Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Into The Pleasuredome - 5.1 mixes?

[Failed Muso]

This afternoon, ZTT Records announced a crowd funding campaign to release 'Into The Pleasuredome', a 30th anniversary ultra-deluxe box set celebration of the classic debut album from Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Amongst a wealth of very cool content, including the album, remastered by Trevor Horn on 180g vinyl, 3x 10" singles with various unreleased mixes and versions on, a 13 track cassette featuring a multiple mixes of Relax, digital audio content and sumptuous books, there is a DVD which is described as such...

“Brothers and Sisters” – The DVD. Compiling the Pleasuredome videos – Relax, Two Tribes, The Power of Love and Welcome To The Pleasuredome by directors Godley & Creme, Bernard Rose and David Mallett – and 5.1 surround sound mixes of the classic singles and album tracks.​

Naturally, the reference to 5.1 caught my eye and luckily, the two guys behind this project are acquaintances of mine. So I've begun digging and the guy who curated the artwork side of things has told me that the 5.1 mixes are of the singles from the album plus some album tracks too, and that they are audio only. He also mentioned that the tracks are listed with SACD catalogue numbers, so it is quite likely that a bunch of the tracks from the Rage Hard SACD compilation have made it onto this disc. That means it could be as many as 9 tracks from that album, including Relax, Two Tribes, Ferry Cross The Mersey, The World Is My Oyster, Welcome To The Pleasuredome, San Jose, War, Born To Run and The Power Of Love.

I am waiting for my other friend to get back to me as he was handling the curation of audio content and I will report back a.s.a.p.

The box set is selling for £85 with certain elements being available separately, but the DVD isn't one of them. I imagine this will only be for die hard Frankie fans with a penchant for 5.1, i.e. me, hence why I have already pledged for the box set Worth noting that due to licensing restrictions, this campaign is NOT available to Pledgers in the US, Canada or Japan.

More info can be found here... http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/frankiegoestohollywood

 

[OppoFood]

Very interesting, but I see the price reads UKP122 not UKP85, am I missing something (or simply blind )

 

[Snood]

Ugggggggggggh another Box to get the 5.1 For craps sake................who is advising these people??

 

[Robert van Diggele]

Are those new mixes or the same as found on the SACD?

 

[capsid]

Do the record companies assume that because we have multichannel equipment that we can afford these ridiculously priced boxsets?

 

[Time Lord]

I'm glad I got Rage Hard at a sensible price when it was available, it is very enjoyable and a moderately aggressive 5.1 mix, the bulk of Welcome to the Pleasuredome (at least all the good songs) are on this SACD

 

[Failed Muso]

Very interesting, but I see the price reads UKP122 not UKP85, am I missing something (or simply blind )

Just above the section that details the packages you can pledge for, to the right, there is a drop down that you need to choose your location from. Selecting UK will adjust the postage, and therefore total price, accordingly

Ugggggggggggh another Box to get the 5.1 For craps sake................who is advising these people??

I agree, such was my disappointment at Goldfrapp recently. I have repeatedly asked my friends at ZTT to consider re-releasing all their 5.1 material, be it on SACD, or by taking advantage of more modern formats such as Blu Ray. To be fair though, this is a pretty special box and there is far more here for the collector than most, and the 5.1 stuff is almost like a cherry on top. I am sure, if they do it well, and the demand shows, it might be a catalyst towards reissuing more of the 5.1 ZTT catalogue.

I will continue to lobby my contacts for separate releases

Are those new mixes or the same as found on the SACD?

As far as I know, they are the same mixes as found on the Rage Hard SACD. I will try to confirm.

Do the record companies assume that because we have multichannel equipment that we can afford these ridiculously priced boxsets?

No, I don't think that's the case here. ZTT have tried to put together the ultimate box set for this album, and the inclusion of the 5.1 mixes is a very small part of it. I don't, for one second, think that the 5.1 mixes were included here to milk 5.1 aficionados like us. It's more a case of trying to cram as much as they can in, IMHO

 

[Ranasakawa]

Do the record companies assume that because we have multichannel equipment that we can afford these ridiculously priced boxsets?

We're all secretly millionaires here at quad forum central !

Yep, another bloody box I'll never buy. I have the original pleasure dome cd. It is one of the best albums of the 80s.
I'd buy it in a flash on BluRay 5.1

 

[Failed Muso]

We're all secretly millionaires here at quad forum central !

Yep, another bloody box I'll never buy. I have the original pleasure dome cd. It is one of the best albums of the 80s.
I'd buy it in a flash on BluRay 5.1

Well, I've been told that more items will be made available, either as separate pledge items or added to the box, so who know, there may be a separate 5.1 disc at some point. I've also heard that a decision hasn't been made as to whether the 5.1 mixes will be on DVD-V or SACD. Not sure how accurate it is, but many pledgers are mentioning 5.1 and there does seem to be a lot of feedback from the label and other interested parties. so these things are being read and hopefully taken on board

I agree that it is one of the best albums of that decade, and the production is, as you'd expect from Trevor Horn, simply exquisite. A 5.1 mix of the entire album would be a dream come true.

