Astral Weeks Remaster

I wasn't aware there was a remaster, anywhere! My understanding was that the Rhino pressing was a repress from early ( if not original ) tapes and is all the better for it...but it's not a remaster! The same goes for Moondance.
I await other responses with interest!
james

Great album

Excellent album.
I have an original 1st issue Warner Bros copy (orange label)
remasters are not as good as this

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
It was remastered and put out last year on 180g vinyl and cd.

They are remastering more of his albums as i type.
Stu

Stu

Will they stop remastering them if you stop typing?

I'm afraid my understanding remains that the vinyl reissue was a repressing 'mastered' from the original tapes but was not a remaster as we currently know it, ie put into a computer and tidied up, cleaned, pitch corrected etc ( as well as sometimes compressed etc.)

Van famously had and has no control over the original tapes for AW and Moondance, hence his reason for re-recording AW live and issuing it.


This is so with all the recent Back To Vinyl releases by Warner Bros/Rhino. A decent clean repressing but not a remaster.

james

From what I can see, the remastering was carried out in Japan under the aegis of Rhino Records. And I'm not sure that either was ever released over here.

I ordered CDs of 'Astral Weeks' and 'Moondance', both from the Far East. The remastered 'Moondance' turned up today, and it's so much better: they were so sure of what they were doing that they even left in the tape hiss of the original mastertape.

I can't wait for 'Astral Weeks' to arrive.

G

Has your copy of Astral Wekks got the tambourine intro on Into The Mystic.

The normal pressings didn't have that.

Can't remember but I am sure something happened with the master tapes and that was the way the album was relased but Van wanted the tambourine on the track. Could be the other way around.

Can't they just delete it instead of keep remastering it?

The most overrated album ever, with the possible exception of the Stone Roses' first.

quote:

Originally posted by ewemon:
Has your copy of Astral Wekks got the tambourine intro on Into The Mystic.

Not on 'new' Moondance.

James, the 'new' Astral Weeks and Moondance Japanese CDs sound far fuller and clearer than my EU copies, which I've had for at least 10 years each.

I'm at a disadvantage to comment on what has actually been done to the tapes in the studio because, although each new CD has an introductory/explanatory note running to many pages, in each case it's written in Japanese, which puts it beyond me. On both CDs, however, the cardboard cover that you see on the spine of Japanese CDs has the words (in English) "DIGITAL REMASTER".

That's all I can offer to your question, and I can't comment on any vinyl releases.

Graham

PS Stu, ewemon must have misremembered: as noted above, the track's on Moondance, but the introductory tambourine's not!

Doh!

Apologies to one and all as I said that Into the Mystic was on Astral of course it's on Moondance. Doh and there will be no chocy bisquits for anyone who pointed that out as I will to too busy standing in the corner with my dunces cap on to hand them out.

There is a remastered version of the disc released in Japan in 2008 that has the correct original mix with the tambourine in it and the fog horn should go up in the sound and not fade.

The original WG cd didn't have the tambourine or fog horn going up in the sound on it.

Apparently the US vinyl album released in the 70's did.

When Van sings "and when that fog horn blows" the first time, the fog horn blows, he sings "you know I'll be coming home" and then the tambourine comes in. The second time he sings "and when that fog horn blows", the fog horn blows and the tambourine starts just after the fog horn starts.

Have a listen guys and let me know as I would be interested in getting a copy.

I wonder if they released it in only a small batch then pulled it when they found they had used a different master than is normally used?

I am a little confused about recent re issues of this great album on vinyl. Apparently there is a version on 180gm vinyl remastered from original master tapes by Kevin Gray at Acoustech and pressed at RTI. Has anybody heard this version? I believe the Rhino version recently issued is just an ordinary re pressing.
I have just ordered what I am hoping is the Kevin Gray remastered version on the internet and await its arrival with great anticipation.

quote:

Originally posted by Premmyboy:
I am a little confused about recent re issues of this great album on vinyl. Apparently there is a version on 180gm vinyl remastered from original master tapes by Kevin Gray at Acoustech and pressed at RTI. Has anybody heard this version? I believe the Rhino version recently issued is just an ordinary re pressing.
I have just ordered what I am hoping is the Kevin Gray remastered version on the internet and await its arrival with great anticipation.

What I ask on these sorts of question, is "How do you tell one pressing/master from an other"?

