"Have bass music, Berlin and Funktion One ruined Chicago house?"

That's a pretty sensionalistic headline when compared to the actual content of the article.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the mastering job ruins the reissues, I think that working with just the two track masters is only going to allow so much shit to change. I'm definitely into the old sound of dance mastering tho, at this point the mastering ends up being more like all-encompassing effects. It really becomes bad on these modern jams with heavy sidechaining and crazy compression on every individual track due to using a DAW to multitrack. This is when I think it can really go wrong, when people try to recreate those old Chicago vibes but with all that modern shit tossed on, it sounds really wrong to my ears.

MCDE's remix of Carino is excellent. It uses the old sounds but with modern production. It's a different 'feel' and there's nothing wrong with that

Rush Hour might just be using the term 're-mastering' the same way the gigantic labels did to sell older music over and over again. This of course is to make money.

Look at how many times The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, etc... get re-mastered. Every few years. It just makes it so labels can sell to the same consumers over and over while adding on a few new younger clients here and there...

(this is also coming from me, someone who loves underground records that sound like sh!t, leave the damn things alone)

Classic RA mate. And there's no funktion1 in panorama bar anyhow.

When comparing some of the old first cuts I have and the new reissues, I prefer the new sound personally. They're not overcompressed, but definitely chunkier. Disagree with this article...

It's a good issue to (re)visit, and this was a thoughtful take on it. Fun to hear Tom & Scott weighing in here too...

the most interesting 5 paragraphs read on here in a while.
agree with the take, leave classic alone. the music world needs to get more creative. and comparing reissued 80's Chicago house to reissued Beatles and Stones is a laugh, apples to oranges.

I feel like the primary reason for reissuing is to get these tunes available again to people who have never owned them due to their rarity as opposed to trying to sell the new versions to the same people who already own OGs (tho it might be nice for them to have a backup copy of a hard to find record!). I just think a slightly less "modern" mastering approach might have made a bit more sense!

happens all the time on RA, seen it a few times, dj's say stuff in interviews and it gets twisted on RA and given a new headline, normally a negative spin on it, i was gonna ask why does this happen but then i thought come on dont be thick, its obvious, i don't need to spell it out

utter tripe

Anyone who is into chicago house, aint buying or listening to the re-issues. A complete non-story.

Exactly, and the crack, histle and pop just adds to the anarchy of a trax issue

Anyone who pays attention to The Feed should see validity in this article: buried a little further back is a link to an interview with Frankie Knuckles where he talks about not signing autographs on Trax records because of how his music was hijacked from him. Nina Kravitz makes the point that funktion one and other similarly styled systems are attuned in a manner that is nonfavorable to vinyl. I recall before digital dj acoustics were standard, but CD's were more common than vinyl, James Murphy came into the biggest club in Denver at that time (The Church), sound was a huge problem because he played only vinyl. Amazing records sounded thin and quiet(not just my impression, mentioned in press reviews as well) in a space they wouldn't have just 18 months earlier. Sad when music is bent to accommodate the technology and not the other way around. Wrong way on what is a one way street for the moment.

Actually I was comparing the use of re-mastering to resell the same music over and over again. Wether it be on CD or vinyl or digital, wether it be huge label or indie, etc... Its the concept that bores me.

Also The Rolling Stones could never compare to Chicago house. Chicago house was original and had soul, the Stones had neither. ;-)

Would be better if they left the Trax mostly intact, but I have no issue with the re-releasing of old records.

as a lover of old styles of house, i definitely prefer the hiss, crackle and pop...it gives the record some character. the article, however, did not come across as boldly as the title.

i also find it humorous that most of the re-issues belong to trax, basically the sole proprietor of great tunes pressed on absolute sand paper. thankfully all records of that era aren't as bad as some trax releases.

This