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Slave to the Rhythm reissue

By Paul Sinclair

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62

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Grace Jones‘ 1985 album Slave To The Rhythm will be reissued by Culture Factory next month.

The Trevor Horn produced opus, which largely revolves around variations of the title track, is high on the wish-list of many a fan in terms of deluxe editions but unfortunately this reissue contains no bonus tracks at all, although it does offer impressive vinyl replica/mini-LP CD/paper sleeve packaging.

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It is not clear at the present time which version of the album is being reissued. Original pressings contained interview links and some mix/track length variations when compared to later abridged versions. The track listing on the packaging of this set (and ‘Edition Originale’) suggests the former, but you can never be sure!

Despite the label’s claim that “our remastering process brings out the music’s original dynamics and true clarity with low levels of noise”, Culture Factory have a poor reputation when it comes to sound and dynamics – just read this professional assessment of the remastering on their Robert Palmer reissues of a few years back and you’ll see what I mean. Hopefully, things have improved in this area because their packaging is first-class. They produce excellent vinyl replicas, probably the best outside Japan.

The wait continues for a expansive deluxe reissue of Slave To The Rhythm, but until then this will have to do. This reissue is out on 29 June 2015.

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62 Comments

62 thoughts on “Slave to the Rhythm reissue”

      2. There will be a 5.1 version of Slave to Rhythm in 2019 (and more), I can not tell you more for the moment, let’s stay in touch.

        Best

  2. Hopefully now that we have The Disco Years, Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing, then Living My Life and Slave To The Rhythm cant be too far behind! Hopefully Living My Life deluxe next year and then Slave the year after, although if they want to hurry that schedule up I wont be a bit upset! They could release them both now and they would be must purchases!
    Hopefully news will leak soon that these are on their way.

  4. I just downloaded the mp3 album from Google Play for $9 AUD. The track times and order match the full version with interviews, correct running order etc. It sounds good to my untutored ears.

  5. The sound is amazing,tracklist is as the original album version(same order and complete runtime!) also the packaging is great,must buy in waiting for a deluxe version

  6. I listened to the re-issue last night (digitally flac 16bit/44 version). Very enthusiastic about the sound compared to the older CD versions.

    Does anyone know where I can, legally, purchase/download the 24/96 digital version of the album?

  7. Sounds horrible, the original album on CD has a DR of 14 or 15, here is a low 8. Reviewers claiming good sound must be deaf or listening with apple ear buds in mp3. Some tracks are DR6.

    Completely appalling.

    Oh and I have nightclubbing remastered in 192/24 which sounds fantastic as well as Living my life/Warm Leatherette CD which also sounds great. This is not even 10% of those albums.

    1. I care little for specifications, the fact is listening directly from CD or ripped to FLAC, on domestic gear and on my Grado SR80 headphones (so not cheap nasty Apple ear buds), this recording sounds stunning.

      The two original CD pressings (UK CD edited edition) and USA (vinyl master) CDs which both sound lifeless compared to the original vinyl.

      This new CD sounds totally different, and for the better, clarity and separation is amazing. If that’s at the sacrifice of Dynamic Range and Loudness being to the max, so be it.

      Have you actually listened to this and compared to what was previously available?

  8. Listened to it last night and it sounds fantastic as does the CF Buggles Age of Plastic which also came out last week. So far CF have never let me down!

  9. I feel pretty uninterested in a reissue of this – it’s just not that good of an album. Too high concept, not nearly enough content. A glorified maxi-single in my eyes…

    I would MUCH rather see the remaining Compass Point albums (Warm Leatherette and Living My Life) given worthwhile reissues. Hopefully the success/acclaim of the Nightclubbing release and also the Disco box inspires the label to invest.

  10. I got my copy today, great news is that it sounds fantastic.
    It’s considerably louder than the previous CD issues (CD version & Vinyl versions on CD) which lacked any decent volume.
    Clarity sounds good too at first listen.

    It is the original vinyl version of the album, so with interviews and “The Fashion Show” is over 2 minutes longer.

    A few niggles though:
    * Track indexing between 1 & 2 is sloppy, so track 2 incorrectly starts with the word “movie”, which is the last word in the interview on track 1.

