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Thread: Steven Wilson remixes CHICAGO II

  1. #1
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    Chicago II SW Remix Release

    CHICAGO II: STEVEN WILSON REMIX will be available January 27 on CD. The newly remixed album will also be released as a double-LP set later next year.

    Indication is that this is a stereo remix.

  2. #2

    Steven Wilson remixes CHICAGO II

    Had no idea this was in the pipeline or that SW was a fan!

    Steven Wilson Remixes·Wednesday, November 30, 2016

    .
    I was honoured to be invited by Chicago to remix their classic second album from 1970 earlier this year, and this has now been announced for release on CD on 27th January by RHINO / Warner Music Group. Here is the official press release:
    More than 40 years after its debut, Chicago II still sounds like nothing else. Released in 1970, Chicago's second album brims with confidence and inspiration as it draws on everything from orchestral music to heavy rock. Although it never affected the record's popularity - it peaked at #4 on the album chart and spawned a trio of Top Ten hits - many fans have longed for a more-nuanced mix. That wish is about to come true with a new stereo version created by British musician and producer Steven Wilson.

    CHICAGO II: STEVEN WILSON REMIX will be available January 27 on CD. The newly remixed album will also be released as a double-LP set later next year.
    Chicago II has been remixed before, but never like this. For the first time, a stereo remix from the 16-track multi-track tapes made it possible for Steven Wilson to bring out elements that were muffled or submerged in the mix. The result is a new stereo version of Chicago II that boasts clearness, punch and definition that it didn't have before.
    Wilson explains: "Working with high-resolution 96K/24 bit digitally transferred files, I had every element from the recording sessions isolated, which meant I was able to rebuild the mix from the drums upwards, recreating as closely as I could the equalization, stereo placement, reverbs, other effects, and volume changes of each individual instrument or vocal - but at the same time looking to gain definition and clarity in the overall sound."
    In 1969, Chicago recorded the band's follow-up to their debut album, Chicago Transit Authority (voted 2014 into the Grammy Hall of Fame). When it arrived in January 1970, Chicago II became an instant sensation. Principal composers, James Pankow and Robert Lamm, emerged further as the band's source of Top Ten hits for the group, including "Make Me Smile" and "Colour My World," as well as "25 or 6 to 4," which peaked at #4 and has become one of the band's signature songs. Terry Kath, Robert Lamm, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, Walter Parazaider, also Danny Seraphine and Peter Cetera ... somehow found time (while touring the world behind the success of "CTA") to prepare another double LP album.
    "So rich was their creative seam at the time that, like their debut, and the album that followed this one, it was a two record set," says Wilson. "In fact, with unprecedented boldness the run of double albums was only broken by their fourth which was a quadruple (live) set! I consider all of these albums to be classics, but perhaps Chicago II is the pre-eminent masterpiece. It's got everything: moments of tender beauty to power riffs and scorched-earth jazz-rock, catchy melodies and gorgeous vocal harmonies. When I first heard it as a teenager I was captivated by the mixture of jazz, blues, pop, classical, progressive and heavy rock styles, including both improvisational elements and intricate arrangements, and by songs written and sung by several different members, all with their own unique personality. How could that possibly hang together?! But it does, and brilliantly so."
    The album, which was certified platinum by the RIAA, soon after its release, also highlighted some of the band's most ambitious work, such as the 13-minute song cycle "Ballet For A Girl In Buchannon," composed by James Pankow, as well as "Memories Of Love," a Terry Kath song, arranged for orchestra by Peter Matz. Chicago's lasting musical impact was recognized in April of 2016, with their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

  3. #3
    Member Man In The Mountain's Avatar
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    Wow, this is AMAZING. Totally out of left field, who knew??

    I will buy.

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    Member since March 2004 mozo-pg's Avatar
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    Cool.

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    This has always been a 'difficult' recording, to say the least, especially with regard to the drum sound. A classic album as well. I'm not a 'remix guy' really but it makes sense to do this one. This was from when Chicago were very much a 'progressive' group.

  6. #6
    Would love to listen to a good sounding edition of this album. The Rhino CD sounds like crud.

