Ken Scott - Devo - Duty Now For The Future

Well, maybe if they did it with the same mastering style, but with a lower generation source tape? The US Q?A! CD has some really nasty (well, it bothers the heck out me every time I play it, anyway) background noise - particularly noticeable at the fadeouts. It's a disc I just can't play through the headphones without getting irritated.

 

Do the EMI two-fers Duty Now for the Future/New Traditionalists and Oh No It's Devo/Freedom Of Choice have the same sound problems as the Virgin two-fers?

 

My disc matrix:
WEA Manufacturing OLYPHANT X18253 M1S4 Cl 1 3239-2 RE-1 01

I believe this is the currently available pressing. Hmm, now I'm going to have to listen on headphones.

 

DITTO

 

I must say that I am surprised to see so many negative opinions about the Virgin two-fers here...

Sure, they are the only CD versions that I have heard (except for "Total Devo" and "Smoothnoodlemaps" on Enigma, and "Shout" on Collectables) but I think that they sound great!

Yes, some of them have a bit of hiss, and there is a short (though admittedly quite annoying) tape wobble in "Strange Pursuit" on DNFTF. But, aside from those, IMO, very minor tape problems - and of course, the horribly lacking artwork - I am very happy with those discs.

I'm sure that they could be even better with the use of better tapes and SH mastering D). But, they are cheap, easy to find, have well balanced (almost perfect, IMO) Eq, and on top of it all; dynamics to die for!

So, considering how most remasters these days sounds, my suggestion is: Go get 'em while you can!

 

Mine just reads "1 3239-2 SRC-02" in the matrix - standard "MADE IN USA" and "Mfg. by WEA Manufacturing" on the label.

Your "RE-1" makes me wonder if there was a secret remaster at some point.

 

Rephrasing my earlier post.. are the EMI twofers which are labeled "Made in England" using the same masters as the Virgin two-fers? I have two of the EMI twofers and the sound is pretty bland -- dull and lifeless -- but they are fairly dynamic, i.e. they aren't overly maximized. Maybe a bit of EQing would help goose the sound somewhat.

 

The only thing good about the Two-fer that has Freedom of Choice is that it also has Turnaround.

 

I have every possible version of this album, except 8-track, ever made.

The US vinyl
The US cassette
The UK vinyl
The 1990 Japanese CD release
The UK 2fers
The Infinte Zero release
The Collectable release

Along with the Greatest hits, Greatest Misses, Pioneers Who Got Scalped, Essential Collection (MIA, maybe a friend has it), and many of the TV appearances (Don Kirshner's 1979 appearance between QA and DNFTF is the best still. Check out Blockhead on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMdWteYXWGU. New Wave and Brave.)

For some reason I like the Japanese CD the best, but I can't really tell you why. The IZ has some of b-sides on it (Soo-Bawzl and Penetration In The Centerfold.)

Is there a format, or battery of test, I can use to review the differences?

 

I was thinking the same thing. Yet, conventional (forum) wisdom would imply you have a better sounding disc. A "remaster" tends to make one, at least around here, cringe with skepticism. I was told there were "secret remasters" of other Warner US pressings in the 1990's, but have yet to hear any evidence.

 

I had "Duty Now"/"New Traditionalists" and thought it sounded okay...until the Infinite Zero remasters came out.

Also, you forgot about the sound dropouts. I remember a particularly bad one in "Race Of Doom."

At any rate, I think it's important to consider that Jerry Casale himself does not endorse the two-fers in any way.

 

To me, Eno made them sound like a thin surf band. If you listen to the live recordings from around that time, the songs from Q&A sound a lot more powerful in concert.

 

I didn't really like the Eno production on Q&A, especially in comparison to the original Booji Boy singles Jocko Homo and Satisfaction which were far superior to the re-recorded versions on the debut. Duty Now For The Future sounded like an attempt to return to the early sound of those singles.

On a different topic, has the Mechanical Man ep ever been released on CD? I've never seen it anywhere, and I seem to remember the original ep was difficult to find.

 

Wrong.

 

Is that really fair? It's only his opinion.

