XTC – Skylarking (1986/2010 Remaster) 320



In the course of world renowned mastering engineer John Dents work on preparing the new double vinyl set of XTC’s Skylarking for release, an interesting and wonderful thing has been discovered. John has informed us that that somewhere in the chain from Todd Rundgrens Utopia sound studio and Londons Master room studio, way back in 1986, a fault has occurred that means all of the versions of Skylarking you’ve ever heard, on CD or vinyl, have sounded…how shall we put this?… wrong.

How can this be I hear you think, sounds fine to me?

The band themselves always had a nagging doubt that the album sounded a little too thin and bass light, not like they remembered it sounding from the recording process. Well, what John has identified is that the previous vinyl and CD’s {including the flashy US Fidelity version unfortunately} have been manufactured with their sound polarity reversed. In laymans terms this mix up means that sound waves that should be pushing out from your speakers are actually pulling them back and projecting from the rear. Something as simple as a wrongly wired XLR plug in Todds studio or the Master room would have resulted in this sound mishap. Making the record sound distant and thinner. He has identified that the original tapes appear in very good condition and with this problem now rectified APE will be able to present to you shortly a splendid double deep vinyl cut of this classic XTC album as it was intended to sound, but never has done due to human error.

great, thank you!

I dunno. I think it would've been pretty good if it the bush went full frame instead of the trashy Nettwork circa-1985 vignette.

I was able to use it for my own vile purposes.

So now it's the same cover but with a map of Hawaii over top?

I wonder how this will compare to the MFSL version, which I have.

man where can i get this for < $50

cool, want to rehear this now

but yeah, that album cover looks like a STD poster for hippies


terrible

So, they changed the album art too? My original LP doesn't look like that at all.

Thanks.

I had no idea that the version they previously released did not sound the way they intended it to sound. I just knew that this was supposed to be the cover art for the original release and Virgin said no dice. I think I side with Virgin.

Thanks mcap.

The only thing I've ever heard by these guys has been "Drums and Wires" I think.

Outside of a couple of their radio hits.

Very different album from Drums & Wires, Derris. This was their "Brian Wilson album" that they made after they stopped touring and became purely a studio band. I'm honestly not a big fan of it, but I'm still really interested in hearing this.

I'm going to check this out too, thank you. Also, that might be one of the worst album covers I've ever seen based on the level of nausea it induced. Or perhaps best, if that was the intention.

That cover is very off-putting, but Skylarking is one of my favourite albums of all time so thanks for the link. I better be blown away because I'm only going to buy that monstrosity on vinyl if the re-mastering is amazing.

since when did everyone start hating pussy?

Even the most-delicious meal can be off-putting if poorly presented. (See my egg roll thread.)

Just to clarify, the band stopped touring in 1982 due mostly to Andy's severe stagefright as well as other peculiar anomalies. Skylarking was released in 1986, and in between, Mummer, Big Express and the Dukes of Stratosphear EP, 25 o'clock were all released.


Derris, Drums & Wires is great, but what was to follow in Black Sea & English Settlement are the two records that for me, changed eveything.

mcap:
Didn't you work on Skylarking as an assistant, or something?

Right. I kind of forget when exactly they stopped playing live and which records prior to Skylarking were part of that, but I guess I should know that it's everything post-English Settlement. The Dukes of Stratosphear stuff is honestly the only thing of theirs post-1982 that I really love. Skylarking is definitely the best besides that, though.



D&W is my favorite, but I love all three of those albums, English Settlement being a very, very close second. And while we're on the general topic, I think their fist two albums are great and highly underrated.

valid point

Seriously one of the funniest threads I have ever read...Go Obner !

You are what you eat.

This is finally being released as a CD now . . . unfortunately I missed the 2LP, but for those, like me, here's your chance.
BTW, was this code for a needledrop rip of the 45RPM set or digital files 24/96? thanks either way - sounds awesome!

I always thought this LP sounded like shit, I assumed I had a beat up copy or poorly pressed reprint. I had considered the polarity.