  7. #7
    Auto buy. I've always held out on buying this one, I always tell myself I should but I never do. This news has just sold me on it.

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    Auto buy [emoji106]

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reid View Post
    Would love to listen to a good sounding edition of this album. The Rhino CD sounds like crud.
    I have one in a set of their other albums...strikes me that it's the mix that's the problem and the mastering engineers can only do so much with that.

  10. #10
    I always heard the 70s classics through the compilations Chicago IX and much later The Heart of Chicago 1 and 2, so I was surprised (but shouldn't have been) to just now see there are as many classics on CTA as on Chicago II. So wouldn't it make sense for Wilson to remix TRA as well?

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    Definitely looking forward to this release although I am always a 'wait and see' buyer when it comes to remixes.

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    Moderator Sean's Avatar
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    This was by far the worst sounding album of theirs, it sounded like a towel was over the speakers. It was ripe for a remix.

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    Very intriguing. I was unaware of this until now. I'll probably buy this since I'm a Wilson collector and my interest in Chicago is limited to their first four albums.

  15. #15
    This is several galaxies beyond awesome. My curiosity to hear this is feverish.

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    I've admired the early Chicago albums since the 70s, back when a friend's older brother was big on them. But I've never gotten around to buying anything by them. Too many scars from the Peter Cetera 80s era, I suppose. This may be the right time to dive in.

    But who knew that SW was a fan, let along really aware of them? They're such an American group and I never got the sense they -- or their style of music -- were ever on his radar.
    I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mkeneally View Post
    This is several galaxies beyond awesome. My curiosity to hear this is feverish.
    Post of the day!

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    I had a few Chicago albums back in the day, including Chicago II. Ditched them all sometime after college, because of both the growing Cetera cheese-factor and lack of guitar-driven tunes. But I'd be more than willing to shell out for Chicago II remixed with a little more oomph.
    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

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    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gizmotron View Post
    Post of the day!
    The best part for me is that I read those words and said, "Was that Keneally?"
    Hurtleturtled Out of Heaven - an electronic music composition, on CD and vinyl
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  20. #20
    I'm actually contemplating something so profoundly radical as to - gulp! - sit this one out and rather perhaps at least maybe consider the insanity of investing in a release by some unknown artist whose fucking music I fascinatingly haven't been hearing through these past 45+ years already but is supposedly (in somewhat) contrast new and kinda happening in the now.

    Good record though, however I can think of a few thousand that are. I guess Stevie intends to run through all of them at some point.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

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    Steven Wilson remixes CHICAGO II

    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    I'm actually contemplating something so profoundly radical as to - gulp! - sit this one out and rather perhaps at least maybe consider the insanity of investing in a release by some unknown artist whose fucking music I fascinatingly haven't been hearing through these past 45+ years already but is supposedly (in somewhat) contrast new and kinda happening in the now.

    Good record though, however I can think of a few thousand that are. I guess Stevie intends to run through all of them at some point.
    Good but does this thread belong on the Prog forum and not OT Music and Arts. I posted a thread there for this at nearly the exact same time as this, not that I have thread envy. The moderators may want to get down to one thread though.

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    from the rhino records page ad it looks like a single CD release.... Guess they haven't learned anything from the Jethro Tull S. Wilson remixe releases ( so well done!)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kanukisbrave View Post
    from the rhino records page ad it looks like a single CD release.... Guess they haven't learned anything from the Jethro Tull S. Wilson remixe releases ( so well done!)
    That's what the announcement at the beginning of this thread indicates, "a stereo remix is made possible".

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    Well it's presumably always been 'possible' as they have previously released a 5.1 mix of the same album.

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    From the second disc.com:

    Wilson's remix of the platinum album will be released by Rhino on January 27, 2017 in CD format, with an LP edition to follow later in the year. Surprisingly, no high-resolution format release has yet been announced, nor has a new surround mix - a Wilson specialty. (Chicago II has already been released on DVD-Audio in 5.1 surround as well as, more recently, in Blu-ray Audio in its original 4.0 quadraphonic mix as part of the box set Quadio.) Placeholder pre-order links are available below for Chicago II: Steven Wilson Remix; they should soon be fully active!

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