Steven Wilson Prepping Surround Mixes for Yes and XTC, More King Crimson On the Way (UPDATED 8/6)

UPDATE (8/6/2013): After the jump, you’ll find full specs on the newly expanded and remixed Close to the Edge, due out in October! And don’t forget our post on Nonsuch from earlier this week.

ORIGINAL POST (6/24/2013): Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson has been one of the most prominent proponents of surround sound in recent memory.  The singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer has spearheaded deluxe editions of classic albums from Hawkwind, King Crimson, Jethro Tull and Emerson Lake and Palmer with stunning new 5.1 mixes, and made his own acclaimed 2013 solo album The Raven That Refused to Sing available in high-resolution surround formats, as well.  Over the weekend, Wilson confirmed on his official Facebook page that more exciting projects are on the way from the catalogues of two more iconic bands: Yes and XTC.

Panegyric, the label releasing DGM’s definitive series of King Crimson reissues, will release “archive CD/DVD-A and CD/Blu-ray editions” by both groups, beginning this September with XTC’s Nonsuch (1992) and continuing in October with Yes’ Close to the Edge (1972).  The Yes release will be joined by a new King Crimson title, The Road to Red, focusing on the band’s final North American tour of 1974.

After the jump, we have details on all three titles!

Review: Elvis Presley, “Elvis at Stax”

The distance from 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard , or Graceland,  to Stax Records’ headquarters at 926 East McLemore Avenue is just a little over 5 miles.  So when RCA Records came calling on the once and future King in mid-1973 to fulfill an obligation to record 24 songs (a 10-song album, four single sides, and a 10-song “religious album”), the studio founded by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton seemed to be the perfect locale.  Recording at home in Memphis had always brought something special to Presley’s music, anyway, from his very first sessions for Sun Records at 706 Union Avenue, to his 1969 dates at Chips Moman’s American Sound at 827 Thomas Street.  The American sessions yielded hits like “In the Ghetto,” “Suspicious Minds” and “Kentucky Rain.”  Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, might have been anxious to rekindle that magic, but Moman had relocated American Sound to Atlanta and then Nashville.  And so Stax it was.  Elvis’ July and December 1973 sessions on McLemore Avenue yielded material for three albums: Raised on Rock/For Ol’ Times Sake (1973), Good Times (1974) and Promised Land (1975).  The completed Stax masters, plus numerous alternate takes and outtakes, have now been collected by RCA Records and Legacy as the new 3-CD box set Elvis at Stax (88883 72418 2, 2013).

The Stax sessions have been documented on numerous occasions in the past, most notably via a series of expanded reissues from the mail order/online collectors’ label Follow That Dream.  FTD expanded Raised on Rock in 2007, following with Promised Land in 2011 and Good Times in 2012.  Selections from all three releases can be found on Elvis at Stax in newly remixed form, though not every alternate take from the FTD discs has been reprised here.  Rather than taking a strictly chronological approach to the sessions, the new box is arranged in segments. The first disc presents The R&B and Country Sessions: The Outtakes.  Disc 2 commences with The Pop Sessions: The Outtakes before presenting the complete set of July 1973 master takes. Finally, the third disc offers up the eighteen December 1973 masters.

Elvis at Stax marks a significant, large-scale effort to unify these recordings; in Presley’s lifetime, these landmark recordings were only issued on albums in tandem with material recorded elsewhere. Not only are these songs important to his career, but they also occurred during a pivotal period for Stax itself.  When Elvis entered the Soulsville, USA studios, Stax was riding high thanks to Isaac Hayes’ “Theme from Shaft” and the monumental Wattstax concert. But by the time Promised Land was originally released and 1975 was out, the once-mighty record label’s offices would shutter.

After the jump, take a trip to Memphis!

Make Way For Dionne Warwick: 23 Scepter and Warner Bros. Albums To Be Remastered and Expanded [NOW WITH UPDATED TRACK LISTINGS]

UPDATE 8/6/13: WEA Japan’s deluxe mini-LP editions of Dionne Warwick’s Scepter and Warner catalogue have finally arrived, but many purchasers have been surprised to find numerous alterations in the albums’ bonus material.   Originally-listed bonus tracks have been added, dropped, and reshuffled between albums.  By the numbers, there are 5 more bonus tracks than originally listed, but some songs are absent with others taking their place.  Below, in BOLD, we’ll let you know exactly what you’ll find on every CD in the series, what’s missing, and what’s new!

