expanded AZTEC CAMERA remasters!

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by aswyth, Jul 25, 2012.

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  1. aswyth

    aswyth Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    LA, CA
    After Edsel's great reissued / expanded remasters from the (English) Beat, Everything But The Girl, and various Jimmy Somerville projects come expanded remasters of the first six AZTEC CAMERA albums. Some are double CDs, others single, depending on the amount of extras. Seems like all the relevant b-sides and rarities are there, except (sadly) for their first two Postcard singles. Albums are as originally released on vinyl, plus:

    HIGH LAND HARD RAIN
    Queen's Tattoos
    Haywire
    Orchid Girl
    Set The Killing Free
    Oblivious (12" mix)
    Walk Out To Winter (12" extended version)
    Oblivious (12" extended mix)

    KNIFE
    All I Need Is Everything (7" edit)
    Jump
    All I Need Is Everything (remix)
    Jump (loaded version)

    LOVE
    Deep And Wide And Tall (breakdown mix)
    Bad Education
    The Red Flag
    Killermont Street (live)
    Pillar To Post (live)
    Somewhere In My Heart (12" remix)
    Everybody Is A Number One (Boston '86 version)
    Somewhere In My Heart (the alternate mix)
    I Threw It All Away (live)
    Working In A Goldmine (sax version)

    STRAY
    Salvation
    True Colours
    Consolation Prize (live)
    Do I Love You?
    plus NINE versions of Good Morning Britain

    FRESTONIA
    The Crying Scene (live)
    Black Lucia (live)
    We Could Send Letters (live)
    Rainy Season (live)

    DREAMLAND
    (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice (with Andy Fairweather-Low)
    Birth Of The True (live)
    Song For A Friend (live)
    Killermont Street (live)
    Spanish Horses (live)
    Stray (live)
    The Bugle Sounds Again (live)
    Dolphins (live)
    How Men Are (live)
    Sister Ann (live)
    Good Morning Britain (live)
    Mattress Of Wire (live)
    Let Your Love Decide (live)
    Orchid Girl (live)
    Just Like The USA (live)
     
  2. aswyth

    aswyth Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    LA, CA
    I might have spoken too soon . . . looks like all the relevant *studio* stuff is here, except the Postcard singles which preceded the first album - except for "Hot Club Of Christ," a Christmas instrumental done in the style of Django Reinhardt (which is still available on the very worthy "Ghosts Of Christmas Past" CD via LTM Records.)

    And that's with the caveat that the "Latin mix" of "All I Need Is Everything" is the same as what they call here simply a "remix." Pretty sure it is, though.

    But some live stuff appears to be missing.

    While live versions of "We Could Send Letters," "Good Morning Britain," "The Bugle Sounds Again," "Mattress Of Wire" and "Birth Of The True" all appear on these CDs, some or all of them are probably not the same versions originally released on vinyl, CD singles and the Japanese "Covers & Rare" CD or that weird 10" ep that came out between the first and second albums.

    Live versions of "Back On Board" and "Backwards And Forwards," which have been released - don't seem to appear at all.

    Still, these seem like nice releases, and given AC / Roddy Frame's low-profile for many years, I didn't expect to ever see them.
     
  3. william shears

    william shears Senior Member

    Location:
    new zealand
    Yeah, great to see these but no 'Backwards and Forwards' EP from 85 with the great live version of 'Jump'?
    Nice to see 'Bad Education' and The Red Flag' on cd.
     
  4. katstep

    katstep Professional Cat Herder

    High Land, Hard Rain was a high water mark for UK pop in the early 80s. Love that album. Saw them open for Elvis Costello in 83 and was blown away. They became one of my favorite bands. Good to see these albums getting the re-issue treatment. Well deserved.
     
  5. markbrow

    markbrow Forum President

    Location:
    Denver
    Ditto everything here, including seeing them with Costello in '83.
     
  6. aswyth

    aswyth Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    LA, CA
    The "Backwards And Forwards" EP did not feature a live version of "Jump," it featured the "loaded" version, with extra guitar noise . . . and it's included here!

    I never liked their version of "Bad Education" (a song by the Blue Orchids, written by Martin Bramah, who'd been in the Fall and is now in the incredible Factory Star), but I always like Aztec Camera's frequent weird references to the Blue Orchids. For instance, the "Oblivious" b-side, "Orchid Girl," is about Roddy's schoolboy infatuation with Una Baines of the Blue Orchids, who was Martin Bramah's wife and bandmate.
     
  7. ippudo

    ippudo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    About time - the debut and "Love" especially have always sounded very tinny on CD.
    Long-time fan here too.
     
  8. Dennis Metz

    Dennis Metz Born In A Motor City south of Detroit

    Location:
    Fonthill, Ontario
    I'll have to get these
     
  9. Surly

    Surly Bon Viv-oh-no-he-didn't

    Location:
    Sugar Land, TX
    This news makes me very happy. I hope that it's the correct single mix of "All I Need Is Everything." It drives me crazy that every AC compilation does not include the single mix. I have it on a 3" single of "How Men Are" as a bonus track, but it fades out earlier than the original single did. Having this would effectively reduce (by one) my "holy grail" items missing from my collection.

