Bjork Coloured Vinyl

Amongst my new years resolutions was the promise not to buy any new music by Bjork. I haven't enjoyed one of her albums since "Homogenic" from 1997 so buying more seemed like a waste of money.

The all important sticker

However, I have never ruled out buying her old music again. So when I noticed amazon listing reissues of her albums on vinyl I was intrigued. Add the lure of the first 5000 (yes this is hardly limited quantities, but what the hell) copies being pressed on coloured vinyl and I found myself pre-ordering "Debut" "Post" and "Homogenic" without hesitation. They are only 140g and not the 180g that vinyl enthusiasts seem to crave, but how can you resist coloured vinyl?

Now, I am aware that every vinyl pressing plant in Europe is working at full throttle with an overflowing order book; so when the release dates for these albums slipped a couple of times I wasn't unduly surprised. However, when the first disc turned up I was unduly surprised: the vinyl was black. I immediately began scouring the Internet to find out what was going on. The coloured vinyl seemed freely available, just not from amazon it would seem. I cancelled the remainder of my order and went looking elsewhere.

My first order was placed with a website called Boomkat who were showing all coloured vinyls as available for 'pre-order'. A week or so later a copy of "Homogenic" arrived carrying the telltale sticker in the top left corner denoting it was a limited coloured vinyl edition. Brilliant. Around a week later Boomkat emailed me to say their distributor had 'let them down' and they weren't able to offer the remaining albums. "Sorry about that. We've cancelled your order". Not so brilliant.

Nice discs, but why green?

Next on the hit list was "Post". A quick look through Discogs brought up lots of sellers with sealed copies at reasonable prices so I ordered one. Two days later I owned the coloured version of "Post" too. "Debut" was a tougher and much more elusive opponent if I wasn't willing to spend over £30. I would have to bide my time.

A few weeks later I found myself in an HMV store and whilst I was idly flicking through the vinyl I noticed a Bjork section. It contained a copy of her latest album "Vulnicura" (strictly off limits) along with a coloured vinyl of "Debut" for the startlingly good sum of £15.99. So my mission to own 3 coloured vinyls was complete, all it took was one month, a bit of poking around on the Internet and some good luck. No thanks to amazon on this occasion.

The discs themselves are rather nice, but I can't help but feel "Homogenic" should have been a burgundy coloured disc to match the rear of the artwork, I just don't see where the green came from. Each disc has a card with a download code for 320kps MP3 files but I haven't manged to get any of them to work first time. For "Post" I had to input the code at least 10 times before the website would let me download.

I can't really work out what amazon are doing when it comes to these releases. Why I ended up with a black vinyl remains a mystery (on the plus side it is a 180g edition rather than the 140g of the coloured version). Amazon really need to change their listing to reflect the fact that they haven't got any of the coloured versions. They still list theses albums as "Limited Edition" and state associated colour of the vinyl, but in my experience they just dispatch the black vinyl.

Oldfield vinyl

Last July Warner Music announced it was set to release some new 180g vinyl editions of 4 of Mike Oldfield's albums. I pre-ordered them, bought a new stylus and waited patiently. 9 months later they have finally arrived.

Better late than never? Mike Oldfield 180g vinyl

Despite there being absolutely no mention of why their release was delayed, I have keenly anticipated these discs. "Voyager" and "Tubular Bells III" have never been released on vinyl and the other two command high second hand prices due to their rarity.

Personally I also prayed these new editions wouldn't be as bad as the recent 180g pressing of Oldfield's Virgin era albums such as "Crises". These discs were not cut well and certainly weren't pressed to the highest standard. These Warner era albums were keenly anticipated. So what is the verdict?

Well, my favourite Oldfield album has always been "Songs of Distant Earth" and so I placed this on the platter first. Disappointingly none of the discs have a picture inner, just a plain black polythene lined jacket. But this shouldn't detract from the music

The sound is rich and clean but there is some annoying surface noise at the start of each side. Next was "Tubular Bells 2" which has some annoying noise throughout and doesn't seem to quite hit the mark in the same way.

I still hate Record Store Day.....

So I still hate Record Store Day. More than ever in fact.

This year I changed tactic slightly. Rather than pretend I wasn't interested and just turn up in the afternoon, I decided to go and look in the morning. However, I vowed I was not going to queue.

There are two independent stores in my local city centre: at 9.30 one store had a queue about 400 yards long and the second shop was so deserted I assumed they weren't participating in the eBay enhancing festival of greed. Just to be sure I asked in the second store if they had any record store day releases available.

"Ask me for what you want and I'll tell you," said the weary guy behind the counter. Only then did I notice the sure signs of a Record Store day battle: barrier ropes being stowed away, leaflets strune on the floor and notices about queue jumping and the maximum number of purchases (in bold font).

