Jarre remastered?

Most of the artists I listen to have had their back catalogue remastered and released in some form or another. The first artists to do this were the Pet Shop Boys, followed more recently by Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, New Order, Mike Oldfield, The Beatles and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The list goes on and on. But why I asked myself have Jean Michel Jarre’s albums not been re-mastered?

Various Jarre CDs in my collection

Well the truth is I forgot it had already been done. It's been done more than once in fact. Dreyfus released tweaked versions of all Jarre’s albums in 1991. These CDs were not released in the UK and were only available for a short time. Thus I own only two of the discs and don’t remember them particularly well.

The second attempt at a reissue was made available when Jarre transferred to Epic in 1997. These CDs have clear trays and the name of the album written in the tray insert. They we all remastered by Scott Hull in New York.

However, both sets of reissues have one thing in common; they don't sound different from the original pressings. Yes, the live albums and compilations have different running orders or double albums have been shrunk into a single disc, but the music doesn't actually sound very different. Only with 2011's "Essentials and Rarities" did Jarre's old works receive what I would consider a true remastering.

Happily Jarre has begun work on a set of new masters which are to be reissued by Sony sometime on the near future. Zoolook seems to have been the first to have the fairy dust sprinkled upon it and whilst nothing has been announced officially, it seems all of his back catalogue is to receive the same treatment. Let's hope there will be new vinyl as well as CDs. New remastered vinyl would help banish the memories of the terrible reissues of his fist 3 albums from 2011.

The remastered CD isn't quite in crisis yet, not with Crises anyway

Crises by Mike Oldfield has always been one of my favourite albums. As a fan of the sound of the Fairlight CMI and eighties music in general, the twenty minute title cut really has everything for me. The second side opens with the hit single ‘Moonlight Shadow’ and the Jon Anderson collaboration ‘In High Places’. Nobody needs pretend ‘Foreign Affair’ is anything other than filler but the intricacies of ‘Taurus 3’ soon banish it. Proceedings close with Oldfield’s take on "heavy metal" in ‘Shadow on the wall’ which features some of co-producer Simon Philips best drumming (gated snares and all!!).

The new deluxe and super deluxe editions take the original 1983 masters and see them baked one last time for mixing in pro tools. The new masters are obviously louder but seem to offer more stereo separation without losing too much of the dynamics. It’s a good job and these tend to be few and far between in the loudness wars.

 

The 5 disc ‘super deluxe’ box set is a lesson in how to make a great reissue. Other record companies should take note (EMI I’m looking you squarely in the eye here, the ‘Electronic’ reissue was a complete shambles). The fact that Oldfield himself has completed the new 5.1 surround mixes and seems to have generally been involved in the project is telling. This is a considered and worthy re-release of a great album.

Electronic "Especially Bad Edition"

There have been many poor “remastered” CD’s issued by increasingly desperate record companies in recent years. The New Order “Deluxe Editions” of 2008 remain the pinnacle of record company ineptitude and stupidity.

But there has emerged a challenger to New Orders crown with the release of the “Special Edition” of Electronics’ eponymously titled debut.

Why would you include a second CD with new edits of songs that are completely unrelated to the original album and exclude the rare and unreleased single edit of “Tighten Up”? Why add alternative versions of tracks recorded eight years later and omit remixes of “Getting Away with It” which have never been released on CD in the UK? Why label “Feel Every Beat” as the “2013 Edit” when it is in fact the DNA remix from 1991?

The release of this CD is a mercenary act that has been conducted by people who are completely ignorant. If you were to be generous to EMI records, you would describe this collection of music as ‘eclectic’. If you were feeling evil you would say it is a complete mess not worthy of a single penny of your hard earned cash.

If a CD is worth reissuing as a “Special Edition” surely it is worth getting right? This lazy ‘scatter gun’ approach to track selection is pathetic. I guess we should be grateful nothing on these two CDs has been taken from a vinyl source (unlike the afore mentioned New Order releases) and the uninspiring packaging does at least contain some new sleeve notes.

Personally I think it should be relabelled as the “Especially Bad Edition” and I encourage everyone to steer clear of it.

Kraftwerk sell me a box

“Without them there would be no hip hop, no house, no ambient music, no electro.” Q Magazine

Like them or not, you cannot deny the influence of Kraftwerk on electronic music and a whole generation of musicians. Personally, I find a large part of their work cold and impenetrable. Whilst “Computer World” and “The Man-Machine” are two of my favourite albums of all time, little of the rest of their back catalogue sounds nearly as good to me. Part of my ambiguity towards Kraftwerk is as a result of their attitude towards the press, their fans and the world in general. I hate it when people are aloof ‘just to be interesting’ or ‘arty’. It’s wank. Grow up and get on with life. Yet, I am constantly drawn back to Kraftwerk and their music as if it were some irresistible force.

