Sisters of Mercy - Original vs Remasters

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by nbakid2000, Feb 6, 2011.

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  1. nbakid2000

    nbakid2000 On Indie's Cutting Edge Thread Starter

    Location:
    Springfield, MO
    Anyone got any opinion on these? I've only heard the first one through headsets streamed at 320kpbs and it sounds good. I just bought the original of Floodland too.

    Do the remasters improve on these in any way?
     
  2. full moon

    full moon Forum Resident

    All I have are the remasters and I like them fine..
     
  3. daglesj

    daglesj Forum Resident

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    I have a copy of Vision Thing bought on the day of release.

    Sounds great and loved them as a band.

    However, never ever see them live. They STINK!

    Saw them in 2005 or 2006. We walked out halfway through This Corrosion.

    That bad.
     
  4. jsayers

    jsayers Just Drifting....

    Location:
    Horse Shoe, NC
    I can't recall exactly what it is, but there's some major issue with the original SOM cd of the 1st lp.

    Edit - found this thread <post #7>
    http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=95689&highlight=sisters+mercy

    and the guy who mastered the reissues mentions incorrect tapes for the 1st album were used on all early cds of the 1st lp...

    The best cd, imho, is the "Some Girls Wander By Mistake" collection of 7" and 12" singles. But that's just me, I didn't care for the music SOM put out after Wayne Hussey left and formed The Mission...
     
  5. Baba Oh Really

    Baba Oh Really Certified "Forum Favorite"

    Location:
    mid west, USA
    I don't know... I watched a youtube clip of Lucrecia from 2006 and it was EXCELLENT.

    That man is a badass.
     
    Robert C likes this.
  6. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    Never having owned any Sisters Of Mercy, what is a good first CD to get? Any suggestions on one that is easily available the best sounding option would be appreciated. I see a "triple album collection" available for under $10. It's an Australian import and is on the Warner label. Would this be the same as the currently available remasters and are those the discs one should get?
     
  7. Robert C

    Robert C Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    The triple set is the same as the Rhino remasters. Floodland is their best sounding LP. The remasters of Floodland and Vision Thing are great, First And Last And Always has always been problematic on CD. The remaster uses the original tapes but has fluctuating volume between tracks.

    I could go on (and on) if you'd like more information :)
     
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  8. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I would go for the Remasters in the triple CD boxset. I had the originals (except Vision Thing) and prefer the remasters. That said, if you are a fan you probably want the original CD of the first album because the mix is different.

    I started with Floodland. If you tend to lean more toward guitar-led music than synth led music I would get First Last and Always first if you are buying the albums individually. Vision Thing is the weakest album of the three but it's a grower.

    Make sure you get Some Girls Wander By Mistake also.
     
  9. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    Thanks for the help. I just ordered "Some Girls Wander By Mistake". After I give that a listen, I'll decide what to get next.
     
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  10. jsayers

    jsayers Just Drifting....

    Location:
    Horse Shoe, NC
    Excellent choice! :righton:
     
  11. vox.jubilante

    vox.jubilante Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Virginia
    "Some Girls" is a great choice.

    Many years ago I also bought a boot (before I even knew what a bootleg was) called Enter The Sisters/Black October that substantially overlaps SGWBM. I believe it's needle drops of many of the same singles/eps. Packed away at present otherwise I could be more precise. Sounds great, very smooth and better in sound quality in my memory than SGWBM - also not a bad choice if you see it in a used bin somewhere, but probably not worth a big expenditure in time or money.

    I have the "Some Boys" boot as well, but really the only reason I keep it is for "After Hours" - had that one on 12" (before I sold off all my vinyl a few years ago). Love that track for some reason. Otherwise it's for completists only.

    As far as the remasters go, I think FALAA generally sounds much, much better than the previous cds. I seem to recall that I had the first cd and the '92 remaster although I can't recall any meaningful difference between those two - I seem to recall puzzling over whether there was actually a difference. Whatever issues the current cd has, it's still way better than its predecessors, IMHO.

