There was a time, soon after the punk period, when bands wanted to dare and to make their music different. Something that no one already did or thought to do. Maybe only hippies on drugs experimented something similar but the result wasn’t filtered by the will to do something different, it was the result of altered states. Nothing against it but on late ?70s and early ?80s bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, Coil and many others created something different. Something that mixed with the "Do It Yourself" culture created a totally new thing: tape labels. If you lived that period for sure you read about the early Third Mind releases or the early Bain Total tape compilations (it was the time when Philippe Fichot was releasing interesting tape compilations along with the first works of his own project, Die Form). Compilations that gathered many bands that released only few things in limited editions (they were limited because it was difficult to release something and it was hard to distribute them. Fanzines, ads and word by mouth was really important back then, when there was no internet) as well the early works of bands that later become well known. Bands like Attrition, Coil, Portion Control, Test Dept, etc. SOMETHING STIRS – THE BEGINNING 1981-1983 is a collection of recordings that Attrition released for compilations. Martin Bowes, member of the band since day one, saved from dust the old 4 tracks tapes and borrowed a Portastudio (I think it was made by Tascam) by a friend and then transferred the recordings on a PC just to clean the sound. The CD contains seven tracks coming from vinyl or tape compilations, one from the Alu/Attrition split tape as well as four previously unreleased tracks: "Tones in black", recorded in 1982 and three other tracks ("Domus", "Hologram" and "Alter ego") recorded live in Coventry in March 1981. On those three you can also hear the one and only drummer the bad ever had. If you know "Shrinkwrap", the most famous track of the Attrition early period, well, try to forget about it, because songs like "Something stirs", "Pain", "Birthrite" or "Onslaught" don’t sound anything like that. They are mostly sound experiments with tape noises, bass guitar and a drum machine with the vocals of Julia Waller that spread her impetuosity with a style that remembered me early Siouxsie. Melody was an option and the bands main aim I think it was the construction of a new way of channelling their feelings. Attrition succeeded doing so...