Return to Revolver

While spooky things were going on last week, other things were out and waiting for me upon return.

The Beatles scarcely need an introduction known even to the youngest although in terms of recordings the earliest goes all the way back to 1962, before I was born and there's never been a point their albums haven't been available although for a brief period their earliest singles were deleted.

That era saw both the emergence of the lp album format for younger people rather than the province of soundtrack and classical music recordings for "grown ups" and stereophonic recording of popular music.

The Beatles together with the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan were very much a part of this change and so not only did they produce albums that expanded upon musically their singles but because the dominant format for youngsters until the late 1960's was mono sound often from a record player with built in single loudspeakers, the method of recording was geared to the aim of making a satisfactory mono record.

Stereo was from the recording point of view the last concern and an after thought so as the beatles progressed using more instruments and effects the more the limitations showed up and their Rubber Soul and Revolver albums exposed the deficiencies compared to the mono versions.

 

That is why on October 28 this year a series of releases featuring new stereo mixes came out on download, lp record and compact disc using new computer artificial intelligence but steered by humans technology that enabled separating out some of the parts of the four track mixes into effectively separate tracks that could be mixed and placed within the stereo image in the manner many popular albums from the 1970's were by design using multitrack recording systems. 

Take Taxman for instance, there are many periods of near silence on the right hand channel as the vocals are just there or the errors in the double tracking at the start of Eleanor Rigby, the missed scat ending on Got To Get You Into My Life that was in the mono but not the stereo.

This remix centres the vocals more providing the immediacy and drive of the mono but with a more spacious feel spreading the instrumentation around the left and right channels.

 

While there is a single remixed cd available I'd forget about getting that and opt for the 2 cd version which is only a little more and adds new remixes in a similar style of the contemporary Paperback Writer single and its backwards ending vocal psychedelic Rain b side and a selection of alternate takes and session tapes that gives you a feel of just what being in Abbey Road studios in early 1966 was like.

This album in a year of many impressive albums such as the Stones Aftermath (ALWAYS UK version NOT U.S!), the Beach Boy's Pet Sounds, the Kinks Face To Face and Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde double album and hit 45's from the Motown stable of artists was truly ground breaking for making new electronic sounds never previously heard.

Does this replace all other versions? Probably not as the mono still has its magic and collectors always like different versions but this is easier as a stereo version on the ear especially on headphones.

Let's see what can be done to Rubber Soul which I much prefer in mono.