I'm all for obsessions, my life is full of them, but i'm getting the feeling that when you start buying japanese re-masters of mid-sixties recordings for tambourine intros and fog horn uplifts, its time to move on and see what else has happened in the last 45 years, anyway Moondance is such a brilliant record, tambourine intro or not.

quote:

Originally posted by Premmyboy:
I am a little confused about recent re issues of this great album on vinyl. Apparently there is a version on 180gm vinyl remastered from original master tapes by Kevin Gray at Acoustech and pressed at RTI. Has anybody heard this version? I believe the Rhino version recently issued is just an ordinary re pressing.
I have just ordered what I am hoping is the Kevin Gray remastered version on the internet and await its arrival with great anticipation.

You will like the Kevin Gray disc.

quote:

Originally posted by FlipTop:
I'm all for obsessions, my life is full of them, but i'm getting the feeling that when you start buying japanese re-masters of mid-sixties recordings for tambourine intros and fog horn uplifts, its time to move on and see what else has happened in the last 45 years, anyway Moondance is such a brilliant record, tambourine intro or not.

Collecting music is an obsession however so is listening to it. Personally I want the best sounding version of any disc I like to listen to. I hate modern compressed recordings.

Well, I can assure you that the remasters of Astral Weeks and Moondance are not compressed and, missing tambourine or not (about which I'm indifferent, as that's not the way that I listen to records), are well worth having over their previous incarnations on CD.

'Mastered from the original analog master tapes by Kevin Gray at AcousTech Mastering and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.


"…it obsoletes the original in almost every way…When you hear the new reissue, even if you've heard the original 100 times since it first came out, which would easily be me, you will almost jump out of your seat when you hear these familiar elements move from the shadows to the foreground…Astral Weeks, one of the great records of the rock era, is destined to become one of the great reissues of the post-CD/analog revival era." Music = 11/11, Sound = 10/11 – Michael Fremer, www.musicangle.com

1968's Astral Weeks remains not only Morrison's masterpiece but one of the greatest records ever made. A haunting, deeply personal collection of impressionistic folk-styled epics recorded by an all-star jazz backing unit including bassist Richard Davis and drummer Connie Kay, its poetic complexity earned critical raves but made only a minimal commercial impact.'

from the Acoustic Sounds website on the recent vinyl issue. Now I have a copy of this and as Munch says it is wonderful....overated pah!...Do I need a remaster probably not.......do I want to hear one....ohhh yes but my money is still being spent in a certain second hand record shop in Soho so its unlikely!

and only a little part of me wants check for that fog horn! Oh alright then give me 15 minutes ........unless I get captured listening!

james

quote:

Originally posted by graham55:
Well, I can assure you that the remasters of Astral Weeks and Moondance are not compressed and, missing tambourine or not (about which I'm indifferent, as that's not the way that I listen to records), are well worth having over their previous incarnations on CD.

Who's the mastering engineer listed in the booklet?

WB in Japan remastered a batch of discs a couple of years back Ry Cooder, Little Feat etc and for me they were like someone trying to recreate an analogue sound and were truly awful.

Boosted mid ranges and trebles my ears used to bleed listening to them.

Don't know, as I can't read Japanese!

quote:

Originally posted by graham55:
Don't know, as I can't read Japanese!

Graham what's the cat no as I trust your ears and may just order them both.

OK, these are the Japanese-pressed CD nos:

Astral WPCR-75419

Moon WCPR-75420

But be a bit careful about trusting my ears, as I don't always trust them myself!

Graham

quote:

Originally posted by graham55:
OK, these are the Japanese-pressed CD nos:

Astral WPCR-75419

Moon WCPR-75420

But be a bit careful about trusting my ears, as I don't always trust them myself!

Graham

Thanks Graham.

quote:

Originally posted by ewemon:

quote:

Originally posted by Premmyboy:
I am a little confused about recent re issues of this great album on vinyl. Apparently there is a version on 180gm vinyl remastered from original master tapes by Kevin Gray at Acoustech and pressed at RTI. Has anybody heard this version? I believe the Rhino version recently issued is just an ordinary re pressing.
I have just ordered what I am hoping is the Kevin Gray remastered version on the internet and await its arrival with great anticipation.

You will like the Kevin Gray disc.

I have received and played the Kevin Gray version and it really is very good. In fact it is much better than my 70's uk pressing. I have just ordered the Moondance Kevin Gray/Steve Hoffman remaster.