I'd probably buy the new Hex Enduction Hour when it comes, if they include Look, Know this time around
I bought the Hip Priest and Kamerads CD, just to get that track...But it's a brilliant CD anyway..and the 15m And This Day is priceless
Do people really need a reissue of the IRS U.S. Witch Trials with a one track difference? I have the original and it has always annoyed me that they randomly swapped in Various Times.
I will say, sometimes Cherry Red gets it right. Last year's Felt vinyl reissues (at least the three that I bought) were amazingly well pressed and sounded wonderful (though they were pricey). They did an excellent job with the Lotus Eaters' No Sense of Sin CD many years ago (quiet and dynamic mastering), and they did just fine with the Sad Lovers and Giants CDs from a mastering perspective. So, if they can get this right, it could be worthwhile. I wasn't particularly impressed with the quality of the Superior Viaduct pressings I heard: Witch Trials was warped and Hex had quite a lot of surface noise.
I thought Cherry Red's Fall Singles box sounded really excellent, though as a compilation it's either overkill or inadequate depending on where you stand as a fan (only selected B-sides; good discographical information but no liner notes otherwise; packaging neither terrible nor great — not even sure it was "good but not great").
They're going to retype them in tribute to MES. About halfway through a paragrapgh, the font size will suddenly shrink or become insufferably large...
I still have the famous MES font on my old computer, they could use that. I used to use it in notes I'd leave around the house attributed to my cat.
Picked up a cheap copy of the vinyl of 'Sub Lingual Tablet' today, it's a pretty decent pressing and a fairly solid album.
I listened to this on vinyl recently and was surprised that the sound quality is mostly excellent, the last two tracks are a bit lo-fi in comparison.
The Sanctuary CDs for Grotesque, Perverted By Language and A Part of America Therein were re-stocked in London a couple of weeks after Mark died. I guess they must have been sitting in a warehouse somewhere, they're all still available new in London. Several others, Dragnet, The Infotainment Scan, Totale's Turns.. were easy to get new until he died causing stock to get bought after up after the publicity of his death. The only ones that I think became tough to find, ie I stopped seeing them new anywhere BEFORE he died were Hex Enduction Hour, Room to Live, Slates, In a Hole, Cerebral Caustic and Middle Class Revolt. There was never a Sanctuary expanded The Light User Syndrome, I wish Cherry Red had now started with that one as it's one of my favourites.
Sanctuary did reissue LUS, it's just that it was the very first reissue and no-one noticed. It added the other two parts of "The Chiselers" but that's all. I doubt there's much in the tape cupboard given the speed with which it was recorded. "Hex" was reissued by Universal after they took over Sanctuary in their standard "delxue edition" digipak format as well as doing a single disc of just the album. These are both o/p as well. "In A Hole" has had 3 CD editions, one awful and 2 excellent but these two were basically identical (the Sanctuary one is slightly louder).
The Sanctuary Light User wasn't part of their proper reissue series though, which hadn't started at that point. When it did start they had uniform fold out booklets, photos and an essay. Their Light User had none of those. It's also still available new BTW if anyone wants it. There's alternate mixes made at the time of almost all the Light User songs. They appeared on the mid to late 90s Receiver compilations such as Cheetham Hill.
A lot of those "outtake" mixes are after the fact - like those "remixes" which sound absolutely nothing like The Fall, most of which are just the late Rex Sargent enjoying himself during downtime at Cargo/Suite 16. I agree that it would be helpful to draw this material together just for the sake of clarity and consistency. I would absolutely welcome Cherry Red doing this.
Actually, the alternate mix of He Pep! from one of those Receiver comps is the superior version to the album one - it features some awesome double drumming from Wolstencroft and Burns which was unexplicably removed from the final mix.
Yeah the mixes aren't anything to get ultra excited about, like most of the alt mixes / versions on the 2CD Unutterable and 2CD Cerebral Caustic. I hope when Light User gets a reissue it gets its original tracklisting on its own disc, ie CD1. It's a long album and the sequence works really well even if it's by accident! The bonus tracks on the end spoil what sounds to me like a deliberate closing song, with Mark's words "..and that's the end. Of the session". Or whatever it is he says, I haven't played it for a few months.
They're in good sound too. I suspect the cheapo weirdo nature of those higgledy piggledy Receiver comps meant whatever tapes Mark gave them were just shoved on CD with no fiddling about so they sound nice and unprocessed.
The Peel take is even better...it's a cracking song, bites really hard. Probably my favourite on that album, in fact.
I was reading the BBC's picks of for RSD 2019 and this made me laugh: "The first anniversary of Mark E Smith's death will be marked with five previously-unreleased live albums by The Fall." What a fitting tribute lol.
The Fall RSD stuff is a disgrace. One "genuine" release, 5 "grey area" and 2 thoroughly opportunist. Imperial Wax Solvent on vinyl is a good call; originals of that go for 3 figures. But who asked for 5 of the albums on the 11-disc "Box Of Ten" (HUH??) on vinyl, let alone those muffled, useless "monitor mixes" of "The Unutterable" that have been on CD for ages? Worse still is that 7" box set by BMG, I think. It feels sour mainly because the rights were acquired by the usual circuitous sale of various rights from business to business as well as the high price for so little music. Grim.
Has anyone else picked up the new 'Bend Sinister' yet? I picked up the (surprisingly expensive) CD set and think it sounds pretty good. I think this means all the commercially released material from the Beggars Banquet era has now been remastered?
I got the LP but haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. The second disc appears to be fairly warped, though, so a return/exchange may soon be in my future. The packaging w/ the gatefold sleeve looks nice, at least.
Yeah, I blasted it on headphones and enjoyed it more than the old Beggars Nimbus CD or the UK vinyl. It’s probably compressed but I don’t care, it sounds better for this album with its weird master history. The Dktr Faustus background chaos bleeps etc are much clearer now, for example. I couldn’t motivate myself to finish the booklet, too much like a promo for ex members books. And sure enough there’s ads for the books at the end of the booklet. Would have preferred more photos of Mark instead.
