James Eldred
Behind “Behind The Mask”
Last month I made a trip to San Francisco to see some friends and take in the sights. Whenever I’m in the bay area I always make sure to stop by Amoeba, one of the world’s largest and greatest record stores, and buy as much as my suitcase allows (spoiler: I had to buy another suitcase). During this past visit, I scored some CDs and LPs by Ryuichi Sakamoto, the keyboardist of the legendary Japanese synth-pop band Yellow Magic Orchestra, and an accomplished solo artist whose work runs the gamut from silly pop music to Oscar-winning film scores.
One of his CDs that I picked up was Media Bahn Live, a concert album that chronicles his 1986 tour. One of the main reasons I bought it was because it features a live version of “Behind The Mask,” one of my favorite YMO tracks, and a song I first discovered on the American YMO compilation album X∞Multiplies. Here’s a live version by the group from 1983
In my opinion it’s a synthpop classic. It has everything I look for in the genre; a catchy melody, a dance-friendly beat, and deep, if somewhat obtuse, lyrics that convey a cold and robotic feeling.
So imagine my surprise when I popped Media Bahn Live into my computer and heard this version:
The melody remained (kind of) but nearly every other aspect of the song had been radically altered. This was no longer a synthpop track, this was a pop song, a funky, rock-influenced pop song at that.
And those new lyrics!? What the hell are they and where the hell did they come from?
Curious, I checked the CD linear notes to see if any other songwriters got a hold of the song or contributed to it.
Wait, what?
As it turns out, “Behind The Mask” has a pretty crazy history.
Vinyl/CD Review: Nirvana – In Utero Anniversary Editions
Let’s not beat around the bush here: the 20th Anniversary Edition of Nevermind was a gigantic piece of shit.
It was overpriced, it lacked key outtakes and included useless filler. But most importantly, it sounded like complete garbage. In the hands of Bob Ludwig, the album was “remastered” into a compressed, noisy mess. All the dynamic range of the original recordings was stripped out and replaced with loud, distorted noise.
It was a goddamn tragedy.
So as you can probably imagine, I was more than a bit trepidatious when details started to leak out about the In Utero 20th Anniversary Edition. From the second I heard about it, I thought they were going to fuck it up. I thought they were going to overcompress it, fill it with needless bullshit, and charge way too much for it. I thought they were going to go half-assed once more, and just create another needless cash-in at the sake of one of the most important and greatest albums of my generations.
I’ve never been so happy to be so wrong.
Vinyl Review: Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks
Hesitation Marks came out several weeks ago, so I feel that me reviewing it would be kind of pointless by now. Want my quick take? It’s a good record, a nice return for Trent into the world of Nine Inch Nails, and an interesting change of pace. I like that he’s expanding his sound to include more synthpop and electronic elements, and I hope he continues to branch out and away from the industrial sound he’s known for. “Everything” “Copy Of A” and “Came Back Haunted” are great tracks, with the last really showing how Reznor has grown as a songwriter (while wearing his Gary Numan influences on his sleeve).
So yeah, it’s a good album. You should buy it.
You should just be careful about which version you buy.
Vinyl Review: Earthless – Under A Cosmic Sky (Outer Battery Clear Vinyl Edition)
I can be a pretty obsessive collector at times, especially when someone flashes the words “limited edition” in front of me. The second you tell me I might not be able to have it, I want it. Especially if the limited edition in question is a special color or comes in a special package. To me, these are the best kinds of limited editions. They have that aura of exclusivity and rarity that collectors like me salivate over, but they’re not keeping extra songs away from fans who may not have the luck, or economic means, to score the hard-to-find items.
Outer Battery Records, a small label that deals mostly in metal and punk, get this. So when they scored the rights to release a limited edition of Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky, the sophomore album by San Diego psychedelic rockers Earthless, they did it right: it’s identical to the original in every way, the only difference being that it’s on crystal clear translucent vinyl.
Oh, and they also made if fucking RARE.
Hesitation Marks: A Tale of Two Masters – Part 1
Last week, word came via Nine Inch Nails’ official Tumblr that they would be offering two different masters of their latest album Hesitation Marks: a “loud” master and an “audiophile” master. The “loud” master would be the one found on iTunes, Amazon and on the CD itself, while the “audiophile” master would only be made available as a download to those who bought the album via the official Nine Inch Nails website.
Why? Well, as the album’s engineer Tom Baker explained via the official announcement, “The standard version is “loud” and more aggressive and has more of a bite or edge to the sound with a tighter low end. The Audiophile Mastered Version highlights the mixes as they are without compromising the dynamics and low end, and not being concerned about how “loud” the album would be. The goal was to simply allow the mixes to retain the spatial relationship between instruments and the robust, grandiose sound.”
