When An iTunes Gift Card Just Won’t Do
The year 2010 has brought not only a wealth of extended digital audio to the consumer market, but vinyl has become an integral part of many a deluxe edition. Clarity may not yet have won over quantity, but as far as this gift guide is concerned, the industry is finally getting on the same wavelength and the same frequency as collectors. Here are some fine examples of what to get for the music-loving technophile that has everythingexcept that one raw take from that one aborted session thats only now received official reference-grade remastering.
The advent of Blu-ray has allowed for full-spectrum, master tape reproduction, which has resulted in such detail-rich reissues as Tom Pettys 1979 Damn the Torpedoes, which shows new layers of supple chime and searing rock. As a bonus, the purchase of the Blu-ray (or limited edition vinyl) comes with a free download of lossless, DRM-free, high-resolution digital copies of the tracks. A sonically unlimited, 24bit/96kHz download is a bonus thats also accompanied the deluxe remasters of Paul McCartney & Wings Band on the Run, as well as George Harrisons All Things Must Pass (both on CD/vinyl, available at the artists sites).
Turning further to turntables, The Whos irrepressible Live at Leeds adds a previously unreleased, acoustically compelling same-period show in Hull to a CD/LP 40th anniversary reissue of buffeting, virtuoso volume. Also back on/first to wax: SoCal punks Bad Religions entire catalog (including 1983s fascinatingly out-of-step prog-rock Into the Unknown), as well as that of krautrock cornerstones Neu!, thrash-metal pioneers Slayer, Green Day, Tegan and Sara, ABBA and others (check artist sites for details).
You dont have to appeal to the analog purists to make an impact, however. After a decade out of print, Rhino Handmade has reintroduced proto-punks the Stooges 1970: The Complete Funhouse Sessions, which crams eight unruly hours into a CD box as tight as Iggy Pops vintage Levis (available at [www.rhinohandmade.com](http://www.rhinohandmade.com/)). Released simultaneously, Have Some Fun: Live at Unganos is a 1970 audience recording with the clarity of a distant AM station, but with the presence of a stalking, skronking animal (and an amazing confrontational poster is included).
Legacy Recordings put back in print the original sinewy David Bowie mixes of the Stooges seminal 1973 album Raw Power, remastered for more authority and backed by a never-aired vintage live radio concert, rarities/outtakes, a documentary and more. Finally, offering a glimpse into the often forgotten period after the Stooges and before Iggys solo career, 1975s Kill City is the indie collaboration between Stooges guitarist James Williamson and Iggy, and it has been remixed to express impressive dynamics considering its polisheddemos status.
Bringing it all together, as well as somewhere else entirely, is Arkives, the complete works by techno visionary Plastikman. Offered in three made-to-order formatsan 11-disc CD/DVD edition, a six-record 180gram vinyl edition and a digital edition (as well as an option to compile all mediums)Arkives (available to pre-order through Dec. 31 at www.plastikman. com/arkives) is a tonally simmering opportunity to survey both the mentality and physicality of electronic composition, plus analog and digital recordings progression since the early 90s.