Julian Cope: Reissue details

The down side of Fried is that the version of ‘Reynard the Fox’ from the later WSYM ep (the one with the big speaker on the front) is omitted, and yet again the single remix of Sunspots is missing.

on each of the three jc deluxe twofers, single mixes have been omitted.
WSYM – greatness and perfection is missing.
Fried – sunspots
St julian – eve’s volcano.

Mark you’re right – the new Fried sounds very good, a big step up on the 96 version, which makes the WSYM travesty all the more strange.

on the flip side i just played Fried and it sounds great all the way through. A little bit punchier than the ’96 version. credit where it’s due he did a good job on that.
which begs the question how is WSYM so bad.
maybe there was a file mix up and the wrong ones went to the pressing plant.

WSYM is a disaster. numerous spelling errors in the booklet and even incorrectly listing “hey high class butcher” as “hey class butcher”.
if you have the 96 remaster and floored genius 2 you have every track (seeing as others point out the single version of “greatness” is actually the album version twice over) bar the b-side version of “Pussyface” which itself is taken from vinyl.
the sonics of disc one are truly appalling, not patch on the 96 remaster. thin brittle with no bottom end whatsoever. I’m beginning to think andy pearce is either the unluckiest mastering engineer ever for being given such poor source material over and over again (he has previous), or the real answer which is he’s not very good. His previous attempts IMO have been less than stellar especially his butchery of the icicle works 3cd deluxe edition of “if you want to defeat …” where instead of taking a blanket off the speakers, he put one over them by rolling off all the top end.
avoid at all costs and just find a nice copy of “greatness” single and rip the two tracks you need.

Wish they’d reissue WSYM on vinyl. Someone nicked my copy in the 90s.

I bought WSYM and compared it to the 96 remaster. New one sounded horrible, no bass at all (and I mean none). Biased towards the left speaker on all tracks too. Nasty. Going back to Amazon.

Trash and Metal Micky you are obviously connoisseurs, as I too think Kolly Kibbers Birthday is one of Julian Cope’s best songs. I also really like Ouch Monkeys (TDE)

Great interview with Julian on the reissues. Starts at 1:36:21

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0655d2y

My apologies Paul – will do.

Hi Paul – don’t like to nit-pick but if you can get a message to the label the “remix” of “Greatness & Perfection” on CD2 of WSYM is in fact the album version repeated from CD1.

Personally I think the mastering is vastly superior to the 1996 re masters. Fried, especially is much cleaner sounding and not as muddy as before. The clarity of both is much improved and there’s more detail because of this.

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They’re waiting for stock ATM but I imagine they’ll get them in in the next couple of days. Order now though in case they put the price up!

They must have trouble sourcing Fried as mines is on Back Order and everywhere i have looked it’s saying the same.

Echo,
The mastering sounds exactly the same as the previous CD version to my ears. As the booklet states Mastering: Andy Pearce, it doesn’t state Re-mastering so one can assume the sound hasn’t changed.

Caroline,
Have you looked at the inside last page of the booklet? There are session dates though not sure if it’s recorded date or transmission date.
There are no lyrics but there is a 16 page booklet with an essay by Mick Hougton.

I picked these up yesterday from Fopp at £9 each. “WSYM” sounds very similar to my original vinyl, if a little sharper on the top end. Nothing sounds overloaded or compressed and the b-sides and session tracks are in good shape. “Fried” is sounding much the same, although remember that some of the mixing on that album is a little eccentric.

There is something unsatisfactory about them, tho’. No lyrics, no recording details for the BBC sessions and, more to the point, those brilliant and fascinating demos, bootlegged as “Christ Versus Warhol” several years ago, aren’t included. Also, the David Jensen session consists of 3 songs from “Fried” so why is it on the “WSYM” set?! The bonus discs are also arranged very differently – “WSYM” is logically laid out (Playroom b-sides, Perfection b-sides and then BBC sessions) but the “Fried” disc has been all mixed up, presumably to create a specific listening experience. Odd that the same approach wasn’t taken with each. There was a great 4 disc box set in this era and this isn’t it but the pricing is good and Cope’s antipathy towards his old music means that this is the best we’re going to get.

(NB – I’m not from the label by the way, that is actually my name!)

I’m wondering how these will sound compared to those “deluxe” Japanese issues that came out not too horribly long ago. I thought they sounded great!

Seth, Thanks for clarifying on the BBC tracks. So they ARE essential purchases (in case my wife asks, heh!).

Eugene, re: A-Z cataloging: we need some kind of diligent filing clerk version of the “South Park” “Underpant Gnomes” to take care of this while we sleep!
(Step 1 “File CD’s – Step 2 “?” – Step 3 – “Profit”)

Ha! This sounds like my cataloging too.

“Charles Hodgson said:
That’s what I thought too. Got a copy of “FG2″ 2CD somewhere, but A-Z cataloging is about 15 years out of date round my place! Can anyone confirm?”

Been waiting for that first album in this type of format for SO long. Great news !

“A few of you have requested more information around the Julian Cope reissues that are out this week”. Err, wot?
First I heard of these reissues and I am exactly who wants to know! I deposit vast amounts of money in your secret Swiss bank account to get exactly this sort of info from you in timely, fancy articles! Any JC info you get, put it up here post haste!
Sadly, reviewing the previous reissues, including that of Floored Genius 2, reveals that there are 3 tracks on the WSYM 2D that aren’t on the aforementioned CDs and only 1 on Fried! Just as sad as last year’s Saint Julian 2D for those of us that already had the Followers Of CD.
Never got the Journey Through The West Country EP, so I continue to hope passionately for a great Autogeddon expanded edition!
Always hoped that the Alan Moore/David J team up project would inspire a Grant Morrison/JC team up! Oh, what life could be if my wishes all came true!

[[RichardAugust 13, 2015I think all of the radio session tracks have already been released on the deluxe version of Floored Genius 2 in 2010 which you can pick up on amazon for under £10]]

That’s what I thought too. Got a copy of “FG2” 2CD somewhere, but A-Z cataloging is about 15 years out of date round my place! Can anyone confirm?
(Bought in any case. I don’t mind having multiple copies of those two gems.)

Had confirmation from Amazon today that my copy of ‘world’ has been despatched and should arrive via prime tomorrow – so they do have them.

Hope someone can inform us about the sonics of the new masterings. I’m very interested!

I’m ashamed to say I don’t own these. Hope the UK link goes back up so I can pre-order.

I think all of the radio session tracks have already been released on the deluxe version of Floored Genius 2 in 2010 which you can pick up on amazon for under £10

Aaaaaarrrrgggghh!

I am now imagining a world where I don’t actually buy any original music anymore, just endless reissues of the same titles I bought previously/. Endlessly remastered, endlessly expanded…. sigh…..

I love both of these albums especially World (which features one of my favourite Cope tracks “Kolly Kibber’s Birthday”) so i guess if they are cheap enough – price not currently listed.

Both sets are showing ‘currently unavailable’ on Amazon.co.uk. Getting really pissed off with not being able to pre-order stuff on Amazon.

Just for clarification, the mid-’90’s CD bonus tracks for both albums were originally B-Sides.
Amazon.co.uk lists both titles as “currently unavailable” at present, which is odd. (I pre-ordered both titles, and they have debited my account, so hopefully they are on their way.) Maybe they underestimated demand? They are both classics after all.