frozenhero
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Post by frozenhero on Sept 19, 2018 8:55:54 GMT
Great to see you around here again, John. I have some minor quibbles with the RAOTW remix but overall I would class it as very successful. The point about Quo now (as I see it) is that Francis is a capable producer, but almost all of Quo's new releases in the last 2 decades have suffered from either muddy mixing or bad, compressed mastering (especially Pip's mixes on In Search of the Fourth Chord, which would have been stellar if it hadn't been for the heavy-handed mastering). This is the reason why I'd like to see somebody with a taste for good sound, and from outside the closely knit "circle", like you, to get involved, be it only as somebody who offers some suggestions for improvement. Pink Floyd did this already in 1973 with Chris Thomas, who was called for as a "mixing supervisor". I agree with what you say. The album you mention was probably a victim in the height of the loudness wars. In fact I brought it to Francis attention and he was unaware until he played a commercially released CD and was shocked at the compression used. But you know from a producer/engineer standpoint labels and or managers quite often never reach out to us after initial product is released. For RAOTW I supplied a CD master only. No discussion ever took place about a vinyl release. If it had I would have insisted on supervising the cutting of the lacquers AND used 96k/24 bit mix sources instead of the Cd 44.1k/16 bit red book that got used. What a shame you guys never got to hear the sonics of the higher quality original mixes. This is one example that was totally out of my control. Just like I protected all of the mixes for years before release and insisted on delivering a physical master and not uploading digitally. Because I knew if I did that someone somewhere would rip it and put it up on the Internet. Well guess what within weeks of delivery and it being decoded in a mastering facility mp3’s where up on the internet. Anyway back to the topic of this thread and your suggestion of my involvement in a supervisory role the answer is Yes I’m available to always review and even mix.. So let’s start with what on earth has happened to Francis’s guitar sounds? The old green télé needs her original pickups on ( ok so single coil they hum so what) Forget the amp simulator plugins and go back to the bottom brilliant input of a classic AC30. So that comment alone will guarantee I will never get a call ! Sometimes things are best just left alone and not ‘improved’. Cheers from Nostalgic Pupcious. Although, to be fair, the mp3s came from a fan who had gotten an advance copy of the CD and was pestered by people to share tracks. In the end all the tracks went online. Would have been much better to either a) say "Sorry guys, I won't share any more than 1 tune" or b) only send snippets of tracks. Francis changed the pickups of his guitar in the early 90s, but from what I know he didn't use the green tele on any recently recorded studio albums anyway. But to hear that he wasn't so happy about the compression on ISOTC makes me glad. Even if none of Quo's releases after that were as dynamic as in the old days. Speaking of producers, in the liner notes to the new ITAN remaster/deluxe Francis says that Trevor Horn was keen to produce Quo! I did not know about that.
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frozenhero
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Post by frozenhero on Sept 19, 2018 14:29:59 GMT
There's a short interview with Francis in the new issue of GoodTimes (as a subscriber, I already got it today - it should be in stores on Friday). I'll try to translate back to English:
"Actually I had made the decision not so long ago to never record another 'electric' album with the group. Now I've relented, condemn me!* But in the last few months so many great songs have accumulated - they have to be recorded. The album shall be released next year. If a lot of old fans despise me for this decision, I'll have to live with that. I can fully understand that. But please, people: Give the record a chance - it deserves it..."
*the German expression used here is "kübelt Asche auf mein Haupt", which literally translates as "dump ashes on my head", but is more a figure of speaking often used in the sense of "mea culpa", but even that didn't seem to work here. I really don't know what Francis actually said!
(There's also a short review of the new live albums in the magazine, but the writer thinks Leon Cave is Rick Parfitt's replacement. Oops!)
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Sept 19, 2018 14:59:54 GMT
There's a short interview with Francis in the new issue of GoodTimes (as a subscriber, I already got it today - it should be in stores on Friday). I'll try to translate back to English: "Actually I had made the decision not so long ago to never record another 'electric' album with the group. Now I've relented, condemn me!* But in the last few months so many great songs have accumulated - they have to be recorded. The album shall be released next year. If a lot of old fans despise me for this decision, I'll have to live with that. I can fully understand that. But please, people: Give the record a chance - it deserves it..." *the German expression used here is "kübelt Asche auf mein Haupt", which literally translates as "dump ashes on my head", but is more a figure of speaking often used in the sense of "mea culpa", but even that didn't seem to work here. I really don't know what Francis actually said! (There's also a short review of the new live albums in the magazine, but the writer thinks Leon Cave is Rick Parfitt's replacement. Oops!) The phrase most often used in English is "so shoot me". But knowing Francis it will have been wittier than that. It's hard to know what he has against an electric album bearing in mind he didn't want to do an acoustic one either! But both he and Rhino have sung the praises of what they've done so far so I'm looking forward to it. Although they're hardly going to $hit on their own doorstep and say it's kerrap.
