New Musik

At last, some vinyl reissues that finally acknowledge that New Musik were a band that should not be forgotten.
During their relatively short life the band (mainly a vehicle for the ideas of the very talented Tony Mansfield) they only made there albums, each of which was a progression from the last.

To sum each album up with one word:
From A to B - 'Pop'
Anywhere - 'Atmospheric'
Warp - 'Experimental'

From A to B was the most commercially successful, featuring four (at least in the UK) singles. It's very much a Synth-Pop album with catchy tunes and excellent arrangements. Anyone interested in how to mix electronics and guitars to make interesting pop songs should listen to this.

The extra tracks on this reissue particularly 'And' and 'Under Attack' provide the link between the first and second albums in terms of sound and arrangement style.

The next album Anywhere mixed the ingredients that made the first album i.e. synths, guitars, drums, lightweight catchy melodies, and mixed them into a more layered, atmospheric sound.
Songs are generally longer which gives them time to evolve and build.
Interestingly there are two distinct types of song on this album - uptempo pop versus laid-back atmospheric. The band decided to alternate the different styles rather than going the Bowie/Low route of putting the different styles together on each side of the vinyl.

One day I must create playlist where the two styles are grouped together just to see how that sounds.

But I digress ...
Anywhere is a fantastic album that improves on From A to B in every sense. Unfortunately it was not a commercial success. However amongst fans I believe it is generally considered to be New Musik's best album. I certainly think it is (and it's one of my favourite albums ever). I spent many evenings in my youth listening to this in a room with the lights dimmed, letting the sounds envelope me.

The third album featured a change of line-up, sound and direction. Digital technology became available and the band decided to incorporate the new technology and experiment a lot more than before.
The album Warp is interesting and has some great tracks (although the Beatles cover is not one of them, in my opinion).
However the characteristic New Musik sound was missing - Simmons electronic drums were used extensively, the New Musik submarine 'blip', that featured so heavily on the first two albums, was almost gone. I love that 'blip' and I missed it on Warp.

Still worth a listen but not on a par with the first two albums.

These releases are superb. I dont really care for coloured vinyl personally - probably due to memories of buying really bad coloured vinyl pressings in the 80s - however these are great. No crackles or general noise and the sound seems pretty faithful to my original vinyl pressings of all the albums.

Someone on here has mentioned that the stereo channels are reversed. I have not checked that out yet. If it's true it's an annoyance but it doesn't ruin the overall listening experience.

Having all the extra tracks gathered together is great too.

Others have commented on not liking the matt sleeves, personally I like them and I think they work well together as a set.
For me the only thing missing are some sleeve notes - it would have been great to hear Tony Mansfield's reflections on these tracks 40 years on.

Shame about the track speed error - when I first read about it I presumed it was a minor error where the track had been mastered a few percentage points above or below the real speed, the sort of thing that could have been missed by someone that doesn't know the track. However this has been mastered at half speed (or maybe even less) - it doesn't sound like music - even a quick listen should have highlighted that something was amiss.
Anyway - I won't be returning this for a refund, the rest of the reissue is too good.

A somewhat obscure article that I stumbled across that I am passing on to fellow New Musik fans https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/new-musik-fear-musik

This band are amazing, the only reason they weren't huge commercially is that they didn't fit in with the trends of the time visually. I'm not surprised that Tony went on to become a very in-demand songwriter and producer, because this group were very respected by their peers and by the industry.