In order to appreciate their music more I felt I needed to know more about the band. Thus, a few years ago I purchased the book “Man, Machine and Music” by Pascal Bussy. I purchased the second edition of the book in 2001 when Flür and Bartos had departed, but the integral duo of Hütter and Schneider remained intact. Reading the book did give me a greater insight into the band and also an appreciation of the experimental nature of albums I did not like such as “Radioactivity” and “Autobahn”. Yet I still had limited admiration for people I could not connect or associate with in any way.

Consequently, I decided not to purchase any of the remastered albums or the box set ‘The Catalogue’ when it was released last year and was content with my motley collection of original releases and imports. Yet something has drawn me back to ‘The Catalogue’ and during one late night shopping trip on amazon, that irresistible force acted once again. Almost before I knew what was happening I had ordered ‘The Catalogue’ on CD and was contemplating the vinyl versions of my favourite albums.

I really didn’t think too much about what the package would actually look like or consist of and thus when my box set did arrive, I was very impressed indeed. You see, like the ultimate edition of the Pet Shop Boys album ‘Yes’, ‘The Catalogue’ is as much a thing of beauty, as it is a collection of music. As an item it is very nice to own.

But the music: the remastered audio. You will read contradictory reports about the audio on the internet. This is with good reason. Some of the albums sound better thanks to their digitalisation and some sound worse. Personally I like the dynamic range of the new ‘Computer World’ and the noise reduction on ‘Radioactivity’ makes it a more pleasurable experience for me. Yet some bemoan the lack of background noise and dislike the new mixes and reconstructed tracks. Its all a matter of taste. For some albums I will revert to my old versions, for others I will go to the remastered ones.

B12 Archive complete

I first became acquainted with B12 via their ‘Electro-Soma’ album of 1993. This music was new and to me, truly unique. I have distinct memories of walking to tedious college lectures with the sounds of ‘Soundtrack of Space’ ringing in my ears and not a care in the world. The churning techno of ‘Telefone 529’, ‘Obsessed’, and ‘Hall of Mirrors’ became a little slice of heaven for me. There were many great tracks on ‘Elecro-Soma’ but ‘Soundtrack of Space’ continues to resonate most strongly with me.

However, between 1998 and 2007 nothing was heard of B12 or their pseudonyms Redcell, Musicology, Cmetric etc. Kraftwerk seemed prolific in comparison to Messrs Golding and Rutter. Yet 2007 saw a flurry of activity that went someway towards redressing the balance. The album ‘Last Days of Silence’ and its companion ‘Last Days of Silence (Remixes)’ proved to be the equal of anything in their back catalogue: a welcome return indeed. Thus, the B12 records archive series was hotly anticipated by fans.

I fail to agree with some reviews posted on the B12 records website which suggest that the most recent ‘Volume 7’ is the best in the series. The two discs that constitute volume one and the second disc of volume two are my personal favourites. Yet there are hidden gems on almost every one of the 14 CD’s.

So if you are partial to ‘intelligent techno’ or however else you wish to describe the music of B12, then you could do a lot worse than investing in some, or all of these CD’s. However, with such a rush of activity over, I now fear that B12 may disappear for another nine years. It would be a real shame, as electronic music that is both innovative and original is hard to come by; and these guys make some of the best there is.

Mute are at it too...

OK so they’re at it again. Record companies selling us music we already own. This time things might be different. Mute are set to release a 21st anniversary edition of Erasure’s ‘The Innocents” on October 26th. As well as a standard remastered edition there is a deluxe edition planned. Mute have a fabulous track record in special/deluxe editions and I am actually looking forward to this one. What will make or break this release is the quality of the remastering (j
ust louder with less dynamic range probably), the extra tracks (if any) and the packaging. 

Recently the official Erasure website actually asked for fans views on what was important in such releases. The majority of people plumped for the unreleased racks option rather than the remixes and video footage options. Let’s hope Mute were listening. The 21st anniversary edition may also put right a piece of history. At the time of the album’s release I always felt ‘Phantom Bride’ would be an appropriate single and it remains one of my favourite Erasure tracks. Currently there are plans to release a remix single of the track on October 12th. Let’s hope the remixes are good and not the usual dross.

Louder is not better

Whilst listening to a CD compilation of my own creation the other day I became conscious of the varying signal to noise ration of the various sources I had used. Some tracks were light and filled with subtle bass tones whilst others were harsh, loud and caused the speakers in my car to vibrate annoyingly.

It seemed I had forgotten to master the CD with any sort of ‘normalization’ in the way I normally do. What struck me was the fact that all of the harsh and ‘loud’ tracks were from recent CD’s and the warmer and dynamic tracks were from CD’s created in the 80’s or 90’s.

My recent laments over the inadequacies of remastered CD’s also serve to highlight the decreasing quality of the product record companies present to us. Whilst the majority of people may well be satisfied with the ‘louder is better’ philosophy, I am not.


So I am now re-assessing the majority of the high bit rate files on my hard drive with a view to restoring original recordings in favour of their ‘louder is better’ remastered versions.

In researching this topic I found this very interesting article.