Update On YepRoc Soft Boys Underwater Moonlight Reissue

Some time ago I posted news that YepRoc would be reissuing the Soft Boys' 1980 classic album, Underwater Moonlight, on LP. At the time I passed along information in good faith that was provided by YepRoc via email that turned out to be inaccurate, and I feel a responsibility to set the record straight.

At the time of my original post in November of 2010, the LP release had been delayed, and YepRoc passed along news from Robyn Hitchcock that explained the delay and described the recut version. After having purchased the LP, it is apparent to me that the information provided in that email does not describe the final product that YepRoc brought to market. The full text of that email is provided below:

Hello dear vinyl-hunters,

Many apologies for the delay in getting the latest A Can Of Bees and Underwater Moonlight out to you. The LP test-pressings were sent over for Morris Windsor to check (as he has both a record-deck and ears that work well) and he felt that the cut was inferior to the originals (which he also has). We had been mastering from the 1993 DAT tapes, as the best reference source for these old recordings.

However, in the course of our conversations, Morris discovered an original production master (copy of the original mixes) of UM deep in his attic. This transpired to have the long-missing version of Old Pervert that graced the 1980 release of UM, amongst this uniquely surviving set of 1/4" mixes. This was like finding an ashtray in a pub these days: enchanted and wicked. So Morris FedExed (yes, it's a verb) the tape to the management office in LA where Richard Bishop (who had released the original UM 30 years ago on Armageddon Records) had the tapes baked. They go into a kind of pizza oven to prevent the ferric oxide falling off like liquorice.

At this point we decided to re-cut A Can Of Bees from a pristine vinyl copy. This was supplied by Geoffrey Weiss, a long-term music supporter in the quagmire of showbusiness; Geoffrey also kindly supervised the cut, along with Richard. The re-cuts were FedExed back to Morris who pronounced them very good. Morris is not given to hyperbole, and I have always favoured his judgement, when he gives it, over my own.

YepRoc have patiently waited for the improved LPs, and done their best to reassure anxious purchasers of these items who paid for them a while back and have seen nothing yet for their money. If you are amongst them, please again accept my apologies on behalf of the former Soft Boys, and I hope that the quality compensates in some way for the delay.

Best wishes from the old country,

Robyn Hitchcock

Unfortunately, the LP that I bought does not match the description above. First of all, the LP was cut in mono. To my knowledge there has never been a mono mix of this album (it was after all recorded in 1980, not 1967), and all previous issues of the album, including the original pressing on Armageddon Records (ARM 1), are in stereo. Second, the version of "Old Pervert" on the YepRoc reissue LP is the not the original one described in the email, but rather the "disco" version common to all previous Underwater Moonlight reissues.

I have no idea what happened here, and I won't speculate, but it is easy to conclude something went very wrong with this reissue based on this evidence alone. I attempted to contact YepRoc for answers to some of the questions raised by these problems, but received no response. The relevant portions of my email to YepRoc are reproduced below:

Dear [Redacted],

Back in November of 2010 I posted an item on my blog, Flowering Toilet, promoting YepRoc's then upcoming LP reissue of The Soft Boys' Underwater Moonlight:

http://floweringtoilet.blogspot.com/2010/11/soft-boysrobyn-hitchcock-reissue-news.html

After having purchased the LP, I feel the need to post a follow up, because it appears to me that the version of the LP that YepRoc has released does not match the description that Robyn offered, and that I passed along to my readers in good faith.

There are two major issues with the YepRoc LP reissue that I regard as extremely problematic. First, and most importantly, the LP is in mono, not stereo. Given that Underwater Moonlight has never been previously issued in a mono version (and the fact that it was recorded in 1980, not 1967) I have to assume that this is the result of a mistake. Second, the version of "Old Pervert" is the "disco" version of the song that is common to previous reissues (Glass Fish, Ryko, Matador), not the original version of the song that appeared on the Armageddon LP in 1980, and that Robyn indicated would appear on the YepRoc LP.

