Heartland

thanke

Motz's post simplified:

Having quiet bits quieter and loud bits louder sounds better than having everything loud.

What happened to "Everything louder than everything else"?

I don't know, James.

Maybe this would be a place to find some interesting stuff...

Andreas from April Tears about recording in PUK studios...

"We recorded it, as many other tracks on our second record, in the PUK studios in Denmark. I rewrote this song on a grand piano that Elton John left there. Beside the grand piano there were alot of old mastertapes. Amongst others The Sisters of Mercys "Vision Thing" and Depeche Modes "Music For the Masses". Sometimes I regret I didn't smuggle them out of there. I still can't understand what all those mastertapes were doing there. I swear that there were at least 60 Sistersmasters in there. What were they really thinking of?"

Translated from swedish, I'm not a genius in english but I guess you understand...

Cheers and welcome

xfloorshowx wrote:Maybe this would be a place to find some interesting stuff...

Andreas from April Tears about recording in PUK studios...

"We recorded it, as many other tracks on our second record, in the PUK studios in Denmark. I rewrote this song on a grand piano that Elton John left there. Beside the grand piano there were alot of old mastertapes. Amongst others The Sisters of Mercys "Vision Thing" and Depeche Modes "Music For the Masses". Sometimes I regret I didn't smuggle them out of there. I still can't understand what all those mastertapes were doing there. I swear that there were at least 60 Sistersmasters in there. What were they really thinking of?"

Translated from swedish, I'm not a genius in english but I guess you understand...

Welcome indeed!

That's an interesting and puzzling story. It's almost as if Van Gogh or Monet had painted their latest masterpiece, ran it through a photocopier, then left the original lying around. Bizarre!

tony james said along time ago :

my lasting vision of those days in Denmark is when Andrew recorded 120 vocal takes of the 9 minute song Vision Thing (and he never credited me with the lyric "another black hole in the killing zone...)... anyway it took Andrew a week just to listen back to the vocals..... and you wonder why it took a year?

Maybe scotty might like some of the unreleased takes?

Chance!!!

60 !

Great Scott

Yeah, my VT reissue also skip-p-p-s during Something Fast live.

Good thing it's already on the flip of the WYDSM CD single...

Hope they do fix thatm though.

All things considered, I think FALAA is the best of the reissues. Original mixes, an unreleased demo, and some B-sides previously available only on a bootleg CD or vinyl. Oh, and a good booklet, and original cover art.

Been listening to Vision Thing for most of the last two weeks, with occasional departures into First and Last and Always, and I really really like this album. I can’t bring myself to listen to FALAA too much, as basically, it’s turgid 1980s nonsense. It captured a moment, but really, it hasn’t aged well. I think Von would probably agree with me, which is why it gets trashed when it’s performed live.

I’d take the modern live versions over the originals, pretty much every time. Anyway, that’s enough goth-bothering for now, back to VT.

This is a classic rock album, with the caveat that there two or three really mediocre tracks sitting among the treasure heap. Vision Thing (the song) is a fantastic piece of hard rock, and it’s aged fantastically. It still sounds unlike anything else I’ve heard and (sadly) is still fresh in its themes.

Ribbons may be the best thing Von has ever written. I’m not sure, but it’s brilliant. Detonation Boulavard is a slight dip in the quality control department, but it’s still a credible album track. Something Fast sucks donkey balls. Really, why bother? It’s sub par Bowie-esque nonsense. When You Don’t See Me is back to DB standards, in other words, okay but well below the first two tracks on the album in terms of quality.

Dr Jeep however, now there’s a return to form – I love this. It’s Vision Thing Redux – Vision Thing the single. A political vision statement. More is the money maker – it’s shameless out of kilter with the rest of the album but continues the lyrical theme. It’s not my favourite, but I can live with it. It even slightly rocks in places.

Moving on, I Was Wrong is good. I like it and it closes the original album well. There’s only room for one sensitive soul searching acousto-ballad on this album, and it ain’t Something Fast, it’s this. So that’s the original album – what about the extras? Well, You Could Be The One is a odd fellow – I have a soft spot for it as I remember listening to it on the cassette single on my way to school as a kid, but it doesn’t sit comfortably with the rest of the album. The Dr Jeep mix is nice, but a bit redundant as not much happens.

The other extras are pretty good – particularly the live version of ribbons, which adds enough to the studio version to merit inclusion. It’s got a particularly nice threatening overtone which isn’t in the original and the wailing Von at the end makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

The skipping Something Fast is unforgivable, because what there is of it on the reissued CD is more interesting than the sanitised studio version.

However, it strikes me that most of what made it onto the Temple of Love 1992 single should really be on this reissue – the extended mix of Vision Thing with the reverse Apocalypse Now sample in the middle deserves a wider audience than it got and would sit well here. Ditto the other mixes.

Ehh.

