Not The Most Incredible Thing

In 2009 the Vinyl Factory special edition of the Pet Shop Boy’s “Yes” album was finally delivered. There were on 300 of these hand crafted editions and they retailed at £300.

Originally scheduled to be delivered in April they finally arrived in June and I even had a good moan about the delay on this blog. Happily the product was well worth the wait and almost justified its price tag. I’m still very happy to own one.

With the release of Neil and Chris’s ballet score “The Most Incredible Thing” we were once again promised the opportunity to order a limited Vinyl Factory edition. However this time there was a £350 price tag and there were to be 500 available. Pet Heads with too much money placed their orders in March ready for a May delivery date. During a ridiculous delay of 3 months (more galling as the manufacturer had already taken our money) a few people cancelled their orders and obtained refunds. Unlike the ‘Yes’ box set which sold out within days, this edition is still available for order on the Vinyl Factory website. Not an overwhelming response.

So is the finished product worth the expense and the delay? Errrr no. Not at all.

Back in June 2009 it took me some time to make conclusions about the sister “Yes” box set, but this product is distinctly underwhelming. It might well be hand crafted and the vinyl may well be lovingly pressed, but it’s not the impressive package that I expected.

So, we open our cardboard box and find the box set encased in polystyrene and a plastic bag. The number of the box set is written in biro on the box and on a sticker attached to the polystyrene.

The discs are contained within an oversized hard back book which is in turn stored in a hard case. There are six records. The original released score is on the first three and the demo recordings are featured on the second three LP’s. Each 'sleeve' is a page in the book and printed on the front is a synopsis of the ballet's story.

A seventh record sleeve holds a sheet music print of a number of bars of the prologue and is signed by Neil and Chris. This print is also numbered. (You can tell I'm failing to get excited can't you?)

Okay, so I bought this as a collector and am not going to play it. But unlike my "Yes" box set, I won't be taking this bland white box down from the shelf to pore over its beauty and be proud to own it. I hope the seemingly poor commercial sucess of this box set means we might now see an end to these costly exclusive editions.

Essentially, "Essentials" isn't essential

My musical awakening occurred in 1986. I immediately gravitated towards the pop music of the day which was, thankfully, largely produced with electronic instruments. I soon discovered the music of other more recognised ‘electronic’ musicians such as Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and most importantly Jean-Michel Jarre. Jarre soon became my childhood hero. I began to devour anything Jarre; TV programmes, books, magazines and most obviously his LP’s. I would save up my pocket money and ride my bicycle to the record department of our local supermarket. Once inside, I spent hours looking at the slabs of polythene covered wonder and deciding which part of the back catalogue I would consume next. Magical times.

As far as I am concerned Jarre’s crown began to slip with the 1990 album “Waiting for Cousteau”. Two years had passed since the Dockland’s concerts and the wonder of the “Revolutions” album. I was expecting great things from his new material, not least because I purchased my first CD player in the intervening years and was looking forward to my first Jarre CD. Imagine my dismay to find Jarre only recorded half of an album and simply plonked a 40 min dirge on the end. Very disappointing (a quick look through the mp3’s on my hard drive confirms my disappointment is somewhat prolonged as the only album missing from the 67 different Jarre albums and singles represented is Cousteau).

The slide down the musical dung heap continued through the years with momentary revivals in fortune with the odd track here and there (Chronologie 4 and 6 and some bits of “Oxygene 7-13”). Yet the decline was palpable, and as it turns out, inexorable.

This brings us to the latest “Essentials and Rarities” release. My first problem with this CD is the title. Not only do I already own about 5 other Jarre compilations called “Essential” but the selection of tracks is rather eclectic to say the least. Reading the accompanying booklet confirms Jarre picked the tracks as a tribute to his friend and old record company boss Francis Dreyfus rather than defining a ‘Best of’. So why call it “Essentials” then?

The first CD consists of music any Jarre fan knows with some odd bits on Equinoxe 4 (dare I suggest the master tape is past its best?) and the original version of Zoolook rather than the remix which replaced it on all but the first pressings of the eponymously titled album. Jarre seems to have forgotten he made “Chronologie” and picked one of the worst tracks from his “Metamorphoses” album. I ordered this package as it promised a bonus disc of Jarre’s pre-Oxygene work (all of which is available on Bootleg CD’s) and some new nifty artwork (I am a sucker for those CD’s pressed up to look like LP’s, love ‘em). I have heard all the tracks beforehand, it’s true to say the mastering is much better on this ‘official’ CD but some of the tracks are so old and have so much tape hiss you have to wonder why they bothered. So essentially “Essentails” is not essential but it might do enough to remind me of Jarre’s lost genius (and possibly make me rip my Cousteau CD just to heal a wound).