Beggars Banquet has opened the archive once again, letting a familiar duststorm roll through the room as Fields of the Nephilim’s Dawnrazor rides again.
The timing feels almost fated: the UK band will soon carry their peculiar strain of Gothic Americana and occultism back into the West for the first time in years, appearing in Houston for Dark Ceremony in April 2026. For a group whose entire aesthetic grew out of Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns—that widescreen collision of dust, danger, and myth, their return out West lands like a vision completing its long arc. With that rare appearance on the horizon, this remaster sharpens the album’s grain, tension, and frontier grandeur back into present focus.
Category: remastered
The remastered 20th-anniversary edition includes the original 16 songs plus five archival bonus tracks, featuring session tracks, rarities, and B-sides, some receiving their first official release.
No dead baby jokes about Pete Doherty‘s so-called shambles; no talk of coke-habits and skin-and-bones supermodel girlfriends (except as back-up vocalists): Down in Albion is the opposite of Up the Bracket, and not just for prepositional reasons. Departing from the Libertines’ work by slowing-down, shaping-up, Down in Albion doesn’t out-do Up the Bracket‘s gritty unruliness (and the less said about the self-titled follow-up the better), but doesn’t flop as self-indulgently/destructively as it could, either.
Doherty appropriates William Blake’s Albion…
…remixed and remastered 10th-anniversary re-release of 2015 album, ‘Compromised’.
Having been around now for 38 years, while he’s never attained the superstar level of early predictions (only his first two albums ever registered in the UK Top 75, peaking at #54 and only three of his 15 studio releases have made the Billboard Top 100), Steve Forbert has maintained a substantial and loyal audience to the point where he can now pretty much record what he likes knowing he’ll have a certain level of sales.
And this sounds very much like he’s doing just that. Reuniting with John Simon, who produced his most successful album, 1979’s Jackrabbit Slim (which made #20), it’s unmistakably Forbert (that voice couldn’t be anyone else) while…
…remastered by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road.
After breaking through to massive U.K. fame with his 1979 album The Pleasure Principle, and its chart-topping new wave isolationist anthem “Cars,” Gary Numan got darker, more intense, and more solemn on his second proper solo album, 1980’s Telekon. The shifts in his work were happening quickly, with both Replicas (the last of two albums Numan made with his punkier group Tubeway Army) and The Pleasure Principle being released in 1979, and the songs for Telekon being written and recorded by the end of that year, but held back for a release in September of 1980 as not to flood the market. Telekon was, in part, Numan’s response to overnight success, with songs that alluded cryptically to conclusions and…
From a very early source tape, “Apparition” has been given the sonic overload it desperately deserved and even boasts a couple of bonus tracks from the time.
The Legendary Pink Dots are an influential, staggeringly prolific group led by enigmatic frontman Edward Ka-Spel. Emerging from the early-’80s post-punk underground and sometimes categorized as industrial due to associations with bands like Skinny Puppy, the group’s music is nearly impossible to pin down, drawing from Krautrock, ambient, folk, synth pop, and numerous other styles.
Apparition originally came out in 1982, the same year as their album Brighter Now. The first edition was a cassette only on the band’s own…
…deluxe 3CD set include 19 extra tracks – focusing on lesser-known B-sides, late ’80s and early ’90s albums, and even material that Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie released in the ’90s under the name Babble – along with the premiere CD release of ‘Into the Gap Live’, the audio of a longform video release from 1984 that was recently issued on vinyl for Record Store Day.
The 1980s were heady times for synthesizers and drum machines. Ushering out the distorted three-chord guitars and traditional drum/bass/guitar lineups of the punk and stadium era rock of the decade that preceded it.
New Wave bands like OMD, Human League, and The Pet Shop Boys created a dance-friendly genre that was light on sneers and anger but…
…Remastered by Mark Beazley.
‘Will’ might have been released in 2001, but it’s not anywhere near as well known as Grinning Cat. That might simply be because up until that point, Susumu Yokota‘s dancefloor material had been supplied via Tokyo’s Sublime imprint, who released the epochal ‘1998’ and ‘1999’. Having become disillusioned with Japan’s club scene, Yokota handled ‘Will’ himself, putting on Skintone and although it made sense sonically – the release is considered an ode to his loose-limbed Skintone nights in Tokyo – it’s one of his more obscure collections. Listening now, it sounds at times like a speeded up, fattened version of ‘Grinning Cat’, all rickety drum breaks and piano loops. It’s almost like Yokota is challenging himself…
After an eight-year lay-off from the recording studio, the Smithereens released two albums in 2007. However, it doesn’t bode well for their creative process that the first of those albums was comprised entirely of Beatles covers, and the second was a Christmas disc.
