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This Is For When...
FILED UNDER: BauhausMonday January 16, 2012
The Bauhaus live album, This Is For When… is released as a download today (and can be streamed on Spotify). The concert was specially mixed for the Mask Omnibus Edition (which has now sold out)* by Mark Wallis and captures the original incarnation of the band at the peak of their powers. Hell of a racket for just a voice, a guitar, a bass guitar and a drum kit. No backing hard-drive samples back then folks – what you saw played was what you got and all the better for it. A great show.
Incidentally, the title comes from a poem written by another Northampton resident, ‘Brilburn Logue’, better known these days as Alan Moore. His recitation of the piece (with backing sounds by David J) was used on stage to introduce the band, but this is the only recorded release. Ever graphic comic fans, the name Love And Rockets was a tip to the Hernandez brothers’ publication.
*actually not true… we’ve found some more stock so get it while you can
Posted by Back Cat
Are there any plans to make This Mortal Coil’s remastered albums, including Dust & Guitars, available through iTunes? I couldn’t afford the box set, but would still love to download them.
— Rob · Monday January 16, 2012 · #
yes, they will be made available when we replace the current jewel case versions of the albums with Japanese paper sleeve versions later in the year.
— Back Cat · Tuesday January 17, 2012 · #
Could I just say, anyone contemplating downloading This Is For When will NOT be dissapointed, of the two or three recorded live shows we considered during this project this one shone like a new star, the band were extremely fired up, as Back Cat says…a hell of a racket for a voice, guitar, bass and drums. Bauhaus never sounded so good. The vocals in particular are very,very impressive! Do not delay download today!
AJB
— Andrew Brooksbank · Wednesday January 18, 2012 · #
I agree with Andrew, what a fantastic concert, and the mix is awesome, just compare Man With X Ray Eyes to the same version on Press The Eject, it’s FAR superior on this release.
Please please put Love and Rockets at the London Dominion 1988 for download, it’s the best 1980s concert they ever did!
— K · Friday January 20, 2012 · #
I agree with K re: Love and Rockets – I was there, and I believe it was also filmed too. I really hope that film shows up at some point too…
— CalculusCat · Friday January 20, 2012 · #
Alas, it’s somewhat disheartening that it seems the Omnibus has run out of fuel, because K. is right (and thanks for reminding me of it) – is there ANY chance the L&R London Dominion show might one day see a release, audio, video or otherwise? Don’t even talk to me about that “So aLive” monstrosity, the lack of a peak era L&R live performance is a crying shame!
~r
— Robert · Friday January 20, 2012 · #
Gents, unfortunately the footage from the Dominion was deemed too dark / grainy, and yes,I agree it WAS a brilliant gig and the last UK show the band ever did as well. The only salvagable footage was used on Sorted! / Haunted Fishtank DVD during Dog-End…regarding audio, the show was recorded at the desk but as a monitor mix and not the mix out front, so because of that the sound is…I guess hollow and spacey would be good description.
Irvine, The Bren Centre from’87 on the other hand…Regarding Omnibus running out of fuel though, I would say perhaps coasting right now, rather than out of fuel!
AJB
— Andrew Brooksbank · Monday January 23, 2012 · #
That’s a shame, but is the audio unenjoyable/unlistenable though? Some of the very best official live albums ever released have some sound problems.. The Who Live at Leeds, Pink Floyd Ummagumma, Bowie Live at the Tower Philadelphia, John Cale Sabotage Live, The Velvet Underground at Max’s Kansas City…
Love and Rockets were the Velvets/Beatles of the 80s (even if the UK journalist scum chose not to notice!).
— K · Tuesday January 24, 2012 · #
Agree, live albums should be a warts and all experience, yes its listenable, but does not give a true representation of Love and Rockets live because as I said this particular one is a monitor mix and therefore the instruments are not balanced, no remix would be possible either as it was taped from the desk on audio cassette not multi track. AJB
— Andrew Brooksbank · Tuesday January 24, 2012 · #
Are there plans in the pipeline for any Love & Rockets re-releases? A deluxe version of Earth, Sun. Moon with the B-sides would be fantastic, even if it was only available as a download.
— Rob · Tuesday January 24, 2012 · #
No plans for any L&R releases at present. In fact, not many CD re-issue plans all round. A bit of re-formatting with vinyl (which seems to be what stores want) but sales are flat on all fronts which makes it hard to justify the time and expense involved. At present we’re working on cleaning up the catalogue, working out what worldwide stock there is of obscure titles and seeing what can be re-pressed and what will only be available for download. With the advent of streaming services, physical catalogue releases will become more specialist and limited but, hey, it’ll be fun seeking out that second hand copy of titles you missed!
— Back Cat · Wednesday January 25, 2012 · #
Even if the Dominion footage is overly dark and grainy, surely the brightness could be upped digitally and the concert given a download release?
I’d like to see labels become more adventurous and release titles that might be risky as physical releases but could do reasonably well through direct digital sales or on-demand DVDs similar to what Amazon US offers.
As for the Dominion audio, even stereo masters can be dramatically improved with Mid/Side processing to raise/lower the vocals and left/right instrumentation.
One more thought: rather than canceling or indefinitely postponing the Bauhaus Omnibus series, why not release the proposed bonus discs as digital-only releases with basic mastering? There’s definitely enough demand to make it worthwhile.
— Siam Cat · Friday January 27, 2012 · #
Realistically the returns from a Dominion release would get nowhere near paying for the restoration. Sales of the official L&R DVD were less than spectacular.
I’d be reluctant to divorce bonus material from it’s context. You may have noticed that the bonus discs from the other Omnibus releases aren’t available for download (except This Is For When). While the out-take material is interesting to a fan, it is generally inferior to the released version, so I’d hate for the uninitiated to get confused.
There are plenty of older artists with re-recorded or live versions of their songs which, to someone who didn’t know, look like the official ‘hit’ version.
— Back Cat · Monday January 30, 2012 · #
Agreed, and to be honest Siam Cat, as I said in an earlier posting Omnibus is not out of fuel…once Back Cat’s current workload has been reduced I’m sure we will perhaps share some lunch at The East Hill one Saturday afternoon and discuss the various options regarding the remaining Bauhaus catalogue. But until that time comes…AJB
— Andrew Brooksbank · Monday January 30, 2012 · #
While we’re stabbing about, can some effort be made to strip David Lanfair out of David Lanfair? ;-) Oh how I would love to hear that quaint little instrumental and not want to shout at my hi-fi….
And speaking of the L&R DVD, I quite happily just stripped the Bubblemen audio out of it to reconstitute a digital version of that EP. Let’s see…
Bren Centre ’87. Bubblemen. “David Lanfair (Instrumental)” Mirror People ’88.
By golly, there WAS an expanded Earth•Sun•Moon to be made!
— Robert · Monday January 30, 2012 · #