SOME STUFFS: “beg, borrow or steal…”: Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon” remaster, deluxe edition, and box set are on its way
If you’re a Pink Floyd fan as I am, you know that your appreciation for the group goes deep. If you’re a collector, it’s not only deep, but it’s “immersed”. Yeah, that was a cheap one, but it was a semi-effective way of saying that some of you may have heard about a series of Pink Floyd reissues and remasters but if not, get ready.
PF fans have been adamant about wanting certain albums properly remastered and wanting to hear an official EMI version of music that has been widely bootlegged for years. When it comes to Dark Side Of The Moon, it was discovered that when it was released on CD, there were a number of different variations of it, going back to a time when each country may have “tampered” with the master tape they received opposed to just using the exact same digital master or CD image, as is the norm in the last 10 years. Now, EMI have catered to the fan, responded to the bootlegger with a series of reissues and remasters that will make fans more broke than they are now.
First and foremost, there’s Pink Floyd: Discovery, a 16 CD box set where all of their studio albums (including Ummagumma, which was half live/half studio) are remastered by James Guthrie. There will also be a 60-page booklet designed by Storm Thorgerson, so if newbies have always wanted to be introduced to the group but didn’t know how to begin or preferred to do it by buying the actual music, begin here.
Dark Side Of The Moon fans are going to be treated to an overload of goodness. For the vinyl junkies, the album will be released on vinyl. Sure, the record is plentiful from almost every country in the world, but if you want to hear the new remaster, this is how you’ll hear it. Digitally? Get ready. First you have a single CD reissue. Then there’s a 2 CD deluxe edition, where disc 2 will feature the album performed live in full at Wembley Arena in London, England in 1974, as the group did for years. Need more? There will be a 6-disc Immersion Box Set, and this is where it gets incredible. Disc 1 will be the remastered album. Disc 2 will be the 1974 Wembley performance. Disc 3 will be a DVD-Audio disc, featuring standard and high-resolution versions of Guthrie’s 5.1 surround sound mix released on the SACD pressing in honor of DSOTM‘s 30th anniversary, plus the much praised 1973 Alan Parsons quadraphonic mix, also in standard and high resolution versions. A bootleg version of the original quad mixes have been available online for years, where fans could download the files and burn their own DVD-A disc, but this is the first time EMI has touched the quad mixes for anything since the 1982 compilation Works. The DVD-A will also have the 2011 remaster of DSOTM in full
No, we’re not done. Disc 4 is a DVD-V (video), featuring two live performances from 1972, a 2003 documentary on DSOTM, plus a 60-minute look at the backdrop films the band used when they toured England, France, and the United States (they created different edits of the films for each country). On top of that, you can watch the backdrop films while listening to the music in standard stereo or 5.1 surround sound.
Disc 5 is a Blu-Ray disc, which will feature everything that’s on the DVD-A and DVD-V.
If that’s not enough good for you, there’s Disc 6, an audio CD with loads of unreleased goodies, including:
This is all that any fan could ever want, but then again, 2013 is two years away, maybe if EMI is still around, they can release a 40th anniversary Sessions box set, where fans are able to hear isolated multi-tracks and create their own mixes. Imagine the variations and remixes that would surface from that? “and when you lose control…” indeed.
Nonetheless, the band and EMI are taking DSOTM fanaticism to the extreme, and at this point there is no need to reissue and remaster this album anymore. Unless a Sessions box is indeed created, but that’s another story.
Nonetheless, the DSOTM vinyl and CD remaster, deluxe edition, mega-deluxe edition, and the Discovery box set will be released on September 27th. Plan to buy them all? It would explain why you are mad, even if you’re not mad…