I am hoping you will be able to answer the following questions so that I can pass along the answers to my readers:

1) Why is the LP in mono, not stereo?
2) Why does the "disco" version of "Old Pervert" appear on the YepRoc reissued LP instead of the original LP version as promised by Robyn in his email to YepRoc customers?
3) Was the LP, as released by YepRoc, in fact cut from the production master that had been in the possession of Morris Windsor and is mentioned in Robyn's email, and was this the version that Morris pronounced "very good"?
4) Does YepRoc consider the LP, as released, acceptable? If not, what steps, if any, are being taken to rectify the situation?

I am reluctant to post anything on my blog that is either critical of Robyn, The Soft Boys or YepRoc. However, given that I passed along what appears to be inaccurate information to my readers, I feel duty-bound to follow up on my previous post, and I cannot in good conscience not mention these issues in doing so. I wanted to reach out to YepRoc for information before addressing the issue in the interest of fairness and in the hopes that I can pass along accurate information this time. ...

Best,

Pete Bilderback
Flowering Toilet
http://floweringtoilet.blogspot.com

I sent this email to multiple contacts at YepRoc on September 8, 2011, but have not, as yet, received a reply.

I would like to apologize to any of my readers who may have bought this reissue on the basis of the information I passed along. Again, I did so in good faith and with no intent to deceive. I am as disappointed as anyone that this reissue did not live up to YepRoc's promises. I would also like to apologize for not posting an update sooner, but it was my sincere hope that these issues would be resolved by YepRoc, making any complaints about this reissue unnecessary.

Soft Boys/Robyn Hitchcock Reissue News

IMPORTANT UPDATE (09/16/11): Please see my update on the reissue of Underwater Moonlight before considering purchase.

I have a couple items of news to report on The Soft Boys and Robyn Hitchcock reissues front.

As many of you probably know, The Soft Boys' two proper albums A Can Of Bees and Underwater Moonlight have been reissued by Yep Roc. The CD versions of both are currently available for sale.

I was a little disappointed to learn that all the bonus tracks for the two CDs are being made available only as lossy compressed (192 kps MP3) downloads. I understand making the bonus tracks download only, The Feelies did this with their recent reissues in order to retain the artistic integrity of the original albums, and I approved of the idea. So while I'm fine with download only bonus tracks in concept, I do wish Yep Roc had also made lossless audio versions available as an option (as was the case with the Feelies albums). Also, none of the bonus tracks would have been new to me, which is probably a good thing since I would have wanted to hear them in better than 192 kps quality.

None of this should prevent anyone who doesn't already own both albums from buying them in this configuration, but it does make them less attractive to long time fans and obsessive collectors of all things Hitchcock, Robyn such as myself.

But that doesn't quite close the door on The Soft Boys reissue front. Originally the vinyl reissues of the two albums were to have been sourced from 1993 DAT copies of the masters that had been prepared when the albums were reissued on CD by Rykodisc. But it appears that the resulting DAT sourced test pressings were judged sonically lacking by the golden-eared former Soft Boy and current vinyl enthusiast Morris Windsor. As Hitchcock relays in an email:

Hello dear vinyl-hunters,

Many apologies for the delay in getting the latest A Can Of Bees and Underwater Moonlight out to you. The LP test-pressings were sent over for Morris Windsor to check (as he has both a record-deck and ears that work well) and he felt that the cut was inferior to the originals (which he also has). We had been mastering from the 1993 DAT tapes, as the best reference source for these old recordings.

However, in the course of our conversations, Morris discovered an original production master (copy of the original mixes) of UM deep in his attic. This transpired to have the long-missing version of Old Pervert that graced the 1980 release of UM, amongst this uniquely surviving set of 1/4" mixes. This was like finding an ashtray in a pub these days: enchanted and wicked. So Morris FedExed (yes, it's a verb) the tape to the management office in LA where Richard Bishop (who had released the original UM 30 years ago on Armageddon Records) had the tapes baked. They go into a kind of pizza oven to prevent the ferric oxide falling off like liquorice.

