Next XTC Steven Wilson 5.1 remix - BLACK SEA

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Phil Tate, Jul 25, 2017.

  1. sharedon

    sharedon Forum Zonophone

    Location:
    Boomer OK
    Mine’s been in Alabama all week, not anywhere even close to where I live. Solidarity with the others waiting!
     
    Galactus2 likes this.
  2. GreggF

    GreggF Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Ditto
     
  3. arnett

    arnett Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    I like the SW remix. Keep in mind that the 2-channel has a bit less treble and upper-midrange than the original mix. But detail, slam, warmth and soundstage width is a bit better than the original mix, IMHO.
    I'm a 2-channel guy but I did take the blu-ray over to a friend who has a 5.1 set up. His surround is not well set up but the result sounded better than the D&W 5.1 remix, from what I heard. CUBA and FLAMES sounded particularly cool based on what I heard.
     
  4. DrJ

    DrJ Senior Member

    Location:
    Davis, CA, USA
    Forgot to mention in my earlier post that the postcard that came with my set is signed with silver pen by Terry Chambers! Fitting given how key his playing is on this album. "No Language In Our Lungs" is one of the greatest XTC achievements, and Terry and Colin are simply MASSIVE on that one. The SW remix is thoroughly crankable, had that track blasting at about 11 this morning and was in heaven.
     
    Preston and DaverJ like this.
  5. Frank Field

    Frank Field Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ireland
    This is great. The XTC cd/blu ray reissues have been outstanding.
    (Btw my postcard was fully signed on front with silver pen)
     
    DrJ likes this.
  6. dthomas850

    dthomas850 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland, Ohio
    Just listened to the 5.1 mix last night and I have to say that overall, like the previous releases, it is excellent. A few things I noticed: The metallic percussive sound during the bridge on "Paper & Iron" is really, really loud !! It was quite jarring to me, still not sure if I liked that or not. I kinda felt like the backing vocals on "Towers of London" could have been separated out onto the rear channels, but that is a minor quibble. I never noticed that "Burning with Optimism's Flames" had keyboard or piano during the bridge, I'd always thought it was guitar. "Travels in Nihilon" is incredible in 5.1 !!! Hearing Andy's whispered vocals so clearly really gives the track a more ominous tone than the original mix. And that whip like guitar sound going from right to left rear speakers, wow ! I was practically in tears !! One of the greatest final tracks and one of the greatest albums ever (IMO) just got even heavier.
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2017
  7. AFCBRINGWOOD

    AFCBRINGWOOD Forum Resident

    Has anyone listened to the original stereo mix on this and compared with other CD masterings?
     
  8. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    Yet another fantastic release from XTC and Wilson. Black Sea already had a brilliant mix, so the new stereo is more like a slightly different variant, and Wilson's done a good job of preserving the powerful boom of the bass and drums while adding clarity all over the place. It doesn't replace the original mix - there was no need - but it's a fun listen.

    As usual, I compiled all the BluRay content onto a series of CDs for portable listening. I added in a bunch of relevant recordings from these sessions / this period that weren't included, so here's that info for anybody who wants to mix their own:

    Instrumental Disc - self explanatory

    Sessions and Demos Disc - All of the Phonogram Studio Recordings and Andy Demos fit tidily onto a single disc. As far as I can tell, there aren't any additional Fuzzy Warbles tracks from this period.

    The Black Sea Singles - LOTS of singles from this album and around it, and all of them are different from the album versions, so I got a hefty 50+ minute compilation out of them. Sources for tracks not included in this set indicated:

    Generals and Majors (edit) - Fossil Fuel
    + 3 b-sides
    Towers of London (edit) - Fossil Fuel
    Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen / I Need Protection – Rag 'n' Bone Buffet
    Take This Town
    Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me) (edit) - Fossil Fuel
    Love at First Sight (sped up Canadian single) - original single only (for some reason I thought they'd preserved this oddity on Fossil Fuel, but that just has the standard album version. If you speed up the album mix by about 4.5% you should get close enough!)
    Respectable Street (single version)
    Rocket from a Bottle (unissued single remix)
    Towers of London (rejected single version) - since I was going for 'original' mixes for all of these, I used the mix from Coat of Many Cupboards here
    The History of Rock and Roll – Andy Partridge
    Ban The Bomb – outtake (2017 vocal & remix) - the only duplicate of what's on the CD that comes with this set, for the sake of completism.

