Yesterday we took a hard look at the accumulated China Crisis collection. But music doesn’t exist in a vacuum the size of my Record Cell. There was also a fan-run China Crisis website called Docklands that was helpful in that time period. I scoped over their discography to make sure that I had what I needed. Now it was time to build the project spreadsheet that would define where I went with this project, and how I was to achieve it.
Defining the Project Order + Scope
The first spreadsheet is reproduced below with notes detailing where the song came from originally, whether it was analog or digital, and ultimately, where I was going to source my master from. I am a lazy Monk, and I will usually defer to a digital master in 99% of all cases*.
track | source used | analog | digital | original source |
African & White [orig. ver.] | African + White [inev] 7 | • | African + White [inev] 7” | |
Be Suspicious | African + White ‘93 CD5 | • | African + White [inev] 7” | |
Scream Down At Me | Collection CD2 | • | Scream Down At Me 12” | |
Cucumber Garden [ext.] | Collection CD2 | • | Scream Down At Me 12” | |
African + White ‘82 [ext. remix] | African + White ‘93 CD5 | • | African + White [virgin] 12” | |
No More Blue Horizons [ext. ver.] | No More Blue Horizons 12” | • | No More Blue Horizons 12” | |
No Ordinary Lover | Collection CD2 | • | No More Blue Horizons 12” | |
Watching Over Burning Fields | Collection CD2 | • | No More Blue Horizons 12” | |
Greenacre Bay [ext. ver] | Collection CD2 | • | Christian 12” | |
Performing Seals | Collection CD2 | • | Christian 12” | |
Tragedy + Mystery [ext. ver.] | Tragedy + Mystery 12 | • | Tragedy + Mystery 12” | |
A Golden Handshake For Every Daughter | Collection CD2 | • | Tragedy + Mystery 12” | |
Fire + Steel [mix] | Hardest Hits V. 5 CD | • | Working With Fire + Steel 12” | |
Dockland | Collection CD2 | • | Working With Fire + Steel 12” | |
Forever I and I | Collection CD2 | • | Working With Fire + Steel 12” | |
This Occupation [ext. mix.] | Collection CD2 | • | Wishful Thinking 12” | |
Some People I Know To Lead Fantastic Lives [ext. ver.] | Wishful Thinking 12” | • | Wishful Thinking 12” | |
Hanna Hanna [ext. ver.] | Hanna Hanna 12” | • | Hanna Hanna 12” | |
Here Come A Raincloud [live] | Hanna Hanna 12” | • | Hanna Hanna 12” | |
Hanna Hanna [live] | BBC Rock Hour LP | • | BBC Rock Hour LP | |
Wishful Thinking [live] | BBC Rock Hour LP | • | BBC Rock Hour LP | |
Christian [live] | BBC Rock Hour LP | • | BBC Rock Hour LP | |
African + White [live] | BBC Rock Hour LP | • | BBC Rock Hour LP | |
Working With Fire + Steel [live] | BBC Rock Hour LP | • | BBC Rock Hour LP | |
Animalistic | Black Man Ray 7” | • | Black Man Ray 7” | |
It’s Never Too Late | Black Man Ray 12” #2 | • | Black Man Ray 12” #2 | |
Animalistic [a day at the zoo mix] | Collection CD2 | • | Black Man Ray 12” #2 | |
King In A Catholic Style [ext. ver] | King In A Catholic Style 12” | • | King In A Catholic Style 12” | |
You Did Cut Me [live] | You Did Cut Me 2×7” | • | You Did Cut Me 2×7” | |
Christian [live] #2 | You Did Cut Me 2×7” | • | You Did Cut Me 2×7” | |
Seven Sports For All [live] | You Did Cut Me 2×7” | • | You Did Cut Me 2×7” | |
96.8 | The Highest High 12” | • | The Highest High 12” | |
Orange Mutt-Mutt Dance | The Highest High 12” | • | The Highest High 12” | |
Trading In Gold | What Price Paradise CD | • | Arizona Sky 12” | |
The Instigator | Collection CD2 | • | Best Kept Secret CD | |
Little Italy | Collection CD2 | • | Best Kept Secret 12” | |
The Instigator [italian fuzzbox ver.] | Best Kept Secret 12” | • | Best Kept Secret 12” | |
St. Saviour Square [12” mix] | St. Saviour Square CD3 | • | St. Saviour Square CD3 | |
Back Home | St. Saviour Square CD3 | • | St. Saviour Square CD3 | |
Diary Of A Hollow Horse [acoustic version] | Red Letter Day 12” | • | Red Letter Day 12” | |
African + White [steve proctor remix] | African & White ‘93 CD5 | • | African & White ‘93 CD5 | |
Everyday The Same [Riff + Hum club mix] | Every Day The Same CD5 | • | Every Day The Same CD5 | |
African + White [steve proctor ext. remix] | African + White ‘93 12” | • | African + White ‘93 12” | |
Tell me What It Is | Every Day The Same CD5 | • | Every Day The Same CD5 | |
Everyday the same [Drum-a-Pella mix] | Every Day The Same CD5 | • | Every Day The Same CD5 | |
Here Come A Raincloud [live w/Peter Coyle] | Black Man Ray [live] CD5 | • | Black Man Ray [live] CD5 |
* Except where the label has brickwalled a digital master…
I had managed to mail-order the first, indie single that China Crisis had released. The Liverpool label Inevitable issued “African + White” b/w “Be Suspicious” in 1981 and it was the release that brought the group to Virgin’s attention. I imagined that the single was re-recorded or remixed when Virgin re-issued it. I did have the Virgin/Inevitable 12″ of the re-issue, and knew that the A-side of the 7″ differed from that of the 12″ version.
The B-sides of the first and second issues of the single also differed. The Inevitable 7″ had “Be Suspicious” as the B-side and the Virgin/Inevitable 7″ had “Red Sails.” But “Red Sails” was a track on the China Crisis debut album, and not a track that was needed on this project. These BSOG’s are meant to round up only material that was not issued on the group’s straight albums. So live tracks, remixes, non-LP B-sides were in the cross-hairs for this project. It was not meant to replicate the band’s singles inclusively.
Believe it or not there was a single commercial CD project, similar in scope to what I do in the non-commercial, personal world, that took all of the group JAPAN’s singles issued from the band’s Hansa masters. The staff of BMG/Japan who compiled “The Singles,” [see right] took each A/B side issued from the groups recordings for the Hansa label and slapped them onto a disc in the order that they were released in, such that several songs were repeated exactly in the 2xCD’s running order because the label released some recordings/songs more than once! That is an anal-rententive level of curation that even passes The Monk by! Sure, sure. I’m detail-oriented, but not that obsessive!
Next: …the remastering begins
enjoying this…and now I have to find that Japan collection!!! ARGH!!
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