Killing Joke remasters

[Rubellan]

I just got my hands on the KJ remasters of Fire Dances and Night Time. Hmmm, I have just done a side-by-side comparison of Night Time, old version and new, and it's unfortunate that these new remasters have boosted the bass and lessened the treble. In comparison, at least to my ears, the remasters sound a bit muddy. They are not terrible by any stretch, but cetainly not what I would consider improved. Not to mention that the left and right channel balances are very unbalanced, which really is remastering 101. I mean c'mon you remastering techs, spend a few minutes to do some of the most basic prep.

The wealth of bonus material is very nice, though for Night Time it's far from comprehensive, but then it would not have all fit on 1 CD. The booklets are nice, though the cover for Night Time is a bit dark, and even the shading looks a bit digitized. All in all - mmmm......, they're ok............

[bigwavedave]

Thanks for the review Rubellan. I don't own any Killing Joke, except for a couple of the better known songs (Eighties, etc.) that show up on comps. I do like the few songs I have heard...are the albums consistently good most of the way through?

[design_femme]

Thanks Rubellan! I'm glad to hear an honest review of the remasters. I think I'll hold off on purchases of these babies.

bigwavedave: I personally think KJ put out strong albums. I only have...

Killing Joke (the debut)
what's THIS for...!
Night Time
Killing Joke (2003)


[b]Night Time[/b] would probably be the best intro to the band (considering you are more familiar with "Eighties"-era stuff). My personal favorite (out of the four) is [b]what's THIS for[/b] because it's more tribal and raw.

I personally didin't like [b]Revelations[/b], but I haven't listened to that one in a long time. Any thoughts from other KJ fans?

[Surly]

Thanks for the review...I was considering picking these up this weekend, but I think I will wait and see if any cheap copies show up at the used stores here in NYC. I paid full price for the Magazine reissues over the summer, then found sealed promos a few weeks later for $6 each. D'oh!

I'm interested in what [i]Brighter Than A Thousand Suns[/i] sounds like since they used different mixes for the reissue.

It's a shame so many reissues end up with bad artwork, but that's due to the fact that most labels didn't keep good archives of their artwork. Back in the 70s and 80s, they just weren't planning for the future. It really kind of sickens me. When I worked in the catalog division at Universal, I found one case of artwork, and it was all out of order.

"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"

[bigwavedave]

Thanks for the recommendations design_femme. I forgot to mention another great KJ song I have on a Classic Alternatives compilation: "Love Like Blood". Great stuff!

[moni]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Surly[/i]
<br>Thanks for the review...I was considering picking these up this weekend, but I think I will wait and see if any cheap copies show up at the used stores here in NYC. I paid full price for the Magazine reissues over the summer, then found sealed promos a few weeks later for $6 each. D'oh!

I'm interested in what [i]Brighter Than A Thousand Suns[/i] sounds like since they used different mixes for the reissue.

It's a shame so many reissues end up with bad artwork, but that's due to the fact that most labels didn't keep good archives of their artwork. Back in the 70s and 80s, they just weren't planning for the future. It really kind of sickens me. When I worked in the catalog division at Universal, I found one case of artwork, and it was all out of order.

"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"
[/quote]

I honestly can't hear much difference on the restored mixes of brighter only thing i did notice was that adorations starts off like the single version and why they put an edited down version of victory on there i will never know.

[Rubellan]

If I were to recommend a KJ CD, it would be Night Time. This is a great album, and it's the bridge between their punky/gothy sound to their more dance oriented sound of the late 80's. It's a great drums and bass album. I would recommend Fire Dances after that. Though I had the CD in the early 90's because I loved the song "Let's all go to the fire dances", I did part with the CD because I couldn't really get into anything else. After hearing it more than a decade later, I'm definitely liking more of the album.

I have now listened to both remasters all the way through, and I do believe the previous CD's sound better, if for any reason because they had higher fidelity. Both of these sound a bit muffled in comparison. And while my previous comment of Night Time having received a bass boost holds true, Fire Dances is lacking both in bass and treble. I expect I'll tweak them both before I put then on my iPod. The bonus tracks sound really good on Fire Dances, so it's just the base album tracks that don't sound very "remastered".

Scott