Comments on: Don’t Go Buying Those New Order Reissues During Your Holiday Shopping Yet

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:45:09 +0000

My question to you is this…
What needed to be done to the sound since?
The band obviously approved the first time…now they have changed their mind?
There hasn’t been much improvement in Digital Audio since these were made…
See…a remaster has to boast some sort of manipulation in order to lay claim to “see we did something to it! It’s louder, more high end…boosted lows! See! It’s “different”)

Now that isn’t necessarily better…
Here’s a secret…the best “Dark Side of the Moon” on CD believe it or not is the original CD from Japan done in 1983 made by Toshiba EMI…now that disc has been “remastered” either publicly or secretly approx. 10 times since then…and ya know what? They didn’t nail it like they did the very first time!
Same goes for the same issue of “Abbey Road”…(they call it the “Black Triangle” design just in case you go searching on ebay…it is scarce as heck!)

But for the cheaper of us…hows this…and tying this all together…for say Joy Division…and New Order…just go find the old Factory discs (NOT the “Quest” or anything that has anything to do with WEA) and you will be happy…
Really…the Joy Divisions are kinda harsh…Same theory goes for Led Zeppelin…the same tapes were used for BOTH masterings….and they aren’t the masters…they are LP production tapes or safeties…(this has been affirmed by the man who mastered them the first time and also the fellow who pulled the tapes for Page and Marino the second time….same tapes…different eq…guess what sounds better when you crank it? The first issues…meaning the ones that have a silver label and no mention of Page and Marino’s name on the back….)

Rant over…

All this is done for money…that’s why this stuff is remastered…
There are a few exceptions…but not these….

Sorry…had a lot to say there!

By: 10:02am

10:02am — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:04:30 +0000

@sydbarrett05: Oh, that reminds me, I was going to mention: The only remaster I picked up was Movement, and after doing an admittedly very brief A/B on iMac speakers between it and the old Warner/Factory disc, I noticed that there was in fact no significant difference in overall level. On some tracks, not all, there seemed to be a touch of hi-end boost on the remaster, but again, very subtle. I'm wondering if there was much of an attempt made to improve the sound, or if that smidgen of added brightness is just incidental

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:32:32 +0000

Well..these are just typical of other remasters…shoddily done…LOUD LOUD LOUD!!! (not the way the music was conceived)
All this poop about the music sounding “thin” compared to current stuff…
I go on record as saying that we have devolved wrt. audio quality…
Anything that hook states in interviews is basically unintelligible wrt. this…

Hold onto your old Factory discs…I promise you this music will not sound as good ever again…

By: 10:02am

10:02am — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:25:38 +0000

@DocStrange: I always skipped "Blue Monday" when listening to my PCL CD. It was never meant to be part of the record, amd the band readily agrees, and it I always found it to completely ruin the tone of the album. Needless to say, that goes even double for including "The Beach", a "Blue Monday" remix, as the album's closing song and dashing the album's excellent track sequencing and symmetry. I looked forward to getting PCL with its untampered tracklist, it's a shame that apparently it's crap.

By: Wicked Zoot

Wicked Zoot — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:57:00 +0000

Somehow this seems oddly appropriate. After the whole Retro debacle and looking back on the history of Factory, it would be kinda disappointing if this went off without a hitch. I’ll bet Tony Wilson is laughing his ass off right about now.

By: Lucas Jensen

Lucas Jensen — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:47:49 +0000

@DocStrange: What? I, too, am used to the US track listing. Ugh.

By: DocStrange

DocStrange — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:57:27 +0000

wait, what?
shit.

I was just going to go out to buy these.

Also, considering that "Blue Monday" is now on the second disc of Power, Corruption & Lies instead of being apart of the regular tracklisting (as it had been since the record was first released in the US), this means that the flow of the record would be ruined for me (even if it is the original track listing). Knowing Hook, he's going to blame Sumner for this one.

By: dreamsneverend

dreamsneverend — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:51:01 +0000

Out of the rereleases the Movement album is the best. Finally having a digital copy of the original versions of Tempation (7 and 12″ vers) even if they are vinyl rips… Oh well there is no honor among labels it seems.

By: Poubelle

Poubelle — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:02:14 +0000

@Handsome Pete: Hah, my thoughts exactly.

By: Handsome Pete

Handsome Pete — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:29:31 +0000

Let’s hope my parents were slow on the Christmas shopping this year.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:07:05 +0000

Wait, doesn’t that make them collector’s items now?

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:26:31 +0000

Add me to the Christmas wishers for these. And I came thisclose to picking up Brotherhood for myself last week -- glad I didn't.

By: Lucas Jensen

Lucas Jensen — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:08:12 +0000

@brasstax: Thank you for saying that, though I put it in a tie with PCL. I love 'em all, really, even the new ones. Yep.

Man, I was asking for this for Christmas!

By: Dick Laurent is dead.

Dick Laurent is dead. — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:16:27 +0000

Good to know, guess I can hold onto my cash a bit longer.

By: brasstax

brasstax — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:27:51 +0000

Dan, you are a king among men for choosing the Technique cover, as it's the band's best album.