However, Christmas with the Smithereens at least features three original tunes (which is three more than Meet the Smithereens!), and as rock & roll Christmas albums go, this is good fun and admirably eclectic. The Smithereens are pretty broad-minded when it comes to what constitutes a Yuletide melody, given the presence of “Christmas,” a not especially seasonal tune from the Who’s Tommy, and they dig up the Beatles rarity “Christmas Time Is Here Again,” as well as…
Combing through a family member’s history following their death is a routine, if sombre and difficult task that falls to many a close relative. Committing to publicly honour that person’s life and work in a tangible way is something else entirely. Over seven years, just such a project has occupied Berlin-based producer Joseph Kamaru, who makes leftfield electronic music as KMRU.
His objective was to memorialise and widen awareness outside Africa of his grandfather, also Joseph, a hugely influential figure in Kenya’s music history and a political activist, who died in 2018 aged 79.
Heavy Combination may be a labour of familial love but like the dozens of his grandfather’s recordings that KMRU has remastered and…
Available for first time in over 35 years, Clock DVA’s White Souls in Black Suits – originally released in 1980 as a limited-run cassette on Throbbing Gristle’s Industrial Records – now returns in a newly remastered edition, reissued via The Grey Area of Mute and expanded with four bonus tracks from the same era.
Led by the visionary Adi Newton, Clock DVA remains one of the most enigmatic and shape-shifting acts to emerge from Sheffield. Their catalog spans mutant funk, noir jazz, and coldwave electronics, with White Souls in Black Suits, paired with the additionals tracks, offering an insight into the early morphology of their sound. The album features a lineup including Newton (voice, synth, clarinet, bowed electric guitar,…
Celebrating 40 Years of one of Britain’s most iconic and era-defining bands, The Factory Singles is the definitive tribute to a group that reshaped the sound of UK music.
“This fully remastered collection brings together their landmark singles from 1985–1992, capturing the raw energy, innovation, and fearless creativity that made them a cornerstone of the Factory Records and Madchester legacy.
From underground club anthems to crossover hits, every track showcases their unique fusion of attitude, electronic experimentation, and dancefloor-ready grooves. These singles not only defined an era but also laid the foundations for the alternative dance and indie scenes that followed.
Adding even more depth, this edition also…
Fully remastered and features previously unreleased B-sides, rarities and remixes by Todd Terry, The Beatmasters, Sly & Robbie and more.
žYou may not know his name, but you’ll probably recognize his voice. Since the death of Klaus Nomi, Somerville has reigned as the best white falsetto singer in pop music; his soaring voice propelled Bronski Beat and the Communards to respectable chart positions (especially in Europe) during the 1980s, and his return to musical activity finds him in excellent form. Dare to Love doesn’t really break much new ground for Somerville. He’s still working the club floor with disco-inflected dance-pop, and his melodic sense is still as strong as ever — from the airborne melodic lines of “Heartbeat” to the down-and-dirty funk of…
Four decades after their brief but pivotal run of success on each side of the Atlantic in the mid-to-late ’80s, Fine Young Cannibals come back for a few more bites in the form of a sprawling compilation/box set.
Arriving from London Records, FYC40 reintroduce audiences to the Birmingham trio behind “Johnny Come Home,” “She Drives Me Crazy” and “Good Thing” on a multi-disc set. The most comprehensive version spans four CDs and a DVD, offering expanded editions of 1985’s Fine Young Cannibals and 1989’s The Raw & The Cooked, B-sides, remixes, music videos and live performances. (These are, of course, different track lists than the 2CD expansions of both albums issued in 2020.) Nine of the tracks, including…
…20-track overview of funk-rock combo War’s earliest recordings with British rocker Eric Burdon of The Animals. It includes three unreleased tracks, including an unedited remix of this iteration’s biggest hit, “Spill the Wine.”
