Dr_Jones wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 11:11 pm
I think JMJ's philosophy is that when an album is finished, it is finished. Adding tracks in a later release would void the "integrity" of the album. You wouldn't paint an extra tree in the background of the Mona Lisa years later, to put it in painter's terms. And as Finaero already mentioned: the 2013 Vangelis remasters are guilty of this offense by pulling a George Lucas, so that's the other end of the spectrum.
I do agree that I think that's his train of thought, especially considering his explanation for Music For Supermarkets. But I don't understand this line of thought however, an album is not a painting. It's such a strange thought, because they're completely different forms of art and not comparable in any way. It's like saying an apple is the same as exercising. Yes, both are healthy for you, but they're completely different altogether.
The upside of this digital age is that you can harness it and add to your work. You don't change the album by including alternate mixes, you add to the experience. You're not adding a tree to the Mona Lisa, you're making a new identical copy of said painting and adding something new besides that work. So you add a very small extra painting on the back which you can enjoy if you're so inclined to turn the painting over.
However, how is making your work as loud as can be, giving it a smiley curve EQ and reworking the cover art not considered changing the art? Because for some reason, this isn't where the line is drawn on his art. Might as well have kept the original 70's/80's masters in print without ever remastering altogether. That's the most honest way to represent the album, short of giving a 1-1 copy of the magnetic tape.
Also, let's not forget that Rendez-Vous remaster that used a aging tape that had suffered intensely in the first track of speed differences. What do we call that? A bastardization?
As for the Vangelis remasters, I own all of them in the Delectus set, it's a pretty decent bunch of remasters. I strongly disagree with the added reverb on a couple of them. But the overall quality was amazing, great sound quality, a couple of really nice extras and the new tracks were great to finally have in a digital format instead of the vinyl only versions available before the set. The tape transfers had no issues at all, the applied EQ was extremely subtle for the most part, problematic older releases were ironed out (China in specific) and the Dynamic Range was as brilliant as it always was with Vangelis.
The real problem that they suffered from (deliberately anyway) was, like mentioned, the new reverb which sounded terrible on the few that had them. QA also was somewhat hit or miss with some audio drops on Antarctica and Mask. But considering how many albums they were, there were few legit faults at play, but it would've been nice to have the perfect original releases in a digital format, but alas.
Dr_Jones wrote: ↑Mon Feb 08, 2021 11:11 pmPopcorn was released on a compilation CD by the original company who published the track in Belgium back in 1972. So no vinyl rip too.
So I remember that correctly, still curious why that version of all versions made its way onto such a compilation. It's really that great a version.