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Blast From the Past: Best Reissues 2023
Louder Than War highlights some of this year’s best reissues. It’s impossible to exclude reissues from the summary of the year’s highlights. Reissues revitalise albums from the past and add a new dimension to the narrative of music history. 2023 saw at least three releases reframing the momentous snapshot. Previously unheard demos by Lou Reed […]
The post Blast From the Past: Best Reissues 2023 appeared first on Louder Than War.
Louder Than War highlights some of this year’s best reissues.
It’s impossible to exclude reissues from the summary of the year’s highlights. Reissues revitalise albums from the past and add a new dimension to the narrative of music history. 2023 saw at least three releases reframing the momentous snapshot. Previously unheard demos by Lou Reed and the deluxe edition of Revolver by The Beatles give a better context as well as a new flavour to what was seen as common knowledge. Others help the obscure acts to reach out to the audience, separated from them by decades. Here is a list of ten reissues that made this year special.
Lou Reed – Words & Music, May 1965 (Light In The Attic)
Words & Music, May 1965 reveals a different facet of Lou Reed’s artistic heritage which might be not obvious behind the media image of the Velvet Underground and his later solo project. It tells a story from a different perspective. The format of the May 1965 compilation predates DIY records by punk bands in the 70s. It makes one wonder whether Lou Reed was hoping that this sealed tape would be discovered in the future. If it is meant to be a time capsule, the goal is achieved.
The Cure – Wish
The new edition of the band’s ninth album features refined versions of songs, newly remastered by Robert Smith and Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. In addition to the familiar material, the three-CD reissue contains one disc with 24 previously unreleased tracks by The Cure. Wish was released in 1992, following the best-selling trajectory of Disintegration. Talking with music critic Simon Reynolds in 1992, Robert Smith elaborated on the record’s concept. “In one sense, it’s me addressing myself. It’s about the personal sometimes fall into. On another level, it’s addressed to people who expect me to know things and have answers – fans, and on a personal level, certain individuals”.
Barry Adamson – Oedipus Schmoedipus (Mute)
Since lending his talents to Magazine and Nick Cave and the Bad Seed, Barry Adamson has released a series of solo albums ranging in different musical genres. Viewed as the finale of an “unconscious trilogy” following Moss Side Story and Mercury Prize nominated Soul Murder, Oedipus Schmoedipus showcases its composer’s embrace of various styles, moving between ambient electronics, cool jazz and elements of hip-hop. This record explores the ‘Oedipus Complex’, with Barry describing it as “a sexual psychoanalytical journey examining mother and son relationships in a somewhat humorous, yet dark way.”
Bill Nelson’s Red Noise – Sound-on-Sound (Esoteric Recordings)
Reissue of the only Red Noise album as guitar hero Bill Nelson switches from prog rock to new wave with some success. Red Noise were probably one of those unlucky bands who should have been big but in many ways, they fell down between the two squabbling extremes of punks suspicious of competence, and prog rockers desperately clinging to a far-from-glorious past. It’s a shame because this is a really strong new wave album full of great tunes and intelligence, driven by the singular vision of one of the UK’s finest guitarists.
All In One – All In One (Bella Union)
The collective with an enigmatic name was formed in Chicago in 1968. The line-up featured Katharine Parsons (guitar, vocals), Kathryn Davis (vocals), W. Wilson (vocals), Jon Bill (double bass), K. Peterson (drums, percussion) and T. Shiek (guitar). Their eponymous debut seems to be a total leap-of-faith affair. A satellite, sent into space with no expectation to be discovered. While checking the band’s name on various sources such as YouTube and Discogs, it is clear that collectors with a passion for music archaeology have longed to find this item. Just as All In One longed to express their love for music and let it out into the world. Finally, their time has come.
Broadcast – Maida Vale Sessions (Warp)
Between 1996 and 2003, Broadcast recorded three sessions for John Peel. They appear chronologically on the Maida Vale reissue. Later singer Trish Keenan recalled how special it was. “There was a sense of initiation on entering the Maida Vale studios. We were quiet as we received our BBC badges and escorted, by security, to the large elevators that took us and our equipment down below ground level. What we found was a maze of hallways and side rooms, strangely silent and uninhabited”. Haunted broadcast from the past, the recordings sound clear as if the past was more real than the present. Patricia (Trish) Keenan’s voice, mellow and hypnotising, reaches out to the subconscious. The effect is beyond hauntological.
The Beatles – Revolver
The Beatles started working on their game-changing album in April 1966. The new edition presents Revolver as a work-in-progress with most of the songs emerging in various versions at different stages of production. As an example, four takes of Yellow Submarine reveal the evolution from a sad ballad to a jolly anthem-like tune. Part 1 features somewhat downbeat lyrics: “In the town where I was born / No one cared, no one cared…”. It brings to mind a recent Light in the Attic reissue, featuring renditions of Lou Reed’s songs.
Wire – Not About To Die (pinkflag)
Wire remaster and officially release what was previously a bootleg collection of demos for their 1978/79 Harvest albums Chairs Missing and 154 – ‘a fascinating snapshot of Wire in transition’ now sounds more like a ‘classic lost album’. These properly mastered tracks have never been available on vinyl before, and they provide an opportunity to hear Wire at a point in their development when they were bursting with fresh ideas and a will to communicate them. This is post-punk at its very finest.
Ride – 4 EPs (Ride, Play, Fall, and Today Forever) (Wichita Recordings)
Entitled 4 EPs, the first four Ride EPs are compiled onto one record for the first time ever and packaged as a beautiful gatefold album on double white vinyl. This is accompanied by a 16-page booklet featuring archive photos and an essay by Sonic Cathedral’s Nathaniel Cramp. In his review of the 1990’s mini album, Christopher Dawes aka Push wrote: “These four brash popadelic persuasions are all expertly executed. Chop. The opening track, ‘Chelsea Girl’, is positively frantic – think of the scratch and zing of a vigorous rubbing with a handful of iron fillings”.
Gina X Performance – Nice Mover + Voyeur (Les Disques Du Crepuscule)
Though not a massively successful outfit at the time, Gina X Performance can boast of being highly influential on the pop music of the 21st century. You can hear the impact of their combination of dry, flip vocals and chilled synthesised dance beats in a number of present-day artists, for example, the great Ladytron. Cop a load of this set and you could think it was recorded yesterday. But more than that, they left an impressive archive behind them, with Nice Mover and Voyeur arguably finding them at the very peak of their abilities.
The compilation features extracts from the reviews by Wayne Carey, Ged Babey, Ian Canty, Paul Clarke and Irina Shtreis.
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Source: louderthanwar.com