…After fronting The Animals and becoming one of the defining voices of the British Invasion, Eric Burdon sought a new musical direction in the late 1960s. In 1969, he teamed up with the Long Beach funk band WAR, a collaboration that produced hits like “Spill the Wine,” included in this release alongside its unedited remix, and earned accolades from fans, fellow musicians, and journalists — including NME’s Richard Green, who called them “the best live band I ever saw.” WAR’s legendary producer Jerry Goldstein adds,…
…a fully remastered digital version. The digital release include the bonus track “St. Charlene,” a tune from the ‘Rabbit Songs’ era that previously was found only on a hard-to-find EP.
Quoted as wanting to make a record “we could love the rest of our lives,” Hem spent a year on this collection. The idea was to combine their love of traditional American music with the lushness of the occasional 18-piece orchestra, a good choice considering the sweet, crystalline quality of the vocal work by lead singer Sally Ellyson. Ellyson had never sung professionally before, but answered an ad in The Village Voice with a cassette of lullabies she’d recorded for a friend’s child, and the set begins with a snippet of what was on that tape — a few lines unaccompanied…
…remastered from the original analog tapes by Pete Lyman at Nashville’s Infrasonic Sound, the first time those tapes have been touched in 40 years, and restored and digitized by Dan Johnson at Audio Archiving Services.
In 1983, Golden Shower of Hits caught the Circle Jerks right on the cusp of growing out of — or at least struggling with the limits of — hardcore, but with nowhere special to go. It’s a malaise common to pretty much every hardcore band that lasted for more than a couple of albums, and in its way Golden Shower is just as typical of a particular kind of album as the Jerks’ classic debut Group Sex was. A combination of classic melodic hardcore, more considered rock/metal crossover material and obnoxious comedy covers,…
Originally issued in 1998, Jon Jenkins‘ FLOW returns in a freshly remastered form to lend its soundscapes even greater resonance and depth. The seventy-four-minute album’s even more immersive than the ambient norm, but the commitment it asks of the listener is rewarded with deeply textured productions that show Jenkins to be an exceptionally meticulous sculptor of sound. Enhancing the music’s impact are electric guitar contributions from Jeff Pearce, David Helpling, and Howard Givens. A strong argument could be made that FLOW is the quintessential ambient album, given the many genre-defining boxes it checks. There’s atmosphere in abundance, melody too, and, need it be said, seamless flow.
While Jenkins’ soundscapes stand credibly…
Jimmy Barnes’ seminal album For the Working Class Man reissued to celebrate its 40th Anniversary on limited edition Tour Souvenir Edition with bonus disc of live classics. Completely remastered under the supervision of mastering engineer Bob Ludwig and sounding better than ever!
Bonus disc features the ultimate live versions of FTWCM tracks from across the 40 years, plus a new ballad version of ‘Working Class Man’.
First released in 1985, For The Working Class Man is full of undeniable classics, including Jimmy’s first Top 10 solo single ‘I’d Die To Be With You Tonight’, the Top 40 smash ‘Ride The Night Away’, and the beautiful ballad that he wrote for his wife Jane, ‘Without Your Love’. The album’s title track ‘Working Class Man’ has taken on a life of its…
The perfectionism involved in crafting Fleetwood Mac’s Tango in the Night reached a level of intensity experienced by few artists before or since. Commercially and creatively, the painstaking efforts paid off. Recorded over the span of 18 months, the triple-platinum album spawned four hit singles and put Fleetwood Mac back at the center of mainstream conversation. Its demands also ultimately forced its primary architect, guitarist-singer Lindsey Buckingham, to leave the group shortly after its completion. Was it all worth it? A thousand times “yes.”
Sourced from the original master tapes Mobile Fidelity’s hybrid SACD of Tango in the Night presents the 1987 record in audiophile sound for the first time. Everything co-producers…
…Sourced from the original master tapes.
Benefitting from an enhanced coherence and clarity that befit the album’s nearly 72-minute length, this disc plays with richer detail, sharper focus, and broader dynamics than prior versions.
While it’s not a repudiation of her blockbuster, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie is a clear step forward, teeming with ambition and filled with new musical ideas and different sonic textures. Alanis Morissette‘s voice still sears, but she has more control over her singing, rarely reaching the piercing heights that occasionally made Jagged Little Pill jarring. Also, she has clearly spent some time crafting her lyrics; not only do they never sound like straight diary entries, she no longer is trying to fit too many syllables into a phrase.