ORIGINAL POST OF 5/20/13: What it’s all about?

According to WEA Japan – the Japanese arm of Warner Music Group – it’s all about Dionne Warwick.  The legendary singer has recently celebrated her 50th anniversary in music with the well-received album Now (one of the final projects produced by the late Phil Ramone) while Warwick’s closest musical collaborator, Burt Bacharach, has just marked his own 85th birthday with the publication of a new memoir and the issuance of a new retrospective box set.  And so, in July, WEA Japan will reissue 23 albums – representing Warwick’s tenure at both Scepter and Warner Bros. Records – in newly remastered, mini-LP sleeve editions including mono and stereo for the early albums, plus bonus tracks (both those appended to Rhino Handmade’s previous expansions of certain titles, and new, never-on-CD additions) on virtually every disc in the set.  Three of these albums are new to CD.

Warwick’s Scepter and Warner catalogues have been reissued numerous times on CD from various labels including Rhino Handmade, Ambassador Soul Classics, Disky, Sequel Records and Collectors’ Choice Music, with many variations in mixes along the way.  This series appears to standardize her remarkable body of work in uniform editions with single mixes added where applicable.  The albums covered in the Warwick campaign are:

1. Presenting Dionne Warwick (1963) (Mono/Stereo)
2. Anyone Who Had a Heart (1964) (Mono/Stereo)
3. Make Way for Dionne Warwick (1964) (Mono/Stereo plus bonus tracks)
4. The Sensitive Sound Of Dionne Warwick (1965) (Mono/Stereo)
5. Here I Am (1965) (Mono/Stereo plus bonus track)
6. Dionne Warwick in Paris (1966) (Mono/Stereo plus bonus tracks)
7. Here Where There Is Love (1966) (Mono/Stereo)
8. On Stage and in the Movies (1967) (Mono/Stereo)
9. The Windows of the World (1967) (Mono/Stereo plus bonus tracks)
10. The Magic of Believing (1967) (Mono/Stereo)
11. In The Valley of the Dolls (1968) (Mono/Stereo plus bonus tracks)
12. Promises. Promises (1968) (Stereo Only) (with bonus tracks)
13. Soulful (1969) (Mono/Stereo) (with bonus tracks)
14. Dionne Warwick’s Greatest Motion Picture Hits (1969) (First time on CD, plus bonus tracks)
15. I’ll Never Fall in Love Again (1970) (Stereo Only) (with bonus tracks)
16. Very Dionne (1970) (duplicates track listing of Rhino Handmade RHM2 7869, 2004) (with bonus tracks)
17. The Dionne Warwicke Story: A Decade Of Gold (1971) (2 CDs; First time on CD) (with bonus tracks)
18. From Within (1972) (2 CDs; First time on CD) (with bonus tracks)
19. Dionne (1972) (with bonus tracks)
20. Just Being Myself (1973) (with bonus tracks)
21. Then Came You (1975) (with bonus tracks)
22. Track of the Cat (1975) (with bonus tracks)
23. Love At First Sight (1977) (with bonus tracks)

After the jump, we’ll offer an UPDATED, in-depth look at the bonus material on each disc!  Plus: a lost Warwick treasure is finally found – in a most unlikely place!

Release Round-Up: Week of August 6

Elvis Presley, Elvis At Stax (RCA/Legacy)

Four decades after the King decamped to the famous Memphis studio to cut some country-fried soul sides, this triple-disc box set presents the fruits of those labors, greatly re-contextualized from the original albums that featured these sessions (1973’s Raised on Rock/For Ol’ Times Sake and 1974’s Good Times).

3CD box set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
1CD highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2LP highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Gloria Gaynor, Gloria Gaynor’s Park Avenue Sound / Love Tracks: Expanded Editions (Big Break)

BBR’s latest features the fifth and sixth albums by the future disco queen Gaynor, remastered and expanded. Hits here include a cover of “You’re All I Need to Get By” and some tune called “I Will Survive.”

Park Avenue Sound: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Love Tracks: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Echo & The Bunnymen, Crocodiles (Weatherbox)

The post-punk heroes’ debut, expanded as a double-LP with hardback book packaging and bonus tracks from Rhino’s expanded remaster. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)