D'Angelo - "Black Messiah" (15-Dec-2014)

They discussed these upcoming reissues at the AES New York 2015 event last month:

http://www.aes.org/events/139/specialevents/?ID=4824

 

Let's hope the Voodoo extended edition includes a live set from the Voodoo tour with the Soultronics. The bootleg I have from the Voodoo tour is just ridiculously good.

 

Both Henry and Russell talked in detail about some of the Voodoo tour shows and the tapes they found of those shows. The problem with the Voodoo era tapes is that there are no markings or indications on the tapes and it's been difficult to compile it all. Henry asserted during the event that there are so many treasures in the vault from this period. Interestingly enough, a bulk of Black Messiah derived from the Voodoo sessions. The only songs that were recorded and mixed in the same space of time for Black Messiah were "Another Life," "Charade," and "Tutu (Till It's Done)" from 2008-2010.

 

For anyone interested, my local record store had a pre-order vinyl release for D'Angelo "Complete Live At The Jazz Cafe, London: The Complete Show" coming on December 11, 2015. I know that's an older show, but I thought some might be interested.

http://www.amazon.com/Live-At-Jazz-Caf-London/dp/B016KSPVAO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1448659665&sr=1-1&keywords=d'angelo

 

Nominated for three categories at the 2016 Grammys

Really Love - Record of the Year and Best R&B Song
Black Messiah - Best R&B Album

He should have been nominated for AOTY.

 

Sweet, looks like D'Angelo will tour again next year!

... in Australia. But hey, confirmed dates, I'll take it! Hopin' for another go-round of North American theaters with the Vanguard, hitting the many markets they missed in 2015. Fingers crossed!

 

Europe pretty much got it all the way this year, so its understandable he'll visit other parts of the world. Curious what would happen if Japan would get into the schedule. Not in big arenas but I'd expect great ticket sales with those passionate audiences present there.

 

1 year ago...incredible excitement...remember?

 

yep. i still like this album. Personally, Kendrick dwarfed it, but I still listen to it.

 

This may be one of the best albums I've heard from the last 10 years.

 

Finally picked up this album on vinyl, and it is a wonderful album. I have the US pressing, but I didn't notice any faults, and I thought that the sound was great - I especially liked "Betray My Heart", which fills the living room with bass and cool guitar licks.

I think that it's close to a 10. In my view, an album needs to be considered as a whole - the fact that the individual songs might not be 10s is not critical. That's the reason Sgt. Pepper is considered a masterpiece and the Blue and Red hits albums are not (despite having better individual songs). I think of great albums like a slice of New York pizza - crust is about a 7, tomato sauce is probably an 8, and cheese is pretty awesome, so probably deserves a 9 or 10, but put them together, and pizza=10.

 

After all this time, what is the consensus over the preferable vinyl editions of Messiah, - the EU or the US pressings?

 

The U.S. pressing would be hard to beat. Perhaps I got lucky, but all four sides of mine were perfect. Flat, centered LPs.

 

Has it ben that long? I need to re-introduce myself to this album again.

 

It's SO good. Kendrick got more press but the albums are neck in neck IMO. They are both outstanding.

 

New 2016 remaster for Brown Sugar, done by engineer Russell Elevado from original tapes:

Brown Sugar | HDtracks - The World's Greatest-Sounding Music Downloads »

 

Anyone going to take the plunge? I'm happy with the redbook but could be persuaded...

 

I'm waiting for the deluxe edition of Blackstar or something totally new but I'm afraid D'Angelo will take a longer time before anything new will come out. Until then, the up and coming reissues will be present. I doubt it's a major upgrade but welcome anyone who pulled the plug on this rereleased Brown Sugar.

 

My feeling is that Black Messiah opened up a big space that help make To Pimp break in a huge way. The two albums will always be amazing mid-decade twins in my mind.

 

I'm assuming this is a precursor to the upcoming expanded editions of Brown Sugar, Voodoo, and Black Messiah that are supposed to come out this year. Unfortunately, my version of Protools doesn't support 192/24. So I'll be waiting for the CD.

I'm surprised that they're remastering this album though. The only D'Angelo album that could maybe use a remaster is Black Messiah just to see what it would sound like a bit less compressed. But I can't imagine Voodoo's mastering being improved at all and I think Brown Sugar sounds just fine as well.

Maybe they want to remaster so the album tracks match the mastering of the expanded tracks?

 

I'd like to see AAA vinyl versions of all 3 albums. I'd buy those for sure even though I don't really need them.

 

Good point, they seem to miss the opportunity on this every time. I'm not unhappy with my copies of Voodoo or Black Messiah but to hear them cut AAA, as well as Brown Sugar would be nice. I still never really understood Russell's explanation why they didn't or couldn't? I think the Universal RIs are just cash grabs of subpar product.

It's rare these days for modern AAA but at least 15-20 artists find a way to do it each year, almost all of them with a smaller budget than D. It's just not the easiest route.

 

They would have had to assemble the masters into a cutting reel, so there would've been a loss of a generation. That wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world, but they chose to cut from a high-res transfer instead.

 

Thanks for the response. Yes, I remember it being something like that. I'm guessing it was a timing thing as well as more work, trying to get out the release? I'm just wondering what's any different than the way most analog masters are done on modern vinyl lp mastering productions these days. I'm speaking specifically about modern productions. The only reason I even have this deep of an interest is because they made it a point to hype the analog nature of this project. Once you've recorded and mixed to tape, the hard part has been done. I was real excited that this lp production would continue with that lineage. It's by no means the end of the world. They did put out a quality lp.

This brings up the question of the original Voodoo vinyl. I've heard at least one person say it's better than the LITA vinyl lp, which was mastered from the original master tape (likely a high res transfer). I'm thinking in 2000, even less modern lps were being cut all analog, so the likelihood the original Voodoo is all analog is slim but possible. I'd still love to hear it because those singles and EPs from back then do sound good.

 

Hoping that the D'Angelo team is just waiting until after the Grammys to announce a tour. I'm jonesin!