Constrictor definitive edition

[mr.barlow]

Maybe Shep can work an exclusive deal with IKEA.

They could include a new bonus track titled "Unfinished Meatball".

[Saint&Sinner]

I do love the scorn some of you have for the album, it is quite amusing.
I understand a re-recording is highly unlikely. But a remix/remaster is not necessarily beyond the realms.
You all say that nothing sells anymore and is not worth the money etc yet all the time remasters and re-releases happen and allot of times with material that sold less than constrictor the first time out!
I have only just brought a remaster of a small collection (3 albums) of anathema, a small doom/goth metal band from the UK which sold significantly south of 400k,
They did a small print run which they have sold to their fan base and will seemingly have recouped the money spent on re-issuing/remastering (and in one of the albums case completely reordering and adding songs that didn't originally make the cut)
I think you guys are stuck in the past in terms of cost base and how to recoup money, for all of the hate toward hoffman and his remasters they make money and are quite small print runs. (yes i appreciate they are more popular albums)

The interest from alice/record company is not there which is a shame. Alice seemingly doesn't care about his back catalog and the record company doesn't even exist any more - none of which helps! But a small label with an interest in re-releases and remixing could do a limited run with some extras, a good remix and probably make a few quid. Allot of pessimism on this topic which i wonder if it would be the same for something like DADA or from the inside....

[pitkin88]

I do love the scorn some of you have for the album, it is quite amusing.
I understand a re-recording is highly unlikely. But a remix/remaster is not necessarily beyond the realms.
You all say that nothing sells anymore and is not worth the money etc yet all the time remasters and re-releases happen and allot of times with material that sold less than constrictor the first time out!
I have only just brought a remaster of a small collection (3 albums) of anathema, a small doom/goth metal band from the UK which sold significantly south of 400k,
They did a small print run which they have sold to their fan base and will seemingly have recouped the money spent on re-issuing/remastering (and in one of the albums case completely reordering and adding songs that didn't originally make the cut)
I think you guys are stuck in the past in terms of cost base and how to recoup money, for all of the hate toward hoffman and his remasters they make money and are quite small print runs. (yes i appreciate they are more popular albums)

The interest from alice/record company is not there which is a shame. Alice seemingly doesn't care about his back catalog and the record company doesn't even exist any more - none of which helps! But a small label with an interest in re-releases and remixing could do a limited run with some extras, a good remix and probably make a few quid. Allot of pessimism on this topic which i wonder if it would be the same for something like DADA or from the inside....

I'm all for small bootique releases with bonus tracks. A box containing Constrictor.RYFAY and maybe The Nightmare Returns dvd plus a booklet could do ok and tie up that era nicely.
I'm really not into the idea of a remix unless there was a problem with the original recordings. A good remix? Who is to say what is good? The Raw Power and LAMF remixes were certainly not definitive. Most likely a remix would be cost prohibitive.

If there is no interest from the label or Alice/MGMT so be it. The great thing these days is that the fans can put a lot of great stuff together. Movie/dvd mixes/acetates and 45 mixes that have never been on cd/digital. Album covers, sleeve notes et al. It's up to us if we want it.

[Babysquid]

I do feel sorry for mastering engineers these days. All that time spent to get an album sounding just right and cohesive soundwise only to see all your hard work binned 10 years later because it's time to pedal the back catalogue again. I do agree mostly with pitkin on the nature of remastering and when I was referring to "fashions" I was mostly meaning the awful "loudness war", because we all know that even though it's brickwalled at 0db there's still somehow plenty of room to make it louder!

[A_MichaelUK]

From mr.barlow:
"Constrictor was a stepping stone album for Alice. It was not a milestone album."

That is probably the best way to describe it (although I don't dislike it as much as you do).

[A_MichaelUK]

From Saint&Sinner:
“You all say that nothing sells anymore and is not worth the money etc yet all the time remasters and re-releases happen and allot of times with material that sold less than constrictor the first time out!”

In that case, instead of complaining here, write to Universal Music Group and start a campaign. Good luck and keep us informed of your progress.

>I have only just brought a remaster of a small collection (3 albums) of anathema, a small doom/goth metal band from the UK which sold significantly south of 400k,

They appear to be pretty big in Germany which is still a big market.

>They did a small print run which they have sold to their fan base and will seemingly have recouped the money spent on re-issuing/remastering

In that case, you don't know if they are recouped or not.

> Alice seemingly doesn't care about his back catalog

This is insane! What exactly do you want him to do? Alice generally does something and moves on to something else. As mr.barlow pointed out, it isn't an album that hangs over him in any way. Just because you have a bee in your bonnet about this album doesn't mean he has to .

>and the record company doesn't even exist any more

That is isn't relevant. The recordings are now owned by Universal Music Group which I think I mentioned in a previous post.

>But a small label with an interest in re-releases and remixing could do a limited run

That sounds great but that still has nothing to with Alice though. Why don’t you write to every “small label” you can think of and ask them to take this project forward?

[Si]

From Saint&Sinner:
>I have only just brought a remaster of a small collection (3 albums) of anathema, a small doom/goth metal band from the UK which sold significantly south of 400k,

They appear to be pretty big in Germany which is still a big market.

>They did a small print run which they have sold to their fan base and will seemingly have recouped the money spent on re-issuing/remastering

In that case, you don't know if they are recouped or not.

I could be wrong (and please correct me if I am) but I also think they own the material themselves, and also did the remastering etc in-house as well, which makes it a different situation and MUCH cheaper to do. The only people really involved were the bands organisation themselves, completely different from 'Constrictor' et al.

