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Scritti Politti: why no remastered/deluxe vers.?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 2:32 am
by ROXYMUZAK
I think their 1985 "Cupid & Psyche" is an absolute and much renowned masterwork of the art that was synthpop at its best, and "Provision" was not bat at all, the two albums had Green and David Gamson as the primary forces involved (for me there is no Scritti without Gamson). I wonder why in this era of remasters and deluxe versions I can't see any news about these re-releases, even if the somewhat very poor best of recently released was a kind of explanation for that. I think there is PLENTY of material to do that, remixes, rare tracks, bsides like the wonderful "a world come back to life", etc. anybody has news?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 4:47 am
by synth_kaden
Both of those albums have been reissued and remastered, albeit with few bonus tracks:

Cupid & Psyche: http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... ase/185429
Provision: http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... se/2906366

PostPosted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 6:29 am
by blaaah
Both of them are the original cd track listings. Virgin have been pretty poor with reissues i have to say, but not sure remastering would improve the perfection of the originals?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:11 am
by magnum
not too sure what additional material exists for C&P 85..... be nice if there are loads of demos/alternate mixes/unreleased tracks,etc for a proper 2 cd deluxe edition.

http://magnum1971mixes.blogspot.co.uk/
http://soundcloud.com/magnum71

http://soundcloud.com/magnum1971

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFvYES ... -11cemOpYA

Spin A 12 INCH aka Magnum-Truth..the internet stalker...a neurotic obsessive person who needs to get a life

PostPosted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:13 am
by moni
[quote][i]Originally posted by synth_kaden[/i]
<br>Both of those albums have been reissued and remastered, albeit with few bonus tracks:

Cupid & Psyche: http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... ase/185429
Provision: http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... se/2906366
[/quote]
Those are the original albums being reissued you linked to they have never been remastered and if they do decide to remaster these and they sound anything like the remastering on that Absolute best of from a few years ago i will be giving them a big miss. Oh and if you want World Come Back To Life it's on this http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... ase/931312

PostPosted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 6:20 pm
by Luke
[quote][i]Originally posted by moni[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by synth_kaden[/i]
<br>Both of those albums have been reissued and remastered, albeit with few bonus tracks:

Cupid & Psyche: http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... ase/185429
Provision: http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... se/2906366
[/quote]
Those are the original albums being reissued you linked to they have never been remastered and if they do decide to remaster these and they sound anything like the remastering on that Absolute best of from a few years ago i will be giving them a big miss. Oh and if you want World Come Back To Life it's on this http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... ase/931312
[/quote]

I remember having the cassette versions of both Cupid and Provision, they also included those bonus tracks but the running order was different because of the format.

To simply put it: if you compare the CD versions with the cassette versions there were never any real 'bonus tracks' on the CD versions of those 2 albums released in the 80's.

Glad that I've kept all the Scritti CD singles including the above with World Come Back To Life. I also had it as the B-side when I bought the vinyl 12" of Boom! There She Was (Sonic Property Mix) back in 1988. This was one of those outstanding John 'Tokes' Potoker remixes, but on the CD single, Boom! There She Was (Sonic Property Mix) was suddenly 2 minutes shorter! There was never any explanation for this.

PostPosted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 5:09 am
by blaaah
I initally assumed when i read your comment that the 3" cds triggered the 20 min playing time for chart cd singles. But having just checked . It doesnt! Weird then and inexplicable.

PostPosted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 8:58 pm
by moni
Having had the cassette and now the CD i'm pretty sure the version of Perfect Way on the cassette was a different mix to the one on the CD.

PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 1:47 am
by Luke
[quote][i]Originally posted by moni[/i]
<br>Having had the cassette and now the CD i'm pretty sure the version of Perfect Way on the cassette was a different mix to the one on the CD.
[/quote]

It seems there are a lot of different Perfect Way mixes around (which makes sense if I go from memory).

The 'normal' LP version clocks in around 4:43 min., but the US and the Canada LP version was 10 seconds shorter.

The Japanese LP version of Perfect Way is the same as the version released on the UK CD edition of Cupid & Psyche 85 (the UK vinyl edition has a shorter, differently mixed version).

To my knowledge, all CD versions are 4:43min.

Then, we have the somewhat 'normal' Perfect Way (Extended Mix - 4:34min.) and the Perfect Way (Version - 5:01min.)

http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... ase/115901

But the US and Canada released another different Perfect Way (Way Perfect Mix & Way Perfect Version).

The US and Canadian vinyl for the Way Perfect Mix is 5:26min. and it's B-side (Way Perfect Version) is 5:03min.

http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... se/1235076
http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... ase/829861

Then we still have a US PROMO version (which I only found out recently) that has another Way Perfect Mix, mixed by Alan Meyerson, Francois Kevorkian and Josh Abbey and this one is the longest: 7:27min.

http://www.discogs.com/Scritti-Politti- ... se/1010925

PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 6:51 am
by DavePlym
Some of the perfect way mixes including the 7.27 version can be grabbed here,
http://burningtheground.net/category/scritti-politti/

PostPosted: Wed Jul 31, 2013 10:32 am
by ROXYMUZAK
Well with that in mind, i think that there is enough material to justify a deluxe edition and I m sure in the archives there is more thsn one unreleased track... :)

PostPosted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 8:12 am
by xymox970
[quote]Originally posted by ROXYMUZAK
[br]I think their 1985 "Cupid & Psyche" is an absolute and much renowned masterwork of the art that was synthpop at its best
[/quote]


Couldn`t agree more! [:)]

This is one of the best albums of the era and if there is indeed no extra tracks, sessions, demos or whatever to dig out, there`s gotta be at least instrumental tracks of the complete album somewhere in the vaults and that would be more than enough for me. [8D]

PostPosted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 2:25 am
by soundstory
I had hoped that the Absolute best of would have led to remasters but I'm glad it didn't, it was brickwalled to hell & back

PostPosted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 11:41 am
by mgidaho_old
Agree, i would love to see both of those reissued in a deluxe set! I actually like Provision better, but would pick up both! Amazing this hasn't happened, but there are lots others too, Wang Chung, General Public, how about After the Fire........wonder if enough material exists to make that happen.