Holding the Music in Your Hands ®
Dare by The Human League resurfaces for another reissue, and whereas the 21st Anniversary re-release in 2002 combined the album with its instrumental remix partner Love And Dancing, this time across two CDs we get Dare and the EP Fascination! with a fair few bonus tracks thrown in for good measure.
Continue reading “The Human League / Dare & Fascination! 2CD deluxe edition”
When it comes to music box set packaging, no one does it quite like the Japanese.
For decades they have been perfecting the art of ‘vinyl replica’ CDs. That is catalogue CD reissues that come packaged as miniature versions of the original vinyl, with a card or ‘paper’ sleeve.
Continue reading “The high art of the Japanese box set”
A 25th Anniversary Edition of T’Pau‘s 1987 debut Bridge Of Spies is in the planning, we can reveal.
Lead singer Carol Decker met with record executives in London today to discuss the reissue.
This morning, via twitter, she posted “Off into The Smoke for record co meeting about #Tpau25 the anniversary edition of Bridge Of Spies”
Continue reading “T’Pau / Bridge Of Spies 25th anniversary edition in the planning”
Sony will release a restored and newly expanded edition of Jimi Plays Berkeley, on Blu-ray and DVD, on Monday 9 July 2012.
Jimi Plays Berkeley is a documentary film chronicling the two concerts Jimi Hendrix performed at the Berkeley Community Theatre on Saturday, 30 May 1970.
Continue reading “Jimi Hendrix / Jimi Plays Berkeley on DVD, Blu-ray, CD & Vinyl”
The much-delayed Roxy Music The Complete Studio Recordings box has been given a new release date of 6 August 2012.
However, crucially, what was an eight-CD box set with four DVDs featuring hi-res audio versions of all the albums, appears to have mysteriously changed into a Ten-CD box with no sign of the DVDs.
Continue reading “Virgin axe hi-res DVDs from Roxy Music Studio Recordings box set”
Last week saw the UK release of Neil Young‘s first four solo albums boxed together as an Official Release Series set. The box represents superb value for money – available for as low as £12 on amazon
Continue reading “Neil Young / Official Release Series”
Karl Wallinger has revealed that World Party will return to live performance in the UK for the first time in twelve years, when they play the Royal Albert Hall in London on 1st November 2012.
In an exclusive interview Wallinger told us “it will be our welcome back to England gig. I’m really looking forward to it”. He also reveals that he intends to release a new World Party album some time in 2013.
Read the full interview here, where Wallinger discusses the new five-CD World Party set Arkeology.
It’s hard to imagine many other acts releasing a 70-track box set and deliberately avoiding existing album tracks (and studio hits), preferring to include unreleased material from the archive. With the five-disc ‘Any Year Diary’ Arkeology set, this is exactly what World Party have done.
Continue reading “Karl Wallinger interview”
WIN a SIGNED World Party Arkeology setWe have a copy of the new World Party five-disc ‘Any Year Diary’ set to give away. This fabulous release features 70 tracks – largely unissued recordings, b-sides and live performances.
To make the prize even more special Karl Wallinger has signed it! A dream for any World Party fan!
To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic prize, simply retweet this post using the TWEET button below and follow us on twitter.
One lucky winner will be selected randomly on Friday 6th of July and will be informed via twitter. Good luck!
Universal Music will reissue an expensive Super Deluxe Edition box set of the Sex Pistols‘ Never Mind The Bollocks… album on 17 September 2012.
The reissue ties in with the 35th anniversary of the record. No details have been released yet, but amazon.co.uk have a pre-order listing
Given the plethora of compilations over the years and box sets such as the reasonably comprehensive 61-track Sex Pistols from 2002, it remains to be seen whether Universal can serve up anything new, or if this release turns out to be a Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle.
A cheaper (probably two-disc) deluxe edition will also be issued at the same time.
A few weeks ago we posted a strong reaction to the proposed track listing for the reissue of Swing Out Sister‘s classic 1987 debut It’s Better To Travel. Our view was that it was rather lacking in rarities, remixes and a little uninspired.