So what it sounded like was that this idea was basically Trent’s way to try and have is over-compressed album and eat his dynamic range cake too; offer a “competitive” loud mix for mass consumption while delivering a properly mastered mix with full dynamic range to those who care.
Sounds great, right?
Well, it would have been, if it wasn’t a damned lie.
Vinyl Review: Franz Ferdinand – Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action (Deluxe Passport Edition)
When Franz Ferdinand burst onto the scene in the early-2000s, many critics were eager to group them into the then-hot post-punk revival scene that included bands like The White Stripes, The Hives, The Strokes and The Vines. However, such a comparison was unjust, or at the very least too broad. First of all, the very idea of “post-punk revival” being a genre is in itself vague and inaccurate, because “post-punk” was also a vague and inaccurate genre. The Talking Heads were considered post-punk, so were Blondie, Joy Division and Public Image Ltd. There are some loose common threads there for sure, but what the hell do Joy Division and Blondie have in common? About as much as The White Stripes and Franz Ferdinand do – which is not much at all.
My Weirdest Record: Hey Everyone! Let’s All Interview David Bowie!
I have quite a few interview albums, but this one is pretty unique.
First, a backstory on interview LPs. You have to understand that 99% of these were never meant to be released to the public. Instead, they were given out to radio stations, that were then encouraged to play them as if they were live interviews or pre-taped segments. They were frequently called “programming aids” although a more apt title would have been “blatant commercials.”
Vinyl Review: The Fog (Blakes Gold Edition)
Death Waltz Recording Company is label that knows what the fuck it’s doing, not only in terms of quality, but in how they treat their customers.
Earlier this year, the label put out a brand new edition of the soundtrack to John Carpenter’s classic film The Fog. Two versions were made available; a standard black edition, and a clear variant with colored splatter. Both were strictly limited.
Death Waltz deals in limited editions all the time, but the demand for this release was unlike anything they did before. When the item pages for the LPs were went live, their site crashed, leaving many who had placed orders in their carts to lose them, and many others not even able to get that far. By the time the mess was all sorted out, all the copies were snagged, leaving an angry bunch of soundtrack fans in its wake.
But like I said, Death Waltz is a label that knows what the fuck it’s doing. So as a response to this, and in an effort to cull eBay scalping/fanboy rage, they’ve gone ahead and done the right thing by making an all-new, just as nifty-looking second pressing of the soundtrack available. Not only that, they’ve seemingly made more than enough to go around, so anyone who wants a copy should be able to get one.
But should they?
Out Of Print Soundtracks We Need Back In Print
As a music geek with a film studies degree, I really like soundtracks.
But collecting soundtracks can be an incredibly expensive, and frustrating hobby, because they often go out of print just as soon as they’re released.
That’s because most soundtracks and scores are usually seen by movie studios as little more than promotional tie-ins to the films they’re associated with, not proper albums worthy of their own promotion or self life. Sure, there are some very notable exceptions to this, soundtracks to movies like The Crow, Saturday Night Fever and Flashdance will always stay in print, but that’s widely because the success of those albums and others like them often eclipsed (or, in some cases, caused) whatever the success the movies themselves had.
But for the most part, once a movie makes it to home video, the soundtrack or score is pulled from shelves and is almost never heard from again. The only chance collector’s like me have of snagging them then is on eBay or via a chance encounter at a used records store.
Of course, sometimes a re-issue label like Intrada, La La Land Records or Death Waltz Recordings get their hands on it and make it available once more. But even with those labels doing their best, a lot of amazing soundtracks continue to be unavailable, or they do get re-released, but only in super-limited runs that go out of print just as fast as the original versions. It’s a shame, and it shouldn’t be this way, especially in the age of digital distribution.
As much as I abhor “list” type articles, I really wanted to showcase how bad this problem is, and I couldn’t think of any other way to do it. So here, in no certain order at all, are my most wanted out-of-print soundtracks. Prepare to be shocked, both at what soundtracks continue to be out of print, and in my taste in bad 80s flicks.
Vinyl Review: Re-Animator Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Waxworks Edition)
Cult film soundtrack re-issues are apparently big business now. There are two CD-only labels who deal almost solely in them (La La Land and Intrada) and new vinyl-focused labels with an interest in old horror and sci-fi film scores seem to be popping up everyday. First it was Mondo Tees, then Death Waltz, now it’s Waxworks, who have come out the gate with the score to one of the most beloved cult classics of all-time, 1985 horror/comedy classic Re-Animator.