Beaucoup Fish - 4 CD Remastered Deluxe Box Set (8/25/2017)

[purlieu]

Originally Posted by gcoleman99

8 ball was included on the 1992-2012 release, so it was redundant.

So were Rez, Spikee, Dark Train and Oich Oich, but they ended up on the first two sets. Not to mention that the 1992-2012 is out of print physically.

Some thoughts...

Nifter - Nice little piece.
Bruce Lee 1st Dobro - Nice energetic remix, enjoyed the bizarre jazz skronk elements, but overall it's not that different to the original. Would have preferred something that was a halfway point between this and the final Dobropet.
Orange Bed - They really liked this beat, didn't they? Nice mix of Kittens, Mama and Pens with new words. All the final versions of those are much better than this, but it's another chance to hear their fascinating working process.
Skym Nov 97 - Really don't like this version. Very undeveloped and lacking any atmosphere.
Jumbo Diff Bass - There's a lovely alternate universe where this was the a-side to CD2 of the single, and we had a new track (or drastically different version) in its place here. It's a nice version.
Push Upstairs Alt - Early version of The Large Unit. I like the synth stabs that come in halfway through and the really weird stuff in the string breakdown. It's a very rough mix though, which makes is kinda hard to listen to. "I say chaps!" - lovely.
King of Snake Garage Mix - Well this was a lot of fun. I expected it to be closer to the version that they put online years ago, but was pleasantly surprised. Great to hear how far this track came over the years. Obviously not a patch on the final version, but different enough to enjoy on that merit alone. For me, the Barking Mix is still the final, perfect incarnation of KoS.
Something Like a Mama Alt - "Ah, an extended version" I thought, until it all started going a bit mental. Enjoyed this a lot, went in a lot of very strange directions.
Please Help Me - Same as ever.
Yeah Plan - Ok this is very different. Not like anything else I've heard from the BF sessions. Would love to know where this could have gone. Those synths near the end are lovely.
Ramajama - MORE LIKE THIS PLEASE.
Remixes - meh.


Overall definitely an enjoyable set of tracks on disc 2, and it's much more interesting than the demo sets a lot of deluxe edition get saddled with. Frankly we've been spoiled with the earlier sets, particularly the Dubnobass one, so this in itself is decent. That said, given what we know is out there, and the fact it can only be got through buying the super-deluxe 4CD set (/digital equivalent), it's still a bit of an underwhelming collection.

There must be a good reason why they didn't include any more completely unheard tracks, although unless they're planning a FSOL / Aphex style archive dump, then I can't work out what it is.

[pandamagic]

I realize that mostly I've been griping in this thread about what's missing from & disappointing about this reissue, so I thought I'd focus on what's great about it. After all, they didn't have to reissue this album & dig up the unreleased tracks so it does feel a bit entitled to turn around and complain that it's not perfect. That other UK electronic duo, Boards of Canada, are quite happy to leave all their unreleased music sealed up in a vault forever so any generosity on UW's part is appreciated.

Nifter - quite nice to hear the Please Help Me lyrics in a clearer form. I enjoy how bare and stripped down this is compared to more dense stuff like Kittens and Moaner.

King of Snake Garage Mix - this is a lot of fun, especially the bass line that comes in at 2:36 that sounds very "late 90s dance music" to me. also nice to hear the lyrics in a non-shouty way for a change.

Something Like a Mama Alt Mix - the original has always been my favorite track off Beaucoup Fish so hearing this is a bit of a revelation. Even better would be to have an ambient version with just those lovely, evocative chords.

Ramajama - as many have accurately noted, this is the best of the unreleased tracks on disc 2 for sure. It's a bit odd that this didn't end up on any of the BF singles, since after Please Help Me there weren't any further (non-remix) bonus tracks from that era. That fade-out is a little abrupt and unceremonious, though, even for a demo.

As for the remixes on the other 2 bonus discs, there's several that I'm glad to finally have in better quality, namely Dave Angel's King of Snake and Adam Beyer's Push Upstairs mix 2. Both Futureshock mixes are solid. The Roger S Push Upstairs dub mostly just makes me want to listen to the superior, vocal version. The Sugar Hit mix of Jumbo is great but a bit frustrating to listen to since it starts fading out during an especially lovely bit and you know it's supposed to go on for another minute and a half. The Bungalow mix of King of Snake would have been great here too, and there would have been plenty of room for it. I'm assuming the original master for that would have been easier to track down than, say, those Italian KoS remixes. A missed opportunity for sure. But oh - I forgot I'm not supposed to be complaining here.

The Micronauts mix of Bruce Lee has long been my favorite version of that track and I've played it out DJing many times over the years, though usually my own 6:50 long edit version. The Buffalo Daughter remix - I did spend a bit of $ getting the Japanese Bruce Lee cd single back in the day just to get this track, and I remember finding it okay but a little inconsequential and so it made me wonder if the expense had been worth it.

The remaster job on the album is fine but also a bit unnecessary since the original master was fine to begin with. I made the decision to not buy the physical box set this time around (after having bought the first two) since the somewhat perplexing choices made on the bonus discs soured my impression of the whole thing a little bit. Though I'm a big fan of the art direction from this era so maybe I'm regretting my decision a tiny bit now. The BF album and singles may be my favorite design scheme for any release campaign ever (though Depeche Mode's Violator era releases are a very close second.)

One thing that I've realized about Beaucoup Fish now that I'm revisiting it is how much I hate the ending of Kittens. It never bugged me that much before but now it just seems like such a cliche, pompous, "ta-da!" kind of ending, like something that Jean Michel Jarre would do at the end of one of his millennium Pyramid concerts or something like that.

[purlieu]

Originally Posted by pandamagic

Even better would be to have an ambient version with just those lovely, evocative chords.

Yeah, it's my favourite BF track for that exact reason. The second half of the track is astonishingly beautiful and I'd love much more of that.