NewsZTT Japan release “Sampled” & “The Value of Entertainment” combo set
Two items high on many a Zang Tumb Tuum fan’s wish-list are being issued together via the Japanese arm of the now 30-year old label, this month.
The CD+DVD combo package consists of the 1985 compilation Sampled – on CD for the first time – and the DVD debut of The Value of Entertainment, the video presentation of 1985 ZTT London ‘showcase’ where the Art Of Noise infamously ‘jilted’ Paul Morley, leaving him on-stage with some dancers but sans band (Gary Langan explained more about this to SDE here).
The master tape of The Value of Entertainment appears to have been recently found at the British Film Institute, so that sounds promising in terms of a good transfer. This video collection has been previously available on VHS and Laserdisc.
Sampled was a various (ZTT) artists compilation issued only on cassette and vinyl, and for a long time contained plenty of exclusive tracks and variations. Most have by now be plundered for various ZTT reissues and compilations, including Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s Disneyland which appeared on 2001’s Twelve Inches as well as the 2010 Welcome to the Pleasuredome deluxe edition. However, this new edition features a significantly expanded selection with seven extra tracks.
The art gallery cover art is rather appropriate since both of these items have high historical value in terms of early-to-mid-eighties pop and this release is the equivalent to a restoration. The desirability combined with the usual high quality Japanese mini-LP-with-OBI-strip packaging makes this as close to a ‘must-have’ item for the ZTT connoisseur as you’re likely to see.
The DVD is region 2 coded (Japan, Europe and Middle East).
The Value of Entertainment + IQ6 Sampled is out now in Japan
Sampled (Expanded) track listing
- Art of Noise / Closing
- FGTH / Disneyland
- Propaganda / Femme Fatale (The Woman With The Orchid)
- Anne Pigalle / Intermission (The Gods are Bored)
- Instinct / Swamp Out
- Art of Noise / Egypt
- Andrew Poppy / The Object Is A Hungry Wolf (Extract 1)
- Propaganda / P:Machinery (Beta)
- Anne Pigalle / Looking For Love (Demo)
- Art of Noise / A Time For Fear (Who’s Afraid) “suicide is painless”
- FGTH / Born To Run (Live)
- Andrew Poppy / The Object Is A Hungry Wolf (Extract 2)
- Art of Noise / Closing (The Director’s Cut)
- Instinct / Swamp Out (The Director’s Cut)
- FGTH / Born To Run (The Director’s Cut)
- Andrew Poppy / The Amusement (Live at The Value of Entertainment)
- Art of Noise / Beat Box (from the Ambassador’s Reel)
- Art of Noise / Medley (from the Ambassador’s Reel)
- Art of Noise / Beat Box (Live at The Value of Entertainment, 30 May 1985, Extract)
The Value of Entertainment track listing
Paul Morley introduces…
- 1. Dream Within A Dream – Propaganda
- 2. Instinct – Sweat To Pay
- 3. Anne Pigalle – He Stranger
- 4. Dr Mabuse – Propaganda
- 5. Beat Box – Art Of Noise (band not present)
- 6. Close (To The Edit) – Art Of Noise (band not present)
- 7. Keep The Dream – Instinct
- 8. Via Vagabond – Anne Pigalle
- 9. Duel – Propaganda
- 10. P.Machinery – Propaganda
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[…] an (almost) first-time-on-CD reissue of the 1985 compilation IQ6 Sampled (Japan got in there first, last year) and at the same time it’s an (almost) first-time-on DVD reissue of the old VHS The Value Of […]
[…] and redesigned double-pack of The Value of Entertainment/Sampled will also be issued following the Japan-only version from earlier this […]
[…] Royal Mail and Parcelforce. As an example let’s look at a recent order I placed for the ZTT Sampled/Value of Entertainment CD+DVD set from […]
If anyone is buying this set with the dvd just for the Propaganda tracks, they have already been released on the Propaganda home dvd release “The Video Collection”. Just sayin’….
http://www.discogs.com/Propaganda-The-Video-Collection/release/418092
Also avaiable on iTunes Japan if you don’t want to buy all the tracks. But, being Japan, you will pay dearly for just one track (199 yen! Yikes).