    I'm on the fence with Floodland. I think the older cd sounds really good - even before I really started paying attention to mastering quality, etc. I always loved cranking the **** out of that one - sounded especially good at high volume. The remaster sounds ok, a little beefier maybe than the original, but certainly not a disaster. There is some occasional congestion and vocal sibilance that bugs me, but it may just be me. I think I incline to the older cd here but some of that may just be nostalgia. If you've never heard it before it might not bug you at all.

    Currently I only have the remaster of Vision Thing but it sounds about the same as my memory of the older cd; there may be a but more 'oomph' to the remaster (I seem to recall that the original was maybe a little on the bass-shy side) but I can't hear a difference otherwise. This remaster sounds fine - especially for a hard rock cd remastered in 2006. In any case, I wouldn't start with this one: it's stylistically a little odd for the catalog: much more self-consciously "hard rock" - like Eldritch was on a Stooges/"Raw Power" kick. However, I agree with patient_ot above: it's a grower with a couple of strong tracks - I've always thought "Doctor Jeep" was cringe-awful, though.

    I never bought "Slight Case of Overbombing" - it didn't really have anything on it I didn't already have since I had the "Temple of Love (1992)" and "Under the Gun" cd singles . It's an ok overview, but I can't see it being terribly satisfying as an end-to-end listen, especially with the reverse chronological programming.

    I enjoy the early stuff through FALAA the best. The real weakness, beginning with Floodland, is just how repetitive the music is. The drum machine patterns and programmed synth riffs - and even the guitar riffs in Vision Thing - just don't have enough musical variation to hold my interest for very long. Once you've listened through the first verse/chorus you pretty much know how the entire rest of the song is going to sound. The vocals and lyrics really need a stronger instrumental backing/foil, IMHO. YMMV.

    I also have to admit that I don't listen to this music near as much these days as I did when I was younger. My angst is all grown up now, I guess. :)
     
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  12. HiFi Guy 008

    HiFi Guy 008 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    The latest remaster of First And Last And Always, on Rhino is the way to go.
    Avoid the 1992 remaster unless you love this album so much that want to hear an entirely different version.
     
    vox.jubilante likes this.
  13. jsayers

    jsayers Just Drifting....

    Location:
    Horse Shoe, NC
    The guy who did the remaster of the Sisters cds was/is a member here and has posted with much info before concerning these remasters.
     
  14. jsayers

    jsayers Just Drifting....

    Location:
    Horse Shoe, NC

    I believe mine is, too. At 60 I don't seem to be pulling out my Bauhaus, Sisters Of Mercy or Virgin Prunes cd's as much as I used to.... :laugh:
     
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  15. shiverbones

    shiverbones Forum Resident

    Location:
    new orleans
    i have atm reptile house orig, and mfsl first & flood. i love the mfsl lps, sold my orig flood after getting the mfsl. wasn't a huge fan of the some girls wander cd. hope that helps!
     
  16. vox.jubilante

    vox.jubilante Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Virginia
    I think whoever it is (not sure where my box is at present) did a good job. Of the lot, I'd say that Floodland is the only on where I incline (if slightly) to the original and that probably has as much to do with how much I listened to it for many, many years as it does any quality of the remaster itself - nostalgia as "breath of life".
     
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  17. vox.jubilante

    vox.jubilante Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Virginia
    Of that era, I still listen to The Pop Group, The Birthday Party, and Cocteau Twins regularly, as well as some of the more out-there stuff like This Heat. Comsat Angels and Chameleons get regular play, too. Banshees's Juju is a mainstay.
     
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  18. JustVinyl

    JustVinyl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Switzerland
    As the back catalog is not huge the "Original Album Series" box is perfect: all 3 studio albums and the 2 compilations ... and cheap. To me they sound good but I have not heard the remasters.
     
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  19. HiFi Guy 008

    HiFi Guy 008 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    Trivia question:
    On the Alice 12", in the deadwax - "For Spiggy foreign field." How many of us know who "Spiggy" was?

    No fair searching the web.
     
  20. vox.jubilante

    vox.jubilante Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Virginia
    Wasn't that Eldritch's cat? I seem to remember something like that in liner notes for SGWBM.
     
