Cabaret Voltaire – #8385 Collected Works (1983-1985)

When they say remaster here they mean compressed to crap so that it's as loud as it can be. No texture at all in these tracks.

Their twelve inch mixes were what we listened to in the 80s and to that end; The Original Sound Of Sheffield '83 / '87. Best Of; which was released in 2001 and includes all of their important 12 inch mixes sounds far better than this release.

This should be re-released as a remastered remaster getting rid of the compression and opening up the soundstage. I'd buy it.

Just got my copy, from the recent "office clear out".

My copy is not numbered, which I'm ok with.

I assume x amount were produced, unnumbered, to give away, as promo, and gifts to staff, etc....

And it's a beautiful box ...from a legendary act

I'd like to have seen Earthshaker and Gasoline In Your Eye on vinyl.

It cuts both ways - these remasters were way overdue and many are deservedly happy with what's on offer. It reportedly sounds great and on a first glimpse, the whole box set gives this particular selection a truly striking shine.

However, there's a huge BUT as well, a considerable part of this much-anticipated box-set not quite being what it seems. For years "Earthshaker" was a complete mystery. Earlier theme included on "Micro-phonies" hinted at a soundtrack (the very word suggested some obscure disaster film). But now that we finally got a chance to hear Earthshaker's "lost soundtrack", suddenly it feels like a cheap trick pulled - some parts are impeccable though - the very "Sheffield Mix" is even more effective than the cut used on the original studio album - however, most of it is a rather tedious (if not entirely boring) excuse of a "soundtrack", featuring mostly leftover versions of tracks that appeared more proper on regular albums of the 1984-85 era. Then again the omission of "Empty Walls" on any of these CDs - it's such a gem of a track that Richard Kirk (supposedly) chose to put as a digital bonus... whatever for?! Then a larger part of this set is also no big surprise - 2001's "Conform To Deform" box set already explored and exploited it, maybe even to greater effect.

The biggest disappointment of all is the sleeve (re)designs. While it may be considered interesting, the approach to re-shape each of these cult albums' record sleeves, the total absence of Neville Brody and Paul White's original graphics feels as if the very music is being amputated a limb. The rumour has it, Brody in particular vetoed his designs to be reused as he was not payed for any previous reproduction of his work in the Mute/Grey Area/Virgin catalogue (which actually makes it clear why part of the Virgin CD editions of CV's albums from the 80s look so goddamn awful, cheaply cropped and improvised). Therefore, everyone involved thought they might stand up to the problem by reducing the whole graphic situation drastically - sadly leaving these redesigned masterpieces look equally faceless. "The Crackdown" and "The Covenant" re-releases do keep some of the minimalist decency though, but "Micro-phonies" without Brody's typo/graphic interventions looks just plain dead flat.

I expected a lot more from the remasters. There is absolutely no bonuses on these discs, in fact they have even been taken off. The Earthshaker disc is interesting, but is basically a CD of early versions of later album tracks. The 12" As& Bs is totally unnecessary as all this stuff has been released (more than once) before. The missing tracks as download are a joke, why didn't they put them onto the CDs (they are all around 40 mins long, so space enough). Bit of a wasted opportunity, there could have been so much more, especially for the very stiff price.

I already have all the albums and CDs but honestly I'm a completest. I love the extra CDs and DVDs of demos remixes etc. This was the CV's best contribution in their career. Don't get me wrong, they can't get there from here, ie the earlier works are precious and golden. All in all, this is the ultimate multi media set every CV collector should have. Thank you, Richard H. Kirk and Mute Records/Grey Area for pushing the envelope of one of the most important bands in the industrial/electro-funk/techno era. Cheers :)

Short note on the remastering efforts on Drinking Gasoline: Slight disappointment in that, to me at least, the sound is still slightly tinny. Granted it sounds better and more transparent than previous efforts, but it's not a good thing when I prefer my old vinyl over this. If equal care had gone into the quality of the audio comparing with the lavish packaging it might have gone somewhere really great. The rest of the box-set sounds like a million $. I am aware that this is highly subjective, but I would really prefer some more bass and less plastic.