Countdown To Ecstasy [Cardboard Sleeve (mini LP)] [Platinum SHM-CD] [Limited Release]

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UICY-40080 

Thanks Ewen

Talk of Yes over on the What are You Listening to thread made me realise that I had no Yes live albums, so...

I wanted to add to my mid seventies Tangerine Dream CD so bought this '95 re-master. All the '95 re-masters of their 70's albums have been good so far...

Unfortunately Force Majeure is not a good remaster, ham-fisted eq, tape hiss, 'too quiet' opening to the 1st track, it seemed like whoever was at the controls did not like the avant-garde noise burst from the layered sequencers so tried to bury it! Most other remasters are sonically good but the artwork, track names and credits are a complete mess across the range. Rant over.

Thanks hafler3o, good knowledge. It does make you wonder how/why a band allows a rubbish re-master to be published or is it the recording company to blame, anyway I will see how I get on with it (too late to cancel) and maybe try the original CD. What's your take on their other re-masters from the '70s? 

Steve

Hi Steve, to keep things brief TAND1 to TAND13, the thirteen remastered studio albums on Virgin (Castle Communications did the earlier and a few later ones) are by and large pretty good sonically, the original Virgin CD releases were good quality as the band music and instrumentation lends itself to the studio. Edgar Froese is on record as saying he always treated the studio as another band instrument. The remasters themselves make minor improvements, but the two glaring errors are track 1 on 'Force Majeure' and track 2 on 'Ricochet'. The former has a lot of problems, the two flip-side tracks however are fine ('Cloudburst Flight' is one of my fave guitar solo tracks for any band, and I have heard a lot of rock music in my time!) Ricochet Part 2 commits the cardinal sin of having the clapping at the beginning of the track chopped off (so much for 'Definitive Edition'!) That alone clearly shows whoever was involved had no real background or interest in the music. I have spent ages listing and cataloguing all the mistakes and inconsistencies on-line with the paltry six page booklets. It was fun!

I'm not sure if anything else genuine can be dredged from the recordings, anything startling must come from new mixes and overdubs (Edgar is fond of tampering with old recordings to the extent that his own solo output remasters on Eastgate are not at all like the originals!) so maybe with the exception of Force.. And Ricochet they are as faithful as they will ever be. I find them all very listenable and sound good even by today's standards in Electronica. To get anything obviously better sounding today you would have to listen to Bola or David Toop or Kraftwerk. Without doubt the best sounding work of someones back catalogue is Klaus Schulze on Revisited Records, the material is direct from original master tape stored by KS own curator Klaus D. Mueller, no remastering required, an absolute delight!

Abel Ganz - Abel Ganz

http://abelganz.bandcamp.com/ 

This is also available as a 24 bit high definition download of new album.  These files are encoded at 24bit 44Khz - exactly the same as were returned from Fluid Mastering Studio.

Damn'! There was a time when, if you were lucky, you could be greeted with 24 bit files when you downloaded FLAC files from Bandcamp. Now someone thought why not make us pay more for that... Those were the good times.

The music sounds good though.

hafler3o thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed response with what seems like  encyclopaedic knowledge of TD and their work and the genre as a whole. I just have 3 of their re-masters to date, Phaedra, Rubicon and Exit and have been pleased with them which is why I enquired of you about the others. I will try some of Klaus Schulze as he is not someone I have listened to before. Once again thank you for your fantastic response, the knowledge freely shared on this site is just a wonder at times. Meanwhile I now await the arrival of the Force Majeure re-master with both interest and trepidation.

Steve

Sarah Jarosz - Follow Me Down

Wow ... absolutely fantastic!

Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer

Wow ... absolutely fantastic!

Hi Steve, don't worry about the words from a perfectionist like me! I'm sure you will enjoy them, FM is top material from that period. If you are a streamer type, I'd pick up the 2 Virgin remaster box sets 'Virgin Years..' As they are dirt cheap and you can re-form the running order of the albums without any problem, and save $$$$! 'Thief' is non-essential and you are better served giving house room to 'Sorcerer' instead (MCA remaster). Thief contains segments of Force Majeure.

Two great non-Virgin releases imo are 'Green Desert' (early) and 'Poland' (post Virgin) Poland is live but all fresh material and sounds like in the studio quality.

When getting into Frank Zappa & Neil Young back catalogue I've picked the brains of others and avoided the poor pressings so it's nice to give a little back. TD were relevant up to the mid eighties, after then I'd be very cautious!

in high res Qobuz...

in high res Qobuz...

again Qobuz in high res...

high res qobuz..