    * Art work is not great, front cover too dark and what were they thinking with the rear cover being almost impossible to read because the print is tiny, and yet so much white space. They’ve basically scanned the rear of the 12″ cover, and made it half the size of a CD.

    Plus point:
    * Nice “Vinyl” replica disc, grooves & label on one side, playing side is black.

    note: From experience black discs are not compatible with older CD players, so watch out on that one.

    Annoyingly now my original UK CD (edit version) of the album sounds lifeless, so hopefully a remastered version eventually will give us all versions remastered and the B-Sides (Junk Yard, and Annihilated) .

  11. Can’t wait for mine to come especially after your comments Louis and Christian! I am a big fan of Culture Factory releases despite the bad press. Must be my HiFi that just suits there sound. Played Blue Oyster Cults’ Spectres on CF again last night and its the best sounding version ever.

  12. Received today directly from Culture Factory!

    First time ever I listen to this album and I like it much!

    I can’t compare with any previous release so I have no idea about the remastering quality but it sounds good to my ears.

    I also like the mini-LP replica artwork, especially the all-black recorded side of the CD, first time I see one like this!

    Nice add to my Grace Jones collection :)

  13. It is the original Vinyl-Version with the Interviews. And the sound is superb. I received it this morning. It’s a great re-issue. No bonus tracks though.

  14. I don’t know how this garbage label are still in business, charging ridiculous prices for albums with no bonus tracks and absolutely destroying the sound quality of the recordings.

    I bought two Kim Carnes CDs to complete my collection, having been burned by them before but figured maybe they’d learned from past mistakes. They haven’t. They sounded dire.

  16. Huge Trevor Horn/Buggles fan but have never listened to this album. Would it be safe to say it sounds like Buggles #3 with Grace singing lead?

  17. If you can live with a 256kbps download, the version on iTunes is the original mix with all the interviews.

    I suspect the same is true of Amazon Music (the source of Autorip), so I wouldn’t say that guarantees that this CD has the same version because I’ve bought special editions before and ended up with a default (sometimes different) version on Amazon Music.

  19. the stranglers ones dropped to around 5 quid ish from ‘all your music’ about a year after release. noticed they have gone back up now. picked up dreamtime and feline as they are personal favourites but I think a lot of the others were same as this price at the time. so a wait will be done here because I would like to hear the mastering of this beauty.

  20. A word of Achtung!
    All the releases I personally have and have heard from Culture Factory sound awful! They’re treated/enhanced/remastered/f**ked with in ways you’d never think possible. It just not loud/compressed but they mess with a lot of other things as well.
    I have no idea why they choose to alter the source they have to such a degree so try to listen before buying.

    1. Yeah,the Donna summer 2 were unlistenable,especially She Works Hard For The Money album.

      Everytime Donna hit a power note the sound noticably dipped like someone had hit the volume decraese button.They obviously used some normaliser setting.

  21. Finally!! I want/like this a lot
    One of (may be even THE) my favorite albums ever.
    My hope:
    – also available in HD download
    – Also including the jazzy remix. My favorite remix

    Thanks Paul!
    Looking forward

  22. Another hopeful indicator that this might be the full original vinyl album version on CD is the tracklisting

    The butchered UK CD that edited out the interview parts had a different track order of

    1. Jones The Rhythm
    2. The Fashion
    3. Operattack
    4. Slave To The Rhythm
    5. Frog & The Princess
    6. The Crossing (ooh the action…)
    7. Don’t Cry – It’s Only The Rhythm
    8. Ladies And Gentlemen: Miss Grace Jones

    Looking at the OBI strip image it matches that of the original US CD track order.

    1. Jones The Rhythm
    2. The Fashion Show
    3. The Frog & The Princess
    4. Operattack
    5. Slave To The Rhythm
    6. The Crossing (Ooh The Action)
    7. Don’t Cry – It’s Only The Rhythm
    8. Ladies And Gentlemen: Miss Grace Jones

    1. Don’t let the OBI strip fool you because it claimed on Points On The Curve by Wang Chung that they had used the original vinyl tracklisting but it was a total lie. If you like your music very loud that’s fine but those Culture Factory remasters are an abomination and should be avoided.

