Old Albums, re-done?

WalterDigsTunes wrote: Absolutely not.It might sound spiffy and newfangled today, but in five years, it will sound dated and terribly 2008. Remember when Eloy re-did some of their early tunes for an early 90s compilation? Guess what those tunes sound like today? Besides, to re-record the music is to remove it from its original historical context and suddenly shove it somewhere it doesn't belong. To me, that's a pointless exercise that offends the craftsmanship, ingenuity and freshness of the initial project.That, and I find modern production techniques to be bloody awful

Bingo.

Part of the reason I can't stand Neo-prog is because of so much of it has a horrible over-produced, bland sound.   Back in the day everything was analog and it sounded spectacular. As it still does today. You didn't need a tiny laser to run across the surface of a small plastic disc to hear a great album.    Thats not to say there aren't great albums now or great producers and engineers because there are plenty. But I wouldn't have any band or engineer go and give a classic old album a modern production job. Its silly.

Leave all those seventies classics alone is what I say. Modern production is generally very sterile in comparison. I'm not saying that all seventies production is perfect but it has dynamics and warmth often lacking in many of todays albums. However if you've heard the Beardfish albums, they sound like they've come straight out of the seventies. If only more new albums sounded this good.

I'm all for artists revisiting earlier albums in a live context (Fish's "Return To Childhood" was excellent), but the idea of artists rerecording albums in the studio with modern technology/production just doesn't sit well with me.

I would like to hear Arena's "The Visitor" with Rob Sowden handling all the vocals, but I'd much rather see that on a "Return To The Visitor" DVD/tour.

I've not heard the rehashed 'Phaedra' but I don't think I'd care to- part of the glory of those old TD albums for me is the warm, analogue synth sounds- there's no way in hell digital keyboards could ever improve those albums and their atmosphere IMHO. Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash decided to re-record 'Argus', another one I don't get. Why can't they just release them as live DVDs?

Edited by salmacis - June 27 2008 at 11:24

febus wrote: HAWKWIND and TANGERINE DREAM/ EDGAR FROESE have a tendency to re-record old classics regularly, often not for the better!

MikeEnRegalia wrote: Kotro wrote: I wish most modern albums could sound like the old ones. I'm glad they don't. Think about it ... if modern albums sounded just like the old ones, wouldn't that be quite boring?

MikeEnRegalia wrote: Kotro wrote: I wish most modern albums could sound like the old ones. I'm glad they don't. Think about it ... if modern albums sounded just like the old ones, wouldn't that be quite boring?   There is an exception to this I will make... when a band plays an entire album as a live set and releases that as a live album. That's pretty cool.

Kotro wrote: I wish most modern albums could sound like the old ones.

I'm glad they don't. Think about it ... if modern albums sounded just like the old ones, wouldn't that be quite boring?

WalterDigsTunes wrote: Besides, to re-record the music is to remove it from its original historical context and suddenly shove it somewhere it doesn't belong. To me, that's a pointless exercise that offends the craftsmanship, ingenuity and freshness of the initial project

Re-mastering on the other hand, if done sympathetically to the original album can work wonders without losing (for want of a better word) the "feel" of the source material.

Jimmy Page, for example has done a great job over the years remastering the original led Zeppelin albums & this process (to my ears anyway) reached a peak with last years issue of the remastered 'The Song Remains The Same'... to put that into (again, personal) context - when 'How The West Was Won' came out, its quality knocked the original 'TSRTS' into a cocked hat... when 'Song' was re-released last year, it soared head & shoulders over 'HTWWW' - the remaster really does show LZ at their absolute peak.

BNow if only JP would re-master the live album he released a few years ago with The Black Crowes...

darqDean wrote: It hasn't really worked so far, modern realisation of old albums lack *something*, I don't know whether that's due to modern production techniques, the artists desire to 'tinker' with the original or simply the lack of spontaneity that was present in the studio during the first recording. For alternative versions I'll stick with live albums.   The Enid's In The Region of the Summer Stars (side 2) is limp by comparison to the original and Eloy's recreation of some of their earlier tracks on Chronicles I & II is (as Jean implies) a little too sterile for my tastes. I haven't heard the Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso's original of Darwin, but it gets higher ratings here than the 1991 remake and Tangerine Dream's remake of Phaedra (2005) took such a panning from Rico in his review, I haven't dared buy it

I haven't heard the remake of "Phaedra", but I have heard the remake of Edgar Froese's "Epsilon in Malaysian Pale". if "Phaedra" was remade anything like that, beware! the remake of "Epsilon" is horrible; Froese totally ruined the atmosphere by adding lots of sequencers