[…continued from last past]

So the brief here was to discuss CDs I have made through great effort for my simulated label, that eventually actually get made by real labels. This was a weird phenomenon where there are no easy attitudes to take. Even though i usually set my sights on a target that I feel is obscure, yet beloved enough to justify the investment of my time and energy, sometimes the marketplace shocks me.

BERLIN BLONDES – Berlin Blondes [REVO 046] 2009

I waited almost 20 years to buy this album. It took that long to find a [single] copy. Then I waited another ten years to play it! Sick, I know. I’m working on that. BONUS TRACKS: I had the 12″ single of “Framework” and included both sides. I knew that there were the “Science” and “Marseilles” singles as well, but didn’t want to wait any more years to hear this album on a CD! It was just early last year when I found a dealer in the US [?!] with both the “Marseilles” and “Science” 7″ singles, so I ordered them with an eye on remastering the album and adding more bonus tracks.

Strike Force Entertainment ‎| UK | CD | WSFE 074

No sooner had I received the two 7″ singles, than word came down that Strike Force Entertainment [a division of Cherry Red – shock!]  had already created the ultimate Berlin Blondes CD. With even the 7″ remix of “Framework” as well as the impossibly scarce Australian 7″ remix of “Science” that was beyond crazy hard to source. I tip my Aztec Energy Dome when perfection is achieved, so that 2018 Berlin Blondes CD is definitely on my dance card. one of these days, I suppose. I’m just glad that the Cherry Red email I get monthly hipped me to this before I actually started on re-mastering my project! Bad enough that I bought records that I won’t need going forward, but the time spent is much more valuable.

DEVO – New Traditionalists Live In Sesattle [REVO 071] 2012

I was happy to hear the 2xLP of their 1981 tour that DEVO released for Record Store Day in 2012. For once, I ripped right into this and remastered the brand new LP to digital the same weekend that I had bought the LP. It was a decent pressing and the pops to remove were scant indeed. BONUS TRACKS: I had two DEVO flexi-discs in the Record Cell that, as far as I knew, had never moved beyond the flimsy sheets of plastic. The “Flimsy Wrap” disc came with the UK picture disc LP of “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO“ and “Bushwacked” was bundled into an issue of Reflex Magazine, who tried to be the 90s equivalent of “Trouser Press.”

Booji Boy Records | US | CD | 2013 | BOOJI-001

As if to teach me a lesson about my hubris, the band themselves issued the album on CD the very next year! And they added two more bonus tracks to the playlist that were not on the cassette that they mastered the album from. “Beautiful World” and “Working In A Coal Mine” to complete the set list for that concert. I have several live albums by DEVO but this album period was a favorite of mine from them, so it’s likely that I will eventually get the manufactured CD of this. I may or may not keep the vinyl, depending on the resale value. I should keep any released by this seminal band, but I feel a little burned about buying the exclusive RSD release only to have a CD issued the following year!

EMI ‎| UK | CD | 2008 | 50999 2 13091 2 0

Sometimes, the wheel turns in the opposite direction!

I saw in 2008 that the two Virgin Records compilations issued in ’81/’82 by Virgin Records at Ross Stapleton’s instigation, were given a CD release! These were filled with Virgin 12″ remixes from the label’s peak period! Some of the tracks on the CD came from the cassette versions of these albums, which had different material than I was familiar with from the LPs. It was beyond fantastic to finally have tracks like the godlike “Secret Life Of Arabia [dub mix]” by B.E.F./Billy MacKenzie on actual CD!! In all honesty, I shelled out for a mail order copy strictly on that cut alone. And yet…

VARIOUS – Methods Of Dance Vol. 1 [REVO 076] 2015

VARIOUS – Methods Of Dance Vol. 2 [REVO 077] 2015

These albums were so beloved by me that the notion of a single CD getting a smattering of all of the material across two LPs and cassettes, was only partial satisfaction where I was standing! I came to treasure these LPs in 1982 after chasinvictoria sent me highlights from Vol. 2 on a tape letter. I ran right out and hit the import cutout bins at Record City and purchased a copy of Vol. 1 for my own. Several years later, I finally managed to buy a copy of Vol. 2. So I got down to business making fully loaded CDs that contained all of the LP tracks and the CD tracks that differed! Because I had to.

There was one more instance where a CD I made was almost immediately issued for “real” by an actual label, but I’ve already blogged about that one here. So this thread is complete for another few years, at least!

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