure I can hear a harp) - there are even a few quiet melodic interludes.

My copy is one of the original pressings which was released as two four track 12" singles in a hessian box complete with literature and photographs. After cleaning the vinyl, I ripped it at 24bits and 96000hz before levelling the channels and converting to FLAC. There have been subsequent reissues as an album on both vinyl and CD, but none of them sound this good.

A1 The Fall From Light
A2 Kick To Kill
B1 Total State Machine
B2 Plastic
C1 Inheritance
C2 Cold Witness
D1 Sweet Sedation
D2 Spring Into Action