Yes and although I do enjoy the crossfades on their albums, I find it much easier to recreate crossfades than get rid of them! I love that they haven't crossfaded anything.
I read here a while back that only some of the masters were missing forEnglish Settlement, so if that's the case I'd say still release it even if they have to (Penteo?) up mix some tracks to 5.1 Saying that I'd prefer to hold off until Colin starts participating again in these releases as ES is my personal fave and I want everything. Really surprised the 'the colonel' single wasnt included with Black Sea. I thought Colin was only objecting to 'barrel scraping' demos but the fact these released tracks weren't included, along with lack of liner notes are hinting at a bigger issue
I strongly disagree that the crossfades didn't work. Living Through Another Cuba into Love at First Sight is a really nice shifting of gears, as is Rocket From a Bottle to No Language in Out Lungs. And having Burning With Optimism's Flames' upward bend run smack into Sgt. Rock is one of my favorite moments in their catalog.
Yes it's in print. Yes there was plenty of room on the blu ray disk. No, they didn't put the original mixes on the blu ray. All the XTC releases give you the original mix on blu ray in hi-res digital.
One of my favorite things about these reissues is the instrumental mixes (for the record, I don't have a surround setup), so I would vote against this. With Black Sea, we're only missing "The Somnambulist" which is no great loss. It hardly had any vocals to begin with.
Andy's tweet says MOST of the Settlement tapes can't be found. I don't know about you, but I don't want half or more of the album to be upmixed, and I think a good majority of fans would be disappointed in a mostly upmixed disc. I'm sure they (Settlement & Mummer) will just move down the queue until the tapes are found. All of this series have been done in the order that they have been able to locate the masters. As for THE COLONEL single, my guess is they don't consider it an XTC release anymore. It really is a Colin solo release, only Colin and Terry are featured players. Either that or Colin said "no" to it's inclusion. They (XTC) haven't included any of the rarer live b-sides of singles either, but I'll take whatever they do want to give us, and what they don't, well I still have that stuff on vinyl or CD anyways.
Quick thoughts, after first complete 5.1 listen: I miss the crossfades of the original Some echo effects are very different, esp. the "...away"s in Burning With Optimism's Flames. I thought I had all XTC unreleased tracks, but there's a handful on here I've never heard before. Didn't know a Peter Gabriel recording is prominently featured on this album (there's a tease, read the liner notes!) Living Through Another Cuba's dub-style effects are a blast in multi-channel Proof again that Steven Wilson is indeed a genius... ...and this is one of the greatest albums ever recorded.
ME TOO! One of my favorites is Ten Feet Tall, all of that fabulous guitar interplay was drown in the vocal track, the instrumental is incredible.
I'll have to check out the 10 Feet instrumental, haven't dug deep into D&W yet. My fav instrumental is 1000 Umbrellas... the strings alone is a brilliant composition that almost transcends the original vocal version.
@DaverJ Do you have the Instruvenus instrumental album for Apple Venus? If you love the strings on 1000 Umbrellas, you're in for a treat.
Just got mine today, will listen this weekend. Just for the record, my postcard was signed in silver on the front of the card, no black ink anywhere.
Just listened to a few stereo tracks, ripped lossless. The echo/reverb effects resemble the original mix much closer in stereo. I'm still tweaking my 5.1 setup installed over Thanksgiving, so the above perception might have been my setup. Still no crossfades in stereo. The new mix has lot more stereo separation, and the individual instruments are much easier to pick out. Cymbal crashes sound a bit compressed...? I'm not going to say the new mix is better or worse than the original, just different. Which is welcome.
It brings me no joy to say it, but at least at first blush, this is easily the weakest of the SW XTC 5.1 mixes for me. (By comparison, from this era, Drums & Wires is much more successful.) It almost made it seem like my set up was miscalibrated, and I don't usually get that when I play his mixes. All the parts that I was expecting to be brought out in more vivid, crisp detail--particularly the tasty interlocking guitar play between Dave and Andy--were often strangely buried or muted. To name just one example that jumped out to me right at first: What happened to the Beach Boys' style backup vocal bit on "Respectable Street"? It doesn't have to be overpowering, but it's so weak compared to the original and I've always loved that little touch. There are disappointing examples like that all throughout for me and it's surprising because Wilson is usually so skillful at accentuating this stuff. I understand that surround mixes are always going to be different in various ways, but usually SW captures the spirit of the originals deftly while simultaneously expanding on them. There are pleasures to be had here and there--"Living Through Another Cuba" was a surprise favorite--but all in all, Black Sea 5.1 fails to engage as forcefully as I'd hoped. I kept feeling like I would rather be listening to the original mix. Ah well, you can't win them all. I hope that the next installment is an improvement. P.S. Both on Black Sea and in general with XTC, count me as another crossfades fan! Most them worked brilliantly, tying the albums together into something more cohesive than a random selection of tracks, like a song cycle. One of the things I love most about this band is that each of their albums has it's own distinct sonic/thematic character and feel.
Andy and Colin are two of my very favorite lyric writers, but the instrumental mixes just keep blowing me away. The instrumentals have been the highlight of all 5 sets for me.
Wow, just listened to this 5.1 mix. Kicked my butt. I love the mix, and the lack of crossfades didn’t bother me at all. I should mention this is the first time I’ve ever listened to this album! Now, on the the bonus tracks in 5.1.
Maybe they can do something similar to the Gentle a Giant set that had the surviving multis for three albums. It would make it a mini anthology of sorts.
I'd rather wait for the full albums. besides, there is still White Music, Go2, The Big Express, Apple Venus and Wasp Star to look forward to. I was just remarking to a friend the other day that the re-release of these albums might take as long as the band took to make them originally.
So far enjoying the BLACK SEA remix (CD, in the car earlier today). Quite a different experience than the original, but just as enjoyable in its own way and in some ways more so. Another Wilson win with XTC! At the risk of sounding like someone who can never be satisfied, I am SO bummed about the missing multitracks for MUMMER and ENGLISH SETTLEMENT. For me those two plus SKYLARKING are the absolute pinnacles for this band, just really dig the more pastoral XTC for some reason. Ah well at least I have the excellent vinyl and flat transfer CD reissue of SETTLEMENT. It's just poor MUMMER that continues to be the stepchild in the catalog, mystifying to me given how good it is - that title just can't win for losing...
I hope one day to walk into some office and hearing instrumental XTC playing. The dentist would be ideal, but that's not happening with mine. I love these sets and I'm not even doing the 5.1. Maybe someday since I have so many discs that are geared that way.
It was remastered (last year?) when Andy stumbled over the master tapes while looking for the multi' s
https://burningshed.com/store/ape/xtc_english-settlement_cd Though I'm not sure anyone, including Andy, has said its a flat transfer. "the original half-inch master tapes were discovered and used as the source from which engineer John Dent has prepared this 2016 'original master edition'."