  23. Well I can confirm that if your order this from Amazon you get the full unedited version as an Autorip.

    I’m currently listening to the Autorip version- trying to see if I can detect the differences compared to my Island CD version (so far noticed some extra dialog e.g. “I just choked on my own saliva” and a much longer into to ‘The Fashion Show’).
    It will be interesting to see what the actual CD contains – it would be nice to get some confirmation of track times from Culture Factory.

  24. The Island CD I have is one the weakest sounding CDs in my collection. Obviously like everyone else I’d prefer a proper deluxe of this, but I can’t believe it’ll sound worse than the CD I have so I might be tempted.

  25. Sadly, I can’t see there ever being a ZTT reissue of this. As you can see in the images above, Island / Universal own the rights, not ZTT & Salvo. Though that’s not to say Universal couldn’t do a nice reissue.

      1. Don’t think Salvo would be interested in just reissuing the standard album. Doesn’t look like bonus tracks were on the table, hence probably not attractive option to anyone but Culture Factory!

        1. Doesn’t seem very likely that they use the original unedited version – both the sleeve and the disc label reproduce the Manhattan/EMI reissue without the interviews.

          As for a genuine ZTT/Salvo reissue – if they include the B-sides, the 7″ and both 12″ versions (the original “Blooded” 8:30 mix with the interview snippets and the “Hot Blooded” version from the ‘Compass Point Sessions’ compilation) they’d have a 78 min CD. And they could also include both album mixes to make it a double…

    1. Those Seal reissues were supposed to have been happening about 3 years ago according to that 80’s pop magazine which i can’t remember the name of.

  29. Looking at the track times it seems my copy of the CD is one of the edited versions so I am hoping that this release is the full version.

    I was very excited when I saw the headline – very deflated when I read that is is not a deluxe edition.

    Here’s hoping the release offers a decent remastering and correct track versions.

    Must see if I can download those ‘other versions’ from iTunes or Amazon (and make my own semi-deluxe version :-)

    1. If you buy the vinyl picture disc from Amazon UK, I can confirm you get the ‘full’ version via MP3 ‘autorip’. At least I did.

  30. The Culture Factory Suzanne Vega releases (2014) were painfully loud. It was difficult to find a low enough setting on my hi-fi to listen to them. They weren’t particularly cheap either.

  35. I have always struggled to find a cd containing the original 12″ vinyl extended version of Slave to the Rhythm (Blooded). All the cd tracks which claim to be that version that I have heard differ from that version which included extra interview excerpts at the start (“She was born in Jamaica…raised in America etc…”) . Anyone got any ideas as to where this could be found ?

    1. It’s the version you’re looking for on the 2004 “Produced By Trevor Horn” double CD issued on ZTT. Interview excerpts followed by the full single as an instrumental, and then the full single with vocals. Stunning version!

  36. I bought the original cd from Amazon not realising it was the edited version . Then I got the Auto Rip from them and it was the full un edited album .

  37. No bonus tracks makes this kinda dull. I’ll nevertheless end up getting it at some point if the reviews on the sound quality are good. Yes packaging etc. is nice.

  39. Avoid at all costs i bought those two Wang Chang so called remasters and they sound hellish and what i heard of the Robert Palmer ones they were no better. Wait for Salvo to do it properly.

  40. Looking forward to this. I have Stranglers, Blue Oyster Cult and Iggy Pop albums on CF which I think sound fantastic, despite the bad press about earlier releases. Stranglers Dreamtime is a standout.

  41. Hmmmm… methinks someone is trying to cash in on the Grace Jones resurgence following the Nightclubbing and Disco Years reissues, all of which delivered a good load of bonus material, as well as a good choice of formats.

    The OCD collector in me will probably buy this, but it’s by no means an instant purchase.

    And slapping “24/96” on the Obi strip is pretty damned pointless for a CD and is tantamount to saying “No, really… it doesn’t sound shit at all! The numbers prove it!!” ;-)

    The only good thing about this is that it suggests that licensing may not be a huge issue after all and that might pave the way for the long overdue, hugely anticipated deluxe edition. I live in hope…

    1. this is the best sound quality of this album ever. if you have a good quality equipment,you will hear the powerfull sounds and effects in the music.Buy

  42. ZTT, Salvo or Trevor Horn himself can make the 30th anniverary of this album unforgettable to suprise us with a DeLuxe / Expanded CD set, SACD and/or Blu Ray version.
    With the CD and LP version and all the mixes and b-sides on it.

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