Led Zeppelin to Reissue albums with new tracks on companion discs.

  Quote

 

It's the first installment in what the band describes as an "extensive reissue program" of its nine studio albums that have been remastered by guitarist and producer Jimmy Page. Moreover, each record will come out as a single-disc remastered album or as a "Deluxe Edition" with a bonus disc of previously unreleased studio and live tracks that the group recorded around the time of the album. The new versions of "Led Zeppelin," "Led Zeppelin II" and "Led Zeppelin III" will all hit stores on June 3rd.

The albums will each be available in a variety of formats, including single CD, two-disc deluxe edition, single LP on 180-gram vinyl (with a sleeve that replicates the original "Led Zeppelin III" moving wheel), deluxe-edition vinyl and digital download. The group is also putting out a limited-edition "Super Deluxe Boxed Set" of each album that includes all of the audio on CD and vinyl, as well as a high-definition audio download card, a hard-bound book containing rare and previously unseen photos and memorabilia and a high-quality print of the album cover, the first 30,000 of which will be numbered. The Super Deluxe edition of "Led Zeppelin" will also contain a replica of the band's original Atlantic press kit.

"The material on the companion discs presents a portal to the time of the recording of Led Zeppelin," Page said in a statement. "It is a selection of work in progress with rough mixes, backing tracks, alternate versions and new material recorded at the time."

source

They should just put out the masters for the fans to remix. Then they can upload fan made remixes.

JFC I like my zep but give it a fucking rest already. Guess jimmy page needs another diamond encrusted butt plug

There's a new generation always coming around that haven't really got into it yet or have just discovered it, who are receptive to this type of promotional activity. We're not the market for whom this product was designed, it's for the young'uns and the crusty diehards.

I am curious however. about this heretofore unreleased material. One suspects that it can't be that interesting given that it has never been given an airing until now. Nevertheless, i await it with at least a passing interest.

It would be nice if the remaster sounded good, but it isn't usually a good sign when the musician(s) is handling the remaster, particularly an older musician from a rockband who's likely blown out his hearing at any rate.

Yeah i was thinking about the hearing perspective. Hopefully he did too. Could be good though, he's making something for our old overloaded ears. heheh.

I remember when the Cocteau Twins remastered reissues came out touted as having been remastered by Robin Guthrie. At the time I saw Robin doing it as a seal of quality considering it is his music, but the remasters were an abomination; brickwalled and then given headroom... Leave the remastering to the engineers boys.

  On 3/14/2014 at 6:19 PM, delet... said:

I am curious however. about this heretofore unreleased material. One suspects that it can't be that interesting given that it has never been given an airing until now. Nevertheless, i await it with at least a passing interest.

thats pretty much my perspective on this

  On 3/14/2014 at 4:47 PM, delet... said:

 

They should just put out the masters for the fans to remix. Then they can upload fan made remixes.

 

This would be great for a lot of classic bands (Pink Floyd, Beatles): digitize and put out the masters track by track in a more open source/archival effort. (After all, tape won't last forever, though I suppose lossless digital copies exist)

The remixing/remastering possibilities would harken to the days of often professional grade fan bootlegs of said bands. Pink Floyd had an extensive reissue/remaster effort in 2011, this seems very similar.

Wish they could just release independent compilations of the unreleased and rare stuff. At least it's coming out, the fact that "Carnival of Light" and this are unreleased is maddening. Oh well, box sets are a bit much...but at least Courtney Love isn't making this split up over multiple "best of" releases to maximize profits...

so expensive brick walled zep is coming out is what I'm hearing

Never listened to a LZ album.

I like my music unpredictable and am not bothered about melody, what should I start with?

I checked out Pink Floyd properly last year and enjoyed Ummagumma, Saucerful of Secrets, Piper at the Gates and Meddle. If that helps.

Listen to everything up to four. Probably start with four and one. Don't bother with houses of the holy and stuff after that as they mark a stark decline in interesting. Still have their moments but only from a bits of tracks sound nice perspective. Too many drugs etc.

  On 3/15/2014 at 2:32 PM, hello spiral said:

Never listened to a LZ album.

 

I like my music unpredictable and am not bothered about melody, what should I start with?

 

I checked out Pink Floyd properly last year and enjoyed Ummagumma, Saucerful of Secrets, Piper at the Gates and Meddle. If that helps.

agreed with delet... the first 4 albums are brimming with goodness. As you like the whimsical (I've always wanted to use that word on watmm lol) side of Pink Floyd I'd suggest Led Zep 3 for starters.

The other albums are patchy but No Quarter and Achilles Last Stand are gold. Physical Graffiti is worth ducking into etc etc etc.

