Upon learning that the The Sugarcubes and Björk’s back catalogues were
to be reissued on deluxe heavyweight vinyl, via something called Half
Speed Direct Metal Mastering, the Grapevine called up
Sugarcubes/Ghostigital vocalist Einar Örn Benediktsson and asked him
what that meant, and why. “It’s now exactly twenty years since Life’s
Too Good [Sugarcubes’ debut] was released, and we thought it would be
nice to mark the occasion via a vinyl reissue,” says Benediktsson. “In
the process, we decided to use the opportunity to re-release some more
old albums using that Half Speed Direct Metal Mastering technique. They
say it makes the albums sound really good.”
Indeed, April marked the twentieth anniversary of the seminal
Sugarcubes record, which featured some truly great songs (Motorcrash,
Birthday, Deus to name a few) and introduced the world to both Björk
and the Bad Taste collective’s way of doing things. Those who’ve yet to
feast upon the Sugarcubes’ sonic delights are advised to do so at their
earliest convenience – if you can’t wait ‘til the re-release date of
June 30 (or don’t have a record player), their albums may be found at
Bad Taste’s web-store, smekkleysa.net.
As for the Half Speed Direct Metal Mastering, the Internet tells us
that it is the newest technology in vinyl manufacturing, and that it
greatly improves on the already (literally) groovy sound of vinyl.
Benediktsson says he looks forward to hearing the remasters in all
their Half Speed Direct Metal Mastered glory. “I’ve always been big on
vinyl, and look forward to hearing the revamped version. It’ll be
something new.”
The following Sugarcubes/Björk albums will be re-released by One Little
Indian come June 30, on limited edition, individually numbered, heavy
weight 200 gram virgin vinyl:
Sugarcubes:
Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!
It’s It!
Life’s Too Good
The Great Crossover Potential
Stick Around For Joy
Björk:
Debut
Post
Homogenic
Volta
Telegram
Gling-Gló (with Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar)
Medúlla
Selmasongs
Greatest Hits
Drawing Restraint 9
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