Zos Kia: Pre-Coil uncoiled

You might have thought that everything that could have been re-released has already been re-released, and that we're now in an era where the reissue industry is just bringing things round for a second or third time.

But there are still gems waiting to be brought back to life:

Zos Kia was a group made up of Coil's John Balance, Mekon's John Gosling and Min, as well as occasional contributions from Throbbing Gristle's Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson. Their one and only album, Transparent, was released in cassette format in 1983 as the first released recordings of the group, even before any Coil music was released, by the now closed Austrian label Nekrophile.

As The Quietus reports, Transparent is about to get a reissue. Or, if you don't count tape-only releases, an issue.

Andy Partridge re-evaluates Andy Partridge

This is quite sweet, actually: they've been remixing Drums And Wires, XTC's 1979 album, and Andy Partridge is well taken with it:

Heard 5.1 mix of DRUMS AND WIRES at Steven Wilson's yesterday. So good,it's upped my opinion of the album.COMPLICATED GAME=breathtaking.

On the downside, further 5.1 remixes of XTC albums depends on EMI being able to find the original tapes, something Partridge doesn't hold out much hope for.

The tantric Sex Pistols

I'm sure nobody would deny the rights holder the opportunity to flog the dead horse of Never Mind The Bollocks a little more upon its 40th anniversary, but a four disc version?

No tracklisting yet, but the fourth disc is believed to consist of the sound of Universal executives standing in a pile of coins, laughing and laughing and laughing.

Trent Reznor hates pretty Pretty Hate Machine

There's been a new reissue of Pretty Hate Machine coughed up by the record label. It's a bit repackaged, and everything.

Trent Reznor advises you not to buy it. Prefix mag explains why:

Reznor took to his Twitter account to make the following statement regarding the new reissue: "NIN fans, don’t waste your money on this version of PHM that was just released." He also called it "a record label bullshit move repackaging the older version" and told fans to "[i]gnore please." He then tweeted a link to the NIN Catalog website that describes the reissue as being very similar to the original and not remastered.

Luckily, the fans will probably have no money left after the last reissue of Pretty Hate Machine, which Reznor did approve of.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: Coming back at you

You might have gaps in your Jon Spencer Blues Explosion collection. But not for much longer, as the entire back catalogue is getting a re-release over the next few months.

If your entire collection consists of a gap, there's going to be a best-of-start-here type collection, Dirty Shirt Rock & Roll: The First Ten Years. Ten years? Not quite sure that adds up.

Following on, the rereleases will appear as pairs:

Now I Got Worry, Controversial Negro in June
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (First Year), Extra Width + Mo Width in August
Orange + Remixes (2-disc) Acme + Xtra Acme (2-disc) in October.

That's the announcement.



That's the warning.

808 4 for 2010

In the studio getting polished up all nice for a re-release right now: The 808 State albums 808:90, ex:el, Gorgeous and Don Solaris.

Actually, most of the polishing has already been done, as these were due to come out in 2008, but got lost when Pinnacle distribution fell over - quite a long wait for a comeback.



You might as well hit play. It's going to be swooshing round your brain in five minutes anyway.

Seriously: Where is Beatles band?

After all that fuss last week, how have The Beatles re-releases done in their second sales stretch? (And their first full-week sale)?

Vanished completely from the Top Ten, and struggling. Rubber Soul is bested by the 42-weeks-on-chart James Morrison album; Help barely able to outsell Robbie William's Greatest Hits. They're still selling, but in nothing like the numbers the shipping figures suggest EMI was expecting.

Gordon in the morning: Where is Beatles band?

Meanwhile, Gordon is all excited about the Beatles reissues:

BEATLEMANIA is back - blasting the Fab Four back into the Top Ten with a whopping 50,000 sales of their sparkling reissues in just one day.

Woo-hoo! We're with The Be... hang about...

How many sales?

a whopping 50,000 sales of their sparkling reissues

50,000? But weren't there 14 albums released? 50,000 records spread over 14 titles comes out at an average of... well, sales that would make Speech Debelle's pre-Mercury figures look like Elvis Presley.

All of that coverage, and they manage to only flog fifty thousand albums?

Helpfully, Gordon runs the midweek chart, complete with sales figures:

1 (-) Kings & Queens
Jamie T - 17,568

2 (2) We'll Meet Again
The Very Best Of Vera Lynn - 14,092

3 (1) Humbug
Arctic Monkeys - 10,495

4 (-) Ignore The Ignorant
The Cribs - 10,137

5 (3) One Love
David Guetta - 9,458

6 (4) Only By The Night
Kings Of Leon - 8,356

7 (-) Abbey Road
The Beatles - 7,164

8 (-) Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles - 7,002

9 (5) The End
Black Eyed Peas - 6,354

10 (8) Lungs
Florence & The Machine - 6,090

11 (6) Sunny Side Up
Paolo Nutini - 6,054

12 (-) Revolver
The Beatles - 6,048

13 (-) The Beatles (Stereo Box Set)
The Beatles - 5,867

14 (10) Songs For You Truths For Me
James Morrison - 5,798

15 (-) Rubber Soul
The Beatles - 5,239

Now, to be fair, The Beatles albums did only come into the shops on Tuesday, which means that everyone else had a whole extra twenty-four hours to tot up sales, but even so - given that this was meant to somehow prove that The Beatles were the greatest band ever by storming the charts - it has wound up with them looking a poor second to Vera Lynn.

Yes, they're old albums, and the sales figures aren't bad for back catalogue - but the sheer heft of press coverage suggested we were meant to be viewing this in those terms. As it is, their sales are around the level of a Kings Of Leon record nudging its first anniversary. That's about a quarter of a sale per column inch.