    The first 3 albums are all wonderful. I hope these are mastered from original tapes - Edsel seems to usually do a nice job on their reissues, as opposed to certain other UK labels that have a tendency to remaster from vinyl a lot (cough! cough! Cherry Red cough! cough!)
     
  10. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    Great news!

    But I really really wish they had added the Postcard singles.
     
  11. CK Dexter Haven

    CK Dexter Haven Member

    Location:
    Selinsgrove, PA
    Oh man this is great!
     
  12. tomd

    tomd Senior Member

    Location:
    Brighton,Colorado
    Just sent them an email suggesting General Public-All The Rage as an expanded remaster (12" mixes),The Smithereens-Especially For You,and Max Q-Max Q (which is long oop).Maybe if Audio Fidelity's not interested in reissuing these titles maybe they'ed might be.
     
  13. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips?

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    I used to know the band many many years ago as a teenager in East Kilbride (over 30 years ago!!). I saw many early rehersals, from when they were called Neutral Blue. At one time I did have a tape of what was probably their very first gig at the Key Youth Club in East Kilbride, among the set was a note for note cover of California Sun/Surfin Bird as done by The Ramones on Its Alive and The Clash's Garageland (Roddy was a big Clash fan and a crowd of us saw them at The Glasgow Apollo)

    Most interesting though was the original version of Release, which was a lot faster than the recorded version with a very long instrumental intro, to me it was far better. It was the set opener.

    Wish I knew where that tape was............
     
  14. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area

    Me too, it's really silly that they didn't.
     
  15. gabacabriel

    gabacabriel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bristol, UK
    According to the Edsel website, the Knife expanded edition also features five live tracks recorded at the Dominion theatre...

    But I see no word re pricing or release dates?
     
  16. PhilBiker

    PhilBiker sh.tv member number 666

    Location:
    Northern VA, USA
    I will not be able to resist these. Here's hoping "High Land Hard Rain" sounds better than the awful sounding CD and LP that I have. I'm afraid that the problem may be the original recording though.
     
  17. RichC6

    RichC6 Member

    Location:
    Hull, E Yorks, UK
    Roddy has always said these should be kept as their original format as they are from a very special time and place. I agree.
     
  18. sublemon

    sublemon Forum Resident

    Crap, one of my favorite bands ever. All the albums are great. Is Edsel going to have these compressed and brickwalled like they did with the Suede reissues, which sounded worse or much worse than the original CDs?? They had tons of great bonus material, and the AC reissues look lie they will as well, but they will probably sound like poo. I just tried to email Demon/Edsel to beg them to use original tapes and avoid brickwalling/over-compression. Probably useless but worth a try...
     
  19. johnfoyle

    johnfoyle Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
  20. aswyth

    aswyth Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    LA, CA
    You're right, the original listing was in accurate. So add to KNIFE the additional bonus tracks:

    Mattress Of Wire (Live at the Dominion Theatre)
    Walk Out To Winter (Live at the Dominion Theatre)
    The Bugle Sounds Again (Live at the Dominion Theatre)
    Backwards And Forwards (Live at the Dominion Theatre)
    The Birth Of The True (Live at the Dominion Theatre)

    This fixes part of this "problem" I mentioned earlier:

    While live versions of "We Could Send Letters," "Good Morning Britain," "The Bugle Sounds Again," "Mattress Of Wire" and "Birth Of The True" all appear on these CDs, some or all of them are probably not the same versions originally released on vinyl, CD singles and the Japanese "Covers & Rare" CD or that weird 10" ep that came out between the first and second albums.

    Live versions of "Back On Board" and "Backwards And Forwards," which have been released - don't seem to appear at all.


    That leaves just the live version of "Good Morning Britain" missing. The live version of "We Could Send Letters" does seem to be the same one to appear as a bonus on "Frestonia."
     
  21. Pavol Stromcek

    Pavol Stromcek Senior Member

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    Well, it's his choice and ultimately that's all that matters. Still, in my view it's utterly silly to keep some of his best work shrouded in obscurity. I have the originals, and I digitized them some time ago, but it seems strange to me to obstinately prevent people from hearing this music. Why not at least get Alan Horne to reissue the 7"s?
     
  22. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    I think there was a Postcard compilation CD in the 90's that had the AC tracks on them, so they have been released once at least on CD, although it's very rare now.
     
  23. Cheepnik

    Cheepnik Overfed long-haired leaping gnome

    I'm afraid you're right. That album has sounded flimsy and one-dimensional from day one -- no bottom whatsoever.
     
  24. RichC6

    RichC6 Member

    Location:
    Hull, E Yorks, UK
    Pretty sure not an official one
     
  25. Witney Devil

    Witney Devil Well-Known Member

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    27th August according to HMV, Amazon and Play.

    HMV has each disc at £15!!!!
    Amazon has only one disc priced - £9.99 for "Knife"

    The HMV price looks wrong given there is no distinction between 1 disc and 2 disc sets.
     
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