Split-Apart

While I cannot write volumes about the KMFDM debate as I am on holiday in Praha and writing this on the clock in a 'net cafe, I will say this in response to FJ's query...

Sascha's comments about the making of Money are quite accurate, although some of what he said in the aforementioned interview was news even to me. At least two "drafts" of Money were presented to Wax Trax! before the final version, and at least one of them was "test pressed" (more on this in a minute). I knew very little about the first draft, but can only assume now that it was the Split LP mentioned by Sascha in the interview.

When I spent at least one day per week trolling the used bins of Chicago record stores in the mid-1990s, I came across two Wax Trax! "test pressings" within the span of one week that were quite unusual. For the uninitiated vinyl geeks, "test pressings" are produced by pressing plants to see if the master being used in the duplication process is flawed. Almost every record or CD is test-pressed at some point, often in limited quantities (as few as five to ten copies.) Sleeves and jackets are rarely included, with pressing plants substituting generic "white labels" in lieu of real artwork.

Wax Trax!, however, test-pressed many of its records in far greater quantities and used the extras in promotional mailings to DJs and radio stations. Wax Trax! test pressings are relatively easy to spot, as most have computer-generated labels with the artist/album information and were produced by an American company called Hub-Servall. These pop up in record stores and on eBay every few months, most selling for little more than a few dollars.

The identical Wax Trax! test pressings I found were for a KMFDM album called Apart. Upon listening I realized that both were preliminary drafts of the Money LP that had made it as far as the test pressing stage, but had been aborted for whatever reason. I wrote Sascha for more information and he said that, indeed, Money went through two separate drafts, although En Esch was still "in" the band at the time and he failed to elaborate on any of the backstory cited in the recent interview. He did, however, ask for my one duplicate, as not even he had a copy, and I duly obliged with a mailing to Seattle.

For you KMFDM completists out there, you need not worry about missing any material. Many of the songs ended up as remixes on singles from that era (ie "Split-Apart" from Vogue), and the rest saw the light of the day on the KMFDM rarities compilation Wax Trax!/TVT released in the late 1990s.