–The Grateful Dead – Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty (SACD hybrids)
–The Allman Brothers Band – Brothers And Sisters (SACD hybrid)
–Miles Davis – There are going to be Second Quintet SACD hybrid releases most of that period’s titles except for ESP and Miles In The Sky. Word has it that these likely won’t arrive until 2015.
–The Doobie Brothers – Stampede. The SACD hybrid for this is up for pre-order over at Amazon.
–Santana – Santana and Abraxas (SACD hybrids)
–Aretha Franklin – Aretha’s Gold (In the ad for it in the Music Direct catalog, I can’t spot any notation if this is vinyl-only or will also be available as an SACD hybrid).
Bill Withers – Live! Carnegie Hall-In the same Music Direct catalog, there is no notation if this will be available as an SACD hybrid either. I really hope the latter two will. If you’ve never owned it before and really want to give yourself a treat, then pick up the Bill Withers Live album. It is one of the single best live albums I own of many. (Hoffman Forum/IMWAN/Music Direct/ Acoustic Sounds)
It was first announced over at the Hoffman Forum and then appeared in a 2 page ad in the latest Music Direct catalog. There will be SACD hybrids and vinyl of 14 Beach Boys albums for Analogue Productions and mastered by Kevin Gray. The titles will be: All Summer Long, Holland, Little Deuce Coupe, Party, Pet Sounds, Shut Down Vol. 2, Smiley Smile, Summer Days And Summer Nights, Sunflower, Surfer Girl, Surfin’ Safari, Surfin’ USA and Today. As to when exactly they will arrive is anybody’s guess at this point. (Hoffman Forum/Music Direct)
The BBR label in the U.K. has announced that Billy Paul – Feelin’ Good At The Cadillac Club is supposed to come out in January. I haven’t seen the pre-order link at Amazon U.K. yet. (BBR Facebook page)
Deep Purple – Made In Japan: 40th Anniversary Edition will be made available as a box set from Warner Brothers in March. Included in the package will be the original album plus re-mixes of all 3 nights, a documentary DVD and a 60 page book. (IMWAN/Hoffman Forum)
Matt has already mentioned this, but it bears repeating. Emerson Lake & Palmer – Brain Salad Surgery: Super Deluxe Edition will be released by UMe in April. It will include a 5.1 mix, alternate takes and unreleased material. (IMWAN/Hoffman Forum)
Thelonious Monk – Paris 1969 from Blue Note snuck under the radar. It is a CD/DVD package. (IMWAN)
Also out is a new 2-CD set of more material from the great ”60s and ’70s Africa music scene. I only found out about it from a review in the latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine. Le Grande Kalle – His Life, His Music from the Stern’s Africa label is now available. Amongst the people who served under his wing was a young Manu Dibango (of later “Soul Makossa” fame). (Rolling Stone Magazine)
And courtesy of the great people at The Second Disc comes word of a 2 albums on 1 CD release for The Strawberry Alarm Clock – Incense And Peppermints and Wake Up…It’s Tomorrow on the Cherry Red (U.K.) imprint Tune-In. It is already out too. (The Second Disc)
And before I sign off for now, I would be remiss in my duties if I did not bid a fond farewell to lead singer and drummer of The Standells, Dick Dodd. We have now lost the 3 biggest and most recognizable names from the great ’60s Garage Rock bands-Dodd of The Standells, Reg Presley of The Troggs and Sky Saxon of The Seeds. He is going to be greatly missed and we all hate like hell to have learned that he had to fight a fierce battle with cancer. Let “Dirty Water”, “Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White” and “Why Pick On Me” play in your minds forevermore and be reminded of the great defiance in his voice.
So glad to see MFSL and Audio Fidelity doing SACD reissues!
I forgot to mention that Mobile Fidelity is also doing The Band-The Last Waltz-again, no mention yet if it will be an SACD hybrid or vinyl-only yet.
Also, please forgive one typo on my part. The spelling of Reg Presley. I must have been typing too fast again. I hope everybody is getting through the terrible weather throughout the country.
One question pops to mind: Why the sudden push for SACD’s? If you go back about 2 years they were pretty much dead in the water and now they are being re-issued “en mass.” There is also a huge push from Uni on the blu-ray audio front (with mixed results).
I think it’s a tap of the forgotten market. Someone has to do it.
If someone will buy it then it’s worth releasing. They figure they can make a quick buck for little investment.
The real test is if they are willing to actually invest in the market. So far the answer appears to be NO. As Jon points out (below) very few of the current wave of sacds and blu-rays are being mixed in 5.1. In my opinion that tells me that the companies producing these releases are just making a quick buck by serving an under-served market. I will admit that there has been an uptick in the albums being remixed in 5.1 over the last couple of years, so that’s a promising trend. Still, it’s easy to tell which companies are really trying to serve the fans of hi-res surround music versus, in some respects, taking advantage of our desire to get better and better reproductions of the music we love.
No disrespect intended to any of those companies as I am happy to get sacd stereo mixes of albums like Hemispheres and Close To The Edge (although you have to admit, that Steven Wilson remix blows away the the Audio Fidelity sacd).
As Jon also states, if most of these were being put out as 5.1 mixes I would buy (or more correctly “re-buy) the majority of them. As it is, I only am picking up those releases that are what I consider to be my top choices.
I know MF doesn’t usually do 5.1 mixes, but since at least some of these titles were released on DVD-Audio with 5.1 mixes, does anyone know if these new SACDs might include said 5.1 mixes? :)
Here’s hoping (but not holding my breath)…
If MF is listening, I’d buy these in a heartbeat if they were 5.1 mixes…but if not, I’ll most likely pass. Just lettin’ you know… ;) .