Engineer Drew Crumbaugh revisits the original recordings previously remastered gigs.
As Spin reports, Crumbaugh is the man responsible for restoring the Smiths’ Rough Trade singles and Joy Division/New Order’s Factory Records releases.
On his blog, Crumbaugh voices is displeasure with his own work on the 2007 remastered versions of Joy Division’s Closer and Still. “I listen to the stuff I turned in… and essentially cringe. Not because it’s bad, because it’s not, but with where I’ve advanced to today my 2006 work sounds amateur to these ears.”
Thankfully, Crumbaugh was able to get a second chance, starting “from scratch,” off the master recordings of the University of London Union show from February 8, 1980. “I did what I’d do for them with the skills, techniques, secret sauces and magic I’ve either advanced or flat-out learned anew since 2006.”
The result is “spectacular,” he says. “Not to toot my own horn, but these now simply crush what was used on the 2007 releases. Even the most hearing-challenged of listeners can tell the difference, and not just by minutiae.”
Download Crumbaugh’s remastered version via Mediafire. Audiophiles shouldn’t worry: they are in stored in lossless FLAC format. The tracklist is below.
Joy Division – University of London Union show
01 Dead Souls
02 Glass
03 A Means To An End
04 Twenty Four Hours
05 Passover
06 Insight
07 Colony
08 These Days
09 Love Will Tear Us Apart
10 Isolation
11 – encore break –
12 The Eternal
13 Digital