This is extremely exciting news. Honestly, I pretty much wanted this album next ... but I would be happy with any Steve Wilson mixes of XTC especially if they maintain the quality of all the previous releases.
I'm wondering if there isn't yet a Steven Wilson plug in where you can just stick it on your favourite non-surround album. He surely needs some time off to play his guitar and that.
One of my favorite records of all time. Never get tired of it even after all these years and hundreds of listens. This is good news indeed.
This is good news. I am in. Listening to my Virgin vinyl pressing now. Sounds so good. I'll be interested to hear Steve's work on this.
This is great news. I also hope fir a Apple Venus Vol. 1 5.1 release. River of Orchids in surround would be sweet with all the strings.
Andy just confirmed that Terry is signing postcards for this release not yet up for preorder though. He also mentioned that they're hoping to do it again for the next four 5.1 reissues, so there's hope for anyone who missed one
This is what I get for not reading new threads here... I miss the good news! Very excited for this one.... can't wait to see what they come up for the packaging (green paper bag?).
Maybe the outer slip case will be green with band/title typeface and the digipack will gave the album cover.
I recently went back and listened to Black Sea again after quite awhile. In retrospect, I would call it XTC's heaviest album; it's still pop but much more rock oriented than subsequent releases.
It's a toss-up (for me) as to whether English Settlement or Black Sea is their best album, but this is great news!
I'll be first in line for this one. Great news! But I can't help but wish it was The Big Express. I'd love to hear Wake Up in all it's glorious, Steve Wilson mixed, surround sound. Especially the ending.
I'm glad to hear someone else appreciate "Wake Up". It's one of my very favorite XTC songs, but I rarely hear others refer to it, and then it's often in disparaging terms. The arrangement and performance are fantastic, very dense and dramatic, and would make for a great surround recording.
Absolutely! Wake Up has it all. Powerful drive, meaningful lyrics sung with conviction, slashing guitar, wall-shaking bass, pounding drums, and a background choir of sweetly singing Angels.
I've always liked that track--it grabs you by the lapels right out of the gate and it's gonna sound awesome in 5.1. Though Big Express is uneven at times, I think that it potentially has the most to gain from the S. Wilson treatment.
I'm not familiar with XTC for whatever reason, but I've enjoyed Wilson's work in the past. Gave Drums and Wires CD stereo remix a spin. Spectacular sound quality and I really enjoyed the music as well. Will check out Skylarking soon and then pick up the others, including this one when it is released!
Don't skip on the original CDs, if you see them in a shop. Since I got curious about XTC about a year ago (like you, I wasn't familiar with them until Wilson started remixing the albums), I've been picking them up as I find them, and they've all sounded very good to me. So far, I've nabbed Nonsuch, Oranges and Lemons, Drums and Wires, English Settlement, and Skylarking. These albums are all new to me, and I've liked them all so far -- all the CDs sound great!
In case you didn't know, the original mixes are included in the CD+DVD/CD+BR packages, amongst many hours of extras.
The CDs only contain the remixes + a few bonus tracks. The flat transfers of the original mixes (+ the remasters of the original mixes where applicable) are on the DVD-Audio and the Blu-Ray discs. Note that they didn't do DVDs for the two latest remixes (Oranges & Lemons, Skylarking), those only exist on Blu-Ray.