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Post by rockinoldgit on Sept 20, 2018 12:39:02 GMT
I really want the album to be good. Old Quo but with a modern sound and feel. It can be done. The last Deep Purple album and the new Uriah Heep album prove it can be done without original members. But they both used outside of the band producers. I think this helps to make the album's sound original and fresh.
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Post by dai on Oct 28, 2018 19:42:40 GMT
It'd be nice if they put a snippet on the official website of a new track. 10-15 seconds would do to whet the appetite.
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Post by snakelady on Oct 29, 2018 7:00:20 GMT
It'd be nice if they put a snippet on the official website of a new track. 10-15 seconds would do to whet the appetite. That would be nice, just a little Christmas present for the fans. We've been waiting quite a while now for something, anything from the band .. We didn't even get the usual live recording from this year's finally changed set.
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Oct 29, 2018 8:43:58 GMT
Someone else's thoughts on their very own new record I thought I might add to the discussion on here:
“With Culture Club getting back together, I was always saying: ‘I’m not doing this unless we’re making a new record,’” George says. “I’m not interested in nostalgia. Nostalgia, it’s like purgatory to be constantly doing the same thing over and over. And obviously the new music has to be strong and it has to stand up against those classic songs and I think we’re there. I’m not embarrassed about doing it live, I don’t apologise or even say it’s a new song.”
I like Boy George's attitude (if not his music particularly) and wish more had the courage of their convictions in the same way. My only issue is that nostalgia may be " purgatory" for the artist but that doesn't apply to most of the audience. That's just the nature (and the down side?) of being a long established artist with a string of hits. Getting the balance right is the hard part. Unfortunately, few manage it. Quo don't do a bad job in getting the balance right. As good as anyone apart from the lack of change when it comes to the NON-hits.
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frozenhero
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Post by frozenhero on Nov 7, 2018 11:32:31 GMT
I really want the album to be good. Old Quo but with a modern sound and feel. It can be done. The last Deep Purple album and the new Uriah Heep album prove it can be done without original members. But they both used outside of the band producers. I think this helps to make the album's sound original and fresh. Well, DP, UH, and SQ all are now down to 1 original member, but most of the other people have been there for a while too. With Heep, they have a new bass player, and Quo now have a new rhythm guitarist. That said, I only like parts of inFinite and have not been overwhelmed by my one listen (so far) to Living the Dream.
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Isaac Ryan
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Post by Isaac Ryan on Jan 24, 2019 9:50:02 GMT
It's all gone a bit quiet regarding a new album
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Jan 24, 2019 14:22:49 GMT
It's all gone a bit quiet regarding a new album I don't think we'll hear much more till the next FTMO comes out; or more likely the one after that because the next one will focus on Francis I'd have thought. It was in the last issue that the band were talking about the recording of the new album and how it was going. I suspect the media company and management will concentrate on Francis's solo album and once that's out of the way they'll start turning their attention to promoting the new Quo release. Although with Quo you just never know. Francis is producing so he has to be doubly available. It's been a very quiet few months so it will have been worked on. I hope anyway!
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Post by dai on Jan 25, 2019 8:10:49 GMT
I never imagined that I'd be looking forward to another Quo studio album. Hoping Richie has some involvement to freshen things up.
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Post by snakelady on Jan 25, 2019 9:06:20 GMT
It's all gone a bit quiet regarding a new album I don't think we'll hear much more till the next FTMO comes out; or more likely the one after that because the next one will focus on Francis I'd have thought. It was in the last issue that the band were talking about the recording of the new album and how it was going. I suspect the media company and management will concentrate on Francis's solo album and once that's out of the way they'll start turning their attention to promoting the new Quo release. Although with Quo you just never know. Francis is producing so he has to be doubly available. It's been a very quiet few months so it will have been worked on. I hope anyway! That's how I see it as well. The current project the Quo camp is supporting is Francis solo/duo stuff - see homepage. They'd not want to distract from that with another Quo product. Obviously the talk shows are selling well, a few already have 'sold out' stickers attached despite the sheer number of dates and it's still early in the year. It'll keep Francis busy for well over a month, so everything else will have to be completed prior to it. He may not have to play gigs, but I assume it's going to be stressful enough. Once that's over we'll probably get all the marketing directed towards the new Quo album - name and release date announced, song snippets, dates for a winter tour of the same name put up .. the usual. Will be interesting to see how they go about interviews, appearances on TV shows and the like. Will Francis have to shoulder it all by himself too, or are they going to involve the others too ? For his sake and ours as well I hope it'll be marketed as and by a band effort. In any case, it's going to be an interesting year for Quo fans - I hope.
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Post by viking55 on Jan 26, 2019 0:13:07 GMT
Looking forward to 2019 with regard to Quo. Yes I hope Ritchie is allowed to bring to the table wether that be Songwriting contribution or vocally as well as Guitar. I hope the new album is consistent musically. Not overly diverse where it looses theme/ Direction. Although I still love and listen to QPQ it just went a couple of filler tracks to many and got a bit jumbled musically after such a great opening 4 ! I think if they just stick to 10 quality tracks then should be exciting.
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