"Errr do you have Erasure 'Violet Flame Remixes?'" I enquired as casually as possible.
"Ohhhhh no. That sold out." Damn, "Any others?"
"Hmmmmm Blancmange or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark?" I said out of hope rather than any expectation.
"Yeah got one left of each of those."
"Brilliant, I'll take them both please. How much is that?" I asked tentatively, not quite able to believe my luck.
"Errrr that will will be £31 please"
"Sorry, I thought you said £31. I only wanted the one 12" singe and the 10" single."
"Yeah mate. £31"

At this point I shouted, "Are you f**king kidding me?" I also grabbed the nearest passing record company executive (or Record Store Day representative) and screamed in their face: "Do you think I'm made of money you miserable bastard? What kind of gig is this? You thieving asshole! Talk about taking advantage! Do I have to pull my pants down and bend over too? I hate you and this whole sham of a day." I probably headbutted them too. Hard.

Either that or I just handed over my bank card and thanked them for my public mugging. I forget which.

Either way I ended up with 2 of the 3 releases Record Store Day 'made me' want. Not bad to say I never queued for even 1 minute. The 3rd? Well, I forked out double the original price for a copy from one of the army eBay scalpers.

So f**k you Record Store Day. Just call it the "National queueing for records championship" in future. Because really, really that's all it is.

POSTSCRIPT: Ironically all of the releases I mentioned above have since been made available on the artists websites. So I need not have even bothered visiting my local independent retailers after all.

The 'live' minefield of Gary Numan

Along with my New Year's resolution to not buy any new music by Bjork, I have vowed to fill in some of the holes in my Gary Numan collection (and there are very many).

As a relative newcomer to the music of Gary Numan, the main thing that strikes me is the mind boggling number of releases. There are 20 studio albums, of which 5 have been released in two versions (extended and regular editions), the majority of his output from the Numa label has been released in a remastered/expanded form, there are untold number of compilations (especially licensed budget ones), lots of fan club CDs and bootlegs of every variety.

2004 and the new 2014 "Redux" edition of  'Electronic Pioneer'

The only thing that helps me keep track of what I own and what I am chasing is the Discogs website and my Numan bible: "Electronic Pioneer: An Armchair Guide to Gary Nuaman" by Paul Goodwin. This book is a good source of information and has helped me prioritise what I should buy. If you are drawn towards Gary's back catalogue, I'd recommend you track down a copy (it's screaming out for an index and colour images however).

But despite this book and all of the online discographies, the one area of Gary's back catalogue that mystifies and appals me in equal measure are his live recordings. Every studio album (and some compilation albums) seem to have resulted in a tour and an associated live recording being released. It is unclear if these live albums are released to recoup financial losses incurred on the tour (such with Jean-Michel Jarre's "The Concerts in China" or Mike Oldfield's "Exposed") or if Numan sees genuine value in releasing them. Personally, I can see little merit in some of these albums. The vocals on "White Noise" are indistinct and muddy. Paul Goodwin describes the version of "This Is New Love" included on this album as 'truly dire' - and he's being kind.

The number of Numan live albums is staggering

"The Skin Mechanic" is a clumsy, soulless journey through Roland D-50 presents (just like a few Numan studio albums). "Dream Corrosion" finds Numan at rock bottom with poor material and audio that doesn't even sound live. It's almost as if he sampled some crowd noises, rigged up his D50 (again) and sang his way though his back catalogue. "Dark Light" is a fine sounding album that is just let down by terrible artwork.

"Scarred" features more prominent guitar work but remains smeared with "Digital Native Dance" and other D-50 presets that had been out of fashion for 15 years by the time the record was released. "Engineers" was dragged out of the vaults by Beggars Banquet, dusted down and released almost 30 years after it was recorded. And as good as it sounds, I can't understand what it adds to the roughly contemporaneous Living Ornaments '79, '80 or '81. More recent offerings such as "Hope Bleeds" and "Replicas Live" are quite good individually but when considered in the context of Numan's back catalogue they just feel like overkill. Other recent releases such as "Jagged Live" seem to generate some debate as to whether it is was "live" at all.

"Ghost" is one album I am yet to track down (strangely from a tour held to promote a compilation album) along with "Telekon Live" and "The Pleasure Principle Live". I even want to acquire CDs that don't even appeal to me such as the "Fragment" albums or the recent "Big Noise Transmission". Why do I have this compulsion to own this stuff? What power does Numan posses? I must say I have noticed that his fans seem to be the most loyal, vociferous and devoted I have ever come across. Maybe, just maybe, he's beginning to exert this power over me.

