Wednesday 19 November 2008

Gripes and Whingers

..that's a pun on 'Cries & Whispers' one of the many tracks on the 5 x 2 NewOrder remastered 'factory years' albums issued a few weeks back. Much griping and whingeing in fact by the punters who have shelled out loadsa cash for these artefacts which quite frankly, at least going on their various complaints, are just not up to scratch, oops no sorry , standard, many apparently having been remastered from vinyl records!
Perhaps your passing common-or-garden NewOrder fan like myself would never have noticed the missing initial beats on Blue Monday or Senses (this one still to be confirmed..) or even traces of 'rumble' 'pops' and 'crackles' at various points, but I can well understand these hard-core fans being annoyed at "300 confirmed errors..and counting.." and not just in sound but also poor sleeve notes, missing information in CD text info and overall shoddy workmanship by the record company Warner - for it is they of course to blame for all of this...

Says bassist Peter Hook:
“They don’t have half the staff they used to have so everything becomes quite a trial...you get a lot of masters of old songs - they are mastered from the record because nobody can find the tape.” (source BBC)

Warner have 'responded' to complaints saying that if any of the fans want to contact them about the quality of the New Order re-issues, then they can email this address:
Neworder.d2c@warnermusic.com .... Pah!

I don't think any fans of Ultravox and John Foxx will be experiencing the same kind of disappointment as their recent remasters were the fruits of the hard labours of hard core fans liaising with the artists and the record compay in order to ensure a first class product that will not disappoint.
Power to the people!







NewOrder's Peter Hook..."this has nothing to do with us.."




Thanks to RadioBeach for the info sources and for prompting me to write this post.

1 comment:

RadioBeach said...

You tell'em Mark! Power to the people etc!

Seriously though - I'm glad I didn't buy these - will be interesting to see if the re-remasters (set for 2009) are the 'definitive' issue.