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The Comsat Angels deluxe reissues

By Justyn Barnes

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comsatangels_sleep

Cult Eighties post-punks The Comsat Angels are releasing deluxe expanded editions of their first three albums, and the long out-of-print Chasing Shadows…

These much-delayed reissues, via Edsel, finally hit the streets later this week, inviting a reappraisal of the Sheffield four-piece once championed by Robert Palmer.

Named after the J. G. Ballard story of the same name, The Comsat Angels combined sparse instrumentation and a large sound in abstract, generally bleak, heartache-ridden pop songs. Unlike other contemporary bands of similar ilk such as U2, Simple Minds, Teardrop Explodes and Echo and the Bunnymen, however, the Comsats never achieved mainstream glory, with their biggest ‘hit’ album, Sleep No More and single Independence Day, peaking at number 51 and 71 in the UK charts respectively.



The Comsat Angels are Stephen Fellows (guitar, vocals), Mik Glaisher (drums), Kevin Bacon (bass) and Andy Peake (keyboards), and although commercial success proved elusive for them in the Eighties, their influence can be detected in the work of many Post-Punk revival bands – Blacklist, Bell Hollow, Editors and Interpol to name but a few.

These four remastered 2CD deluxe packages showcase pivotal albums from the band’s catalogue – Waiting For a Miracle, Sleep No More, Fiction and Chasing Shadows/Fire On The Moon. Robert Palmer contributed to vocals You’ll Never Know on Chasing Shadows (and got an ‘executive producer’ credit for his trouble), which is reissued for the first time here and packaged with the little-known Fire On the Moon, recorded in the brief period when the Comsats renamed themselves ‘Dream Command’.



All albums featured in this mass reissue were originally recorded between 1980 and 1990 and a sprinkling of bonus non-LP singles, demos and BBC radio session tracks have been added. Each set comes with a booklet featuring detailed liner notes, rare photos, memorabilia.

Two CD super deluxe editions of Waiting For a Miracle, Sleep No More, Fiction and Chasing Shadows/Fire On The Moon are released on 20 November 2015.

pre-order

comsatangels_waiting

Waiting For A Miracle 2CD

comsatangels_sleep

Sleep No More 2CD

comsatangels_fiction

Fiction 2CD

comsatangels_chasing

Chasing Shadows/Fire On The Moon 2CD

track_listing

comsatangels_waiting

Waiting For A Miracle (1980) 

CD1       

1              Missing In Action
2              Baby
3              Independence Day
4              Waiting For A Miracle
5              Total War
6              On The Beach
7              Monkey Pilot
8              Real Story
9              Map Of The World
10           Postcard

Bonus Tracks

11           Home Is The Range
12           We Were
13           Ju Ju Money (LP out-take)
14           Work (LP out-take)

CD2       

1              Red Planet
2              I Get Excited
3              Specimen No.2
4              Independence Day (Demo)
5              Real Story (Demo)
6              Target Talk (Demo)
7              Living In (Demo)

BBC Sessions

8              Total War
9              Independence Day
10           Baby
11           Ju Ju Money
12           Real Story
13           Monkey Pilot
14           Waiting For A Miracle
15           Home Is The Range

comsatangels_sleep

Sleep No More (1981)

CD1       

1              The Eye Dance
2              Sleep No More
3              Be Brave
4              Gone
5              Dark Parade
6              Diagram
7              Restless
8              Goat Of The West
9              Light Years
10           Our Secret

Bonus Tracks

11           Eye Of The Lens
12           Another World
13           At Sea

CD2       

1              Mass (album out-take)
2              Dark Parade 1 (Demo)
3              Goat Of The West (Demo)
4              Be Brave (Demo)
5              Gone (Alt. EP Version)
6              Be Brave
7              At Sea
8              Eye Of The Lens
9              Dark Parade
10           Gone
11           Total War
12           Eye Dance
13           Be Brave

comsatangels_fiction

Fiction (1982)

 CD1

1              After The Rain
2              Zinger
3              Now I Know
4              Not A Word
5              Ju Ju Money
6              More
7              Pictures
8              Birdman
9              Don’t Look Now
10           What Else!?