At this point we decided to re-cut A Can Of Bees from a pristine vinyl copy. This was supplied by Geoffrey Weiss, a long-term music supporter in the quagmire of showbusiness; Geoffrey also kindly supervised the cut, along with Richard. The re-cuts were FedExed back to Morris who pronounced them very good. Morris is not given to hyperbole, and I have always favoured his judgement, when he gives it, over my own.

YepRoc have patiently waited for the improved LPs, and done their best to reassure anxious purchasers of these items who paid for them a while back and have seen nothing yet for their money. If you are amongst them, please again accept my apologies on behalf of the former Soft Boys, and I hope that the quality compensates in some way for the delay.

Best wishes from the old country,

Robyn Hitchcock

So, in short, the LP reissues of Underwater Moonlight and A Can Of Bees will be sourced from an original production master and a pristine vinyl copy respectively. For those not familiar with the terminology, a "production master" is a (typically first generation) copy of the original master tape that would have been used to cut the original LPs. I believe the original master tapes for both albums were lost long ago, so the discovery of a production master for Underwater Moonlight is very good news, especially in light of the fact the original LP version of "Old Pervert" has not to my knowledge graced any previous Underwater Moonlight reissue.

Some might be disappointed to learn that A Can Of Bees will be sourced from LP, but I do not find it hard to believe that a pristine copy of the LP would be the best sounding surviving source, easily surpassing the quality of a DAT copy made 17 years ago. If transferred using good quality equipment, the new LP should sound excellent (within the limitations of the original recordings, obviously). There is a certain stigma attached to sourcing reissues from LP, but I applaud Yep Roc and The Soft Boys for choosing the best sounding available source rather than relying on dogma to produce these LP reissues.

I also wanted to note that Wounded Bird Records is reissuing Robyn's 1996 solo album Moss Elixir as a two CD set with its companion album Mossy Liquor. This will mark the first time Mossy Liquor has been made available on the CD format, having been originally released only as a vinyl LP, and subsequently made available for digital download. I'm glad to hear that Mossy Liquor will be made available on CD in advance of the format's complete extinction. Personally, I will be holding onto my vinyl copy of the album until my own complete extinction.

In other, completely unrelated, Robyn Hitchcock news, my eight year old son Will spent the better part of the day yesterday in his bedroom listening to "The Man Who Invented Himself" over an over. He now has all the lyrics memorized, as do the other other occupants of our house, including our two cats. He also took a break from Scooby Doo and Gamera videos to watch the I Often Dream of Trains in New York DVD with me. He declared "Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus" his favorite (or perhaps favourite) song on the album. I'm thinking if he memorizes the lyrics of that one, he can perform them for his grandparents this Christmas.

Soft Boys Reunion Rarities

Generally speaking, reunions do not excite me. The 2002 Soft Boys reunion was not an exception. Don't get me wrong, I bought the excellent reunion album, Nextdoorland, making a special effort to buy it on LP because it came with a bonus live 7" single, and picked up the mail-order only Side Three. But I wasn't really clamoring for a band reunion because Robyn Hitchcock's solo albums suited me just fine, and in truth any song on Nextdoorland could have easily slotted into his previous effort, Jewels For Sophia, or for that matter 2006's Ole! Tarantula. Any of the guys other than bassist Matthew Seligman were likely to show up as guests on a Hitchcock solo album anyway.

While the resultant material broke no new ground, it was very good. There was no way the band was going to produce another masterpiece on the order of 1980's Underwater Moonlight, recorded when the band was young and hungry (and actually a band). But the new material has a lot going for it, with the warm feeling of a bunch of old friends re-discovering why they got along so well in the first place.

This was a reunion that succeeded in part because it was so unnecessary. Very often the prospect of a band reunion is exciting because the members have done little worth bothering with since the band broke up. The resulting reunions are often disappointing because that trend continues after the band reforms. The Soft Boys reunion was not burdened with any of that kind of baggage, and succeeded marvelously on its own terms.

"Narcissus" comes from the mail-order only Side Three, while "Only The Stones Remain" comes from the live 7" included with vinyl copies of Nextdoorland, and shows the band to be in just as good form as they were back in 1980.