FFFs – after Ms Bush getting all greedy with her reissues – Mr BRAIN Eno has decided to resubmit some of his ambient noodlings.
Some are at half speed 45rpm , what ever that is.
Sigh
https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/10/brian-eno-vinyl-reissue-ambient/
Hmmm …. when 45 rpm half-speed masters are released, they need twice as many vinyl discs as the original albums. “Discreet Music” was originally a single album. The new 45 rpm half-speed master is therefore a double album. The original side one of Discreet Music had just one track on it, namely the 30-minute title track. On the fancy new 45 rpm half-speed master, this track has had to be chopped in two, with the first half of it on LP1, side 1 and the second half on LP1, side 2. For me, this is not an improvement. It’s not cool to chop a piece of music in half, so that you have to get up and turn the record over in the middle of it.
Oh, I should add that I love both “Discreet Music” and “Music for Airports”. They gave me another way of listening to music.
You can get it with or without.
His first four already came out (like this) last year
all this “milking the pips till they squeak” stuff turns me off considerably. How many times can they re-sell previously owned materials? Not sure I feel so guilty about downloading music when it is the baby boomers subsiding the current bad creative decisions to own something that depreciates more quickly than a new car in August. If it’s curatorship (the new Kate Bush sounds a bit like that) it may be OK, but otherwise – well, it’s your money.
It does seem a bit strange dividing “Discreet Music” in two to fit it on 2x45s. I do wonder also how he’s going to divide up the 3 versions of Pachelbel’s Canon on the other side of the original.
But if everyone else is doing this sort of thing and making money from it, you’d be daft not to do it yourself. I don’t imagine Eno’s albums have ever sold in vast quantities, despite his reputation and every extra bit helps.
It’s not as if he’s forcing you to buy these reissues. I’m a fan, but I won’t be buying them. Happy with the versions I already have.
These are primarily aimed at the well-heeled “audiophile”. Neophytes who know his reputation but haven’t yet got any of his stuff. People who’ve recently splashed out on expensive audio gear and now need things to play on it. Those who “went CD” in the late ’80s and ’90s, ditched their vinyl and turntables and now wish they hadn’t.
I bought Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) and Before and After Science in the last batch. Kings Lead Hat sounds, as you might imagine, great.
Another Green World was already getting quite ambient and didn’t benefit from being broken up across four sides.
The Ambient series albums really are designed to be listened to as long-form background music, surely? CD is probably the best medium for these. It’s not that long ago (actually 2004!) they were remastered, the need for which was debateable at the time, for deliberately background music.
Pretty sure Eno’s production credits on U2, Coldplay etc mean that he’s not doing it too tough.
45 rpm half speed mastering…..Jimmy Page will wet himself over this.
It’s been at least a year since the Led Zep catalogue was reissued.
I’m losing so much hearing I don’t give a crap about audio snobbery.
There is that. How about you send in your hearing profile and a bespoke remastering is done. Should just be a matter of plugging a feed in.
Of course you may need an update every few years but that is just like the latest Zep remaster anyway.