Each to their own. I went through a phase of VT being my own favourite Sisters LP in the 90s, but these days (and with the benefit of hindsight and an appropriate level of distance) I see it more this way:

VT Itself: Yayyy!
Ribbons: Yayyy!
Det Blvd: Yayyy!
Something Fast: Yeh, whatever
WYDSM: Booooo!
Dr Jeep: Booooo!
More: Yeh, whatever
IWW: Yayyy!

Side 2 in particular is a stinker. I know a lot of people love Dr Jeep, and suspect that a lot of them are probably the same people who love Will I Dream, but to me it's just tired turgid riffing with no real purpose. Of course, that could well be the whole point of the track.

But give me style, class and elegance instead any day.

Some comedies should not be repeated, Fawlty Towers is about the only exception.............and Still Game.

mh wrote:Each to their own. I went through a phase of VT being my own favourite Sisters LP in the 90s, but these days (and with the benefit of hindsight and an appropriate level of distance) I see it more this way:

VT Itself: Yayyy!
Ribbons: Yayyy!
Det Blvd: Yayyy!
Something Fast: Yeh, whatever
WYDSM: Booooo!
Dr Jeep: Booooo!
More: Yeh, whatever
IWW: Yayyy!

Side 2 in particular is a stinker. I know a lot of people love Dr Jeep, and suspect that a lot of them are probably the same people who love Will I Dream, but to me it's just tired turgid riffing with no real purpose. Of course, that could well be the whole point of the track.

But give me style, class and elegance instead any day.

My thoughts on Vision Thing...

VT Itself - Yayyy! (prefer the long version though)
Ribbons: Yayyy!
Det Blvd: Yayyy!
Something Fast: Depends on my mood, now Yayyy!
WYDSM: Depends on my mood, now Yayyy!
Dr Jeep: Yeh, whatever
More: Yeh, whatever
IWW: Yayyy!

From today Vision Thing (remastered & expanded) is available for us mainlanders. Or no, make that Visioin Thing, that's what it says on the spine after all. And here was me thinking they postponed this release for a bit of quality control I haven't checked the live version of Something Fast, so cannot say it skips or not... I won't be very surprised if it does.

Anyway, I have the three remasters now and am very happy with them

radiojamaica wrote:From today Vision Thing (remastered & expanded) is available for us mainlanders. Or no, make that Visioin Thing, that's what it says on the spine after all. And here was me thinking they postponed this release for a bit of quality control I haven't checked the live version of Something Fast, so cannot say it skips or not... I won't be very surprised if it does.

Anyway, I have the three remasters now and am very happy with them

Something Fast does jump around a bit. Along with typo on the spine, just goes to show how much of a p*ss-poor job was done by Rhino. The live tracks were the only things I didn't have, apart from the sleeve notes.

RetroGoth wrote:

radiojamaica wrote:From today Vision Thing (remastered & expanded) is available for us mainlanders. Or no, make that Visioin Thing, that's what it says on the spine after all. And here was me thinking they postponed this release for a bit of quality control I haven't checked the live version of Something Fast, so cannot say it skips or not... I won't be very surprised if it does.

Anyway, I have the three remasters now and am very happy with them

Something Fast does jump around a bit. Along with typo on the spine, just goes to show how much of a p*ss-poor job was done by Rhino. The live tracks were the only things I didn't have, apart from the sleeve notes.

Quite.

I had them all, so the only appeal of this package to me was completing the set.

Oh, and the city skyline in the background of the front cover seems to have vanished also...

My copy does NOT skip during Something Fast (live)
My copy DOES have a page mix-up in the booklet. There are too many pages in it
The Detroit skyline is even less visible than the original cd issue.
And Visioin Thing of course...

All in all a damn fine cd

radiojamaica wrote:My copy does NOT skip during Something Fast (live)

You must be kidding?!

Where did you bought it?

I was just wondering and do not know if this was before on HL.

But when no 12 Ribbons and no 13 Something fast was recorded live in Hamburg on 17-11-1990 (and also released on 12' When You Don't See Me MR53T) then it would be ok to think that the total show was recorded........
And the 2 above mentioned numbers are of good quality.
Why did they never bring out then officially a live album with this show ?

Btw on my SF no skips.

Greetingz

My Dominion wrote:I was just wondering and do not know if this was before on HL.

But when no 12 Ribbons and no 13 Something fast was recorded live in Hamburg on 17-11-1990 (and also released on 12' When You Don't See Me MR53T) then it would be ok to think that the total show was recorded........
And the 2 above mentioned numbers are of good quality.
Why did they never bring out then officially a live album with this show ?

Btw on my SF no skips.

Greetingz

Glad your SF has no skips.

I wondered about the start of the disputes with Warners, the claim the girls owed tham another album. Instead of signing away the rights to the early pre-warners stuff, why didn't they give them an album of live stuff, as you say, they were of good quality (except for those of us who ended up with skipping versions...)

My Dominion wrote:
Btw on my SF no skips.

Nic wrote:
You must be kidding?!

Where did you bought it?

Must be something to do with error correcting in the player (skipped on my girlfriend's boombox and my PC drive). Either that or a bad batch and pioss-poor attitude of record company not recalling defective goods.

At least the problems didn't effect Floodland!