Although band member Andy Connell was (understandably) a little miffed, he has recently been in touch to advise that the reissue (now due 16 July) has an improved, finalised track listing and kindly sent all the details.
Continue reading “Swing Out Sister 25th Anniversary reissue has revised track listing”
The Frank Zappa Family Trust have regained control of his extensive back catalog and have signed a global license/distribution deal with Universal Music Enterprises (UMe)
A catalogue of 60 recordings will be issued, and the roll-out kicks off with 12 albums on 31 July 2012. Another dozen recordings will be released monthly through the end of 2012.
Continue reading “Frank Zappa / Massive reissue campaign kicks of in late July”
The Fleetwood Mac box set 25 Years: The Chain was originally released in November 1992. Back in those days you’d expect to pay well over £40 for this set, but last week it was reissued by Rhino in new double CD ‘fat box’ packaging and on sale for an incredible £12.
Continue reading “Fleetwood Mac / 25 Years: The Chain reissued 4CD box set”
Salvo Music are set to reissue British singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl‘s first four albums later this year.
Desperate Character, her 1981 debut, will be released on CD for the first time and Kite (1989), Electric Landlady (1991) and Titanic Days (1993) will all see expanded reissues with copious amounts of bonus material likely to be spread over 2CD issues.
Continue reading “Kirsty MacColl reissues coming in autumn 2012 from Salvo Music”
Edsel Records last month reissued the first four Everything But The Girl albums in beautifully presented two-CD casebound books. The reissues were put together with the full involvement of Ben and Tracey, and each one features a newly-written note by the couple, and all the lyrics.
Continue reading “Win an eight-disc Everything But The Girl reissue bundle!”
Thin Lizzy and Motorhead are the latest in a long line of artists to have a selection of some of their best albums collected together in a great value box set.
Continue reading “Thin Lizzy and Motorhead / Classic Album Selection Box Sets”
As reported on this blog back in August last year, ZTT/Salvo Music are set to release a new two-CD compilation featuring material from the archive of legendary ’80s chart toppers, Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
Sexmix: Archive Tapes and Studio Adventures, Volume One, collects together rare and unearthed material from original cassette singles (singlettes), CD singles and shines a light on favourite B-side material.
Continue reading “Sexmix / Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Coming in August”
Wishful Thinking by Propaganda is something of a lost synth-pop classic. Issued in late 1985, only four months after the record that inspired it (A Secret Wish), this remix album struggled to find an audience, despite that fact that contained brand new remixes, rather than being a cobbled together compilation of previously released 12-inch versions.
Continue reading “Propaganda / Wishful Thinking expanded deluxe reissue”
David Bowie‘s classic album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars was last week reissued by EMI as a remastered CD and an LP/DVD combo. This was to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1972 album.
Since the original RCA CD issue in 1984 we have had quite a few variants and reissues:
Given this multitude of reissues, do we really need another version of this album? You might think not, but fans and audiophiles generally find something to grumble about with all the versions above, whether it’s the lack of bottom end on the overly bright Ryko/EMI issue from 1990, or the bad edits and switching of the stereo channels on the 30th Anniversary issue in 2002. There was a general feeling of ‘unfinished business’ with this album and even David Bowie himself, in the past, has described his disappointment at this classic record sounding somewhat ‘thin’ on CD.
The good news is that this new remaster has been approached with care and intelligence. Ken Scott the original producer, recruited Ray Staff, the original recording engineer from Trident Studios, to go back to the original tapes and remaster the record. Ever since the Abbey Road team did such a superb job on The Beatles remasters back in 2009 it seems that mastering engineers have the freedoom to really care about the sonics of the original record and are no longer expected to simply whack up the loudness and squash the dynamic range for the iPod generation.
