Lots of news
Hello chaps, and chapesses. I’ve been too busy to blog for the last couple of weeks, but lots to report.
The main preoccupation has been getting ready to release ‘Singular’ next week, and ‘The Golden Age Of Wireless’ and ‘The Flat Earth’ re-releases about 5-6 weeks later. All packages are now complete and I can heave a sigh of relief. Even though the music is back catalog, there’s a heck of a lot of work involved. Firstly there’s the audio remastering, which I oversee though it’s done at Abbey Road by Peter Mew. I think they sound really good. Okay, vinyl has its fans, but it was always a pain to master to. Modern analog to digital converters are a vast improvement on the ones used to make the original CDs in the mid-90s. There’s the worry about the current tendency to use predictive limiting on CDs, which boosts the apparent volume at the expense of dynamics and subtlety. I wasn’t interested in that, just in maximising the clarity, and levelling out volume and EQ of the ‘bonus tracks’ (more on those later.)
Next, the bonus tracks. Don’t want to spill the beans yet, so I’ll publish a GAOW and TFE full track listing presently (or in fact Amazon might pip me to it once they get the official pre-release blurb from EMI.) I’ve included all peripheral songs from each era that didn’t make it onto the albums for whatever reason; a couple of songs I wrote for movies; a handful of original low-quality backroom demos, which are pretty comical; and two live songs. I’ve never been prolific by most standards, yet I found I had enough choices that I had to leave some stuff off—so I’m going to make the extras available as free downloads from my web site. In general I avoided 12″ mixes, because often those were just re-edits of the album versions, and not worth taking up space with.
Then there’s the sleeves. Job one is to get all the credits straight, combining original credits with new ones, and sorting out who played what on the bonus tracks. And those musicians had to be approached for their consent (nice to touch base with a few people I haven’t talked to for years like Justin Hildreth and Lyndon Connah.) In some cases the master recordings belonged neither to me nor to EMI, in which case the copyright owners had to be tracked down—not easy given the continual cannibalism of the music industry. Next, I wrote some notes and reminiscences about each and every track on the two albums. I had to verify facts, then edit them enough so that they fit within the layout of the 8-page booklet in each CD. I worked with art director Scott Minshall to go through old photo libraries, pick out stuff I liked, then find the photographers and get their approval; Scott did some layouts and we iterated a lot on fonts etc. The GAOW release includes a DVD of ‘Live Wirless’, an entire concert from that era; so of course there were the menus and interactive aspect of that to work on.
To enable listeners to download additional material from the site, Webmistress Carli (aka Lunesse) came up with a scheme that lets all registered Forum members get free access. There will be lyrics and additional song downloads there. I think there’s going to be quite a lot to discuss so it made sense to put the content within the Forum where new fans can interact with long-term Flat Earth Society stalwarts. Naturally, I’m hoping these re-releases attract a new generation of people that were too young or not yet born when they first came out. Then when I put out my *brand new* album (hopefully within the next year) I’ll have a solid base of listeners.
In all, I’ve done probably more admin and editing work on these re-releases than I did when the albums first came out. In those days there was a much bigger team of pros to take care of things, and I was off doing promotion and touring. I don’t mind it though, I try to give it a personal touch and make the products as good as I can. ‘Singular’ was always intended to be a low-budget way to give some new fans access to my old singles, and as such will not appeal to some long-term fans, but GAOW and TFE are beautiful collectors’ editions that include rare material, and I think they will be terrific value for money.
I’ve also been doing some interviews for the releases, such as a piece for The Word, and I shot a new press photo session here at the Nutmeg of Consolation with Richard Skidmore, who took the pic above. I’m also Guest DJ on a podcast by a very well-known publication, which should be out on Tuesday, the day Singular hits the stores.
So now I can exhale and get back to my recording. A lot’s been going on on that front too, which I will tell you about in my next blog.
Ciao!
Fantastic stuff.
This will be – I believe – the fourth time I have bought TFE. I promise not to scratch, sell or lose it this time.
My heart, she sings with joy!
Will there be any live events going on now or when the new material’s out? I always avoided being too fannish when I were younger, ‘cos it wasn’t cool, but now I’m old and don’t give a fig it’d be nice to get the Dolby hancock on one or more of the above.
I’m definitely looking forward to next week when ‘Singular’ lands on my desk:). I’m a geeky online person, but I still like to have physical CDs with all the artwork etc. Sounds like you’ve done a lot of work on this one and GAOW and TFE are definitely on my pre-order list as soon as they’re available (but not from Amazon…then I’d have to pay Danish VAT at 25% hehe).
Have a great weekend
/n
Really great news – I’ll be plugging these releases on the Japan and YMO fan forums where a lot of people who like your music hang out (but who are maybe not die-hard fans and who in a lot of cases have not bought the albums on CD). We recently had a great thread about your music and a lot of people came forward to discuss old chestnuts like the different versions of “Wireless” etc. There’s a lot of love for your work out there – we must get as many as possible to buy the new remasters.
I second your hope for live events ProfessorHiggins, when I first fell in love with GAOW in ’82 my parents wouldn’t let me go to concerts (too young in their far too strict opinion!) and at university in ’89-’91 I never had the chance. Then I moved to Denmark in ’92 and it’s hard to follow the live music scene from over here (unless it’s Michael Jackson/Kylie/Robbie etc). Now I’m at the age where flying to London for a concert is actually a (financially) viable option (thank goodness I’m not a teenager any more!). So I’d better start saving up for the plane tickets straight away
If I understand your comment about “predictive limiting” correctly, thank you very much for taking care to avoid the “Loudness War.”
