The Bedsit Tapes is a compilation of songs recorded by the synthpop

Synthpop

Synthpop is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of...

/New Wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 duo Soft Cell

Soft Cell

Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They consist of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The duo is most widely known for their 1981 worldwide hit version of "Tainted Love" and platinum debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret...

 before their record contract with Some Bizarre Records. The album, released 1 August 2005, collects various songs recorded in an amateur studio at Leeds Metropolitan University

Leeds Metropolitan University

Leeds Metropolitan University is a British University with three campuses. Two are situated in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England while the third is situated in Bhopal, India...

, then called Leeds Polytechnic, in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

. The album includes three tracks which appeared on their rare independent 1980 release, Mutant Moments

Mutant Moments

Mutant Moments is a short EP, independently financed and produced by Soft Cell, a synthpop/new wave duo who would later achieve fame with their groundbreaking hit cover of the Gloria Jones song "Tainted Love"...

. The album has received criticism for not being comprehensive enough, excluding several rare cuts which have appeared on previous bootlegs. David Ball, the keyboardist

Keyboardist

A keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...

, comments on the album in the liner notes.

The album includes a cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of the song "Paranoid", originally recorded by the pioneering British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 band Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...

.

Track listing

1. "Potential" (edited version with fade-out; the original segues into "L.O.V.E. Feelings")
2. "L.O.V.E. Feelings" (edited version)
3. "Metro MRX"
4. "Bleak Is My Favourite Cliché"
5. "Occupational Hazard"
6. "Mix"
7. "Factory Fun"
8. "Science Fiction Stories"
9. "Purely Functional"
10. "A Cut Above the Rest"
11. "Paranoid"
12. "Excretory Eat Anorexia"
13. "Cleansing Fanatic"
14. "Walking Make-Up Counter"
15. "Pyrex My Cuisine"
16. "Tupperware Party"