Friday, March 29, 2013

News: Group 1850's Paradise Now to be reissued by Pseudonym

This one came across the wire today, and thought I'd share the news. It's not as exciting as it could have been, but it's still very welcome. I know many of you, including me, have been waiting for a high quality CD reissue of Paradise Now. I've featured this album on the UMR site, and it is without a doubt one of my all time favorite albums. I have the dodgy Free CD, as well as an original LP that I paid top dollar for, as it's a beautiful copy. I've been calling for a better CD for years, though I never put it in the CDRWL since I heard personally from the label owner that their CD was indeed legit. More info on the UMR site regarding this.

Pseudonym, after years of being dormant, has come back with a vengeance of late, reissuing dozens of albums on CD and LP. However, up until today, nothing had been new - or at least nothing that hadn't been reissued by them or someone else (evidenced by the fact this is the label's first entry into the CDRWL). It was just yesterday I noticed that Pseudonym was reissuing "Paradise Now" on LP. And even though I have the original, I am very tempted to buy this LP as a second copy. One reason is they are reissuing it as a gatefold (the original is a single sleeve), and secondly they are adding an historical essay and photos. What's obviously missing, of course, is any bonus tracks - something that Group 1850 had in spades with the "Agemo's Trip to Mother Earth" CD (both Pseudonym and Rotation versions). And now one day later after the LP notice comes the announcement that Pseudonym will reissue "Paradise Now" combined with all of "Agemo's" on one CD. What this obviously tells us is there is absolutely no bonus tracks to offer. No live material, no studio recordings, or no hidden singles that haven't already been issued. I'm OK with that - but there are still three Group 1850's that haven't been reissued ever (legit that is)! Namely "Polyandri" (1974), "Live" (1969) and "Live on Tour" (1976). So either those are tied up elsewhere, or Pseudonym has other plans for those albums. I'm hoping for the latter of course. They are planning to add an essay to the CD, presumably the same one as for the LP. I'll probably buy this CD anyway, even though I have Agemo's already on CD and LP - just because it is certain to be an improvement on the barebones Free label CD.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Actually Polyandri has been reissued several times on cd - I have a copy from the 90's - it is currently in print and obtainable from Syn Phonic/Greg Walker - the live lps were alos reissued at one point many years ago

Grant

Purple Peak Records said...

Hi Grant,

Those are all confirmed bootlegs. I own them too unfortunately. Nothing ever legit I'm afraid. Fortunately I do have Polyandri as an original LP, but not the other two.

- Tom

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