Lene Lovich Reissues

[omar]

According to some reports Lene Lovich is to have her first three albums (Stateless,Flex and No Mans Land) reissued with bonus tracks and remixes this year. Does anyone have any more info?

[schwenko]

[quote]Originally posted by omar
[br]According to some reports Lene Lovich is to have her first three albums (Stateless,Flex and No Mans Land) reissued with bonus tracks and remixes this year. Does anyone have any more info?
[/quote]

wonder what would be missing from the ....Plus reissues?

Sugoi !!!

[Rubellan]

What reports, where? I do have the 3 CD box set The Stiff Years, but I would be all for a new proper set, since none of the 12" mixes were included as bonus tracks.

[pinkyblue82]

Hi Scott, how are ya sweetie??!!?? It seems to be happening as it's mentioned on both her official website www.lenelovich.net as well as her Facebook page.

[Rubellan]

Mmm, hey girl! Thanks for the info. Weren't we just chatting about how I needed something new CD wise to look forward to? Well, there it is. Yes, I'll have one of those limited edition 4 CD boxed sets please.... And I've told you before you have GOT to hear her last album Shadows and Dust. Love it! Ironically, I just wrote a review for it on Amazon Friday night.

So, when are you going to come over for some artichokes I cook on my hot plate? Salt and peppa, they come out delcious...

[Rubellan]

Since I've gotten to a point where I'm making contact with record companies or people involved in releases to voice my hope for quality in remastering, I did it with the Lene reissues. And what an impressive and technical response I received. I do hope I'm truly pleased with them:

"I fully agree with you about the over-compression of a great many remastered titles - which is actually to do with a combination of record company politics (the "Volume Wars" as they are known), and I find much new music virtually unlistenable because of the lack of dynamic range in the recording process. When I was working on an Associates reissue for EMI at Abbey Road in 2004 the head of catalogue had only one instruction for me - make sure it is half a decibel louder than the Warners one!




However, in Lene's case things are a little bit different. She was never truly happy with the original masters in the first place, and in fact Stateless in particular was not well done. This was because Stiff Records refused a decent budget for mastering, as they would later refuse her so much else. So when it came to these remasters we decided to use our ears and not our eyes - they have not been anywhere near an Apple Mac. The compressors used were old 12AX7 outboard gear, and if you want me to get really geeky about it I'll happily tell you what was used and how and why. The technique of using two channels of valve compression (instead of one) on each left and right track to achieve loudness whilst retaining dynamic range was first shown to me by George "Porky" Peckham in 1993 - this was how he used to master The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and The Who, and the technique he always used for his entire career. Essentially the first compressor boosts the volume and the second normalises the curve, and "limits" the peaks without losing the feel of the recording.




With Stateless, we began with 24-bit WAV files which were direct stereo recordings of the original unmastered tapes. We could not use the tapes themselves because of their age, we had to digitally capture them and then return them to storage. The audio was then run from the analogue outputs into the first compressor, which was a stereo 12AX7 unit (actually a Behringer Vintagizer modified with Tesla valves none other than by Malcolm Toft himself!), which was then run through two Drawmer 1960 units (one each for left and right). We set the peak level on the Drawmer, and then incrementally pushed the Vintagizer until Lene literally said when.




The end result is quite startling. I won't kid you, they are pretty loud and quite compressed, but not in the way that you or I would normally worry about. Instead we can now hear how much intricate work Lene and Les put into the original recordings. Some things were so subtle that they were literally lost on the original masters. Lene, of course, knew they were there, but the rest of us did not. It is like hearing them for the first time.




Of course, once we had set the bar to Lene's standard on Stateless, we had to bring Flex and No Man's Land up to that. All I can say is that she is delighted with the new masters. This is the first time she has been involved in the mastering process, she was never even consulted about previous reissues. For my money the only way to define "definitive" was for Lene herself to say "yes, that's it", so that is what we've done. I don't know if that will please audiophiles or not, but ultimately I think it will make the fans happy. They still have their original versions if not! But I would say give them a chance, they are quite radical as remasters go, but then what else would we expect from Lene?

[darkluna]

Can't wait to pick these up, hoping they are full of bonus tracks

[postpunkmonk]

[quote][i]Originally posted by darkluna[/i]
<br>Can't wait to pick these up, hoping they are full of bonus tracks
[/quote]

Lene says that the albums will be as released with a separate CD of rarities. Which I actually prefer. Hopefully everything relevant will fit but I suspect that promo items like the live "Global Assault" 10" will get lost in the shuffle due to licensing issues.

<a title="Post-Punk Monk" href="http://postpunkmonk.wordpress.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://postpunkmonk.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/ppm-losenge-for-bowienet.png?w=220" alt="Post-Punk Monk" height="76" width="220" border="0"></a>
<p>For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®</p>