Heaven 17 / Penthouse and Pavement & The Luxury Gap on SDE exclusive blu-ray

Pre-order only at the SDE shop

The SDE Surround Series moves back to the 1980s with Heaven 17’s first two albums, Penthouse and Pavement (1981) and The Luxury Gap (1983), a pair of the most celebrated and influential albums from the early part of the decade.

Both are now available to pre-order on SDE exclusive blu-ray, newly remixed in Dolby Atmos, 5.1 Surround and stereo by David Kosten.

Penthouse and Pavement features the singles ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’, ‘Play to Win’, ‘Penthouse and Pavement’ and ‘The Height of the Fighting’ and as well as being commercially successful (it was a top 20 hit and remained in the top 100 for 77 weeks) the record was almost universally critically acclaimed. 

In newly commissioned sleeve notes for this blu-ray edition, The Guardian’s head rock and pop critic, Alexis Petridis, says: “45 years on, Penthouse And Pavement remains a landmark, the kind of album documentaries have been made about, a high watermark from one of pop’s greatest eras, the perfect encapsulation of the surfeit of ideas and innovations that flowed through British pop in the post-punk period”

One of the best-selling albums of 1983 The Luxury Gap features the band’s defining hit single ‘Temptation‘, along with ‘Let Me Go’, ‘Come Live With Me’ and ‘Crushed by the Wheels of Industry’. In his notes for this album Alexis Petridis reminds us that: “Everything on The Luxury Gap was irresistible. It was the kind of album where every track sounds like a hit single… An album that skilfully synthesized the two distinct elements of its predecessor – electronics and funk – into a sound that was simultaneously modern but warm, a firm underlining of Heaven 17’s skill as pop craftsmen”. 

David Kosten, who in recent times has impressed immersive audio fans with stunning Atmos Mixes of Propaganda’s A Secret Wish, Fine Young Cannibals’ The Raw and the Cooked and Thompson Twins’ Into The Gap, has worked his magic on both Penthouse and Pavement and The Luxury Gap rebuilding the albums in stereo from the original analogue multi-track tapes and then creating highly immersive Dolby Atmos and 5.1 Surround Mixes allowing all the complex arrangements, the dancefloor-focused rhythms and the cutting-edge technology of the time, room to breath in three dimensions. David’s new stereo mixes are also fantastically dynamic and unlimited.

“The best it has ever sounded”

Martyn Ware

I was there when B.E.F. and Heaven 17 founding member Martyn Ware, whose interest in immersive audio goes back 20 years, attended approval sessions, in person, at Kosten’s West London studio. He was mightily impressed, going so far as to say that in Atmos Penthouse and Pavement was “the best it has ever sounded“. He repeated this fulsome praise for The Luxury Gap.

Both Penthouse and Pavement and The Luxury Gap SDE exclusive blu-rays feature SEVEN audio streams of each album, including a full set of instrumentals:

• 2026 Dolby Atmos Mix (48/24)*
• 2026 5.1 Mix (96/24)*
• 2026 Stereo Mix (96/24)*
• 2026 Dolby Atmos Instrumental Mix (48/24)*
• 2026 5.1 Instrumental Mix (96/24)*
• 2026 Instrumental Stereo Mix (96/24)*
• 1981 and 1983 Original Stereo Mixes (TBC)

*Previously unreleased

The Penthouse and Pavement blu-ray is #59 in the SDE Surround Series and The Luxury Gap is #60. Both will be packaged similarly to previous editions and ship with a free, collectible SDE Surround Series slipcase. They each come with a 12-page booklet with Alexis Petridis’ new sleeve notes.

Both are limited editions and have a 14 day pre-order window, which closes on Tuesday 24 February 2026. Availability cannot be guaranteed after that date. 

Additionally, for fans of 80s synth-pop who may have come to the SDE Surround Series late, almost 3 years after the initial release of Tears For Fears’ The Hurting on blu-ray audio (#9 in the series), we are announcing a repress. This disc features 2023 Atmos, 5.1 and Stereo Mixes by Steven Wilson, plus an instrumental version, the original stereo mix and two previously unreleased early versions of ‘Mad World and ‘Watch Me Bleed’. Like the Heaven 17 discs, this repress is available to pre-order for 2 weeks.

Penthouse and Pavement and The Luxury Gap will be released on 24 April 2026, by SDE Records. Pre-order only via the SDE shop using this link or the buttons below.

Tracklisting

Penthouse and Pavement Heaven 17 / SDE exclusive blu-ray

• • Penthouse and Pavement in 2026 Dolby Atmos, 2026 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, 2026 Hi-Res Stereo, 2026 Dolby Atmos Instrumental, 2026 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Instrumental, 2026 Hi-Res Stereo Instrumental, 1981 Stereo Mix

    1. (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
    2. Penthouse and Pavement
    3. Play to Win
    4. Soul Warfare
    5. Geisha Boys and Temple Girls
    6. Let’s All Make a Bomb
    7. The Height of the Fighting
    8. Song with No Name
    9. We’re Going to Live for a Very Long Time

Tracklisting

The Luxury Gap Heaven 17 / SDE exclusive blu-ray

• • The Luxury Gap in 2026 Dolby Atmos, 2026 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, 2026 Hi-Res Stereo, 2026 Dolby Atmos Instrumental, 2026 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Instrumental, 2026 Hi-Res Stereo Instrumental, 1983 Stereo Mix

    1. Crushed by the Wheels of Industry
    2. Who’ll Stop the Rain
    3. Let Me Go
    4. Key to the World
    5. Temptation
    6. Come Live with Me
    7. Lady Ice and Mr Hex
    8. We Live So Fast
    9. The Best Kept Secret

Tracklisting

The Hurting Tears For Fears /

• SDE-exclusive Blu-ray Audio

  • ‘The Hurting’ in remixed by Steven Wilson in Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (96/24), stereo &  Instrumental Mix (96/24). Original 1983 mix in Stereo (96/24)

    1. The Hurting
    2. Mad World
    3. Pale Shelter
    4. Ideas As Opiates
    5. Memories Fade
    6. Suffer The Children
    7. Watch Me Bleed
    8. Change
    9. The Prisoner
    10. Start Of The Breakdown

    Previously unreleased bonus tracks (96/24)

    1. Mad World (Mike Howlett Version)
    2. Watch Me Bleed (Mike Howlett Version)
• Half-speed mastered vinyl LP