What CDs have hidden tracks at the beginning of the disc?
 

I popped in Lit's 'A Place In The Sun' album a while back, and while listening to the first track, I wanted to hear the beginning again, and rewound manually. Well, I must have stopped paying attention, because I actually went too far back, and past the beginning of the album! Suddenly I was in this nether-region of the CD, and the counter went back to -1:47 before track 1. When you play it, the counter counts down while some instrumental jam is going on, and when it gets down to 0:00, the first track starts up.

Now that's a hidden track.

Do any other albums have anything like that?

The X-files: Songs in the key of X soundtrack has two songs before the first track. One is by Nick Cave (don't remember what it's called) and the other is The Dirty Three doing their version of the X-files theme.

The band Johnny Q. Public has one on their debut album.

Don't ask who they are.

311's "Transistor" has the theme song from their video "Enlarged to Show Detail" before track 1.

Blur's Think Tank

Clearlake's Cedars.

I think it would be cool if someone out there started to compile a list of which CDs have these. I rarely check for them, and I sure as hell aren't gonna remember to try it on all the stuff I own. Here's the few that I own & know of:

Autechre- EP 7 (UK version, the one with the "frosted" jewelcase)

Blur- Think Tank

Calexico- Feast of Wire

John Coltrane- Interstellar Space (a few incomplete takes, about 2 minutes worth. Mentioned on the back cover and probably booklet)

I saw this band open for The Shins earlier this summer, very impressive.

Am I hearing this right, hidden tracks *before* the first track? I've heard of "hidden" tracks at the end of a CD, after a boatload of silence but not before. How does the player know not to play these tracks? How do they expect you to find them or are they like DVD easter eggs?

-Gunshy

Blind Melon - Soup
They Might Be Giants - Factory Showroom

Yep. I'm not sure exactly how they work, but my guess is it has something to do with the "Index" on the disc rather than the "track." Notice that sometimes between songs there will be a negative countdown (usually a few seconds, sometimes longer.) This is usually used just to give a small break between songs, or to simulate the feeling of changing sides on a record. That's what an "index" on a cd is. Some CD players have a small number display for them next to the track number.

Every once in a while there will be some music/sound during one of these "non-tracks." A good example is R.E.M's "Reckoning" album. Between "Camera" and "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville," there's a somewhat odd piece of music that takes place during the negative countdown. Now, if you just put the CD in and skip to track 9, you won't hear this at all and it'll start right at 'Rockville.' It only plays if you rewind from the start of that song, or have listened to the song before it.

So, my "theory" is that CD players know to not play these VERY hidden tracks since they must be an "index" to the player, which for whatever reason CD players won't play without either manual intervention (rewinding) OR coming off of the track before it in order. And since technically there's nothing before Track 1 on a disc, these songs take up a few minutes of negative space.

My best method for finding them is to just take not of the album time. When you put a disc in and the display says it's going to be 56 minutes and it's over after say, 48 minutes, then there's gotta be something else there. That's found the one on the Calexico album (and Clearlake, too), because there was a noticeable difference in the time listed on the back cover and how long my dvd player said it was. Even so, not everyone is going to start doing the math everytime they listen to something, so they're easy to miss. Sorry for the long, scientific sounding post. ;)

I have seen the negative countdowns at times but never gave it much thought... Good post Poink, thanks a lot. :up:

-Gunshy

Yeah, the negative countdowns are interesting. If you listen to the Blues Brothers 2000 OST (about the only good thing to come from that film), movie quotes appear before several tracks in negative countdowns.

So how does this work when ripping a CD?

Super Furry Animals - Guerilla
James Brown - Live at the Apollo, Vol II: Universal Deluxe Edition (an interesting little extended introduction)

I've had this disc for a few years and had no idea. Thanks!

2 many djs - as heard on radio soulwax part 2

Kylie Minogue- Light Years.

I'd like to be able to rip this and make a full CDR since not all my players can do the trick. Any thoughts on doing this?

Wow, I'd never heard of a hidden track at the beginning of an album. That's pretty cool.

As for the negative countdowns, I first saw that on De La Soul's Three Feet High and Rising. The skits were contained in the negative countdown space, which is ideal for hip-hop skits, IMO.

Re: What CDs have hidden tracks at the beginning of the disc?
 

Holy crap! I've had that album since it came out and never knew that! I love that cd! Wish I had it with me at work here...

The only cd I've ever seen with music in the negative space of track 1 is the x-files cd, which has already been mentioned. In fact, a friend of mine had a really old and crappy cd player in their car, and on that cd player, when you play the x-files cd, it plays both of the negative space songs first (while the timer just said 0:00 the whole time) before getting to the "actual" track 1. Every other cd player I've seen you need to "rewind" it manually though....

A band called Creedle had a CD where if you rewinded before the first track, you could heard a sample of Van Halen going "and the cradle will rock" (sounded like "and the creedle will rock").

This was back in '96 or so. I thought they were the first and only band to do something like this.

Less Than Jake - Losing Streak

AFI - Very Proud Of Ya

thats an awesome cd.