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Topic: Worth it?, Is the boxed compliation worth it if...< Next Oldest | Next Newest >
dkaycom Offline




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Posted: Mar. 12 2004, 21:35

ugo to to have a wider spatial experience, dkay to be more intense, Mr C to unravel to more intricate technical depths.
.... and Ol not to take everythin' in these board too serious....



have a nice weekend,


dkay


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Bootlegs should be shared not sold.
(BlackCottonMafia)

Find more tubular sounds at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Incantations/
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Blackguard Offline




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Posted: Jan. 25 2005, 19:27

Yes, it's worth getting a copy of Boxed.  The remixes add a lift to hearing the compositions again.
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Ghostmojo Offline




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Posted: April 16 2009, 17:38

Quote (Blackguard @ Jan. 25 2005, 19:27)
Yes, it's worth getting a copy of Boxed.  The remixes add a lift to hearing the compositions again.

I've had this for years on vinyl but never replaced it yet with CD (as I have for many others). I haven't actually played it in a very long while.

Apart from the curiosity of hearing the Tubular Bells oddities missing from the original release and the interesting stuff on Collaborations - and the great cover image - I can't see much point to Boxed.

I never cared for the stripped down Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn didn't need a remix at all IMHO. I wonder whether O was just done to kind of complete the process at the time - as in, the other two were being done - so why not?

A better idea would be to release a special boxset of Tubular Bells (with various odds and ends / mixes etc.) and to release Collaborations in its own right (perhaps 'extended' as some have suggested)


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" ... if you feel a little glum - to Hergest Ridge you should come ... "
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ex member 419 Offline




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Posted: April 17 2009, 03:40

Mike still has new material he is working on, dont think he will revisit tb mixes, as he has already done that, the new work will surprise and delight old and new fans! deb
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Ghostmojo Offline




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Posted: April 19 2009, 15:32

Quote (ex member 419 @ April 17 2009, 03:40)
Mike still has new material he is working on, dont think he will revisit tb mixes, as he has already done that, the new work will surprise and delight old and new fans! deb

I'm sure it will.

And the latest news indicates were getting the last word on TB this summer too.

Looks like all bases covered then...


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" ... if you feel a little glum - to Hergest Ridge you should come ... "
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HRFanUSA Offline




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Posted: May 22 2009, 07:00

I remember receiving the Boxed LP set for Christmas shortly after it was released. It was more than delightful (back then) for me to finally have something to read (the great booklet included) about an artist I knew little about other than the info on the backs of the TB/HR/Ommadawn LP covers! I liked and still like the remixes as they offer me the chance to hear all three albums in a different light, so to speak. I'm revisiting the Boxed version of TB as I type and I especially like the pronounced ultra-deep bass line during the first 9 minutes of side one. I also find the remix of TB to be crisper and much more airy. If you love MO's first three albums, I doubt you'd be disappointed with Boxed. My only complaint with the CD set is how Virgin butchered the cover, adding a black bar with information, and totally ruining the integrity of the original beautiful LP cover art. Of course, Virgin butchered the CD releases of HR and Ommadawn too - treating them with a "I guess we better get these reissued on CD" attitude. (Virgin also butchered most of the early Tangerine Dream CD reissues as far as the artwork!;) I hope Mercury will treat their re-releases of the MO Virgin catalog with more thought and consideration...
Harry
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The Caveman Offline




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Posted: May 22 2009, 08:45

Ever seen what Virgin did to Steve Hillage's earlier stuff when they were released on cd?Fish Rising had a wonderfull cover on vinyl only to be completely buggered up on cd!At least the sound was ok though (Fish Rising is another really cool album.If anyone's interested in getting into Hillage through his association with Oldfield then this is the one to get).
 I envy you having been around early enough to get the 70's stuff first time around.I was born in 75 and my earliest musical memory is standing in my front room in Salisbury in i guess 78 (i have a stupidly good memory for early childhood)with a red plastic toy guitar pretending to play TB.
 I got Boxed on vinyl for i think my 11th or 12th Birthday and was really pleased with it.Like you i was happy to be able to read something about Oldfield as there was so little written about him and the internet was a long way off being widely accesible in 1986.
 As i've got older and my musical ear has developed through playing music i've noticed the little subleties in the remixes of the first 3.I particuarly like the differences on TB.There are some really really subtle things like the double speed guitars being more prominant and the fuzz guitar being a little more to the fore in the Caveman bit.
 The remix of HR i'm not so fond of.As a different take on a familiar theme it's ok but i only dicovered the original mix on a vinyl LP about 10 years ago so at the time i couldn't figure out where the differences were to my cassette copy.As there was so little written i didn't know the whole background to the remix and that there were 2 mix's and that after Boxed the only mix you could get was the remix!
 My only real gripe (like a lot of people)is Collaborations.At the time i thought it was great but now i think it could have been better.I'd never heard most of it except for Portsmouth and In Dulci Jubilo-you have to have had your head buried for 10 years not to have heard them-and i particuarly loved First Excursion.It actually gave me goosebumps it was that intense.In the years following i've discovered there was alot more made before 76 that could have gone on there.A shame cos it could have made the 'bonus disk' so much better.
As for what they did to the cd version....well lets just hope Mercury have a little bit more respect than Virgin.


