Tokyo, Japan - December 15th, 1992:  Carnal Forge, Corporal Jigsore Quandary, Incarnate Solvent Abuse, Heartwork, Exhume To Consume

St.George's Hall, Bradford, UK - 1989:  Embryonic Necropsy And Devourment, Swarming Vulgar Mass Of Infected Virulency

John Peel BBC Session - December 13th, 1988:  Crepitating Bowel Erosion, Slash Dementia, Cadaveric Incubator Of Endoparasites, Reek Of Putrefaction

Tools Of The Trade EP, Amazon Studios, 1992:  Tools Of The Trade, Incarnate Solvent Abuse, Pyossified (Still Rotten To The Gore), Hepatic Tissue Fermentation

Misshapen Operations collects some hard-to-find and out-of-print EPs and extremely rare tracks in one convenient package.  The first five songs are part of live appearance in Tokyo, Japan.  These five first surfaced on the limited edition Japanese release Best Of Carcass on Toy Factory.  Misshapen Operations rearranges the songs into the proper set list order but there are unfortunately gaps between the tracks but with no loss of music or talking.  The sound quality is a very good stereo recording that is distorted and laden with fuzz.  Also the liner notes say this show occured in 1992 but that is a mistake.  They play two songs from Heartwork which was released in October 1993.  This show in Tokyo occurs either in late 1993 or early 1994 and features documents the time when Mike Hickey was in the band.

The Bradford fragment first surfaced on 7" in 1990 released by Distorted Harmony Records (DH 001).  The first release was on black vinyl and second issue on red, both limited to 1000 copies.  Bill Steer officially gave his blessing to this release.  It is another soundboard live recording that is very thin and weak compared to the Tokyo.  Also this is a copy of the vinyl so the pops and cracks are present.  However this is the best sounding glimpse into the early live career of the band sounding much better than the Liverpool tape and it is great to finally have this on a compact disc release.

The John Peel session was officially released on the out of print Carcass / Peel Sessions (DE18338-2) released on Strange Fruit Records in 1989.  This documents the first of two appearances with Peel recorded on December 13th, 1988 and broadcast on January 2nd, 1989.  (The second session is available on Choice Cuts on Earache).  This sounds identical to the Strange Fruit version and is very interesting.  It is one of the few recordings as a three piece and is their transition between Reek Of Putrefaction and Symphonies Of Sickness where they were making the transition from grindcore to a more thought out melodic approach.  The songs played here, as with all of their live performances, are much faster in tempo and more raw and aggressive.

The last fourth of this release is Tools Of The Trade EP.  All of these tracks are available on their greatest hits collections, but here one can hear the out of print EP in its proper sequence.  This was released between the UK "Gods Of Grind Tour" (with Entombed, Confessor and Cathedral) and the "US Campaign For Musical Destruction Tour" with Napalm Death, Cathedral and Brutal Truth during the summer of 1992.  "Tools Of The Trade" played a big part of the set.  This is a great set with no label attribution to it.  Carcass is a legendary band and it's great to hear these live tapes again for a reminder of how potent they were.  This comes packaged in a single jewel case with interesting pictures on the insert and is a professional looking production.