Oct, 2020
Streaming And Download
Posted: Thursday 8th October.
The Divine Comedy's 30th Anniversary reissues are released on Friday, and the new digital formats of ‘Liberation’ through to ‘Bang Goes The Knighthood’ go up on streaming and download services. These albums were remastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios and will be available as 24bit audio from services which supply high quality audio.
In addition, each digital album has a Volume 2 containing the same bonus tracks as the CD formats. Over the next few weeks we'll be compiling playlists to help you navigate your way through the remastered albums and over 180 bonus tracks! Please feel free to suggest playlist ideas or make your own and send them to us.
Finally, as a very special digital exclusive, the band's seminal 1994 release 'Promenade' comes with a Volume 3 – ‘Promenade (2020 mix)’. For this updated take on the album, mixing engineer Guy Massey went back to the original analogue multitrack audio. He says: "We felt that the original mix, although lovely, was a little unfocused in places and there were some FX applied that Neil had always wanted to address in a new mix. With that in mind I tried to retain the original's charm but bring things forward for fans to hopefully hear things they hadn't before."
Neil explains further: "I’ve never been a big fan of remixing old music. People become just as attached to the way a record sounds as to the songs themselves. They grow to love them warts and all. Having said that I’d always been interested to know how certain records could sound if reappraised. Especially ‘Promenade’. We never had enough time to mix in the old days. We were lucky to get in the studio at all. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see what Guy would do with the original multi tracks. And if we were ever going to do it, this was the time.
"When I finally listened to Guy’s mixes I was by turns elated and, for want of a better term, weirded out. It was so refreshing to hear everything so clearly; for everything to be so warm and forgiving on the ear. But it was also very strange to hear a record I’d lived with for a quarter of a century suddenly thrown into completely different sonic territory. It really was a fascinating undertaking. And it brought home to me just how huge an element of making records mixing actually is. Guy did a really brilliant job, and I hope our fans will listen to it with an open mind. Remembering always that the original mix isn’t going anywhere!"
