Kate Bush Remasters 2018.

Agreed...Under The Ivy is the white rose of b-sides!

 

Thanks Chris. ....Kate even says 'Hmmm....' (yes!)
Such a favourite video and song so it is fantastic to see this.

It was great to see some more colourful images added to the artwork in Directors Cut TSW booklet as I often wish Kate had infused the artwork for the Sensual World with more colour.
The album certainly has a wistful and gentle side musically but it also has such exquisite beauty.
I think of it as her autumnal album yet of course autumn is a season which includes grand and gorgeous colour
I find myself having to sprinkle a little 'Eat The Music' colour over it often to compensate!

Also fascinated to read your comments Chris about the NFE promo poster including mention of the song Never Forever.
Id heard of the songs existence but that it may have even been a single?Wow....
Maybe Kate is saving it for the 'upcoming' (at least in our dreams) best of??????
dream dream dream.......
if only 'saying it could even make it happen'!

Thanks for sharing your (and your wifes) love and knowledge of KB with all on these forums Chris

 

Presumably you know the back story of the song, but I'll mention it for anyone who might not know.

Kate heard an actress (Fionnula Flanagan, I believe) performing Molly Bloom's famous soliloquy from James Joyce's Ulysses and set it to music, thinking that it was so old that it was in the public domain. She found that it wasn't, and tried for more than a year to obtain permission from the Joyce estate. Failing, she had to come up with her own lyrics with the same rhythm. She dropped a hint in the song with her phrasing of the word "re-write" and fans discovered the original lyrics long before she finally gained permission and re-recorded the song with the original lyrics for Director's Cut.

I have to photograph that poster when I get back home to Chicago. Another prized poster was for the American release of The Kick Inside that has the tag line "Discover the extraordinary singing poetess from England."

They recorded twelve songs for Lionheart - but what happened to the other two, we may never know. The "official" word via Del Palmer is that what was released is all that they recorded, but that is not very believable. Kate herself said that at the time Dave Gilmour met her, she had between 50 and 200 songs.

Happy to share it and glad that you appreciate it.

 

Listening to my AF pink Hounds of Love LP now. No issues at all, no noose, sounds really good. I still give my original emi the edge.

 

Yeah, I like the sound of Lionheart alright - it's definitely smoother and more consistent than The Kick Inside, which is a bit grainy in spots and sports the occasional overload, although it's still a pleasant listen - but Lionheart is curiously muffled and the bass tends toward muddiness, as you noted.

I'm not sure a remaster could fix much of that, though. I think a lot of those issues are just baked into the master tape and the way the album was originally recorded (particularly Kate's vocal which - as you noted - is a bit recessed and unfocused). It is an astoundingly good transfer for an early CD. I'd be surprised if any remaster made today would best it, due to the seemingly limitless ability for the labels to botch these things, but here's hoping...

 

That's baked into the master. Hence Director's Cut. You could probably tame it a bit with a remaster, but to cure it you'd need to remix the whole record. And even then - assuming all the source material still exists - I'm betting much of the harshness lives on the individual multitracks themselves.

Would TSW be TSW without that gauzy digital sound? I thought her stabs at redoing it on Director's Cut were bloody awful, but that involved a bunch of new performances and not just a remix.

 

The deluxe set of Director's Cut included a remaster of TSW which was a bit of an improvement - taken from an analog safety master. I'll lay odds that's what's used for this new reissue.

 

I thought it was THE RED SHOES that was newly mastered from an analog safety master?

 

Not a big fan of Directors Cut, TSW should be left alone IMO, its fine the way it is- just turn up the bass a little.

I like the original Red Shoes better too, the remaster sounded dull, it lost its edge.

 

Just in case anybody ordering from the US from ImportCDS

Search results for All Products : "kate bush"

 

I thought Director's Cut sounded like it was recorded thru a pillow it was so muffled. 50 Words sorta suffered from the same problem, although there's a bit of high-end on that one, just very muted.

 

That is also my understanding, as recalled her saying that the initial 'The Red Shoes' was Digital and she wanted to provide an Analog Sound to that Album. No idea what was changed for TSW in The Director's Cut(think it was covered somewhere in this thread though).

 

Does Import CDs charge Credit Cards right away on Pre-Orders, or are they like Amazon and do not charge until items are actually Shipped?

 

Here's the quote from Kate about 'The Red Shoes', the pocket for 'The Sensual World' has no note from Kate, so I'll assume that 'The Sensual World' was just a straight remaster from the same tape as the original issue.

 

I'm contacting customer service to ask them about that.

 

I’m sure this has been asked before, so please excuse my absent-mindedness, but I have recently acquired the 2005 EMI Japanese pressings of The Kick Inside through The Sensual World. Are there any differences in mastering between these Japanese issues and the original UK mastering? My understanding is they’re the same mastering.

Example of the Japanese issues that I’m referring to:

 

Thanks
That is a good price. I only had the 2nd CD Set on Pre-Orderd on Amazon as just wanted the Non Album Songs and maybe the Remasters for Aerial and Fifty Words for Snow might be worth it. I am happy with my CDs of the earlier Albums, but the price on Import CDs is low enough to consider also ordering the first CD Box

I plan to get the 1st Vinyl Box Set and Aerial individually. As own the AF Vinyl for HOL & TSW.

I have bought items from Import CDs before but was buying current releases available and never did a Pre-Order with them yet.

 

Agreed. I was thinking about getting this through Amazon UK (just about the same price if picked higher shipping), but since their nearest base is in Kentucky, i might pull the trigger. Beats waiting for a week or 2 for CDs shipped from the East.

 

I agree. 50WFS was a bit better, with some hints of high end, but still a bit too muffled IMHO. I wonder if she was trying to achieve the same type of "dark but still very hi-fi" sound that Peter Gabriel excels at (especially on "Up")? I'd love to hear the results of a collaboration between Kate and Tchad Blake (who mixed the aforementioned Peter Gabriel album)!

 

I thought it was just an (over)reaction to the sound of The Red Shoes. Although Aerial is pretty nicely balanced.

 

No, it didn’t. The Sensual World wasn’t remastered, it was the original cd. Only The Red Shoes was remastered for the deluxe set.

 

I'll have to give my EMI a clean, and compare. The AF is pretty fine...

 

Yes, I'm sure they charge straight away.

 

I hope they're not ltd edition: I want to buy the CDs circa Jan 2019, as a birthday gift to me from me.

 

CD boxes I mean.

As a postscript: I have only 1 Kate track in my CD collection, which is her version of Rocket Man from the Two Rooms Elton / Bernie tribute, and I'm absolutely sold on her as an artist as a consequence. It's the way she combines Celtic beats with reggae inflections, and I'm thinking wow.

I also have her duet with Peter Gabriel on Don't Give Up, wherein I think of her as a great duettist, but really like what I've heard via streaming.