Elsewhere: The love of JLS exhibited by Gordon Smart's pages is bizarre, but understandable - quids pro quo and keeping Simon Cowell happy.

The obsession with slowly chipping away at N-Dubz, though, is bemusing. Following on from announcing that Dappy's juvenilia consisted of raps about stabbing and policemen, and stabbing policemen comes a story today, filed by Jess Rogers, which drags up a "secret" conviction:

RAP star DAPPY has a secret conviction for spitting in a girl's face during a drunken brawl.

It wasn't actually secret - the suggestion there was something hushed-up about it just seems to be a simple way of explaining how Gordon Smart's well-resourced reporting engine didn't happen to report the conviction when it happened.

Dappy - real name Costas Contostavlos - had kept the incident quiet.

Now, what he did was a nasty thing, and it's right to condemn it, but what does Rogers mean by "keeping it quiet"? It was in a public court, and he's been doing community service. Admittedly, he didn't issue a press release - but then that's understandable, isn't it?

And - to be fair to Gordon's team - back when this happened nobody would have been much interested. Equally, though, nobody's very interested in Dappy now, either, and yet Gordon seems determined to bring him down. All somewhat curious.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: If the Beatles weren't being re-released, he'd have to reinvent them

As the moment gets ever closer when slightly different versions of forty year-old albums are put on sale, HMV Fabologist Gennaro Castaldo is wearing himself ragged with thoughts for all. Ireland Online has had the benefit:

Gennaro Castaldo, of retailer HMV, said: “The combined release of 'The Beatles Rock Band' game and the fully remastered Beatles catalogue on CD is likely to prove one of the cultural highlights of the year."

Think about that. A slightly repackaged collection of records and a chance to press a button in time to Ringo Starr is one of the glittering highlights of 2009 culturally.

Admittedly, it might not have been the greatest of years for creativity, but really: this is amongst the highlights? Has Castaldo not seen the Orange adverts with the "hidey-ho, hidey-ho" man?

Castaldo hasn't finished:

“One massive by-product of the re-issued albums and the renewed interest in The Beatles’ music is that they are likely to dominate the album charts over the next few weeks, and set a new record in the process for the most of albums in the charts by the same artist at any one time.

“I guess we’re effectively looking at the most definitive Beatles survey ever, which will prove beyond doubt which is the most popular Beatles album among the public."

Ah, yes. I wonder why they don't arrange all elections like this, giving the premiership to a politician so popular that nobody could be arsed to vote for him in the first forty years of his career.

Continuing Loop

The Loop remastered reissues series is going to continue, announces a passing press officer:

Remastered from the original analogue sources, following on from the critically acclaimed “Heavens End” and “Fade Out” in November 2008, the final 2 releases, ‘A Gilded Eternity’ and ‘The World In Your Eyes’ will be released as double / triple disc sets on 27th April 2009 (via Forte) and housed in a mini vinyl style card sleeve, reproducing the original artwork. Both albums will be also be made available digitally for the first time.

"A mini vinyl style card sleeve" means, of course, like what the record came in only smaller, rather than a card somehow made out of a vinyl-style substance.

Still, however it's packaged, it's good news.

New Order re-order

There were quite a few complaints about the grotty sound quality of the latest batch of New Order reissues came out in the UK last month. This week, the records were released in the US to pretty much the same sort of complaints, and all of a sudden they've decided to withdraw the products:

"Warner Bros UK, Rhino and New Order regret that the initial pressings of the collector editions of Movement, Power, Corruption & Lies, Low Life, Brotherhood and Technique contain some minor audio problems on the bonus discs," yesterday's statement announced. "We are now in the process of correcting the problems, but it should be noted that due to the age and condition of some of the original source tapes, the sound quality may vary."

It's not surprising that faced with the prospect of the sort of class action lawsuits in which the Americans excel, the label swallowed hard and pulled the collection - especially since even Peter Hook had said the sound quality was dodgy. What is puzzling, though, is given the UK complaints, why the decision to release the stuff in the US was taken in the first place.

Hooky unhappy with lossy New Order

Unlike Metallica, who somehow are trying to tell fans that their dissatisfaction with the poor sound quality on the new record is wrong, New Order are actually leading the attacks on the Warners re-release series. Or at least, Peter Hook is - although his name has fallen off ContactMusic's report:

He claimed that the record industry has changed over the years, saying: "They don't have half the staff they used to have so everything becomes quite a trial, and I know from doing the Hacienda compilation tape, you get a lot of masters of old songs - they are mastered from the record because nobody can find the tape."

The bassist also said it was "intensely annoying" that Warners had chosen to distribute the re-issues to the shops before sending them to the band, deeming it "a masterful piece of planning".

I know Hook is being sarcastic, but he's probably hit the needle on the playhead: if you know the records are a bit ropey and the artist is going to kick up a fuss, you probably would plan to release them before seeking feedback. Not only does it stop costs spiralling out of control as you try to placate a famously grumpy bassist, but it opens the doors to yet another bloody edition of the same records five year's hence, with promises of Hook-pleasing fidelity.

Feedback Loop

Some exciting news from the pile of press releases: After ages and ages out of print, the Loop back catalogue is being remastered and brought back into the shops. Heaven’s End and Fade Out will be released this November; early next year The World In Your Eyes and Gilded Eternity get their chance to shine again.

Pornographers' art refreshed

Neko Case is re-releasing her most recent three albums, including Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, which only originally emerged last year and seems a little early to be getting the shake-down. Fox comes in a new package, which includes a whole extra disc of... you know, the usual 'buy this record all over again' stuff.

ReMew

Mew's Half The World Is Watching Me was released in a limited edition in 2000, and hasn't been made available since. Until now: it's going to become slightly less rare with them making it slightly available, through their own Evil Office label.