So I just read on another forum that the single versions of a few tracks are clearly mastered from vinyl and not mastertapes. Are these tapes lost or did no one look for them? Are the rest of the tracks new mastertape transfers or just tweaked versions of the last remasters? My box is on the way and I'm already getting concerned. Source material should always been mentioned in this day and age of cost cutting shortcuts or tweak and re-release.
I hope that the following will help clarify matters...
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The three
Ultravox! albums (
Ultravox!,
Ha! Ha! Ha! and
Systems Of Romance) were all remastered back in 2006 from the original master tapes. Discs One, Two and Three in
The Island Years box set have been remastered using the 2006 masters.
All of the tracks contained on Disc Four -
Rare Retro - that also appeared on the 2006 CDs have been remastered using the 2006 masters.
The four
John Peel session tracks (
Young Savage,
The Man Who Dies Every Day,
My Sex and
Artificial Life) and the two tracks from the
Old Grey Whistle Test (
Slow Motion and
Hiroshima Mon Amour) were mastered using audio supplied by the BBC.
The single edits of
ROckWrok and
Quiet Men and the twelve inch version of
Quiet Men had to be taken from vinyl as unfortunately (and despite extensive searching) the master tapes could not be located in the Island archive.
All of the audio contained on
The Island Years box set was approved by
John Foxx.
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The Island Years box set is currently available from
Amazon Rob