I could never get into Kitaro but I had a friend who really liked his stuff. My favorite Vangelis period definitely runs from Heaven & Hell thru Soil Festivities. His sound definitely evolved on the RCA albums - and that's probably my favorite period - and with his shift to Polygram his sound changed pretty dramatically from Opera thru Soil Festivities. That latter sound is certainly more accessible, and actually harks back somewhat to his earlier sound on albums like Entends-tu Les Chiens Aboyer, but I don't think it's quite as much fun, as dynamic or as experimental as those RCA albums.
I was a little obsessive about Vangelis some ten years ago, but I dropped the idea of listening to everything the man has done. First he's a studio beast. No tours, plenty of time to make music. Second, if he's not releasing music on his own will, chances are I can easily skip it. That's what I found anyway. I can't remember of a single bootleg that I listened to lie I did to my favourite official releases. Not one. Safe the the Gongo Blade Runer, but that's another story entirely.
I had my Kitaro period too. To me it sint a matter of time period but a hit or miss. I can like an album and be bored bu the following two, apparently with no pattern.
Maybe someone knows: there are a lot of different CD pressings of China. Do they sound the same or are there specific released to hunt down?
I don't know if this was answered yet, but on Discogs I cannot find a "01" matrix release. In fact, also Google cannot find anything about it (except for the pressed by EDC reissue). I suppose that "02" is the oldest released mastering on CD…
Only edition I have of China, Polydor made in W. Germany by PMDC (suggests pre 1989?) with 03 matrix. Image of Waveform, if of any use to compare with other masters;
I tried to launch a Vangelis masterings comparison thread some time ago but no-one seemed to be interested. It's something missing here even though I suspect all Polydor CDs are somewhat the same (level shift aside). FWIW, a lifetime ago I found two different rips sounding slightly different to me. But I din't know anything about fair comparison at the time. A simple level adjustment could have been enough to justify the perceived difference.
On my West-German CD copy of China, the tracks are indexed wrong. The first part of track 2 ('The Long March') is part of the 'Chung Kuo' intro (track 1). The last (piano) part of 'The Long March' is indexed as track 2, and from there on it's back to normal. Whoever was responsible for the index points is not a Vangelis fan!
That's the same in the Themes compilation: Chung Kuo + The Long March (minus the piano coda) is simply Chung Kuo
From The Elsewhere Vangelis site »: "Most of the original LPs however had a different split between the first tracks, and when looking at the title of the "Long March" single that was released for the album in '79 it is easy to assume the CD has the timings wrong. The LP lists a time of 1:43 for Chung Kuo, referring to the opening effects and descending notes, and a time of 5:50 for "The Long March" referring to the recognizable slow sequence and moody melody, including the short piano variation, which is called "The Long March" on the CD. The 7" single was called "The Long March" and indeed did not feature the sound effects. The piano part at the end however was cut off."
Isn't there tape damage on the original China master? I thought I remembered reading about that, somewhere. Beaubourg has problems too, major ones on one of the CD issues.
I agree. Vangelis stopped experimenting and searching new sounds to land in a commercial zone. I hope that one day he reelese all his work, even the ones that are kept inside his personal vault...
I don't know about China, but the problems with Beaubourg were caused by a bad transfer, not a bad tape. According to Vangelis Collector, the bad mastering is on the first German Press and the first US one. BTW, I was surprised about how well did the futzed-with remaster worked with me: that extra reverb is unrespectful of the original but does the job I guess.
One of the old good hard progressive improptu "works", dense and rithmic. Is courious how Vangelis used some parts of The Dragon in the 1492 score...
Sorry for getting back to China, but does anybody know if the early Japanese master is different/better? It's the P22P 20304, released in 1989.
please elaborate or provide a link. considering that that record is a jam session and Vangelis has won a trial to have all the bootleg copies retired from the market (but never released it officially), this sounds quite illogical
Interesting (unverified) bit of information about China from Invisible Connections :: View topic - Differences in Vinyl albums vs. CD albums ». "Actually, I remember reading from somewhere that China album was actually one of the first albums pressed to CD and Vangelis was specially "hired" to rework the mastering process in order to specially demonstrate the superior sound qualities of CD. "
Doesn't sound quite right to me. It's Chariots of Fire which was one of the very first albums on CD (800-020-2), along with his collaborations with Jon Anderson Short Stories and The Friends of Mr. Cairo. China sold reasonably well, but it was Chariots that was a massive worldwide hit. The title theme was (and arguably still is) Vangelis' most widely-known work. I remember Short Stories was done so early in the CD game that apparently they hadn't quite decided how to handle segued tracks. I remember copies showing the tracks numbered 1 through 10, but stating "Please note that your player will indicate 8 tracks as tracks 2 & 3 and 7 & 8 have no band separating them". AFAIK the mastering has never been changed, although the US artwork got updated to show only 8 tracks. Much like the track numbering on the Short Stories CD, I've always thought the indexing on the China CD was a mistake which never got fixed, but has been around so long people assume it was intentional.
I also think it's a mistake, and I think that nobody really cared afterwards. I think the assumption is that most people will listen to the album as a whole, and not pick individual tracks. I was listening to China last night on the free version of Spotify*), and the commercials between the tracks are really disturbing the flow. *) yes, convinced I need my own copy, but still looking for the best sounding one.
Is there a difference in audio quality between the "Greatets Hits" and "Cosmos" double CD albums? They have the same tracks and I was curious which one, if any, was better than the other. Also, I was listening to the compilation album called "Gift" and it sounded to me like most of the older tracks on that album have the channels reversed. Anyone notice that and why that might be? This same problem appears to also be on the "Best of" album.
