Over the past 20 years or so, remixes and remasters of albums have become a cash cow for record labels, along with the inclusion of bonus material in deluxe and then superdeluxe packages, usually priced to maximise the pain for fans of the artists. I too have spent a lot of money in the past on these remixes and deluxe sets, but very few of them have actually been worthwhile. Generally the new mixes are ‘different’ or ‘cleaner’ but very rarely better, often losing the feel and atmosphere of what made these albums great in the first place. Frequently, new masters are compressed to death and unlistenable, though recently that trend is improving a little. If you are a vinyl fan, the re-pressings have generally been terrible as well, the art of vinyl making is dying fast. … There are exceptions, of course, and some have been truly fantastic.
I have decided, after spending a lot of money like the crazy music fan and idiot that I am, that it’s just not worth it unless there is really something special about it or the artist is very special to you personally. How many of us have these superdeluxe sets at home and have played the extras maybe one or two times? Then they just sit there taking up space.
As an artist myself, I do understand that there are sometimes good reasons to remix an album, but quite often with these aforementioned releases that isn’t the case, and often the artists aren’t even involved as the major record labels try to cash in on the catalogues they have. But no one is forcing us to buy all of these editions are they? It’s just that hunger we often have for more music from the artists we love.
We have remixed 2 of our own albums for 10th anniversary releases and for good reasons. At least I think they are! I will try to explain.
First we did Traces. The reason I wanted to remix it was that I had originally done the mix myself, and it was only the second album I had ever mixed. I learned a lot from doing it, but it just wasn’t as good as it could have been, and listening back years later I thought it sounded good but not great. The second reason was that the original CD had gone out of print, so it was time to re-press it anyway (or not bother), so why not let Paul van Zeeland mix it?
The icing on the cake was that when I talked to the label about it, the label wanted to release it on vinyl for the first time as well, so it made sense to make sure it was the best it could sound. Paul did an incredible job given the original files were backed up from my hard drive in 2011. I personally think it sounds so much better than my mix, more powerful, more open, more detailed and yet retains the feel and atmosphere of the original, which for me is the key. The CD and vinyl are both available in the web shop here, or you can stream it somewhere to hear it.
Paul van Zeeland had already started remixing One Eye On The Sunrise a few years ago. He was never really happy with the mix and master of the original release.
When he mixed it originally, he had to mix the album in my own small studio on unfamiliar software, monitors and equipment. My studio was certainly not up to the standard of his, or even what mine has become now. Paul and I had only met that summer in 2012 to record the drums with Pieter van Hoorn, and he ended up getting dragged into the whole project …by me :). The other problem we had back then was a time constraint at the end of the project.
We ended up only having 2 weeks to mix and master the whole thing in order to meet the manufacturing deadline for the release by the label. That’s 2 weeks while working full time jobs as well. It’s remarkable that it turned out as well as it did, to be honest.
Paul spent many man hours on the One Eye remix. There were 70 odd versions of one of the track mixes over time! I got sick of hearing them too. One of the big problems was also the source recording of the drums. We didn’t have the best room setup at the time, nor the best microphones for the type of room, so there was a lot to fix in the drums alone,
and everything had to go back to the raw tracks and start again, for every instrument. I think he did an incredible job, it sounds so much better, way more powerful and more open. If you haven’t heard it then stream it or better still the CD is available for purchase in the web shop here. There is even a bonus track included on the new release which was left over from the original sessions.
As for Leaves … that was an album full of different problems and challenges, …. well, Paul has been remixing again, but I don’t think it will ever see a re-release, or maybe we will put them up for download somewhere for free or something … who knows … for now I am more interested in making new music. Creating Diurnal and Adventures In Anhedonia has inspired us to do more … watch this space.
Right, enough of my waffle ..
Cheers
/Adrian