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THE COMING OF THE GREAT WHITE HANDKERCHEIF IS NIGH.
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Korgscrew Offline




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Posted: May 22 2009, 14:47

Quote (Ghostmojo @ April 16 2009, 21:38)
I never cared for the stripped down Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn didn't need a remix at all IMHO. I wonder whether O was just done to kind of complete the process at the time - as in, the other two were being done - so why not?

I might be coming to this a bit late, but maybe I can shed at least a little light here...

There were various constraints to mixing in SQ and although, being a matrix system, it's stereo compatible, the phase shifts and everything else involved in the matrix can lead to things sounding a bit odd when they're not being played through an SQ decoder. So, though it could have been possible to mix Ommadawn in SQ from the outset, it wouldn't necessarily have been technically desirable. It also would have been logistically difficult - The Beacon wasn't equipped for SQ mixing, so it would have meant taking it to The Manor, which would have delayed the already delayed release yet further. As it was, they started on the mix at The Manor fairly soon after the stereo one was released - SQ and QS versions of Ommadawn were released in early 1976, a good 6 months or so before Boxed (the mix on the QS version is the same, contrary to some rumours I've read; the QS matrix is different, though, which can lead to a few differences here and there, perhaps especially when played in stereo, which may have led to the confusion).

There were no doubt also commercial reasons, not least the fact that a quad-only release would have put some buyers off (even if only a few; their concern was so great that they went as far as lying about the CD having been remixed in stereo when it's very definitely still quad! ). The fact that it meant they could release more than one LP of it probably didn't hurt either...
We've seen similar happen more recently with Tubular Bells 2003, the surround version being released 8 months or so after the stereo one. Modern discrete formats at least don't have the constraints SQ had, but a dedicated stereo mix is still preferable to letting a decoder do its own fold down, and I suspect there were also time constraints which prevented Mike from having the 5.1 mix ready at the same time as the stereo one.

Virgin was clearly quite excited about trying quad out in the mid 70s, with Mike's music being an important part of that (I don't think all that many other albums were released in both SQ and QS in the same market), but then the fact they were trying releases in different formats also highlights the lack of certainty at the time.
Of course the record buyers didn't quite share the excitement; by the time Incantations (conceived from the outset as a quadraphonic album in Mike's new quadraphonic studio at Througham Slad) was finished, quad had all but died out. Incantations really was remixed in stereo, though oddly enough, Exposed was released in SQ quad a year later, which gives a hint at how stunning Incantations in quad could have been.

I think quad's lack of popularity has led to the reasons behind these remixes being mostly forgotten about. Now I see and hear people saying "Mike should remix Ommadawn, I'd love to hear it in surround!"  - some of us have been listening to Ommadawn in surround for ages and have been very much enjoying the experience! I do think it would be nice to see the whole set released in a modern surround format, though.
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Ugo Offline




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Posted: May 22 2009, 16:48

Quote (Korgscrew @ May 22 2009, 20:47)
some of us have been listening to Ommadawn in surround for ages and have been very much enjoying the experience!

Well, I only have to add that I've played the Boxed mix of Ommadawn lots and lots of times through my Dolpy ProLogic II DVD amplifier (which is designed for 5.1) and it sounds wonderful. :)

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Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian
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shenry Offline




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Posted: Oct. 27 2018, 03:25

To answer the original question, YES it's worth buying Boxed separately. In fact, now we have the new special editions of all the individual early albums it's even more important, for one reason if nothing else - the special edition of Hergest Ridge doesn't contain the Boxed mix. So you now need to buy Boxed to hear it.

I think the Boxed Hergest Ridge is vastly superior. It works by omitting everything that is unnecessary - whole instruments and melodies disappear, from side one in particular. You'd think that would make it more repetitive, but in fact the opposite is true - the whole first section becomes 1. Melody but no chords, just a drone, 2. Backing chords building up, 3. Melody coming back in over the chords. Before the Boxed mix it was Melody plus chords all the way for about eight minutes or so.

Beyond that, the whole LP box is an amazing, weighty package. Beatifully presented, nice essays on each album (in a very direct, slightly playful seventies way) and fabulous photos which deserve to be seen in full size rather than on an internet browser.

Boxed is my favourite album of anyone , bar none.
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Oct. 27 2018, 07:33

Quote (shenry @ Oct. 27 2018, 03:25)
Beyond that, the whole LP box is an amazing, weighty package. Beatifully presented,

The cover shows what it would be like to stand in a hypercube (tesseract). It reminds me of Robert Heinlein's classic story "And He Built a Crooked House". The vases on the shelves also have their echoes in the Maestro 3D Maze, which is nice.
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shenry Offline




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Posted: Nov. 26 2018, 12:09

You just don't get covers like that any more do you! It's very 1976.

I saw a vinyl copy of Boxed in fairly good condition in my local used records shop - for only £8! I feel like buying it just for the sake of it, although I have it already. I actually hope I go back there and it's gone, becuase that means someone else will have discovered it!
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nightspore Offline




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Posted: Nov. 26 2018, 18:31

If only someone would invent an online auction site where you can buy any item you like!  :laugh:
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