BOC: Remasters??

[Jon Jarrett]

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004, Carl Edlund Anderson wrote:

> Albert Bouchard wrote:
> > On Jul 6, 2004, at 6:33 PM, JLoehr4299 at AOL.COM wrote:
> >> Are the live albums included, or is it just the studio ones?
> >> And is 'Imaginos' also included? That would be way too heavily
> >> massively cool!
> >
> > The original plan was to do them all with the possible exception of
> > Imaginos. :-( That's what I've been told. CN before Imaginos?
> > Blasphemy!
>
> Blasphemy indeed!  All things considered, the sound of the CD doesn't
> seem so dreadful to me -- but there are a lot of things to be
> considered.  I have a vague memory of Al saying that the original tapes
> got quite a lot of wear in the making of the record, though I suppose
> that may not be relevant to the remastering process.

        I would dearly love to hear _Imaginos_ remastered. I find its
thick overcrowded sound and its low volume levels, on CD or on cassette
(have never heard the vinyl) put me off listening to it (after all,
otherwise it would only be `Imaginos' itself that did that and I could
just program that out :-) ) Obviously the bonus tracks would be worth
having too but basically it needs opening out so very badly. I realise
this is all to do with the limitations of format and technology in 1988,
but given that we're not in 1988 now I wish someone thought it worth
having a crack at it.

        Failing that though, I confess that _Spectres_ and _Mirrors_ are
my two least favourite BOC albums (with _Club Ninja_ wandering around in a
kind of Neptune-Pluto-Charon configuration so that sometimes it's my least
favourite) almost entirely because of the way they sound, which again I
accept is period detail but which I would love to lose so that the
material doesn't sound so dense and wooly.

        I mean ideally it would all have been Pearlman-produced and jammed
out as a band before studio even became an issue but as there were real
people involved and so forth, let's make the best of what we
have. Thankyou Al for clarifying what's taking the time; you are as ever a
model of careful and timely information. Yours,
                                                Jon

--
                Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College, London
    jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk/ejarr01 at students.bbk.ac.uk
  "As much as the vision of the blind man improves with the rising sun,
       So too does the intelligence of the fool after good advice."
       (Bishop Theodulf of Orleans, late-eight/early-ninth century)