Brian Eno 1973-1986: Definitive CD Comparisons & Advice Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by BlueSpeedway, Mar 21, 2014.

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  1. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    Several of us have been posting info on this, arguably the most important section of Eno's output, over the last few years, but the info is all quite scattered over several threads. So here's a place to hopefully gather it all into one place. I'm going to re-post some of my old notes and some new ones as I think of them, so bookmark it and check back if you're interested. Arguments and corrections more than welcome, especially regarding non-European CDs, which I have little experience of :)
     
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  2. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    Here's a few general notes to start with, on lesser known aspects of the catalogue, re-posted /re-edited from last year:

    1: With the EG CDs, the late 80s/early 90s Made in UK editions mastered by Nimbus I've heard have a slightly different, brighter sound if you compare them to later Made in Holland pressings of the same masters.

    2: Unless you want the few rarities, avoid the Vocal and Instrumental remaster box sets. If you closely compare them, the mastering is inferior to the later 2004 remasters. The box sets don't sound bad, but it's not worth paying big bucks for them for sound quality. Also, the vocal set includes a wrong, inferior mix of the 7" rarity Seven Deadly Finns. The guitar channel is lowered for some reason and almost inaudible , making the song sound empty and incomplete: the original 45 mix is driven by a loud driving electric guitar which is gone here.

    3: 1981's Fourth World Possible Musics and 1985's Hybrid have never been reissued/remastered for some reason (as far as I know), so if you see the 1989-90 CDs get them. They both sound great.

    4: Try and get Sky original German CDs Cluster & Eno and After the Heat. They sound beautiful. The Water and Bureau B reissue CDs are decent though. The (sadly short) 1980s Cluster and Eno compilation CD Old Land, on the Relativity label, is one of most amazing CDs I've ever heard, all tracks sound better then even the original early 90s Sky CDs.

    5: Try and get original 1990 mastered CDs for Phil Manzanera's Diamond Head featuring two classic Eno vocal tracks (EG/Caroline), June 1st 1974 (Island, beware of decayed MPO pressings) and 801 Live (EG). They all sound fantastic.

    6: Don't forget to get the Harmonia and Eno CDs, any will do, there's not much choice as the stuff only started to get released from the 1990s on.

    7: Avoid the My Life in the Bush of Ghosts expanded remaster. It's poorly mastered, loud and harsh, has horrible new artwork and the bonus material IMO is a waste of time.

    8: Avoid the original EEGCD prefix Music For Films CD. It has distortion on the track Sparrowfall, which is fixed on all post-2004 editions.

    9: Avoid the 2004 European digipack remaster of Another Green World. The entire first pressing has a chunk of Everything Merges With the Night Missing.

    10: My original UK CD for Thursday Afternoon, purchased in about 1986, suffered terminal CD rot in about 2004, so you might want to avoid that.

    11: I've read that the 801 Live Deluxe Edition is a loud and inferior mastering to previous issues, but I don't know if that's right. I have it somewhere but haven't really listened to it yet as I overplayed the album in the 80s & 90s & became a bit sick of it!
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2014
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  3. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    All currently in-print CDs which use the 2004 onwards masters done by Simon Heyworth are good, and IMO there's no reason to look for older versions. These titles are:

    No Pussyfooting (Fripp & Eno)
    Here Come the Warm Jets
    Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
    Another Green World
    Evening Star (Fripp & Eno)
    Discreet Music
    Before and After Science
    Music For Airports
    Music For Films
    The Plateaux of Mirror (Budd & Eno)
    On Land
    Apollo
    Music For Films II
    The Pearl (Budd & Eno)
    Thursday Afternoon
     
  4. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    You also need a copy of these albums, which weren't part of the 2004 onwards masters for various reasons. See the first post above, about the non-standard bits of the catalogue, for notes on versions of these:

