HW: EMI remasters?

[Stephen Swann]

Marshall Wood writes:
>
> I've got some embarassing holes in my HW CD collection,
> namely _Hawkwind_, _ISoS_, _Doremi..._, and _HotMG_ (I
> have _HotMG_ on tape, never heard the others).  I'm
> considering shelling out the bucks for the EMI _ISoS_
> remaster, just to see the Hawkwind Log, but I might
> settle for the One Way versions of the others.  Anyone
> care to share their opinion of the remasters?  Which
> ones have the best/rarest bonus tracks?  Best packaging?
> Best improvement over the One Way release?

(I'm ignoring the first album here, since I don't have the remaster
of it.)

The packaging for all of them is very beautiful and apparently
complete, but basically sucks: it tears if you breathe on it, and
scratches if you look at it.  I swapped all my One Way CDs into those
packages and put them in storage, and put the remasters (in the One
Way cases) on my CD shelves.

Anyway, on to the question of "which ones are worth getting?".  The
answer is, of course: "Buy all of them, buy all of them now!!"  If you
really can't afford that option, here's a more reasonable answer for
you:

I thought that Hall of the Mountain Grill was the one that gained the
most through the remastering.  I suspect that this is because the
music on _Hall_ is more subtle and more complex than the others.

Space Ritual is probably the release that gained the least through the
remastering.  Not because the remaster isn't wonderfully done (it is),
but rather, because the One Way release sounded fine to begin with.
Yeah, it's a little murky, but that's ok, just think of it as the
audible equivalent of the smoke haze you would have had at the
concert.  ;-)  The One Way release is crushingly heavy, which
is mostly what I want from Space Ritual anyway, and I still
think that it's just fine.

So, the order in which I consider the remasters to be "necessary":

Hall
Doremi (Brainstorm sounds like a 747 landing on your head)
In Search (Master of the Universe, like you've never heard it before)
Space Ritual

> What's the cheapest source for these CDs here in the US?

Errrr, dunno.  I ordered them when they were first available, and paid
top dollar (more than $100 for the set of 4 that I got).  They were
worth it.  Those albums have never sounded so good.

> Any chance that any of these CDs will get a US domestic
> release?

Not only are they not available domestically, but I believe I heard
not long ago that _Griffin_ had folded...?  And they were the best
chance by far of the remasters ever being released domestically.

You know, I don't know how well those remasters have sold, but they
*were* a limited pressing, and if someday they're not available
anymore, everybody who didn't buy them when they were easily available
is going to *seriously* regret it!  :-)

Steve