I wonder if this will be interesting. Renaissance A Song For All Seasons (boxset pre-order) Remastered and expanded edition of the classic 1978 Renaissance album featuring 15 bonus tracks. Working with producer David Hentschel (who had recently produced A Trick of the Tailand Wind And Wuthering for Genesis), the material on A Song For All Seasonscontained some of the most carefully crafted and well-recorded work of the band’s career. Contains an illustrated booklet with a reproduction of the band’s 1978 US tour programme and an essay. The set also includes a reproduction of the original album poster given away with the initial pressing of the album. Pre-order for 29th March release.
So all the bonus stuff is live, most of which has been released before (the Philadelphia 78 show in its entirety). No doubt it's good, but there seem to be multiple live versions of every song Renaissance did in their heyday.
So it seems to be true that Eclectic will release all Renaissance albums this year as deluxe editions with bonus tracks. I very much hope that Turn of the Cards will get a proper remastering. Can anyone comment on the sound quality of "Prologue" and "Ashes are burning" which are already available ?
They are decent in their various reissue editions (Repertoire, etc.) in that they all sound as if taken from the same master.
Just checked the Renaissance website, looked at the discography page, and blow me down they have chosen to totally ignore the first 2 albums, Renaissance & Illusion choosing to start the discography at the 3rd album when Annie Haslam joined........ Why is this? It's like they're not acknowledging their past and are viewing it as unimportant. OK, none of the original members are in the band now, but it's still Renaissance whichever way you dress it up.
This is not surprising. There has always been a clear dividing line between the first incarnation of Renaissance and the Annie/Jon Camp “Classic” era of the band with Prologue being the debut album. I would have been shocked if they were treated as one in a remaster campaign. Looking forward to this new Songs for All Seasons, but I have so many CD issues of all the classic lead Annie era albums I’m not sure I need it.
Ashes Are Burning due with 3 BBC tracks.... 7. CAN YOU UNDERSTAND (LIVE -BBC RADIO âIN CONCERTâ 1974) 8. LET IT GROW (LIVE -BBC RADIO âIN CONCERTâ 1974) 9. ASHES ARE BURNING (LIVE -BBC RADIO âIN CONCERTâ 1974) Prologue just gets a single mix added.
Were the first 2 albums released on a different label? That may explain their absence -that, or they don't see a market for them.
Both albums were on Island Records when they were released, however they were both remastered in 2016 and reissued by Repertoire Records which as far as I know has handled a lot of their reissues over the last few years
Not too exciting, I'll probably pass on replacing my old CDs. A better sounding Turn Of The Cards is all that I hope for now from this band.
It seems that the band is I don't consider those first two albums as part of the Renaissance discography. It's too bad that the band is not releasing some nice vinyl deluxe editions. Out of curiosity, have they reissued any of their albums with unreleased studio tracks? Or do they always just include live tracks or single edits on their deluxe reissues?
How can you not include them, when they're clearly part of it. I don't know much about the band, and only know a few of their songs, hence why I was looking on Discogs and then their own website, I was shocked to see the omission. I think it was likely a conscious decision by the band to not include them, as they had nothing to do with them.... Even so, still weird seeing as they were called Renaissance
They are only linked together in name only. It is two completely different bands. I love the classic lineup but confess to not owning or having any interest in the first incarnation of Renaissance.
They are different bands but are joined by a common DNA. The first untitled album is more 60's styled folk rock with interjections of classical piano while the second album, Illusion, was starting to morph into more of a later Haslam/Camp era band sound. Both hold historical interest to me if not musical.
I have owned and loved the first two Renaissance albums for quite a while. I have only in the last couple of years started buying the later albums. I like the Annie Haslam albums I have heard but I have yet to enjoy any of them more than the first two.
I checked out the first one on Spotify..... It's more progressive than the "classic" lineup. I like it.
I have had two Beat Club clips for ages, since the 80's. When I finally found a NM copy of the first one in a thrift about 10 years ago I loved it start to finish. Picked up Illusion a year or so later.
Not really. Those bands had member continuity, Renaissance MKII was a complete redo with only John Tout being the link to the very last lineup of the original band which also underwent changes. The first incarnation had ties to the Yardbirds. New label and new management at the time for the classic lineup.