[While Heaven Wept]

I do love the scorn some of you have for the album, it is quite amusing.
I understand a re-recording is highly unlikely. But a remix/remaster is not necessarily beyond the realms.
You all say that nothing sells anymore and is not worth the money etc yet all the time remasters and re-releases happen and allot of times with material that sold less than constrictor the first time out!
I have only just brought a remaster of a small collection (3 albums) of anathema, a small doom/goth metal band from the UK which sold significantly south of 400k,
They did a small print run which they have sold to their fan base and will seemingly have recouped the money spent on re-issuing/remastering (and in one of the albums case completely reordering and adding songs that didn't originally make the cut)
I think you guys are stuck in the past in terms of cost base and how to recoup money, for all of the hate toward hoffman and his remasters they make money and are quite small print runs. (yes i appreciate they are more popular albums)

The interest from alice/record company is not there which is a shame. Alice seemingly doesn't care about his back catalog and the record company doesn't even exist any more - none of which helps! But a small label with an interest in re-releases and remixing could do a limited run with some extras, a good remix and probably make a few quid. Allot of pessimism on this topic which i wonder if it would be the same for something like DADA or from the inside....

I'm sorry but comparing AC to Anathema (who i'm a big fan of incidentally) is ridiculous. Anathema own all their own material (perhaps aside from A Fine day to Exit possibly). Plus, their fanbase is incredibly hardcore (and very large in Europe), therefore very easy to justify the expense.

Now, the idea of re-mixing/re-recording Constrictor isn't impossible, however unlikely. If if was to happen, it'd need to be someone like Hoffman (although ideally NOT him!) who takes it on and has the facility to undertake such a task.

Assuming the original multi track tapes still exist, it wouldn't take a complete genius to remove all the drums and either re-record them with a live drummer or simply substitute the existing drum sounds with better modern samples.

I just don't think it'd ever happen. Too much expense, too much red tape, not enough reward at the end of it.

[mestreech]

I don't see it happen but Pitkins idea of releasing a (limited) box with Constrictor / Raise your fist and a dvd/blu ray of the live show with nice book and maybe a limited 7- or 10'single inside would be interesting as this will sell.
Put in the whole rehearselshow could be another extra.

[pitkin88]

Out of curiousity has Alice ever commented on the back catalogue?

[HORRORHOLIC]

I do think some people have rather warped ideas on what a 'remaster' actually is. A remaster is simply creating another master mix from an unmastered stereo mix. It isn't possible for a re-master to change specific sounds such as drums/guitars without changing the overall sound.

I just want the sound quality to be better. Some of those albums sound like they were recorded underwater haha!!

[HORRORHOLIC]

From Horrorholic:
"There should be a box set released with some of the albums remastered such as Constrictor, Raise Your Fist And Yell, Hey Stoopid etc.."

Given that those albums (ot at least most of them) were recorded, mixed and mastered during the digital era, I'm not sure there would be any real point in doing that.

It's hard to think of a cd where the remastering made things better, Usually it ends up a brickwalled mess. In this case I agree with Amuk regarding thess albums.

I can think of tons. Some of the best in my opinion are the Black Sabbath ones from a few years back. They sound quality on a lot of remasters cam improve a great deal, sometimes you can even hear little things you couldn't hear before.

[mr.barlow]

I think if they remastered Constrictor it could bring out the subtle intricacies of the $100.00 drum machine used on the album.

[pitkin88]

I think if they remastered Constrictor it could bring out the subtle intricacies of the $100.00 drum machine used on the album.

Rimshot!! Or fake drum machine synthesised rimshot I should say.

[Babysquid]

I think if they remastered Constrictor it could bring out the subtle intricacies of the $100.00 drum machine used on the album.

I think it cost more than $100!

[A_MichaelUK]

From pitkin88:
"Out of curiousity has Alice ever commented on the back catalogue?"

If someone asks, then yes.

[Toronto Bob]

I actually wouldn't want a full re-release of Constrictor with a new drum track, simply for ideological reasons. It's akin to rewriting history. Sounds are of their time and that's what drum machines sounded like in the mid eighties. I admit it would be fun to hear perhaps a couple of the better tracks redone with live organic drums (WNG/TF/LADOTP). What I would like to hear is that Cincinnati show re-mixed so the entire show sounds like the individual tracks released on the Trash series of EPS. All copies I heard of that broadcast has one of the guitarists (can't recall if it's Kane or Devlin) way down in the mix. That would make a worthwhile bonus disc.

[Keith1980]

From pitkin88:
"If he really wanted to I'm sure a call could be made to MCA on his behalf."

No. He has nothing to do with it. What he wants or doesn't want isn't relevant. As Si explained perfectly, those recordings are owned by someone else and always have been.

> If this album was to be re released with bonus cuts it probably wouldnt sell more than a few thousand and would probably would be cost prohibitive.

Yes, as Si stated.

My question is how mich money would be the ball park guess to own his whole catalog rights?

[Si]

My question is how mich money would be the ball park guess to own his whole catalog rights?

I have no idea, but I would guess Warners wouldn`t want to sell. They are still making money from those albums without really doing anything.

[Keith1980]

My question is how mich money would be the ball park guess to own his whole catalog rights?

I have no idea, but I would guess Warners wouldn`t want to sell. They are still making money from those albums without really doing anything.

I thought in super duper alice cooper they saod tehy wouldnt sign with zappa for 30k. Instead they signed for 3k so they could keep the rights. What happened?