If they used a U-Matic master, then the quality isn’t going to be that great because U Matic was poor to begin with. (U Matic resolution being inferior to Betacam and Betacam SP, I wonder if the 1″ master (which was probably what it was recorded on originally) Still Exists? Plus if it has come from the BFI it would be in Pal and there would be a certain amount of quality drop going into the NTSC world.
The UK edition will be released in Feb 2015.
The DVD will be taken from a (I believe u-matic) broadcast master held in the BFI Archive. My understanding was that the Japanese release would use this master as well, rather than the LD master with burned in subtitles. The BFI master was discovered quite late in the day during the pre-production process.
Thanks Ian.
Just to update everyone further, the latest on this is that the Japanese version does indeed use the BFI master. But as Ian points out this was an edited broadcast-for-TV version. So the footage that was edited out for the TV broadcast are included as extras in this Japanese version. They are the only bits which are taken from the laserdisc and have the not-removable subtitles. The reason there is no mention of the BFI master in the notes in the new Japanese release is because they were written before it was found and didn’t get updated.
Thank you Paul for the clarification (and my aplogogies for my hasty conclusions earlier).
A remaster based on the actual original footage would be great, but it seems that the best material found so far is that lossy U-Matic edit…
And about the original tracks, here are some track by track comments:
Art of Noise / Closing
>Previously unreleased on CD!
FGTH / Disneyland
>As pointed out by Paul S, previously released on CD; on FGTH’s “Twelve Inches” 2xCD compilation in 2001; and on the Salvo 2xCD reissue of “WTTPD” in 2010.
Propaganda / Femme Fatale (The Woman With The Orchid)
>Previously reissued in 2001 on Propaganda’s “Outside World” compilation CD in 2001, and later on Propaganda’s “Noise And Girls Come Out To Play / A Compact Introduction To Propaganda” compilation CD in 2012.
Anne Pigalle / Intermission (The Gods are Bored)
>Previously issued on CD on the original Japanese CD from 1986, in Europe in 1994, and more recently on the Japanese reissue CD with bonus tracks in 2009.
Instinct / Swamp Out
>Previously unreleased on CD. A good reason why to buy this set!
Art of Noise / Egypt
>Previously released on CD on the Various Artists 3xCD+DVD ZTT box set from 2008, however mastered from vinyl at the time. This time it is based on a proper master tape!
Andrew Poppy / The Object Is A Hungry Wolf (Extract 1)
>Full version previously released on CD on Andrew Poppy’s “The Beating Of Wings” in 1985, and in 2005 on Andrew Poppy’s “On Zang Tuum Tumb” 3xCD box set.
>This extract previously unreleased on CD.
Propaganda / P:Machinery (Beta)
>Previously issued on CD on Propaganda’s “Noise And Girls Come Out To Play / A Compact Introduction To Propaganda” compilation CD in 2012.
Anne Pigalle / Looking For Love (Demo)
>Previously unreleased on CD. Another good reason why to buy this set!
Art of Noise / A Time For Fear (Who’s Afraid) “suicide is painless”
>Previously unreleased on CD. And another good reason why to buy this set!
FGTH / Born To Run (Live)
>Previously released on CD on FGTH’s “Frankie Said” in 2012… however without the “M.I.C.K.E.Y.M.O.U.S.E.” first 12 seconds. So… previously unreleased on CD in complete form.
Andrew Poppy / The Object Is A Hungry Wolf (Extract 2)
>Full version previously released on CD on Andrew Poppy’s “The Beating Of Wings” in 1985, and in 2005 on Andrew Poppy’s “On Zang Tuum Tumb” 3xCD box set.
>This extract previously unreleased on CD.
A decent price for this of around £19.50 is on yesAsia.com and you can get free worldwide shipping
In the booket, this release is marked “Japanese Edition” in one place, “Tokyo Edition” on another.