Also, just to add fuel to the fire...it's important to note that the band (well, at the very least, Jerry) has stated their preference for the demo versions of those songs over the studio ones.

 

Basement demos of those songs have been issued on CD on the "Hardcore" volumes and elsewhere, but my understanding is that they are not the same versions as the ones on the original "Mechanical Man" EP.

 

Care to offer a little more insight into your opinion?

I never heard the originals, so I'd like to hear about the differences.

 

The original singles were rawer, but cruder sounding. Buzzsaw guitar and some distortion to make them sound rough and dirty. The album versions are cleaner sounding, more polished, and with more nuance and details in the mix. They have a sheen to them, and the vocals were performed with more care and precision. The electronic sounds from the synths are more prominent and definitive of the atmosphere of the songs on the Eno-produced album versions. I suppose that is why I like them more. It seemed more high-tech and in keeping with a weird science-fiction feeling they were going for at the time. They used cheap synths that were somewhat unpredictable and idiosyncratic, though. It wasn't the synths per se that gave the record its polish or sheen. It was the way they were recorded and produced. It was still a wild-*ss record and over-the-top yelping performance, though. It's not as though Eno toned them down or anything.

 

It's only my opinion that he's wrong. He did state that the originals were far superior without qualifying it.

 

This is the version I have. In the early 90's it was the only way to get this on CD AFAIK.

 

I will look for those. I didn't even know that they existed until I read this thread (I had only seen the Virgin two-fers and the Collectables) so it should be interesting to do some comparisons.

Nope, I didn't forget. I just listened to it again, and I can't hear any dropouts in that song. Not when I'm listening through my loudspeakers anyway...

Well, as much as I respect Jerry's opinion - and your's, of course - I don't think that his endorsement is particularly important.

In my experience, artists are often the last ones to listen to for opinions on the sound quality of their work. As a former musician myself, I know all too well that many (perhaps even most) of them are far too closely involved in their creations to be able to make an objective judgement of how their own stuff sounds.

Now, I am not saying that my opinion of these CDs is more important than Jerry's - or your's - but in the end, my opinion is the only one that really matters to me.

Oh, perhaps I should also mention that I agree with most posters in this thread that "Duty Now For The Future" is Devo's best album (after all; that's what this thread is all about ). It's melodic, raw, innovative and just plain crazy; all at the same time. A true masterpiece!

 

"Got a swelling itching brain..and I called off sick"

Always wanted to use that line when calling in sick at work.

Loved that album, and the sonics. Nothing like audiophile quality wackiness.

 

Yeah, that's true. I guess I just wouldn't have been so brazen in my response to that.

 

Listen to it on headphones. It's after one of the "I wanna be your time bomb" lines. I guess it's not so much a sound dropout as a bad tape glitch in one channel. I know there are a few more anomalies on there, but it's been years since I've owned the disc. They aren't on the subsequent remasters.

On that note, there's a similar anomaly on the WB "Freedom Of Choice" album, in "Snowball."

As a current musician/writer/engineer, I can agree, but if you read Jerry's appraisal of the twofers it runs a little deeper than that. I'll try and find his commentary on those over at the Club Devo site.

 

I should have said why I preferred the singles to the album versions. I liked the natural, organic sound, and especially the original drum sound on Satisfaction which was more prominent in the mix than on the album version which is electronically treated, much to the detriment of the track. I also preferred the vocals on the singles; the album versions sound as if they are awash with reverb and while it fits in with the electronic approach, I liked the contrast between the untreated "natural" vocals of the singles' versions and the electronic backing. I'd have to disagree with you when you say the original versions are rawer and cruder; I feel it's the exact opposite, and I'd use those words to describe the album versions. I also felt the songs got buried in the mix, particularly Satisfaction, where, as I said before, the drum sound was less effective than the original, and it's the drum sound which really made that song the force it was, and to hear it way back in the mix was disappointing. I haven't heard Duty Now For The Future for a while, but on the track Clockout, the electronic treatments which dominated Q&A have disappeared; what you get is a clear, distinct vocal, and a real drum sound, which I feel was a return to the Devo of old. I would have preferred the Q&A album to follow the production of the first two singles; I just felt the production on the debut stifled and dominated the songs.