Oranges and Lemons ( the Wilson treatment is not too shabby, but is pricey )Originally Posted by NogbadTheBad
The Big Express, Lots of rocking songs
Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) a bit more light hearted than Apple Venus 1 which is also very good.
Nonsuch ( the Wilson treatment is worth it )
The really old stuff can wait for completest urges, Drums and Wires is the standout
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
XTC is the kind of band that I wish they would play on Sirius XM more often (or at all) - I like their songs whenever I hear them, and used to have almost all their albums, but I eventually got rid of them as I just wasn't really interested in listening to the albums anymore. For some reason there are some great bands - Talking Heads is another - where I just lost the desire to listen to full albums, and I'm not one to put on a CD to listen to just one or two tracks.
Well, I guess this is what YouTube is for.
The news of the XTC documentary compels me to round out my XTC collection, and there are sizable holes.
I ordered Nonsuch the other day. I thought I was ordering the Steven Wilson remix, but I guess I got the original CD version instead. Besides the 5.1, what significant goodies--audio or otherwise--am I missing out on?
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
On the blu-ray of Nonsuch there is a 45 min video of the making of the record.
Some interesting ( from my non musician point of view ) insights on how their songs are created.
There are a bunch of different versions of the album, no vocals, high bit-rate, some demo versions. Along with the 5.1, which is very nice.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
You can't go wrong with the Steven Wilson version because even if you don't buy into the hi-res or the surround, you have the rarities, making of vids and the original album mix/mastered files and in some cases the remasters and/or remixes from somewhere in between. With Skylarking you have the original 1986, the 2001(?) remaster, the corrected polarity version from a few years back and Steven Wilson's new stereo and surround mixes.
Can you really tell the difference with the reversed polarity? I have the LP and have always been fine with it. I'm not really a fan of the song "Dear God" (like Andy, I don't really like off-pitch vocals by children).
Hmmm. Sounds like I should've double-checked and made sure to get the SW version. Dammit.
My initial impressions of a 25 year-old album is that this is some of Moulding's best songs--not, mind you, that his songs on the other albums I have are bad, but this set of tunes just feels really top-notch.
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
I have yet to hear what exactly was this "reversed polarity" issue. Left-right channel phase inversion? Certain instrumentation? Vocal tracks?
Having one channel out of phase with the other could result in very audible anomalies. The bass frequencies essentially cancel each other, zapping bass response while the upper frequencies could sound flat or have a flange effect, depending on the type of instrumentation. Both could be investigated at home by switching the phase on one of the stereo pair. I've done this with my stereo and found that my CD sounded correct under proper set-up, i.e. it sounded 'wrong' when I swapped polarity on one speaker.
If it's a particular instrument track that's 180deg out of phase it seems to me that unless it were as described above it might not have that audible an affect on the overall sound quality (not many individual instruments are recorded, or played for that matter, in stereo).
I've listened to the polarity corrected version on YouTube, Dear God and Dying and didn't hear any difference from my CD version. There's also an interview on YouTube with Todd Rundgren calling the phenomena, "horseshit".
huge fan of skylarking and I have to say the reversed polarity thing did not make a noticeable difference to me. I am far from a audiophile but I did buy the snazzy 2LP reissue when it came out and while I love the packaging and presentation couldn't really say it was a revelation compared to my old LP from the 80s.
the new steven Wilson mix though is worth it just for all the bonus goodies on the blu ray (which thankfully works on my player unlike oranges and lemons)
Well I did get the SW version of Skylarking, so at least I got that going for me.
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
Well Todd isn't exactly the poster child for great sounding records.
The Polarity Corrected version has, IMO noticeably fuller sound and the panning is a little different (you can hear it on "That's Really Super, Super Girl" especially.)
Don't use Youtube videos to assess audio quality, Youtube is pretty infamous for applying both audio and video compression.
Ian Beabout
Mixing and mastering engineer. See ya at ProgDay !
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...m/bakers-dozen
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...-and-holland-3
colouratura.bandcamp.com
see, that's what I was driving at before. It depends on what instrumentation was reversed and how. Certain frequencies won't have a huge effect however it could alter the apparent left to right panning from one version to the next. Anyway the interview with Todd is on the YouTube if anyone is interested. He sounded rather indignant about the whole thing.
Moulding and Chambers have a new one:
http://xtcbumperbookoffunforboysandg...i-aka.html?m=1
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
I saw an interview with Partridge a while back and he kinda blew apart the idea I had of he and Moulding being a writing team ala McCartney/Lennon. Not so it seems.
Had my annual XTC marathon over the weekend. From the 3D EP to Wasp Star, XTC's discography is spotless. What a perfectly weird and wonderful band. After Yes and Genesis, they are my favorite band ever.
The Prog Corner
Worth picking up. It's only four songs, but it's four really good songs.
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
I really quite like TC&I, and I would sure as goose shit go to this:
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/news/...bers-gigs/amp/
Biggest XTC news going, says I.
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
Yep!
Colin and Terry are going to do some live shows playing the new stuff and a lot of Colin's XTC tunes!
That is way cool!
That TC&I record is quite good.
The Prog Corner
Wow! I missed this news! Always loved Colin's tunes-'I Remember The Sun', 'Good Things', 'King For A Day', 'One of the Millions', 'Cynical Days', 'Bungalow', all among my very favorites. Of course, Andy's songs are great too.
Here's an interview our local community radio station did with Colin Moulding a few months back if anyone is interested (really great interview btw).
https://soundcloud.com/kdhx/kdhx-int...aposition-2418
I thought I would resurrect this thread as I’ve been on a major XTC kick this past few days. I find lockdown inspires whole catalogue delves while I work. I kicked off with Wing Beat Fantastic as I hadn’t played it in ages, and from there I have been through the entire studio discography.. there are so many superb albums, it really is difficult to pick a favourite. Drums & Wires from the earlier phase is clear, but when we get to English Settlement, Skylarking, Nonsuch, Apple Venus... I find I love them all independently and equal... plus most everything in between.
I am working myself up to another run through the Fuzzy Warbles collection.
I also remember seeing a CD box set in a record store (do you remember those ancient days?), which was packed with BBC sessions, but stupidly I never bought it, and now I’m in regret mode. Does anybody have this one?
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