This may suggests – much like with “The Organization of Pop” trio of releases (New York, London, Tokyo) – that there will be other version(s) to come. One may wish such upcoming release(s) would include a video transferred from a proper master tape, rather than from the Laserdisc (or worse, the VHS…)
About the seven extra tracks…
Five are previously unreleased:
Art of Noise / Closing (The Director’s Cut)
Instinct / Swamp Out (The Director’s Cut)
FGTH / Born To Run (The Director’s Cut)
Andrew Poppy / The Amusement (Live at The Value of Entertainment)
Art of Noise / Beat Box (Live at The Value of Entertainment, 30 May 1985, Extract)
Two have been previously released on Art Of Noise’s “And What Have You Done With My Body God” 4xCD box set:
Art of Noise / Beat Box (from the Ambassador’s Reel)
Art of Noise / Medley (from the Ambassador’s Reel)
More about the previously unreleased extra tracks…
Two are very close to the originals, are therefore of little interest:
Art of Noise / Closing (The Director’s Cut)
FGTH / Born To Run (The Director’s Cut)
One is quite short (1 1/2 min):
Art of Noise / Beat Box (Live at The Value of Entertainment, 30 May 1985, Extract)
However two are worth the investment, for being truly different to the originals and great pieces of music:
Instinct / Swamp Out (The Director’s Cut)
Andrew Poppy / The Amusement (Live at The Value of Entertainment)
The DVD is mastered from the original Japanese Laserdisc. Subtitles are therefore not removable…
For more details, have a look at Discogs; I submitted the release few days ago (release number 5894692).
That’s strange – why are they making a big thing about the original master being found at the BFI then? Have you watched the DVD? Is this actual confirmation? Thanks.
@ Paul Sinclair: Yes I have watched the DVD.
Well, if this is made from a newly discovered master:
– it is not of great quality (grainy, weak colors).
– why would the tracks title overlays not be newly executed (less pixelated…)?
– why would the subtitles not be optionally removable?
And in Ian Peel’s extensive liner notes, there is no mention this being based on a newly discovered master.
I bought this today in Shinjuku. The DVD does not appear to be mastered from the laserdisc (it’s still video-quality because it was shot on video tho) and the subtitles are indeed removable. It is also an all-region DVD.
I’m probably going to review this on my site in a few days.
@LostTurntable: Thank you for the info!
I checked again… and indeed, although there is no subtitles menu option on the root menu, you can turn on and off the subtitles once the program plays.
Nevertheless the video quality is poor, and the overlaid track titles and artist names are very pixelated.
I am going to update Discogs accordingly.
I have this ordered from CD Japan for £18.49
I recently ordered the Tokyo edition of the ‘Organisation of Pop’ from them for the same price – choosing the overseas delivery option without express or need for a signature, it came within 14 days and on checking my bank statement I think there was a 56p charge! Much better than Amazon!
HUGE discrepancy in price between the two sites right now! CD Japan seems to have a much better price assuming their shipping charge isn’t $40.
Amazon.uk have disc 2 extended tracklist as:
Disc: 2
1. Introduction
2. Dream Within A Dream
3. Interlude-1700 Hours
4. Sweat To Pay
5. 1930 Hours
6. He Stranger
7. Dr Mabuse
8. Interlude
9. Beat Box. Moments In Love
10. Close(To The Edit)
11. Keep The Dream. Via Vagabond. Duel
12. 2300 Hours
13. P: Machinery
14. 2315 Hours
15. Close(To The Edit)
16. Time Travel Apparatus
17. Keep The Dream. Via Vagabond. Duel
18. P: Machinery
19. Credits
20. Slideshow
Fed Ex dropped off my copy on last Wednesday (along with the Tokyo edition of The Organisation of Pop). I haven’t had a chance to watch the DVD yet, but Sampled is hugely expanded.
The full track list is:
Art of Noise / Closing
FGTH / Disneyland
Propaganda / Femme Fatale (The Woman With The Orchid)
Anne Pigalle / Intermission (The Gods are Bored)
Instinct / Swamp Out
Art of Noise / Egypt
Andrew Poppy / The Object Is A Hungry Wolf (Extract 1)
Propaganda / P:Machinery (Beta)
Anne Pigalle / Looking For Love (Demo)
Art of Noise / A Time For Fear (Who’s Afraid) “suicide is painless”
FGTH / Born To Run (Live)
Andrew Poppy / The Object Is A Hungry Wolf (Extract 2)
Art of Noise / Closing (The Director’s Cut)
Instinct / Swamp Out (The Director’s Cut)
FGTH / Born To Run (The Director’s Cut)
Andrew Poppy / The Amusement (Live at The Value of Entertainment)
Art of Noise / Beat Box (from the Ambassador’s Reel)
Art of Noise / Medley (from the Ambassador’s Reel)
Art of Noise / Beat Box (Live at The Value of Entertainment, 30 May 1985, Extract)
Wow, thanks Larry. Even better news!