I'm sure most of you who frequent my blog are familiar with the excellent split lp Faith/Void on Dischord Records. These songs are the first official releases of both bands. The Faith, the more straightforward of the two bands holds their side of the split lp well with many of the songs being DC hardcore classics. Flip the lp over however, you hear something totally different on the Void side. Void's songs are way more chaotic, and dark with hints of metal, something unique for the time period. Truly a classic split lp that rates among one of my favorite hardcore records of all time. A few years before the release of the Faith/Void lp, Void went into the now legendary Inner Ear studio and recorded a 22(!) song demo with Don Z. and Ian Mackaye handling the production. Three of these songs would further be fleshed out and released on the split lp with The Faith. These demo recordings show Void at their most raw and straightforward. Of the 22 songs on the demo, only five get past the 1 minute mark, many of them under 30 seconds long. In 1992, Dischord Records would officially re-master and release 9 of the demo tracks to vinyl as the Condensed Flesh 7". The production values on the demo are balanced for a demo tape. There is obvious background hiss in the tape, probably from re-dubs from a non-original tape. However, the music is actually played quite well without any noticeable mess-up's or vocal cutouts and the songs benefit from the nice Inner Ear studio production and mixing of the songs. For a demo tape recorded in 1981-82, it sounds pretty good. Recommended listening for the DC hardcore completest.
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