In 1988 SCW put out their fourth and final cassette-only release, The Band with an International Reputation. Side A of the cassette was titled Crush Grind and Swallow, and contained tracks recorded and overdubbed on multi-track and then mixed down. Side B was titled Disco Dancing With the Best and was recorded direct to cassette, live off the floor at SCW’s Queen St. West studio/rehearsal/living space.

The Band with an International Reputation – cassette insert

The first track is classic SCW, mixing live instrumentation with samples, tape loops, effects etc.

A Pretty Uncomfortable Area

For this cassette release, each band member was invited to write and record their own tracks – here’s one of Roba’s prime cuts.

America Wake Up!

This last track is the live band with overdubs and was recorded and engineered by our friend GBH at his studio. It was also sampled and regurgitated on SCW’s next release, God Family Country.

Speaking of Heavy Metal

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After the move to Toronto, in 1985 SCW released the compilation cassette tape “A Collection”. This consisted of greatest hits from the first two tapes and selected recordings from their live shows. We won’t post any audio here because it’s  documented in previous posts.

“A Collection” cassette tape cover – folded out – by PnrH

By mid-1984 SCW had established a living, rehearsal and recording space at Willow St. in Waterloo, Ontario, and had access to the electronic music labs at the University of Waterloo. In August of that year they released their first cassette, entitled Arbeit Macht Frei.

“Arbeit Macht Frei” tape cover – folded out – by PnrH

The cassette was 90 minutes in length, with about 32 individual tunes. Here’s some highlights:

Kill Pigs

All you wanna do is kill yourself

All you wanna do is kill yourself

Why’re you trying to kill yourself?

Why aren’t you trying to…

Kill Pigs!

Kill Pigs!

Kill Pigs!

SCW salutes their punk roots…

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In 1984 the four members of SCW were all students at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Jeff-o and dWM had enrolled in David Huron‘s computer music course, thereby gaining access to the electronic music studio in  the basement of Conrad Grebel College.  The studio was equipped with recording facilities, a grand piano, a Roland Juno-60 synthesizer, an E-mu Drumulator, and a huge Moog modular synthesizer (either a model 55 or 3C). SCW had absolutely no idea what they were doing when they were using most of the gear, especially the Moog.  However large portions of the first SCW tape release were created and recorded in this studio.

Here is a raw recording of experimentation using the Moog  modular and Juno-60 (with the Moog sequencer triggering the Juno arpeggiator). Some of this material was used on the first SCW cassette tape release.