    June 1 1974 (Eno /Ayers / Cale /Nico)
    801 Live (Eno /Manzanera etc)
    Diamond Head (two essential Eno vocal / co-written tracks on this 1975 Phil Manzanera album)
    Cluster & Eno (Eno / Moebius / Roedelius)
    After the Heat (Eno / Moebius / Roedelius)
    Fourth World: Possible Musics (Eno / Hassell)
    My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Eno / Byrne)
    Harmonia & Eno (Eno / Rother / Roedelius / Moebius)
    Hybrid (Brook / Eno etc)
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2014
  5. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    Two albums I haven't mentioned which are sometimes included in his main 1973-1986 catalogue are:

    Laraaji: Day of Radiance: I don't like it, and although it's part of the Ambient 1/2/3/4 series, I don't think Eno's on it, he just produced it IIRC. I've only played it twice in about 25 years so cannot recommend anything to do with it.

    Eno / Sinfield: In a Land of Clear Colours: a boring spoken word album, the only Eno is snippets of previously released Music For Films tracks in between bits of the dreadful spoken story. I've had two versions of it but it's unlistenably crap so I can't recommend anything except don't buy it.
     
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  6. raphph

    raphph Taking a trip on an ocean liner…

    Location:
    London
    This is great - I'd appreciate a guide like the above for many artists mentioned on this board.

    I think TTM (BS) is my fave so far...
     
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  7. RHCD

    RHCD Reverend Bong

    I am surprised by your assessment of the remastered My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. I disagree with you on all points!

    I have the original LP, bought the day it was released, and I thought the remastered CD had revelatory clarity and detail, it sounds wonderful. The original LP has a certain analogue smoothness, of course, but the great open soundstage and clarity of the remastering is really very good. It sounds tremendous through stacked Quads.

    Furthermore I thought all the extra tracks were splendid, true they are not quite to the standard of the selection that made it to the record, given that a choice had to be made it was the right choice, but all (apart from the pointless 30 seconds of 'Vocal Outtakes') are almost as good as the ones originally released, and given the importance and the extraordinarily interesting texture of this record, it is really great to have extra stuff released after all these years.
     
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  8. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    :) Fair enough. I got rid of the Bush of Ghosts remaster eventually, but I still recall finding it bright and a bit piercing when I listened to it near release time. I still have a UK Nimbus-mastered EG CD which sounds fine, but I never play it - I prefer the US Sire CD I bought in about 1991. (I have the UK & US LPs too, but I haven't played them for ages, I just go for the Sire CD).
     
  9. nsmith1002

    nsmith1002 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Monticello, IN USA
    I have both the original EG 801 Live and the deluxe 2 disc Expression version and I much more prefer that original EG as far as sound quality goes. The deluxe issue does have more songs though and I also seem to detect a slight remix compared to the original.
    I also find the Expression Records remastered Diamond Head disc to be inferior to the original EG release.

    Interesting, my "made in U.S.A." cd of Thursday Afternoon was purchased new in 1987 or 1988 and has the worst case of pinholes of any disc in my collection. Some of them are quite large. In fact, a couple are far bigger than the periods in the "made in U.S.A." on the disc's label! The amazing thing is that it seems to play just fine on any player I've ever tried it with. I realize that with this type of ambient music it can be hard to determine what sounds are intentional or not, but I've never heard anything that sounds like a "glitch" while listening to this disc. A fine tribute to the compact disc error correction scheme!
    EDIT: I just tried ripping this disc with EAC and it just repeatedly spins my laptop's drive without ever copying anything.
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2014
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  10. freemanl

    freemanl Bass Lover

    Location:
    Central New Jersey
    Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks

    Isn't that some of the most beautiful music you've ever heard? A perfect soundtrack for the movie 'For All Mankind'. The track
    'An Ending (Ascent)' at the end of the movie 'Traffic' is soooooo effective!



    As one of the Youtube commenter’s said, "The Soundtrack of Heaven"
     
  11. rstamberg

    rstamberg Senior Member

    Location:
    Riverside, CT
    I like the recent Japanese cardboard-sleeved SHM-CDs a lot.
     
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  12. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    Which albums do you have ? Do they sound like better versions of the in-print 2004 masters or totally different d'you reckon?
     
