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Felt re-releases

I've had a sneak preview of the new re-releases and I must say I'm shocked. Chief beneficiaries are: 'The Splendour of Fear', Ignite the Seven Cannons', and Deebank's guitars. The latter on, 'Ignite', are now right up front with crystalline sonic lucidity. You can hear the phenomenal dexterity that was, to a degree at least, lost to the listener in excessive reverb and echo, but which now takes you by the scruff of the neck and is forcibly impacted on the inner ear. One is very much taken by the unparalleled creativity that was obscured by inappropriate production values as he navigates his way around the fretboard with unequalled adroitness.

'Crucifix Heaven' has also been reinstated.

Overall, the audio engineering crew have done a marvellous job and are to be given all credit. You won't be disappointed, I promise.

Re: Felt re-releases

Is that you Nigel?!

I'm looking forward to picking up Crumbling and Ignite, but slightly confused/disappointed to see that the pre-order price on Amazon has gone up from £24 to £30. Did anyone pre-order at the original price, and if so does that mean that they have now had to pay out the extra £6?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077MQC5Z1/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1VHB19KR6U45Y&colid=T84EJ4F4JAMF&psc=0

Normally the price drops nearer the release date.

Re: Felt re-releases

Ordered mine (CD boxers) direct from Cherry Red - arrived today (to my eternal shame, I had completely forgotten that today was the release date!). Had them all out to have a look at the packages and 'ephemera', but only listened to Darkest Light and half of Rain Came Down so far and wow - Ignite sounds absolutely crystal clear and as mentioned above there is just so much guitar I had never heard before... Interesting that some tracks have been left 'as is' (and Elegance has had just over a minute removed, which I suppose is the moody middle bit)... Oh and if you get the stickered ones the stickers are on the shrink wrap but come off easily enough, if you want to actually have them on the front of the box...
Up to I Don't Know Which Way To Turn now - you can really hear the bass clearly on the 'new' Ignite tracks!

Re: Felt re-releases

I'm really disappointed with the CD and vinyl reissues. The vinyl sleeves are pretty flimsy, no lyric sheet (!) or texture and the CD boxes are, IMO, quite unpleasant. Why couldn't they have just done straightforward replicas of the LPs rather than badges and stuff like that? I (and I imagine many of the demographic that will consider buying these) am not interested in badges, least of all ones saying things like "Trails of colour dissolve" , nor posters or bits of cardboard in ugly oversized boxes. Tsk.

Re: Felt re-releases

It's a tricky one - I can't see the badges, poster, etc. ever leaving the box for me, but I guess the key thing is that these reissues are at least curated by Lawrence, so if we accept his take on the Felt legacy is going to different to many of ours, there was always going to be an element of slightly 'tacky nostalgia' to them... 'Ephemera' is a bit of a GKM thing, I guess... At least the track segmentation on Fear is sorted, as opposed to my Cherry Red reissue from the early 90s, where The Optimist and The Poet is split over 2 tracks and Red Indians and World are both on the one track, which was always a nightmare for wanting to World onto mixtapes for people back in the day!
In hindsight, I probably only really needed Ignite for the new mixes and maybe Seventeenth Century as I only ever had that on cassette and then some dodgy mp3 download, so the sound quality on that is a revelation based on what I've been used to...
Hopefully there'll be something of a delay until the next five, as I'm sure I can justify another £130 on ephemera for while! Does anyone have an ETA for the second batch?

Re: Felt re-releases

Did Cherry Red bring the release date forwards too? I had these down for being out in March.

I've got real mixed feelings about these now. £60 seems like a huge amount of money to spend on two albums that I already have. How much more might I enjoy them than I do already?

I agree with not being fussed about badges and posters, and the sudden increase in price doesn't sit well with me either.

Having the 7" combined with the CD seems odd - I know you can't please all the people all the time, but standard CD re-issues of the remastered albums, and a separate CD compilation of the 7" tracks would have worked well for me, or the option to buy the albums and singles as vinyl.

Does anyone on here know how many are being pressed? Surely this is quite a niche market by now, no matter how impressive the remastering and packaging might be. I'm considering selling off my Cherry Red generic CD of Crumbling/Splendour to raise funds to reinvest - the Used marketplace on Amazon suggests it'll be a good start if I can attract a buyer (although maybe now interest will cool due to the new versions)

Re: Felt re-releases

I got CD sets of the first four albums (always found Let The Snakes.. to be a slight album, substance and length-wise, so passed on that). As others here and elsewhere have been saying, it's the 'new' version of Ignite The Seven Cannons that holds the most interest. It's lovely to finally be able to hear some of Maurice Deebank's guitar parts more clearly. After Primitive Painters and Elegance Of An Only Dream, The Day The Rain Came Down is my favourite on there, and with the Guthrie veil lifted you can finally properly hear Maurice's beautifully light and fluid playing on the verse parts. Smashing!

Re: Felt re-releases

Just been looking at the reviews of the re-issues on Amazon, bearing in mind we're a loyal fanbase and I doubt many of the comments are by new converts, the reviews are terrible, 2 out of 5 seems to be the norm for the packaging and the prices haven't dropped yet from the ridiculous near £30 just yet! I'll stick to my old copies and the cracking new Go Kart Mozart cd. If anyone's interested someone's offering Goldmine Trash Cd for £104, roll up!