Japanese Reissues coming in May!

[Actorman]

Amazon has new listings for the following CDs with a release date of May 29, 2012.  They appear to be Japanese reissues of the original Liberty albums:

Jan & Dean Take Linda Surfin'
Surf City
Drag City
Little Old Lady From Pasadena
Dead Man's Curve
Ride The Wild Surf

The label is listed as EMI but is probably EMI-Toshiba, which controls all of the EMI/Capitol catalog in Japan.  This is really exciting.  I have a bunch of the Julie London (another Liberty artist) reissues they have put out over they years and they are fantastic.  The remastered sound is incredible, original Liberty label artwork on the disc, beautiful reproduction of all the original album art plus full lyrics to all the songs.  If these J&D releases are anywhere near as nice as Julie's, they are a must have.  I have already pre-ordered them, sight unseen.

No indication yet whether they will be standard (jewel box) format or the "mini-LP" format which is popular over there.

Anyone have any other info on these?

[Ban n Bean]

The best J&D CDs of these original stereo mixes.

Full front and back stereo album art, faithfully and carefully reproduced.  Jewel Box. Great price: 999 yen each. Color Liberty label reproduction on disc.  Notes, discography (Japanese), lyrics (English).  Outstanding.  I can only hope that Japan releases the rest of the J&D catalog.  The Fantastic Baggys are part of this series (Surfin' & Hot Rod Part 1).

Get 'em while you can.

[Actorman]

Thanks for posting your review Ban n Bean.  I recieved these CDs over a month ago.  I was going to post a follow up, but since no one commented on my original post I figured no one cared about these releases.

The sound quality on these discs is amazing and the packaging, artwork and liner notes are top notch.

I'm with you on the hope that they release the rest of the studio albums.  I'll definitely be buying them if they do.

I am happy to report that they stocked at least two copies of each of the six titles at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame store when I was up there a few weeks ago.  (They were also stocking The Complete Liberty Singles.)  It was awesome to see the Jan & Dean section filled with more than just the usual handful of compilations.

[surferbee]

I have heard Japanese vinyl before. Is the mix any different from other releases? I'm interested in what makes the sound so special / different.
Thanks

[Ban n Bean]

These appear to be the original, wide stereo mixes.

The remixes done for the 2 on 1, Legendary, From Surf City... is another discussion.

One Way releases narrowed some of the ultra-wide mixes and sounded if the highs were rolled off and the overall mastering sounded very flat.   One Way has the advantage of almost being a complete set.  The C5 releases were pretty good, overall slightly rolled off but decent.  BGO are OK -- some original mono mixes which are nice.

The Toshiba-EMI has crisp, dynamic sound with some punch.  Being old tapes, all of the original mixes have the occasional sonic flaw -- momentary dropout, etc., flaws that original pressings may not have.  With some work to fix the effects of age and use, I suspect these Toshiba-EMI CDs would make a great starting point to get "definitive" versions of the original mixes.

[slipkid69]

Just signed up and I saw there was an old thread started on these. I just ordered them yesterday and am happy to hear they sound good. I've been grabbing a bunch of J & D on cd as of late. Can't wait to get these in.

[surferbee]

I've been on the UK Amazon store and the details given for Jan and Dean CDS is very unhelpful. There is nothing to indicate that you are buying the Japanese versions. Any help much appreciated.

[Actorman]

Hi Surferbee,

Here are the links:

http://www.amazon.com/Ride-Wild-Surf-Jan-Dean/dp/B007IVUVJY/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1363635206&sr=1-4&keywords=jan+and+dean
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Lady-Pasadena-Jan-Dean/dp/B007IVUVO4/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1363635358&sr=1-5&keywords=jan+and+dean
http://www.amazon.com/Drag-City-Jan-Dean/dp/B007IVUUUE/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1363635379&sr=1-6&keywords=jan+and+dean
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Mans-Curve-Jan-Dean/dp/B007IVUV08/ref=sr_1_7?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1363635423&sr=1-7&keywords=jan+and+dean
http://www.amazon.com/Take-Linda-Surfin-Jan-Dean/dp/B007IVUVBC/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1363635486&sr=1-8&keywords=jan+and+dean
http://www.amazon.com/Surf-City-Jan-Dean/dp/B007IVUV1C/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1363635512&sr=1-9&keywords=jan+and+dean

The label is listed as "EMI Japan" in the Product Details.  There is also a notation in the Editorial Reviews section that says "Japanese pressing, first time issued on CD. EMI. 2012."

Hope that helps.  Order fast because most of them indicate they only have 2 or 3 left in stock and based on my past experience with Japanese imports, they don't usually get them back in stock once they are sold out.

[wintersdawn]

Considering picking these up but not sure if I need them as I have the same 6 albums on the C5 label.  Are these Japanese versions that much better than the C5's?

Thanks

[kjan70]

Does anyone know if there are plans to reissue the remainder of the catalog?

[wintersdawn]

Probably not going to get these as into vinyl more these days and already got some original UK LP's and will hopefully get the 'US only' released LP's too.