  13. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    Mine played but loudly ticked and clicked one day when I went to play it about 10 years ago. I pulled it out and the disc had dark greyish "decayed" areas all around the edges. I think it was made in France but I can't be sure, I threw it away.
     
  14. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    An update to this advice I posted earlier for anyone that's interested

    QUOTE:

    "4: Try and get Sky original German CDs Cluster & Eno and After the Heat. They sound beautiful. The Water and Bureau B reissue CDs are decent though. The (sadly short) 1980s Cluster and Eno compilation CD Old Land, on the Relativity label, is one of most amazing CDs I've ever heard, all tracks sound better then even the original early 90s Sky CDs"

    I was listening again to the Bureau B CDs of "Cluster & Eno" and "After the Heat" and I actually prefer them to the Sky original CDs. I think the Sky CDs are better sourced but possible noise reduction has made the Bureau B a better (not to mention cheaper & easier!) buy. The Skys do sound good, but not worth the hunt.

    The Relativity CD mentioned though, remains a gem if you can find it, it's probably the best sounding Eno related CD I've ever heard. I know it's a cliché, but on my 'phones it's like I'm listening to some great fat analogue reel to reel or something... :-•
     
  15. Dave Garrett

    Dave Garrett Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    Any opinions on how the Captain Trips Japanese mini-LP CDs of Cluster & Eno and After the Heat stack up against the Sky and Bureau B CDs?
     
  16. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    Hi Dave - no, sorry, never heard them. I had some Amon Düül II jewel case Captain Trip CDs which were OK, a bit bright & cold-sounding. But never heard either of the Eno with Cluster albums on that label.
     
  17. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    Great idea for a thread!

    As far as I know, the original mix of 'Seven Deadly Finns' has never appeared on CD. This 'polite' mix has replaced it at least since the mid 80s (on the EG compilation First Edition and the Working Backwards box set).

    One should also note that the b-side of that single. 'Later On', has FINALLY been released on CD. No, not on the 2CD reissue of (No Pussyfooting) where it belongs (it's an edited down version of the entire album, combining both tracks from it), but on the recent Live in Paris 3CD set. Obviously it was far more important that (No Pussyfooting) included the original album tracks reversed or at the wrong speed than a genuine, pertinent rarity (that would, at any rate, have easily fitted on the second disc). :rolleyes:

    The single mix of 'King's Lead Hat' is also slightly different to my ears, and I don't think it's ever appeared on anything other than the original single. The difference is most pronounced for me on the liquid guitar solo at the end of the track: it's slightly out of sync with the rest of the track on one of the mixes (the single, I think). The buried scream after the "He's just a victim of the telephone" line is more prominent on one of the mixes as well.
     
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  18. hutlock

    hutlock Forever Breathing

    Location:
    Cleveland, OH, USA
    To update an earlier post: Eno/Hassell's Fourth World: Possible Musics has recently been reissued on CD and vinyl by Glitterbeat. I haven't compared the original to the new version yet but at least you don't need to hunt one down and pay stupid money for the original. Fantastic album by the way.
     
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  19. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    People also need to bear in mind that if they want My Life in the Bush of Ghosts as originally released, they'll have to hunt around. All CD issues apart from the initial 1989 US release on Sire have omitted the original album track 'Qu'ran' and replaced it with 'Very, Very Hungry' (originally the b-side of 'The Jezebel Spirit'). Even the deluxe reissue didn't include the album as originally released. Conveniently, the Sire CD also includes the b-side as a bonus track.

    Other Bush of Ghosts oddities:
    - the single remix of 'The Jezebel Spirit' has never been released on CD, to the best of my knowledge. Original 12"s of this sound fantastic and don't seem to be too expensive.
    - the double vinyl release of the remaster fills up the fourth side with constituent 'mixes' (drum track, vocal track, ambient track) of 'Help Me Somebody' and 'A Secret Life'. Interesting if you know the album inside out, but hardly essential.
     