Record Store Day - a winner (if you're an eBay seller)

Opinion on Record Store Day seems to be changing. What started as a noble enterprise intended to lure people back into independent record stores, has been taken over by members of the public trying to make a quick buck.

Record store day releases tend to be unique vinyl pressings that can only be acquired by physically visiting a record store. Shops are also banned from listing stock on the Internet for the following week thus adding to the exclusivity. As a consequence of these rules, people queue outside shops from the early hours of the morning. But some of these people are exploiting the rarity of the releases and are buying multiple copies solely with the intention of selling them on the Internet.

One example of this phenomenon is the Pet Shop Boys limited edition 12" of "Fluorescent" which was a UK record store day exclusive for 2014. This 12" carries 2 exclusive mixes of the title track and is limited to 1000 copies - it cost around £7. Before the day had ended, copies of the 12" were listed on eBay at ridiculous prices. There are currently over 40 listing for this record, all of which are selling for massively inflated prices (they seem to fetch anywhere between £40-90 currently).

I chose not to queue outside a record store and was content to take my chances later in the day. I did queue in 2010 to purchase the last Pet Shop Boys Record Store Day exclusive "Love Life". However the record wasn't particularly good and was soon available quite cheaply on the Internet (you can still buy it now for around £20). Thus I decided queueing wasn't worthwhile and stayed in bed.

Unfortunately my gamble didn't pay off. The single was sold out by the time I ventured to the shops. Looking at eBay I am convinced the reason I missed out was because people bought multiple copies of the single with the sole intention of selling them for a hefty profit. Releases are supposed to be limited to one per customer, but all you have to do is visit multiple shops or have a friend tag along (or both) and you can buy multiple copies of a release quite easily.

However, I am very lucky and live in a city with many independent record stores. I tracked down a retailer with copies of the single in stock and after an anxious wait over the bank holiday weekend, I visited them at 9am sharp Tuesday morning (I was not the only person with this idea). The eBay profiteers didn't beat me.

But many fellow Pet Shop Boys fans have missed out as they either don't live in the UK or couldn't make it to a store. For them, the only hope seems to be degrading themselves on Twitter or paying the prices asked on eBay. 

 

Yes, we live in a free world and there are no rules against buying multiple copies of a record and selling them. But I don't believe that is why Neil and Chris created this 12" and I believe it goes against the ethos of Record Store Day as a whole. The only remedy for this situation would be if Neil and Chris's management team were to announce that there was unsold stock and make them available on their website.

Yet, I fear that there is no excess stock lying around. The store I visited had received a box of singles with damaged covers. They were only bent or creased slightly, but the store had asked the distributor for replacements only to be told there were none.

So Record Store Day has become a cash cow for eBay and its users as well as independent record stores. Personally I would love to see what happened if there was a USA or Japan only Record Store Day Pet Shop Boys release. Seeing revenge being exacted upon these mercenary eBay sellers would be quite satisfying.

The Art of Remasters?

Listening through the Art of Noise tracks on my media player I can't help but notice a missed opportunity. ZZT seem to continually recycle the original early material from '83/'84 (and boy do they milk it) whilst China seem content to let the bulk of the bands back catalogue languish.

I only realised how little of the Art of Noise's music is still being issued when a box of my CD's was 'lost' during a house move some years ago. Trying to replace their albums via eBay became a surprisingly annoying and expensive chore (thankfully cut short by the idiot who took my CDs into "safekeeping" finding them some months later). Having just scanned eBay I can see only one copy of "In No Sense? Nonsense!" on CD and one exorbitantly priced copy of "Invisible Silence" listed.

So why don't Warner Bros or whoever own the rights reissue these albums? There is lots of additional/bonus material from 12" singles and b-sides hanging around and there are plenty of fans ready to buy shiny new masters of their favourite 80's albums. If ZZT can spin out one albums worth of material into a 2 CD retrospective, a 3 CD box set, 2 expanded reissues and a "Best of", why can't we get the 12" version of "Legs" on CD?

Less pops in my pop music please

As I sit listening to the remastered version of “No 1 in Heaven” by Sparks I can’t help but notice that some of the extra tracks are sourced from vinyl. I understand that 30 year old master tapes get lost and I can accept that sometimes this is the only source available. But what I don’t understand is why they are always so badly mastered.

If an enthusiast such as DJPaulT can master vinyl to sound immaculate for his excellent “Burning the Ground” website; why can’t professional engineers do the same? It doesn’t take long to remove pops and crackles from a digital recording and adjusting EQ isn’t too complicated if performed by someone with skill.

Either record companies need to start looking harder for master tapes or employ DJPaulT to master their vinyl. Take pride in your work like Paul or don't bother I say. Music is too important for half hearted efforts.