Off topic: Mike Oldfield’s Hergest Ridge has been given the super-deluxe reissue treatment.
Here’s what they have to say about the new Hergest Ridge release:
Digitally remastered deluxe two disc (CD + NTSC/Region 0 DVD) edition of the British guitarist’s 1974 album including bonus original demos, new artwork plus a DVD that features 5.1 surround sound mixes by Oldfield.
Hergest Ridge was the follow-up Mike Oldfield’s groundbreaking debut, Tubular Bells. It gave Oldfield his first UK #1 album, and was actually knocked off the UK top spot by Tubular Bells itself.
It is another lengthy suite, reflecting the glory of the countryside Oldfield had secluded himself in following his early global success.
If you’re a fan of classic progressive instrumental music, Hergest Ridge is a must have, part of Oldfield’s amazing trilogy of early 70’s albums, along with Tubular Bells and Ommadawn.
I love these early Mike Oldfield albums, and they could really use a good remastering, but in the past, these 'deluxe editions' offered by Universal Music Group used high resolution Hybrid SACDs. See the deluxe edition of 'The Downward Spiral', for example http://amzn.to/aBwSYa
Now, I understand the installed base of SACD doesn't warrant release in that format these days, but in lieu of that, they could simply include 24-bit files, like Warp offers. I'm not going to spend over $100 for 16-bit versions of albums I already own. (I don't care about the lossy 5.1 DVD versions)
Call me old school – but I'd sort of like to see these come out as double vinyl releases.
Most important, though, is that they're getting decent CD releases and that they are available.
I don't buy vinyl, but I can certainly get behind that idea. Vinyl is small potatoes and too much trouble for an entity like UMG. They're a meta record company whose primary asset is a massive back catalog. When you're sitting on something like this, you should be actively exploring ways to monetize, so they look at a spreadsheet of the historically highest-grossing assets in their catalog and they line them up for the deluxe edition treatment.
When you look at it this way, you can understand why exploiting your proven assets is far safer and easier than locating and developing new talent, which is risky and expensive. Can't wait for the special 50th anniversary editions.
I think you could argue that musicians are a distraction for labels that want to make money with music. And that the major labels are a distraction for musicians that want to make money with music.
I'm glad that Oldfield is at least getting a fair cut of his music sales now.
I think you could argue that musicians are a distraction for labels that want to make money with music. And that the major labels are a distraction for musicians that want to make money with music.
I'm glad that Oldfield is at least getting a fair deal now.
Except that both of these have actually been reissued on vinyl. At least the new 2010 mixes have.
Oooh. WIll have to look for these.