U2 fan club members will have the chance to get a special new release called Artificial Horizon consisting of remixes of some of their best known songs of the past 12 years plus a few updated album tracks.
Their official site describes the album:
It's almost 15 years since the remix CD Melon was released exclusively to subscribers of the band's magazine Propaganda. Now comes Artificial Horizon, an all-new limited edition album of U2 remixes only for U2.com subscribers. From Trent Reznor's remix of Vertigo to Jacknife Lee's take on Fast Cars and David Holmes's remix of Beautiful Day, this specially produced 13-track CD features stretches from the Grand Jury Mix of If God Will Send His Angels in 1997 to the Fish Out Of Water mix of Get On Your Boots. Conceived and produced for U2.com subscribers. 'Artificial Horizon' will be mailed to qualifying subscribers from late January 2010.
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Vinyl pressing is back thanks to Montreal's Rip-V
Vinyl groove
Meg Hewings
With the advent of the digital download, CD sales are down, but the love of vinyl is holding strong. Vinyl sales hit record numbers in 2009 and a new vinyl pressing plant in Montreal, the one-and-only in Canada, is ready to meet demand.
Rip-V opened eight months ago in the Montreal suburb of St-Lambert and is currently pressing Tom Waits' latest live album, and just finished pressing Orange Orange's first 12-inch and We Are Wolves' Invisible Violence.
Philippe Dubuc, co-owner, president and presser at Rip-V, says vinyl's tangibility, fidelity and nostalgic appeal is helping the analog medium make a resurgence.
In 2007, local distributor f.a.b. purchased presses in New Jersey, and then brought Dubuc onboard to learn and revive the art in Canada. Dubuc now presses around 5,000 records weekly, and with only six of the 13 presses up and firing, there's room to grow.
"In the digital revolution, the physical aspect of music is disappearing. In this context, vinyl is a hundred times more interesting than a CD, because it has a social and physical aspect: You sit down and listen to vinyl, you're deeply involved in experience of the music."
Dubuc says given the historical context for music formats, "this better sounding medium" is helping drive sales among audiophiles and fidelity freaks, and the new iPod generation. "It's kids in their teens and 20s that are moving
towards this medium now. Artists make records and they spend time on the art, the liner notes and the cover. This doesn't show up on an iPod screen."
At present, indie Epitaph is Rip-V's biggest client, but word of mouth has helped the upstart press make the rounds. "Everyone is looking for vinyl, so word gets around quickly."
SOURCE: http://www.hour.ca/
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IMMOLATION: 'Majesty And Decay' Cover Artwork Unveiled
Veteran death metallers IMMOLATION will release their eighth album, "Majesty And Decay", on March 9, 2010 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD was recorded Millbrook Sound Studios in New York with longtime producer Paul Orofino. Mixing duties were handled by Zack Ohren, who has previously worked with DECREPIT BIRTH, SUFFOCATION and ALL SHALL PERISH, among others.
IMMOLATION's new album contains "10 songs [plus two intros] of the strongest material we have ever written," the band said in a statement. "The new material is more violent and aggressive, with fast sections that take us to a new level of speed and intensity, while complementing the dark and sullen heavier moments. There are plenty of miserable and militant movements to please the diehard and new IMMOLATION fans alike."
