dell1972 wrote:I think the problem they had was that they originally perceived it quite literally as an archival project - i.e. throw out three albums worth of stuff they had in their archives as it is. I suspect the level of sales was unexpected. Also, the overriding feedback (and we've all said it) was that people wanted to hear it all mixed together with environments like a proper album/broadcast. In a way it was a shame because there is some very strong stuff on the first three archive albums, and it was not allowed to shine in a similar way as later archived albums. The clear signal was that one of the main things they loved about the likes of Lifeforms/ISDN/Dead Cities was the way all tracks merged into a whole.
The fact that they've quietly pushed the enhanced versions out with zero publicity, away from fsoldigital suggests they're not wholly comfortable with the concept of reselling the same stuff to people, and yet acknowledge many people want to hear these albums with a more polished finish. It was probably easier for them to string together these tracks into enhanced editions while they were putting together Volume 7, and to release them digitally than it would be to have to get physical copies made and stored etc. No fanfare means only the borderline obsessives (ahem) out there who really want the releases spot them. You put the stuff out there it will get found. They've actually rereleased quite a few things on Beatport incidentally (amorphous and humanoid stuff), but as far as I can see none of it is any different to how it was originally released.
I suspect there'll be some kind of complete set of discs released at some point in a limited release which might have the new enhanced versions included. I get the impression they seem too busy with the myriad of new projects for something like that at the moment though.
The aversion to digital only baffles me, these releases are available in lossless format, so you could make discs of them yourself. Each to their own I guess. I prefer the physical releases if it's something I really want, but I do ususally listen to it digitally.
Make re-releases on 1-3 archives commercially sounds wrong for band is ok ,well,but maybe a limited edition for real fans would be nice,i prefer official editions to simple cd-r copies,still i think that maybe Globular album with some adds would be another nice cd and not only digital only release