With that in mind, everything has been kept in the analogue domain as much as possible (completely, for the vinyl version). The result is a fantastically detailed mastering that sounds incredible, particularly on the thick, flat, 180g vinyl version. The vinyl LP is unbelievably quiet – our copy was virtually silent with no snap, crackle or pop. But even on the CD it retains a certain analogue warmth that is much easier on the ears than the digital harshness evident in previous editions.
Unlike the bells and whistles box set of Station to Station from 2010, EMI have kept the offering fairly simple this time around. Fans have a choice of CD or LP/DVD, although the purchasing decision is not as easy as it sounds.
Remastered CD
This is straightforward. The album as remastered by Ray Staff in 2012, on a standard CD, packaged in gatefold card sleeve, with inner sleeve replicating the original 1972 design. There are no bonus tracks. The front cover has a black band down the left hand side which reads “40th Anniversary Edition – 2012 Remaster”.
Heavyweight Vinyl LP and DVD
The LP and DVD are not available separately but come as a pair. The vinyl as described above looks and sounds beautiful. The orange label replicates the old RCA design, and the record comes in a thick gatefold sleeve (unlike the original issue) largely to accommodate the included DVD, which slots neatly into a pocket within the right-hand panel. Gatefold aside, EMI have done a solid job on replicating the original vinyl design of Ziggy Stardust. The artwork has been noticeably brightened to bring out more detail, at the expense of some contrast, and the inner sleeve design does replicate the original, albeit with some minor paper and typeface differences.
DVD
The DVD comes in a simple card sleeve with a bespoke front cover design showing the familiar yellow and orange typography from the album cover on its own, on a black background. The DVD is a key component of this package because it contains the following:
The surround sound mixes on this DVD were created in early 2003 for an SACD (super audio CD) release. The SACD format is hi-res lossless in both surround and stereo, whereas the standard DVD format with this release only supports hi-res in stereo not surround (hence we ‘make do’ with DTS and Dolby Digital for 5.1). Those additional tracks mentioned were not issued at the time (on SACD) and are previously unreleased in this 5.1 form. The Supermen is the alternate version that was on the original Ryko/EMI reissue and Sweet Head has the studio chatter at the beginning the was not present on the Ryko/EMI but was on the 2002 30th Anniversary bonus disc. The instrumental of Moonage Daydream sounds pointless, but it was impossible to listen to it without reaching for the a ‘microphone’ (i.e. hairbrush..) and getting sucked into some karaoke! The whole album in instrumental form would have been fantastic. Actually our DVD appears to have an error on the surround mix of this instrumental. The familiar two-chord intro ‘misses’ its entry in some of the channels. Possible authoring error? Let us know if you have experienced similar.
To be honest Ziggy Stardust is not an album that really needs to be in 5.1 and if it hadn’t been created 9 years ago, I doubt it would have been commissioned today. That said, it sounds fine, although not earth shattering. Most of the action is focused on the front three channels with the rears used largely for acoustic rhythm guitar, occasional backing vocals, finger clicks (Soul Love) and sometimes piano (Star, Moonage Daydream).
The hi-res stereo of the 2012 remaster sounds superb in this better-than-CD form, but avoid the stereo version of the 2003 mix – it’s horrible. Overly loud vocals and very ‘clean’ sounding (having been remixed), it simply lacks the authenticity of the original mix.
Conclusions
If you love this album then we strongly recommend you buy this reissue. It’s absolutely superb. The question is whether to go for the CD or LP/DVD? EMI have not made it easy.
If you haven’t got a turntable but do have a surround sound set-up or a DVD linked to a decent amp and set of speakers, then buy the LP/DVD and sell the LP (or give it to a friend). The DVD will give you hi-res stereo which makes the CD superfluous, and the surround mix is there if you can make use of it.
If you do have a turntable but don’t have the appropriate DVD set-up, then do the opposite of above – buy the amazing vinyl and sell or giveaway the DVD.
If you don’t buy vinyl and have no interest in hi-res audio or surround sound mixes, then it’s easy. Buy the CD.
Whatever you do be sure to play it at maximum volume…
Order CD here
Order LP/DVD Combo here
