What are you listening to?

[Ross]

I'm always very wary of new mixes of old records, maybe just because I'm so familiar with the originals. Mike Oldfield absolutely butchered Hergest Ridge a few years ago.

I'm always very wary of new mixes of old records, maybe just because I'm so familiar with the originals. Mike Oldfield absolutely butchered Hergest Ridge a few years ago.

Yeah, it´s often the case with 'remastered' old records that the new mixes appear compressed to death or turn out to be simply just louder than the original, but the mixes by Steven Wilson are really exeptional - I got a bunch of 70ies prog-rock-stuff he 'remixed' (including Yes, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull etc.) - he manages to make it sound better in every way without touching the original way it was intended to sound, and without turning up the volume-level or make it sound compressed or clipping. Instead you can clearly hear every voice and instrument - surely the best remasters (or 'remixes') I ever heard from old records.

[Ross]

I'm not that fussed about remasters, a lot of them tend to be done reasonably (and I'm not an audiophile in any sense so I honestly don't get too fussed about it), I suppose with mixes I'm just worried about changing of actual instrument placement, effects etc. Oldfield went back to the original tapes and did a drastically different mix for Hergest Ridge which just took away loads of my favourite parts of the version I knew. I suppose generally if I'm happy with the current mix, I don't seek out a new mix.
In terms of remasters turning up the volume, I'm all for it (as long as it isn't over compressed of course), largely because it makes putting my iPod on shuffle a lot easier.

I must confess the words "remastered with bonus tracks" & "previously unreleased b-sides" are really able to trigger me into spending ridiculous amounts of bucks on albums I already own and love some kind of guilty pleasure I guess. But in most cases I don´t regret this, there is really added great value sometimes (like Tull´s "Warchild"-album remaster for instance, it came with nothing less than 40 min of excellent bonus stuff that brilliantly fits the original album)

I really don´t think I´m an audiophile, my audio equipment is over 20 years old (I think), but there were so many shitty sounding CD´s that came out in the 90ies, that a lot of them remasters really made sense to me.
I once read an interesting theory by an audio engineer about why so many people say vinyl sounds better than CD - it was simply because when CD started to be the standard medium for music in the 90ies, replacing the vinyl, all the classic albums were just kind of "copied" on CD cause it was simply cheaper than get them actually the full remastering treatment they should have deserved to really to make full use of the capacity and possibilities of the CD, which are actually quite a lot higher than on vinyl.
I know a lot of vinly-fetishists will disagree here, and I´m myself not quite sure if that´s true but at least it´s an interesting theory

But yeah I can totally understand that if someone is used to the stereo-placement or order of parts and instruments in the mix that a change here can be disturbing - (btw I have the remaster version of Hergest Ridge, have nothing to complain here but have not heard the original version a lot, I know the album only for a few years now) - best example be a certain album called the Isness where the 'gap'-version of galaxial pharmaceuthical always to me was the 'right' version I was used to before I heard the original mix.

[Ross]

Yes, you're right about '90s CDs, although the version of XTC's back catalogue I'm used to is the 2001 remaster which sounds fine to me. Generally a straight-forward remaster I'll often pick up, as some albums really benefit from it (the first two Underworld records take on new life in their recent issues). The 2000 remaster of Hergest Ridge is lovely (although all CDs are actually taken from the new mix Oldfield did in the late '70s for the quad version of the album). But yeah, the 2010 remix just drops out loads of instruments in places really, parts of it have an entirely different arrangement which is just very difficult to get used to. I haven't heard his new mixes of Tubular Bells and Ommadawn, and have no plans to - I wish he'd just done remasters though, as the remasters of Incantations and Platinum I have sound wonderful.

Galaxial, I could write an essay on that. My real issue with that isn't from an artistic perspective, as such (although the original follows such a great ebb & flow structure leading to a big climax, which is ruined in the final mix), but how sloppily the bits are tied together. When it goes from "where do we come from and where are we going to?" into the epic finale bit, it really just is a crossfade between two completely different sounding sections of the song. Maybe the only time I've been surprised at how bad a job the guys did on it.
That said, I absolutely love the pick up pick up PICK UP ending, which I wish had been on the original.

And keeping on topic, currently listening to Ignition of the Sun. The superior vinyl edition, of course, which is just marvellous.

Saw Funkadelic and Skinny Puppy live recently.. both fuckin' amazing, Funkadelic is probably the best gig I've been to.. Skinny Puppy was dope af and DARK DARK DARK!

Record wise, Crystal Fairy, it's a stoner band with members from Melvins and At The Drive-In. Love 'em.

Trainspotting 2 OST - Lust For Life (Prodigy remix)

Finally got around to seeing this movie. Best movie I've seen in a LONG time. Probably since Interstellar, 2014. This tune and the ending shot are just epic!

[mcbpete]

Had no idea they were behind the remix, seemed quite reserved for them

Most recent stuff ->

The Bug Vs. Earth - Concrete Desert (Ninja Tune, 2017)
Goldie - The Journey Man (Metalheadz, 2017)
Ride - Weather Diaries (Wichita, 2017)
Ai - Paradigmension (Blurred, 2017)
Reagan Youth - The Complete Youth Anthems For The New Order (New Red Archives, 2016)
Slick Idiot - Screwtinized (Itchy, 2004)

[Ross]

The new album by Patricia, Several Shades of the Same Colour, inconveniently released over three separate 12"s. Lovely fuzzy woozy lo-fi techno stuff.
Plenty of HOLOVR, one of my favourite producers at the moment. He comes up with a lot of excellent Artificial Intelligence / early IDM style stuff. His two 12"s this year have been incredible.
Bunch of Global Communication / Reload / Link & E621 stuff.
Miles Davis - Milestones & E.S.P.

Ozric Tentacles - The Yumyum Tree

Tau Cross - Pillar of Fire

very cool - B3 Hammond old skool sound - on the 3rd track the guitarist goes Hendrix wild

Pigface - Nutopia
A New High In Low (1997)

The Bug Vs. Earth - Concrete Desert (Ninja Tune, 2017)

Earth!!
One of my favorite bands, although personally I'm not really digging this collab.

Pigface - Nutopia
A New High In Low (1997)

Wow, I fucking worship that song. And the band nowadays too

]The Bug Vs. Earth - Concrete Desert (Ninja Tune, 2017)

Earth!!
One of my favorite bands, although personally I'm not really digging this collab.

Wait.. it's THAT Earth? Wasn't really aware of that, I thought it was some obscure one-shot act from NT. Cool. IMO it's nothing that memorable, but pretty solid and haunting.

I've been getting into Farflung, just another space rock band..

Underworld - King Of Snake
Beaucoup Fish (1999 / 2017 remaster)

Cool tune, although I don't see why they have to market this as a "remaster". I have compared the previous two remasters with their originals (on CD) and to my ears they only boosted the volume. Pretty sure that Underworld understood how to mix and master their work back in the nineties.

]The Bug Vs. Earth - Concrete Desert (Ninja Tune, 2017)

Earth!!
One of my favorite bands, although personally I'm not really digging this collab.

Wait.. it's THAT Earth? Wasn't really aware of that, I thought it was some obscure one-shot act from NT. Cool. IMO it's nothing that memorable, but pretty solid and haunting.

Yeah well, I believe it's actually only Dylan Carlson from Earth, who contributed on that collaboration album. Do you also like their other releases? Almost everything from them on Southern Lord Records is great stuff, but EARTH 2 is on a whole higher level.