Massive Attack , Soul II Soul & Gomez Vinyl Reissues in November

There's another, unreleased, Mad Professor/Massive Attack dub album, maybe "Mezzanine", I was told they were considering putting it out, but whether they actually will I can't say.

 

After all these years I find myself revisiting "No Protection" more frequently than "Protection" so... "Mezzanine" through Mad Professor's consoles would be interesting!

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a dub version of "Mezzanine" mixed at the time, but not released because they decided not to go in that direction, we tried to license it, but they said they were considering doing it themselves, it would make a nice deluxe issue. Unfortunately we didn't get a copy of the tape and I didn't get to hear any of it as I wasn't directly involved, I was just telling everyone that we should put it out if they'd let us.

 

My copy of Mezzanine showed up today. It was in the thinnest cardboard mailer I've seen a record mailed it. Mine too had a corner bend but not as bad as the one above. The vinyl seems ok, the inners were kind of cheap and already very wrinkly and of course split because they shipped the record in them. It should be standard at this point that all vinyl should be sleeved immediately in polylined sleeves. Oh well. I'm going to VPI them (lots of paper dust) tomorrow and give them a spin. I will probably complain about the packaging but it won't do me much good. It seems everything I get from Europe comes in the worst cardboard, I guess they don't have a Bags Unlimited over there selling serious mailers to folks.

 

British sellers seem to LOVE these oversized envelopes and I received a lot of sleeves with bend corners in these flimsy things. Especially when buying on Amazon. No idea why someone who knows ANYTHING about vinyl would use these: "No protection"

 

I just cleaned and played this tonight and I'll have to say overall I'm impressed with the vinyl quality. The intros to each side are dead quiet (something my original lacks) with the exception of a few louder pops at the beginning of Man Next Door, which is a bit of a bummer as that's a killer track. Maybe I'll clean that disc again (it seemed to be noisier than the first) and maybe whatever caused the pop was dislodged with the needle. Either way it's not that bad enough to send it back. I'm not sure if this is CD master sourced or they went to the original masters, be they analog tape or DAT, but it sounds pretty damn good. Anyway, I'm happy, another top want scratched off the list unless I luck into a NM original.

 

Must be my table/cart then....I got a replacement copy of Gomez and still get terrible distortion midway through "Get Myself Arrested."

 

I thought I'd wait until I visited the UK at Christmas before buying Mezzanine, only to discover it is basically sold out everywhere already. Luckily I found a copy on a Discogs shop for retail price, but I'd suggest not hanging around if you are after a copy. Haven't listened to mine yet, will have to wait until I return to Aus for that. Thought the sleeve quality was a little cheap though, could be better...

 

I finally got around to ripping my copy and no, there is nothing wrong with your table/cart. Obviously something went a foul when they did this track, and the distortion runs through most of the song. That is unfortunate since the rest of the record plays like a Analogue Productions reissue, clean, barely any surface noise and just a faint tick here and there. A wonderful sounding record.

 

Yeah, I got a replacement copy, and tried it on a friend's turntable, and the distortion was still there - so figured there must be some bad copies floating around.

 

So strange this want out of print so fast, thankfully the cd sounds terrific.

 

Are we getting a second batch? It shows up in stock at Amazon UK for £30 which is much less than the €50+ the folks at Discogs are charging.

 

Nvm, disregard the above post. It's back to £75+ again.

 

Is there any plan to reissue Protection in a deluxe package like we got for Blue Lines? And it goes without saying I want Mezzanine too.

 

I want ALL of their records like the Blue Linesbox.

 

Protection needs a good reissue - the original had a dreadful sibilant warble/flaw in the upper frequencies across most of side 2.

I don't know why they didn't press more of the Mezzanine reissue. I had a spare copy that I recently put on ebay and was shocked to see it go for well over £60.

 

Mezzanine is indeed being reissued on vinyl a second time December 2014. Once again limited to 1000 copies (so they say).

Not sure if this differs in any way from the 2013 Official reissue.

 

Same here. Apparently they are starting this charade all over again. If they press 1000 more copies Ebay flippers will pick them up, it will sell out quickly and the asking price on the net is going to be ridiculous.

Not sure if you and I had that conversation somewhere down the line but my original copy of "Mezzanine" sounds fine.

 

I preordered the new repress of Mezzanine early this time just to at last get a copy of it and as its already on the way here, I should be receiving it shortly within the next couple days or so.
Got it from this shop:
https://www.normanrecords.com/records/53150-massive-attack-mezzanine

 

I ws looking at the 2013 Mezzanine reissue in HMV clearance rack a year ago... It was marked £25, but a yellow sticker on it, meant that it was half-marked-price; so £12.50 And I put it back in the rack!

Later that day I checked internet and realised just how limited it was!!
Rushed back to store and...well, you know the rest...

So, I'll be happy to get one of the 2014 issues...

 

Yeah, earlier in this thread (or another?) I compared the 2013 reissue with my original issue and concluded the reissue was very good, although the original is slightly better, particularly in the complex passages.

 

A horrible feeling that one only yesterday I found a wanted title at a good price in reckless (london) - decided to think about it and return in the afternoon only to find it had gone. I should have known better.

 

I've noticed the price of the recent box set reissue of 'blue lines' has dropped to £30 which is similar to the current value of a decent (VG+/NM) 1st press UK original - has anyone here compared the two?

 

This is the one thing I've learnt: Buy now as long as you can! I had this with PJ Harvey's "Is This Desire?" 22€ in top condition. Since this was 2005 I was undecided, went home, thought, googled, went back, went: "Fok!" because of course it was gone.... To date this is still her only album I don't have...sigh*****

 

Never heard of this dubversion of Mezzanine but very curious.
If anyone has a copy (tape/cd/minidisc or whatever) please contact me. I want to hear this version!!!