    I already made a double CD of all of XTC's officially released live recordings, but it you want to include the four relevant tracks here (they'll fit), they are:

    Respectable Street (28 August 1980) - URGH! A Music War LP
    Living Through Another Cuba / Generals and Majors (12 October 1980) - Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me) 7”
    Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins) (12 October 1980) - Coat of Many Cupboards
    Crowded Room (12 October 1980) - Coat of Many Cupboards
     
  9. SJB

    SJB Beloved Parasitic Nuisance

    My copy just arrived in the mail. I haven't listened to it yet, but will do so tonight. Postcard signed "T Chambers" on the front, in silver; no black signature or initials that I can see.
     
  10. paustin0816

    paustin0816 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio USA
    it's hard to not miss those crossfades I've been accustomed to all these years
     
    MadMelMon likes this.
  11. marcb

    marcb Senior Member

    Location:
    DC area
    Ditto for me as of Saturday’s mail delivery.
     
  12. My copy from Amazon (US) arrived last week, if anyone is interested.
     
  13. What about the BBC Live in Concert from 1980? It would seem to fit your completest collection well.
    1. Live Begins At The Hop
    2. Burning With Optimism's Flame
    3. Love At First Sight
    4. Respectable Street
    5. No Language In Our Lungs
    6. This Is Pop
    7. Scissors Man
    8. Towers Of London
    9. Battery Brides
    10. Living Through Another Cuba
    11. Generals And Majors
    12. Making Plans For Nigel
    13. Are You Receiving Me?
     
    MadMelMon likes this.
  14. sgtmono

    sgtmono Seasoned Member

    Do we know if it's a new mastering? I believe the Skylarking Blu Ray set just used the existing 2001 (?) remaster...
     
  15. Preston

    Preston Forum Resident

    Location:
    KCMO Metro USA
    LOVE THAT SONG!
     
    DrJ likes this.
  16. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    Certainly, but that's already a discrete disc I didn't need to compile. Likewise the original album mix and the remixes. This would be a seven disc box set in the real world!
     
    Pete Puma likes this.
  17. Dean1006

    Dean1006 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Algonquin, IL
    Sorry for my lack of technical know-how, but how did you pull the audio off the BR?
     
  18. Hymie the Robot

    Hymie the Robot Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    PC = MakeMKV + Audiomuxer
     
  19. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    I'm even more technically challenged, and don't have a BluRay drive for my Mac, so I just hooked up a regular BluRay player to the audio input, pressed play and recorded each block of tunes in Audacity, then normalized the levels and broke them up into their individual tracks. That extra work only took about five minutes at the end.

    The only tricky part was that, because I didn't have the player hooked up to a screen, I had to check the disc on my regular player beforehand and record what menu buttons I needed to press to access each playlist on the disc (e.g. for the Phonogram sessions, Right button once, Up button twice, Play).
     
  20. Plan9

    Plan9 Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Toulouse, France
    Flat transfer.
    Skylarking had both the 2001 remaster, and the revised 2010 "corrected polarity" remaster for the original mix.
     
    sgtmono likes this.
  21. SJB

    SJB Beloved Parasitic Nuisance

    In the liner notes to the new edition, Dave Gregory reveals that the documentary footage was faked. "In fact, the track had been recorded weeks earlier." They actually finished mixing the album a couple of days before the filming began.
     
  22. ad180

    ad180 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    That's hilarious! I haven't read the liner notes yet, but I've really been enjoying the remix (crossfades be damned!). :D
     
  23. Lemon Curry

    Lemon Curry (A) Face In The Crowd

    Location:
    Mahwah, NJ
    Received mine yesterday, Dec 6. New Jersey.
     
  24. Lemon Curry

    Lemon Curry (A) Face In The Crowd

    Location:
    Mahwah, NJ
    You need a blu ray player connected to your computer, and ripping software.
     
  25. Lemon Curry

    Lemon Curry (A) Face In The Crowd

    Location:
    Mahwah, NJ
    So I just now listened to the blu ray version of the remix on my home set up.

    What an amazing job done on one of my favorite all-time albums! The dynamics, the guitar tones, the clear bass that does not overwhelm unnaturally (Giles?)... just brilliant.

    But not without one complaint, an important one.

    What is going on with the vocals on Towers Of London? On the original mix they are relatively dry and present, on the remix they are distant, chock full of reverb and some sort of flanging effect that is way too toppy. Steve - what happened?? Thank goodness the original mix is a few clicks away, as it is the far superior version.

    But for everything else, it was a revelation. Well worth the purchase.

    Now on to all the extras!
     

Share This Page

molar-endocrine