The Servants - Reserved

[yipyipcoyote]

This has finally resurfaced on Cherry Red and includes their first singles with tunes like The Sun, A Small Star and She's Always Hiding and more. Given the track record of this label, I don't have high hopes for the sound quality, but I've ordered it anyway. Stay tuned for an update..

[miroslavt]

I am not familiar with the band. Could you describe in a few words their sound or post a sample?

Miroslav Tkachenko
http://www.welcome.to/Opiumusic

[goutroy]

Holy crap! The Sun, a Small Star is one of my all-time favorite EPs. I just ordered this, now I can't wait to get it!

[yipyipcoyote]

goutroy, I don't think you would be disappointed. Just had a cursory listen, and even though some of it [i]may be[/i] from vinyl, they did a reasonably good job of cleaning it up. A few tracks have demo quality sound, but that's what they are. All the singles before 1990 and Peel session tracks are here. Overall a nice collection of jangly guitar pop from a band that sadly went under the radar.

But, I want to know what the [b]real expert[/b] thinks. Scott?[:D]

[yipyipcoyote]

Thanks for the insight, Scott. Are we going to see the Mobiles CD in 2006? Really looking forward to it!

[Rubellan]

The hope is to have the Mobiles CD out fairly soon. I'm working on the master as we speak. The current problem is Cherry Red are trying to find a source for one of their 7" singles, which I've never been able to find.

The CD looks to be quite good. The liner notes have already been provided in a rough draft by David Blundell of the band. He gives a history of the band, an comments on each song individually. Last I heard he was going to be providing a CD-Rom of images to be included within the booklet. I'll post when a release date is confirmed.

Scott

[Grunch]

The Servants sound quality is very nice, much much better than Ruefrex was. If there is any vinyl noise, it is not apparent at all to my ears. I've only made it thru about the first 10 tracks, and am very glad I got this disc in spite of my concerns with Cherry Red, since they are so unpredictable with their quality. Seems they had a good source for this disc, or at least someone who made the effort to make it sound good at least. A great band to be had on CD.

[korova1]

Yo Rubellan, interesting topic. You mentioned in another post one time that sometimes they only have vinyl for releases because the real masters are long gone (I think it was you). Who did the remastering of the C Cat Trance stuff for Cherry Red? Is it mastered from tape or vinyl?

Some of the singles on the C Cat "best of" comp sounded really good, some of them didn't and sounded like they were pulled off vinyl. Just curious if the masters or vinyl were used for their compilation. It is great to have anything, trust me, I didn't think that group would ever see the light of day to begin with!

[Grunch]

I also have the C Cat Trance, and just when you thinbk it sounds great, a track comes on and you think it has vinyl noise.

I wish on their web site they made it clear for any of their releases if any of the tracks are lifted from vinyl - certainly someone from Cherry Red listens carefully post-production and could enlighten buyers to quality so they are not blind-sided with a crappy sound. Though most of C Cat Trance is decent. That Ruefrex though, the band and CR should be appalled it was ever allowed out with such shitty sound. Sounds like they found a BAD vinyl copy and just copied it to CD, no cleanup. It is the worst CD I've heard.

[Rubellan]

I cannot comment on the specific CD's mentioned since I've not heard them, though here is a bit of what CR does. As previously mentioned, I have been told there is only one man who does their masters. He is the one to either blame or thank for the sound quality. If the album is licensed from a big label, most times they are able to supply master tapes. Other times they will get DAT's with some of the songs, then master from vinyl for others. If any songs sound really good, you can assume they are from masters or DAT's. If there is any substandard songs, they are most likely pulled from vinyl, or even a cassette source. I'm not sure if the guy doing the mastering is a friend to the GM of Cherry Red, or if it's just a business relationship, but they are damaging their reputation, which is obvious by the messages posted here from burned buyers.

And as far as quality control goes, their process is to have the finished masters approved or rejected by the bands involved, or the person heading the project. It is up to these people to decide whether or not to move forward. In the case of Ruefrex and Eyeless in Gaza, masters have been rejected, though there's only so much improvement that can be achieved if the person trying to do the improvements is the one who provided the substandard master to begin with.

Scott

[Barmy]

Is there someone at CR we can email to in order to complain about this? Among other things, I've got to believe there is a market for "fixed" Eyeless re-masters.

[Barmy]

^Looks like the president of Cherry Red just weighed in.

[Grunch]

Or some other clueless asswipe. I personally don't mind at all hearing some inside scoop about mastering and the like. To be honest, this asswipe is the first negative comment I've ever seen about rubellan.

[gazebo]

Scott did a fantastic job on the Artery cd!

[Frau_Blucher]

Hi Rubellan. Are you cool with leaving that post there as a record of what an ass this person is? Or would you prefer to have this off-topic BS deleted?