  21. HiFi Guy 008

    HiFi Guy 008 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    Yup. Andrew and his girlfriend's cat. When he lived above the club they used to play in.
    The sad story is that the cat killed and found on a "Leeds tarmac."
    Apparently, it affected Andrew so deeply (who wouldn't be?) and the deadwax inscriptions on several of their records pay tribute to poor Spiggy.
     
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  22. Robert C

    Robert C Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    The OAS box is a great way to get the original masterings (except for F&L&A, which is the '92 remaster) for cheap. I recommend that but it does lack the extra tracks that you get with the Rhino remasters. The cheapest way to get almost everything is to buy both the OAS and the Triple Album Collection which contains the Rhino remasters + b-sides.

    Regarding the original CDs:

    First And Last And Always - released on CD in 1988 using the Japanese vinyl mix as opposed to the original UK mix. CD available as European and American masterings. Which is better? The European has better sounding guitars but the bass is too boosted. On the American CD the guitars sound slightly distant but the low end is better handled.

    Floodland - I haven't heard the original JPN CD, but, between the European and American masterings, the European wins. I find the big snare reverbs get a little hard on the American CD and don't wash over you like they do on the European.

    Vision Thing - European mastering is a little bass-shy, and the track flags are wrong for Ribbons/Detonation Boulevard. The American CD corrects the track flags but has too much bass. The Rhino remaster sits pleasantly in between.

    There are a lot of issues that will niggle away at Sisters fanatics, such as the digital glitch on the opening to Never Land, or the digital absence of the Body And Soul EP, but for those just getting into the band these things can wait.

    For people interested in vinyl: First And Last And Always went through a number of different matrix numbers before everything was right. You'll want the non-gatefold German press, A7/B2. Earlier pressings have a panning error on A Rock And A Hard Place. The American vinyl sounds nice and punchy, especially the promo which has an alternate mix of Walk Away. The German pressings are on cheap vinyl and the paper sleeve is very unforgiving. I went through six copies before I found one which wasn't covered in paper scratches. I can't recommend the MoFi remaster, it uses the wrong mixes and the bass is ridiculously bloated. The original German or American vinyl is really the only way to go with this LP. The Rhino remaster is good in that it uses the original mixes for the first time on digital, but there is a volume fluctuation that makes all the tracks from First And Last And Always to Some Kind of Stranger about 2 dB louder than the first five tracks (it's not a result of compression, just incorrect volume levels). Curiously, this is halfway through the vinyl record - classic needle drop error??? Unfortunately, the b-sides included on the Rhino remaster are brickwalled. I haven't heard a bad original pressing of Floodland, be it German, American, or Japanese. The German is probably the closest to the master tape. The MoFi uses a lot of different mixes and the mastering is superb. It's an interesting curio but it's not an accurate representation of Floodland, it also looks out of phase when visually compared to other Floodland pressings. Vision Thing sounds fine on vinyl, but remember it's an all digital recording so a CD is probably all you need.

    One frustrating thing about Rhino's Floodland remaster is that their source was the original Sony 1610 CD master. We know that analogue tapes are still available for the individual tracks as MoFi used them. It would have been nice to have fresh digital transfers back in 2006 for the Rhino project.
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2015
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  23. JustVinyl

    JustVinyl Forum Resident

    Location:
    Switzerland
    Great information ... thanks for posting! If I see the Rhino's cheap enough I might pick those up as well.
     
  24. mdm08033

    mdm08033 Senior Member

    I thought that your previous thread confirmed that the American and European CDs were identical?

    http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...-with-bonus-tracks.95689/page-2#post-10294326

    http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...-with-bonus-tracks.95689/page-2#post-10289450


    That said, I always though that the sound quality of the early recordings on FLAA and Some Girls were wonky due to the artistic and financial issues.

    And yes forum contributor Zal mastered Floodland.

    http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...d-with-bonus-tracks.95689/page-2#post-2179413
     
  25. Robert C

    Robert C Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    Hmm, the peak values are certainly identical, but I seem to remember finding the EQ to be slightly different. I'll double check :)

    The Some Girls wander CD is okay, but you really need the original singles and EPs to hear them at their best.
     
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