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  20. audiotom

    audiotom I can not hear a single sound as you scream

    Location:
    New Orleans La USA
    7: Avoid the My Life in the Bush of Ghosts expanded remaster. It's poorly mastered, loud and harsh, has horrible new artwork and the bonus material IMO is a waste of time.

    the track sequence really sucks, kills the flow completely, the extras detract from this groundbreaking work

    Qu ran is such a stellar track, it is worth the effort and cost to find one.

    If you like all these Eno pieces by all means get David Byrne's The Catherine Wheel (probably out of print)
    Brian has a huge part. An incredible album in the expanded format (used to have to buy it on cassette to get the full soundtrack before cd)
     
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  21. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    Enthusiastically seconded. 'My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks)' is probably my all-time favourite David Byrne track, including anything he did with Talking Heads. (Talking Heads actually used to play that track live, but I don't think a legit recording of it has ever surfaced.) That's another album for which a bunch of variant versions only exist on singles, including 'My Big Hands' with a natural, not crossfaded, ending.
     
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  22. no.nine

    no.nine (not his real name)

    Location:
    NYC
    Although I haven't looked lately, the U.S. Sire CD wasn't hard to find on ebay not too long ago, and the prices were cheap, too. I don't know if that's changed, but it might be easier to get than you think. There's also a Japanese Sire CD, WPCR-1182, which includes the same track listing as the U.S. CD. And it's from '97, believe it or not! That one might prove difficult to find, though - better to look for the U.S. one.
     
  23. Summer of Malcontent

    Summer of Malcontent Forum Resident

    To the best of my recollection, these are the remaining rarities on those boxes (i.e. tracks that aren't readily available on other CDs) now that albums like Music for Films II and My Squelchy Life have had a general release:

    VOCAL

    Seven Deadly Finns (remix) - single A-side
    The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) - single A-side
    R.A.F. - single B-side
    Are They Thinking of Me? - unreleased track - and unfortunately, it's awesome.

    There's also 'The Soul of Carmen Miranda' (from John Cale's 'Words for the Dying') and a different edit of 'I Fall Up' than the one that emerged on My Squelchy Life (or the b-side of 'Ali Click')

    INSTRUMENTAL

    Much more unique meat on these bones, starting with a bunch of tracks from the original 1976 promo-only edition of Music for Films:
    Untitled
    Chemin de Fer
    Empty Landscape
    Reactor
    The Secret
    Don't Look Back
    Marseilles

    And the three new tracks from the 'Rarities EP' included in the Working Backwards box set:
    Strong Flashes of Light
    More Volts
    Mist/Rhythm

    Also a bunch of edits (of extremely long tracks) unique to this release:
    An Index of Metals
    Ikebukuro
    Thursday Afternoon
    Discreet Music
    Neroli

    There are also a couple of additional tracks that have been released on CD but might be easier to get here, namely 'Dover Beach' (from the Jubilee OST - or a 3" CD single of 'Another Green World' issued in the 80s which I see has as yet eluded Discogs.com!) and 'Courage' (from the Jon Hassell album Dream Theory in Malaya).
     
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  24. BlueSpeedway

    BlueSpeedway Curated Iconic Half-Speed Picture Disc Thread Starter

    Location:
    England
    Yeah, it's a shame the LP has the edited tracklisting as it sounds great. I found the US Sire of it for £1 not too long ago and although the CD I've had since the early 90s sounds good I thought I might as well buy it at that price, sounds great, but pointless really when the CD has so much more good music on it.
     
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  25. audiotom

    audiotom I can not hear a single sound as you scream

    Location:
    New Orleans La USA
    the medley of
    1. Ade" (music: Byrne, Eno) – 3:22
    2. "Walking" (music: Byrne, John Chernoff) – 0:52
    3. "Two Soldiers" (music: Byrne, Brian Eno) – 3:31
    4. "Under the Mountain" – 0:53
    5. "Dinosaur" – 2:36

      is phenomenal
    the lp featured only Two Soldiers

    why hasn't a double lp version of this rectified the situation?
     
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