1983 was to be an auspicious year for 4AD, with several key releases and a move to new offices in Alma Road, Wandsworth. In addition, Ivo was able to take on 4AD's first two employees : Vaughan Oliver - whose intended duties included moving boxes of records around as well as designing their sleeves - and Deborah Edgely, who began as Ivo's assistant, and quickly assumed the responsibility for 4AD's press coverage.
The Birthday Party's The Bad Seed EP (BAD 301) proved to be the the last record that they made for 4AD. Ivo had underwritten the group's trip to Berlin to record, but 4AD was still a very small operation; and the financial burdens of supporting the group's further efforts proved too great. The Birthday Party departed, amicably, for Daniel Miller's Mute label, recording one final EP - Mutiny - before dissolving. Later in 1983, Ivo issued The Friend Catcher EP (BAD 307) which gathered together most of the tracks from the "Release The Bats," "Mr. Clarinet" and "The Friend Catcher" 7-inches.
Along the same archival lines as The Friend Catcher EP was Bauhaus's 4AD EP (BAD 312) which collected half a dozen tracks drawn from the group's first three singles.
Xmal Deutschland - from Hamburg - impressed Ivo with an "incredibly raw" demo tape whose live power was never quite captured in the studio. Nevertheless, the spiky intensity of the four-woman, one-man band proved compelling enough on their debut album Fetisch (CAD 302) and the two subsequent, related singles (a different version of the album's lead-off track "Qual" (BAD 305) and a re-recorded and extended version of Xmal's pre-4AD debut "Incubus Succubus II" (BAD 311)) to capture the attention of John Peel and a substantial UK audience. Live performance proved to be the band's real strength : Ivo recalls a particularly memorable show from this period where Xmal, opening for the Cocteau Twins at one of The Venue's 4AD showcases, won over a crowd of aloof scenesters in a matter of moments.
For the Cocteau Twins, 1983 was a year of frantic activity, beginning with the Peppermint Pig EP (BAD 303). Although that record was ably produced by Alan Rankine of The Associates, the experience left Robin Guthrie convinced that the group no longer required an outside hand to achieve their aims in the recording studio. Another change was afoot : Peppermint Pig was also the last Cocteau Twins record to feature bassist Will Heggie. After a grueling 50-date tour with Orchestral Maneouvres In The Dark, he was ousted from the band and Robin and Elizabeth recorded the Head Over Heels (CAD 313) album and its companion piece - the Sunburst And Snowblind EP (BAD 314) - as a duo. A massive leap forward from anything they had done before, Head Over Heels marked an artistic coming-of-age for the Cocteau Twins. John Peel was impressed enough to mark its release by playing both sides of the album in their entirety on successive evenings.
Swiftly developing a taste for the possibilities of the studio, Colourbox re-recorded "Breakdown" (BAD 215) from scratch. The new version of "Breakdown" (BAD 304) proved sufficiently potent to stir up interest from A&M Records in America, who licensed the single for the United States, then promptly did nothing with it. Inspired by mix tapes of early New York hip-hop DJs, Martyn Young had begun to explore the possibilities of tape manipulation and remixing. His approach to cutting up sound was meticulous, often using 30 or 40 tape splices to generate just five seconds of music (no samplers were involved) - the four-song Colourbox EP (BAD 315) that appeared at the end of the year was painstakingly edited down from over eight hours of mixes.
The Wolfgang Press was a new project from Mark Cox and Michael Allen, formerly of Mass and Rema-Rema; the band opened what was to be a lengthy and distinguished 4AD career with The Burden Of Mules (CAD 308). There was a definite creative chemistry between Mark and Mick, and the album provided the first glimpses of the powerfully original sound that would begin to flower on subsequent releases. Contributing to the album were members of Dif Juz and In Camera, one of whom - Andrew Grey - would officially join The Wolfgang Press the following year.
Throughout 1983, Modern English were still tasting American success in the wake of "I Melt With You". The Gathering Dust EP (BAD 306) (which collected various non-LP single sides) and the remix of "Someone's Calling" (BAD 309) were both largely intended for their burgeoning audience stateside, and the group still made little impact in the UK and Europe. After seeing the band play at the Ritz in New York, Ivo came up with a potential solution to this frustrating situation. The band had encored with powerful back-to-back versions of two of their earliest songs: "16 Days" and "Gathering Dust". Ivo suggested that the band re-record those songs in the manner of these vibrant live interpretations.
Modern English decided against the idea, but Ivo remained intrigued by its possibilities; eventually, he went ahead and did it himself. He hired a Linn drum, enlisted Elizabeth Fraser from the Cocteau Twins and Gordon Sharp from Cindytalk as vocalists, and persuaded Mick Conroy and Gary McDowell of Modern English to provide bass and guitar. The resulting reworking of "16 Days / Gathering Dust" became the A-side of the first This Mortal Coil release (BAD 310). When the time came to come up with a B-side, Ivo decided to record a version of one of his all-time favorite songs : Tim Buckley's "Song To The Siren". The original plan was for Liz Fraser to sing it a capella, but the guitar part that Robin Guthrie had laid down on tape for her to use as a guide wound up becoming an integral part of the finished recording. "Song To The Siren" was to become one of 4AD's most beloved releases; when it was eventually issued as the A-side of a 7-inch single (AD 310) it spent several months hovering in the British Top 100.
For Ivo, "Song To The Siren" marked a turning point, a realization that This Mortal Coil could be much more than just the idea of covering a few Modern English songs. The achievement of "Song To The Siren" - successfully pairing a song of great personal import with a singer whose work was equally meaningful - became a reason do more.