 

[Time Lord]

We're all secretly millionaires here at quad forum central !

ssshhhh you are not supposed to let that out :ugham:

 

[OppoFood]

It's moving fast, 25% yesterday, 46% today.

 

[Failed Muso]

Ok, so a quick update for anyone that is interested.

My box set arrived yesterday and it is a thing of utter beauty. When you compare the volume and quality of content, musical tastes aside, to recent vinyl reissues from the like of Led Zeppelin and notable others, £85 is a feckin' steal!

But as for the 5.1, I have always believed that they missed a trick here to properly revisit the multis and do a proper 5.1 mix of the entire album as a complete work, akin to what SW just did with TFF's "Songs...". But, as the Frankie 5.1 SACD is continuously attempted to be sold for idiotic prices, getting 9 of those tracks (those relevant to the WTTPD album) on a DVD is better than nought.

The tracks are presented on a double sided DVD-V, one side being PAL, the other NTSC. I've only had a chance to play this through once, but it seems that they're all encoded via DTS and, I have to say, they sounded better than the SACD I've heard (and the numerous DTS rips of that disc). I will explore more and try to do A/B listens to see what difference there is beyond the oomph that DTS probably gives.

However, for £5 LESS than the current asking price that some eBay seller is demanding for the Rage Hard SACD, you get a shed load more great content, both audio and visual

 

[keenly]

I will not buy a box set just for the 5.1, refuse because I am not interested in CDS or vinyl in the slightest. Nowadays I only buy SACD, DVD A, DVDS and Blu Rays.

 

[Failed Muso]

I will not buy a box set just for the 5.1, refuse because I am not interested in CDS or vinyl in the slightest. Nowadays I only buy SACD, DVD A, DVDS and Blu Rays.

I'm very happy for you and I wasn't suggesting you or anyone else should by this purely for the nine 5.1 tracks on here. However, if crazy people are asking £80 to £150 for the Rage Hard SACD, this box set represents a far better alternative that gives you the bulk of that content and a shed load of other lovely stuff.

Naturally, you buy what you want. That's what I do ;-)

 

[konoyaro]

Do you know if the 5.1 mix in the box set is the same as the SACD or is it simply a different encoding?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

I'm glad I got Rage Hard at a sensible price when it was available, it is very enjoyable and a moderately aggressive 5.1 mix, the bulk of Welcome to the Pleasuredome (at least all the good songs) are on this SACD

Agreed.

 

[Failed Muso]

Do you know if the 5.1 mix in the box set is the same as the SACD or is it simply a different encoding?

Same mix, converted to DTS (unsure of exact bitrate as yet). Strangely, there are only two audio tracks, DTS 5.1 and 2.0 PCM. No Dolby, which is no great loss.

As with the SACD, IMHO there is a degree of inconsistency with the mixes. Some are stronger and more aggressive than others but all are eminently enjoyable. I just hope that ZTT, who are no strangers when it comes to maximising their small catalogue, one day see fit to give the entire album a fresh 5.1 mix. Mr Wilson, do you have space in your diary?? ;-)

 

[OppoFood]

I will not buy a box set just for the 5.1, refuse because I am not interested in CDS or vinyl in the slightest. Nowadays I only buy SACD, DVD A, DVDS and Blu Rays.

Don't think I'll buy it either, it will probably be either "too bright", "too loud" or "too compressed" eh keenly ?

 

[konoyaro]

Same mix, converted to DTS (unsure of exact bitrate as yet). Strangely, there are only two audio tracks, DTS 5.1 and 2.0 PCM. No Dolby, which is no great loss.

As with the SACD, IMHO there is a degree of inconsistency with the mixes. Some are stronger and more aggressive than others but all are eminently enjoyable. I just hope that ZTT, who are no strangers when it comes to maximising their small catalogue, one day see fit to give the entire album a fresh 5.1 mix. Mr Wilson, do you have space in your diary?? ;-)

Thanks for the confirmation. I was lucky enough to get the Rage Hard SACD before prices launched into the stratosphere. Given that the mix is the same I'll sit this one out.

I'm with you in hopes that this might get revisited as a multichannel release outside of a limited box set extravaganza perhaps even with a new surround mix. I'll go one further and say, I'd love for any of the previously released ZTT surround releases to be revisited and re-released particularly since they missed the chance on the AON "Who's Afraid of..." deluxe set a couple years ago.

 

[Woody71]

Ugggggggggggh another Box to get the 5.1 For craps sake................who is advising these people??

The marketing department.


A properly remixed 5.1 BD/SACD/DVD of WTTP would bankroll ZTT for a while, I should imagine. I am not holding my breath, however.

Wow, that's a lot of abbreviations.