Mike Oldfield Remaster Campaign Continues with “Crises,” “Five Miles Out”

Universal’s Mike Oldfield expanded remaster campaign begins with reissues of two of his more pop-friendly records: 1982’s Five Miles Out and 1983’s Crises, both of which will come packed with extras in September.

While both albums featured their share of ambitious and complex pieces like “Taurus II” and Crises‘ title track, there was an increasing presence of keyboards on both albums, notably the Fairlight CMI and Oberheim OBX synthesizers. On Five Miles Out, Oldfield made rare vocal appearances alongside Scottish singer Maggie Reilly, who’d first collaborated with Oldfield on 1980’s QE2 and would work with him throughout the 1980s. Crises, meanwhile, features vocals from Reilly, British vocalist Roger Chapman and Jon Anderson of Yes.

While Crises yielded Oldfield’s most successful single in Europe with “Moonlight Shadow,” Five Miles Out yielded what is technically his most successful song in the U.S.: “Family Man,” which was taken to No. 6 in 1982 by Daryl Hall & John Oates.

And what extras await you on the expanded editions of these albums? Find out after the jump!

Mary Wells, Ben E. King, Johnnie Taylor Join Kent’s Celebration of “The Phillip Mitchell Songbook”

“Prince” Phillip Mitchell is in some mighty good company.  The Kentucky-born singer and songwriter, who rose to prominence composing songs for deeply soulful artists including Millie Jackson and Bobby Womack, is the latest to receive a career retrospective from Ace Records’ Songwriters and Producers series.  With the Ace/Kent release of Something New to Do: The Phillip Mitchell Songbook (CDKEND 394), he joins such illustrious talents as Dan Penn, Burt Bacharach, Randy Newman, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and Carole King and Gerry Goffin.  The 21-track overview features songs by both Jackson and Womack along with Ben E. King, Joe Simon, Mary Wells, Candi Staton, Bobby Sheen and many more who benefited from Mitchell’s gift of song.  As Mitchell’s name isn’t as famous as any of the above-named writers or artists, Kent’s new collection of his underrated catalogue is long overdue and well worth exploring.

Mitchell expertly crafted a bevy of songs of love lost and found that, while frequently wrenching, were still wrapped in up-tempo grooves.  His southern soul compositions were recorded by a Who’s Who of artists at most of R&B’s pre-eminent labels: Atlantic, Hi, Stax and Malaco among them.  Before he joined The Spinners, Missouri-born John Edwards wrapped his pipes around Mitchell’s “Cold Hearted Woman” for Aware Records. “I can’t believe it, you’re so evil!  How you can just walk out on me/Never look back to see me grieving…,” Edwards wails over a slinky track that would make Al Green proud.  Though this fine recording sat on a shelf until Kent’s excavation in 1996, Edwards did well for himself as the voice of Michael Zager-produced Spinners hits like “Working My Back to You/Forgive Me Girl” and “Cupid/I’ve Loved You for a Long Time.”  Another shelved recording, Garland Green’s “(You Gotta) Come Through Me,” was cut in 1975 but not released until 1990.  It’s packed with pop crossover appeal, boasting a catchy melody and tight arrangement.  Its sinuous horns could have come from one of Isaac Hayes’ Shaft-era projects, and Green delivers with a typically potent vocal performance.

One of Mitchell’s most important musical associations was with Mel & Tim, the Stax singing-cousins duo.  Mel & Tim recorded no fewer than five Mitchell songs on their Stax LP debut, including the selection here, “Free for All (Winner Take All).”  Ernie Shelby’s “Carry Me” also has a Stax flavor, and it’s no surprise that it was another Mitchell composition recorded by Mel & Tim.  Perhaps the duo’s most famous Mitchell song is “Starting All Over Again,” a 1972 Top 20 Pop/Top 5 R&B hit.  Rather than opt for that hit version, the compilers here have chosen a fine cover by Stax labelmate Johnnie Taylor.

Keep reading after the jump, where you’ll find more including the track listing with discography and order links!

Another Expanded “Star Trek” Score Immortalized on CD

Engage! Another film score from the Star Trek universe has been expanded on CD; this time, it’s the score to 1998’s Star Trek: Insurrection.

The third Trek film to feature the crew of the USS Enterprise-D as featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation (although this film, like its predecessor First Contact, finds the crew manning the Enterprise-E), First Contact finds Picard, Riker and crew openly rebelling against a Starfleet plot: to help one alien race, the Son’a, steal a planet away from the peaceful Bak’u, whose home planet offers astounding regenerative abilities – in effect, making its denizens immortal.

Though the film (directed, like its predecessor, by the Enterprise‘s Commander Riker, Jonathan Frakes) received mixed critical notices for feeling more like an extended episode of The Next Generation than a full-fledged cinematic event, one thing was suitably big-budget: the score by Jerry Goldsmith. Of course, Goldsmith was no stranger to Trek, having developed the series’ iconic film themes in two TOS-era films (1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture and 1989’s Star Trek V: The Final Frontier). That main theme became the flagship piece to introduce TNG, and Goldsmith would go on to score First Contact, Insurrection and 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis. Once again, Goldsmith supplies a lush score with rousing new themes to go with the familiar musical developments he’d supplied the series.

Insurrection is somewhat different from other score presentations in the series: although it had a successful soundtrack album presentation (with select alternate edits and takes), that album is not included in this new edition. (Fear not, completists: it’s still readily in print from GNP Crescendo.) Instead, what we hear on this 79-minute disc is the complete film score, augmented with five alternate cues for maximum archival enjoyment.

It’s been a bountiful few years for Trek score lovers: with Insurection, the first nine scores in the series have been expanded. Since The Second Disc started, we enjoyed covering the reissues of The Motion Picture (1979), The Search for Spock (1984), The Voyage Home (1986), The Final Frontier (1989) – reissued by both La-La Land and Intrada – The Undiscovered Country (1991), Generations (1994) and First Contact (1996)…not to mention box sets and compilations of music from The Original Series, three for The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and 2009’s Star Trek reboot. (Essentially, one of the last pieces of the puzzle is Goldsmith’s score to Nemesis, originally released by Varese Sarabande.)

After the jump, you can order Insurrection and check out its track list!