Your attention to detail on these projects is MUCH appreciated! Those of us who hold these works in such high esteem are being rewarded with your re-visitation and enhancement of them after all these years. Many thanks! I hope it brings you oodles of re-emerging and new fans… It’s also nice that you’ve had a chance to reconnect with former collaborators. Must take you back!
2 questions though:
1. When do you sleep?!?!
2. In the photo above, are you looking inland or out to sea??
Beech
As ever, a great blog Thomas. Lots of exciting news and very candid. I’m so excited about the downloads for rarities and other tracks that didn’t make it on the re-release. I really hope all goes well with the upcoming releases and that the new songs continue to flourish. Do you know if there will be much promotion going on for the re-releases?
Andrew
Since I don’t know where else to ask…
Amazon (US) has an ‘import’ CD+DVD set of Singular listed. Will there be a North American/NTSC version of this, or just a UK/PAL version?
Great news Thomas, look forward to hearing the rare stuff and also seeing the GAOW live dvd, Was this shot at just one venue?.
As for you gaining new fans my son came to the gig @ isllington the other year and now his hooked, WERE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT UK SHOWS.
Happy news indeed! Except…
In general I avoided 12″ mixes, because often those were just re-edits of the album versions, and not worth taking up space with.
I hope you don’t mean the versions that appeared on Blinded By Science. I adore that EP and only have it on vinyl. (The longer version of “Airwaves” alone is ample justification for me to keep a turntable in the house…)
Buoy, oh buoy I can’t wait to get my hands on this stuff. The Live Wireless DVD is very pleasing. Will the sound balance be restored I wonder?
All dat an’ a solar panel too!
Wow, still waters really *do* run deep. I’m gobsmacked, and thrilled!
I bet we *all* are! Ah, downloads to registered Forum members (I’m
#30, meself, so
[Dang! Don't know what I pressed, exactly, but here's the rest, hee
hee...] so, I was *dere*) –what awesomeness! Thank you Carli, Thomas,
various musicians, my family, my podiatrist…what? Ooops, sorry, side-
slipped into my fantasy Grammy acceptance speech, there, hee hee,
and there but for guts go I.
Wow, what a fabulous buffet of music to look forward to! Thank you for all
Peace, Kara
of (olive) your hard work, Thomas! Take a bow.
I’m with Riley – I’d love NTSC versions of the companion DVDs that my PS3 won’t freak out over.
Otherwise, waiting with deep anticipation for the new editions!
Great news! Looking forward to the GAOW and TFE releases.
Would love to see what the studio looks like now.
Maybe a few teaser shots of a session or two?
Evan: Tom said he was trying to replicate the original UK vinyl release track list for the album segment, including “The Wreck of the Fairchild” and…the long version of “Airwaves,” which is the proper version; notice how you don’t hear any 80′s remix earmarks in that one?
Tom: I don’t remember if I suggested putting the extra tracks that wouldn’t make the reissues up for download or not, but, whoever did it, thank you very much for that. You can bet that I’ll be buying those discs, and that just makes it sweeter.
Wow, excellent news. Is this going to be a UK release only or a global thing I can get here in the states too via Amazon. Either way I’ll get ‘em you can be sure of that! Very happy to hear about “Live Wireless” finally getting an official DVD release. I had a VHS tape recording I originally got from when MTV US had it on a few times back in the 1983(?) . Incredibly, I was able to convert that tape to digital DVD about 7 years ago ( For my own use btw!) and surprisingly it ‘s not too bad except mono and pretty hissy with the occasional drop-outs. Interestingly on that same VHS tape I had a lot of oddball stuff from Cabaret Voltaire and other groups that were on the Some Bizarre label. Hopefully seeing and hearing this official one will be like having cataracts removed from my eyes and cotton taken out of my ears. Btw I think that version of “Airwaves” you ended that concert on is by far the best version of that some you ever did. You might feel it was a little “FM AOR” over produced but it chokes me up every time I see it! Probably the closest you ever came to a “Steely Dan” type warm melancholic sound. Can’t wait!
Thank you for the updates, the chance to feel a part of the process. It’s been a long time since I’ve anticipated something with as much glee as I am for the new GAOW and TFE!
Can’t wait to hear / watch The Singular, TFE, TGAOW.
Veeeery curious about the bonus tracks. Thanks for the re-releases Thomas.
Wow great news on all fronts to be sure.
My old vhs copy of live wireless will no longer be depended on the same way again.
I look forward to the remasters and the new music.
Duck Orange (howard?) I second your comments about not loaning, scratching or losing these precious new cds.
Oh wow! These new releases sound absolutely the bis! Can’t wait. I’ll be checking Amazon every day now. (Probably will get Singular as a stopgap..
)
Can’t wait and free downloads – woo hoo! Absolutely awesome coat – who made it?
all sounds good to me.
and though it is more important to put out new stuff, what about a reworking of buick and heretics?
and a full concert of the heretics tour!!!!!!! (dvdA – 5.1)
A
It will be great to hear what you’ve been up to all these months. Does any of your soundtracks include the miscellaneous background noises you mentioned on Twitter?
Thank you for avoiding the evil loudness wars. I wish more artists had the influence/willingness/ability/whatever to say no to overcompressed music.
(Quiet plug for http://www.turnmeup.org/)
You shouldn’t be concerned with NTSC or PAL formats as far as DVD is concerned, you should be asking if it is a Region 2 (UK), Region 1 (US), or Region 0 (playable anywhere) disc.
And Thomas, I know you put off including the 12″ remix versions in these re-releases, but I just love those. Would be nice if they were available as a bonus at some point.
Can’t wait to hear the remastered “Singular”!
.
The whole thing sounds very involved. Very happy to have you back and can’t wait to hear own and over play your new songs!