Re: New Hounds of Love

[Chris Williams <chrisw@wwa.com>]

 "John D. Walker" <jdwalker@post.cis.smu.edu> writes:

> The sound is significantly better than my original CD (which is one of 
> the cheaped out EMI reissues without the lyrics or any of the track 
> listings detailing the musicians featured on each song).  

> My original HoL CD is very fizzy and hisses a great deal.  The highs 
> shatter and at times it's rather harsh.  The remaster sounds 
> MUUUCCCCHHHHH better, I think it's much closer to what KT actually 
> intended.  

    Very much agreed. Anyone who doesn't own an original English
vinyl (the only format that Kate really had control over) is strongly
encouraged to get this. Del's engineering ability and Kate's
hearing have been batted aound in this group for years. This
release hopefully will make some eat their words. Drukman?
Are you listening?

> The shattered highs and fizzy sounds are cleaned up, the bass 
> is much warmer, and most of the hiss is gone.  The vocals are smoother 
> and warmed up a lot.  Nice job, whoever it was that remastered the 
> thing.  I couldn't find his or her name anywhere.  This is probably what 
> it sounded like on vinyl if you had a $10,000 turntable and only played 
> it once.

    Yep! Actually, better. I've heard English and Japanese pressings
on Linn and Goldmund turntables with some very nice cartridges.

    Vickie and I used to live with a good friend, Tim Hathcock, golden
ear extraordinare. Tim's modified Magnapan Tympanis and custom
built electronics revealed things in Kate's recordings that some
insist are not there. Sadly, Tim died a few years before "The Red
Shoes".

> If you already own one of the high quality CD's of HoL, like the Japanese
> pressing or something, you might not get much out of this.  

    ...but then, if you've gone through the trouble of getting the Japanese
CD, you *need* this.

> But for those of
> us who only have the crummy EMI Manhattan "Nice Price" bargain basement stuff,
> this is an essential purchase, ESPECIALLY if you have a nice high-end stereo
> system that can do it justice.  The differences are subtle, but 
> definite.  If you're buying it for the new package, pix, etc., don't.

   IMO, the differences are not all that subtle (the word having a slightly
different meaning here in Love-Hound land). Some of the differences
are downright extraordinary. Our system is far from being optimized,
and is in the low end of the high end...but the improvements had us
constantly remarking on things that were much clearer.

    Kate has been pushing the envelope of how much information one
can fit into a recording for years. EMI has finally caught up with her.
Now all we need is "The Dreaming" and "The Red Shoes" in this
format. We need to send a copy of this to the reviewer at the Absolute
Sound who panned "Hounds Of Love".

Chris Williams of
   Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago
      chrisw@wwa.com
"How perfectly goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" - C. Crumb