[youtubehd]4AZnTRlJkRo[/youtubehd]

you might like that, spiral (doesn't really sound like other zeppelin tho, except maybe live drum solos)

i think of this track kinda as proto-idmish

all i would really care about with this release would be the extra stuff. endless remasters imo are stupid. i had some rips of zeppelin (i bought the box set that had all their albums on cd) albums from records, done by this guy called pbthal, who ran a blog and would rip records with his badass turntable setup he had, and people would send him records to rip. he would get some really cherry presses sent to him, and would upgrade a release if he got a better record and re-ripped the same album.

anyway, his zeppelin rips, imo, blew away the cd versions i had. also other people i let compare thought so too. differences weren't always huge but in some cases pretty obvious. just a fuller sounding frequency response, more dynamic, etc. i lost all that in an HD crash but i'm sure theyre out there somewhere (seem hard to find tho kinda).

but yeah i think its kinda shitty if they tack a new track or two on each album. fuckin release them on one disc i can buy separate, pigs! otherwise you get 0 of my money.

i'm interested. listened to these albums more than any others. original recordings and early 90s remasters still sound fine to me. from what i know about remastering, it's predominantly done (at the moment) to deal with the bass having become underwhelming on modern equipment. i will keep an eye for mentions of brick walling though. i'd like more unreleased material, but i'm more a fan of albums rather than bitty collections of alternate takes. also hate artists identities being altered by differing versions of albums and tracks released over years; what happened to jeff buckley's material post-passing really breaks my heart more than lack of new material did at the time it occurred.

Led Zeppelin. Still bad as fuck, but how many new generations will be turned on? It's hard to imagine people still listening to 50+ year old rock. Its not like jazz in that way you know?

Bumpty bump!!

Fuck it I'm gonna get these. I've checked my collection and got Four Symbols, Physical Graff and Remasters on Cd. I think these albums I borrowed from the library (hah pre internet days lol), or had on tape once-upon-a-time. Got to be done.

Is tempting.

  Quote

The Super Deluxe Box set of each LED ZEPPELIN album features:

* Remastered album on CD in vinyl replica sleeve.
* Companion audio on CD in a new sleeve and on 180-gram vinyl ("Led Zeppelin" features a previously unreleased October 1969 concert from Paris; "II" and "III" feature previously unreleased studio outtakes).
* Remastered album on 180-gram vinyl in a sleeve replicating the first pressing.
* High-def audio download card of all content at 96kHz/24 bit (Live tracks are 48kHz/24bit).
* Hard-bound, 70-plus-page book filled with rare and previously unseen photos and memorabilia.
* High-quality print of the original album cover, the first 30,000 of which are individually numbered.
* "Led Zeppelin" also includes a replica of the band's original Atlantic press kit.

 

source

I hardly ever listen to demos, outtakes etc... It does look cool tho.

  On 6/14/2014 at 5:18 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

I hardly ever listen to demos, outtakes etc... It does look cool tho.

this is true for me, I have a load of deluxe editions but rarely (if ever) delved into the outtakes. But I was gonna buy the record anyway (they weren't replicates) so I got the DE.

Those editions that delet..... posted are nearly one hundred pounds. I like Led Zep but not that much lol

Even if I reaaaally really love an album to the point of actually paying attention to the demos and outtakes, in order to appreciate how the album came to be, I'll still listen to them once in a blue moon. Sometimes there's nice surprises between the crap, like the extended intro on ...Endtroducing

But yeah, overpriced, unnecesary remaster, not buying etc etc

Imagining Achilles Last Stand with some modern production would be heavenly.

Zeppelin III is one of my favorite albums. The rough cut version of That's The Way on the extra disc with the remastered version is so good.

  On 6/14/2014 at 5:27 PM, beerwolf said:

 

  On 6/14/2014 at 5:18 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

I hardly ever listen to demos, outtakes etc... It does look cool tho.

 

this is true for me, I have a load of deluxe editions but rarely (if ever) delved into the outtakes. But I was gonna buy the record anyway (they weren't replicates) so I got the DE.

 

Those editions that delet..... posted are nearly one hundred pounds. I like Led Zep but not that much lol

 

/cough cough .., i might wait till vinyl is uncool again and pick a mint set up second hand. heh. I mean i've already paid for those albums in the past.

at least they didn't do shitty reMIXES of the albums, like the doors did. it still fucking pisses me off to think about how i unwittingly bought a copy of waiting for the sun- the REMIXED version, got home with it, put it on, and thought 'hmm that seemed... uh' then 'wait a minute' and eventually 'what the..' look closer at the cd case and face in palm with disgust. i never cared about the doors THAT much, but some of their music is pretty good stuff on occasion (crystal ship, spanish caravan, unknown soldier, when the musics over, of course riders on the storm is a classic, etc etc etc), and so i thought i might slowly accumulate all of their albums finally. i only had the greatest hits previously. well, that was the first one i got... and the LAST. fuck you, the doors.

edit- fuckin assholes

also, just a bit more info- basically they inserted alternate takes and things into the songs that weren't there before. they mostly sound the same, but here and there will be (inferior) takes of this or that. so really the net effect is just that it's basically the same album, but shittier. WHY