CD2       

1              (Do The) Empty House
2              Red Planet Revisited
3              It’s History
4              Private Party
5              For Your Information
6              After The Rain (Remix)
7              (Do The) Empty House [Live]
8              What Else!? [Live]
9              Now I Know
10           Ju Ju Money
11           Our Secret
12           Goat Of The West

comsatangels_chasing

Chasing Shadows (1986)

CD1

1              The Thought That Counts
2              The Cutting Edge
3              Under The Influence
4              Carried Away
5              You’ll Never Know
6              Lost Continent
7              Flying Dreams
8              Pray For Rain

Bonus

9              Something’s Got To Give

CD2        Dream Command: Fire On The Moon (1990)

1              Celestine
2              Whirlwind
3              Sleepwalking
4              Reach For Me
5              Ice Sculpture
6              Venus Hunter
7              Phantom Power
8              Transport Of Delight
9              She’s Invisible
10           Mercury

pre-order

comsatangels_waiting

Waiting For A Miracle 2CD

comsatangels_sleep

Sleep No More 2CD

comsatangels_fiction

Fiction 2CD

comsatangels_chasing

Chasing Shadows/Fire On The Moon 2CD

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18 Comments

18 thoughts on “The Comsat Angels deluxe reissues”

  3. Demon are listing vinyl releases for all 5 (Chasing Shadows and Fire On The Moon getting separate releases), also due on the 20th. No mention of downloads, though.
    The bonus tracks for the first three albums are very much based on those on the 2006 Renascent issues, which is a little disappointing. Seven of the twenty BBC session tracks are unissued, though.
    It’s nice to see a Chasing Shadows-era B-side finally make it to CD, but I wonder why they didn’t include the second B-side from that period.

  4. I guess the obvious question is: Where’s the vinyl? I’d rather just have FLACs available for purchase than having CDs. Reissues like this should also have 24/96 FLACs not 16/44. This is 2015, why do we have to keep having CD quality audio as the ceiling? Makes no sense to me. CD’s are just silly at this point. Vinyl+ FLAC 24/96 download is the way to go IMHO.

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  7. Just got a reply. Someone from Demon kindly sent a few photos of the actual packaging rather than just a scan of the picture on the front cover of it as most all CD offers have. They are being produced as digipaks with plastic clip retainers. Apparently the label found many people complained about scuffing the discs when issued as hard cover digibooks (like Gene or Cast reissues were) from trying to insert them back in slip pockets inside the covers. A shame, these were my preferrerd European style of packaging. Still, better than plastic jewel case I suppose.

    1. That’s a bummer about the packaging. I like that book style of packaging like the Oasis ‘Definitely Maybe’ deluxe edition. Much cooler than the plain old digipack and more durable and less prone to scuffs/wear.

    2. Actually its official, they are now not releasing 7 Day and Land beacause of wrangles with the labels I emailed Edsel/Demon already, talk about time wasting let downs another missed opportunity

  8. Both ‘Land’ and ‘7 Day Weekend’ are listed on Amazon as being released on 20th November the same as the other 4 titles – odd. I have also emailed Demon to ask about packaging, as usual no details of the nature of the sets presentation are included in the promotional blurb the label sends out. Why do labels not think this matters?

  9. Both Land & 7 Day Weekend, which were supposed to be reissued at the same time, have been delayed until early next year.

    I wrote to Edsel and they confirmed this, probably Feb or March at this stage.

    Those are the two that many fans are waiting for as they’ve only been reissued once, long out of print, on the Connosiuer label. These 2-CD reissues will include the 12″ mixes, demos, b-sides and BBC sessions as well.

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