BERLIN Pleasure Victim reissue coming soon!

[Rubellan]

I received clearance to reissue Berlin's classic Pleasure Victim. The project is already in progress and I received brand new transfers of the original masters from the U.S. archive and am about done remastering those. I'm waiting for a few tracks from the UK archive and then I can continue. The first draft artwork has already been submitted to Universal for review. Look for a release hopefully some time in August. Full track listing will be revealed in time but expect 6 or 7 bonus tracks. These won't include the original MAO version of Tell Me Why because that is not part of the Universal catalog, and any attempts to involve the band haven't resulted in any response. It will all be single remixes and extended remixes.

[Fred Taghon]

This is wonderful news! Still LOVING your "Love Life" remaster and will buy "Pleasure Victim" without hesitation. So glad you chose to breathe new life into both of these great albums.

I'm only familiar with the LP and 7" b-side (of the USA "Sex" 7") versions of "Tell Me Why". I always preferred that 7" version, will that be among the bonus tracks or is that the version you can't get?

[omar]

Looking forward to it. Best Berlin album in my opinion.

[LMP69]

Great news. Do you think the 1980 Information LP will ever make it to CD?

[Rubellan]

Great news. Do you think the 1980 Information LP will ever make it to CD?

Doubtful. It was an indie release and I have no clue who owns the rights. Possibly the band but any effort I've made to involve them in my reissues has been ignored.

[Rubellan]

This is wonderful news! Still LOVING your "Love Life" remaster and will buy "Pleasure Victim" without hesitation. So glad you chose to breathe new life into both of these great albums.

I'm only familiar with the LP and 7" b-side (of the USA "Sex" 7") versions of "Tell Me Why". I always preferred that 7" version, will that be among the bonus tracks or is that the version you can't get?

Yes, both of those versions are included. And a surprise is the master includes an additional 20 seconds of Tell Me Why at the end, so where the 7" faded out at 3:50, the master goes to 4:10. It is the same exact version only slightly longer at the end.

[ZippY]

This is one I'll probably buy because it's an EP that I loved back in the day. Excited for the 7 inch version of Sex. Wasn't The Metro 7 inch unique from the album version too?!

[omar]

The 7" of Sex was previously available on the Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Women cd from 1997.

[profil]

Hi Scott,

That's a dream come true. This album is awsome and deserves to get your sound improvement and some added bonus tracks.

I'm a fan of your remastering from the very, very beginning and I ordered every release from you.
I'm living in Europe so the postage costs are high and there is also a risk of paying customs duty. Nevertheless your albums are more than worth it.
And I tell everone of my music collector friends about your fantastic work.

Your Visage cds are outstanding - one of my most favourite bands.
And I waited years for a expanded release of Ric Ocasek - Beatitude which includes these bonus tracks.
Just a few examples how happy you made me with your releases.

Thanks for all your past and future albums.

Mathias

[Fred Taghon]

This is wonderful news! Still LOVING your "Love Life" remaster and will buy "Pleasure Victim" without hesitation. So glad you chose to breathe new life into both of these great albums.

I'm only familiar with the LP and 7" b-side (of the USA "Sex" 7") versions of "Tell Me Why". I always preferred that 7" version, will that be among the bonus tracks or is that the version you can't get?

Yes, both of those versions are included. And a surprise is the master includes an additional 20 seconds of Tell Me Why at the end, so where the 7" faded out at 3:50, the master goes to 4:10. It is the same exact version only slightly longer at the end.

Wow, what a fun discovery that had to be for you!!! I love that you shared a photo of the tape too - I love that so many re-issues these days include photos of the master tapes. Kind of a "behind the scenes" element of nostalgic interest, but it also lends credibility to the new releases as "proof" that they were indeed remastered from the original masters.

Looking very much forward to this release. Thanks for the heads up and for sharing your stories about how you've gone about bringing many of your releases to fruition. Kinda makes me feel like I've been a part of the process in a strange way, and when I hold the final product in my hand I almost feel like I had a tiny little stake in it lol. It's a bit more special than just going to a store and picking it off the shelf, not having any clue what it took to get it there in the first place.

[Fred Taghon]

This is one I'll probably buy because it's an EP that I loved back in the day. Excited for the 7 inch version of Sex. Wasn't The Metro 7 inch unique from the album version too?!

I have the USA 7" of "The Metro" but I don't think it's any different than the versions found on "Pleasure Victim" or the "Best Of Berlin" CD from 1988. But the label on the 7" DOES state "Remixed by...", but that could possibly be because it was remixed from the original version released in 1981 on M.A.O. records? I'm just making a logical assumption....

[postpunkmonk]

This is one I'll probably buy because it's an EP that I loved back in the day. Excited for the 7 inch version of Sex. Wasn't The Metro 7 inch unique from the album version too?!

I have the USA 7" of "The Metro" but I don't think it's any different than the versions found on "Pleasure Victim" or the "Best Of Berlin" CD from 1988. But the label on the 7" DOES state "Remixed by...", but that could possibly be because it was remixed from the original version released in 1981 on M.A.O. records? I'm just making a logical assumption....

I think you're right there, but it's been ages since I've heard my vinyl.

[Rubellan]

This is one I'll probably buy because it's an EP that I loved back in the day. Excited for the 7 inch version of Sex. Wasn't The Metro 7 inch unique from the album version too?!

There's a load of different versions though all from the same recording, just different mixes:

The original MAO single mix
The original Enigma LP mix
The remix done for the Geffen reissue and U.S. 7"
The 4:25 remix on some foreign 7"s
The extended remix from the foreign 12" releases

I'm hoping to have have at least three of these on my release.

[Rubellan]

Hi Scott,

That's a dream come true. This album is awsome and deserves to get your sound improvement and some added bonus tracks.

I'm a fan of your remastering from the very, very beginning and I ordered every release from you.
I'm living in Europe so the postage costs are high and there is also a risk of paying customs duty. Nevertheless your albums are more than worth it.
And I tell everone of my music collector friends about your fantastic work.

Your Visage cds are outstanding - one of my most favourite bands.
And I waited years for a expanded release of Ric Ocasek - Beatitude which includes these bonus tracks.
Just a few examples how happy you made me with your releases.

Thanks for all your past and future albums.

Mathias

Thanks for the support, and I always recognize your name when going preparing orders for new releases, so thank you for that. I have a faithful fan base of over 100 people who always put in an order within a day or two of any of my releases, and that's great. That number has been gradually increasing as people discover the label. I usually know when they do because they make a large order and then write me an enthusiastic email about how they just stumbled upon the label and are thrilled with the titles in my catalog. Oh, I hope for so many more...

[Rubellan]

This is wonderful news! Still LOVING your "Love Life" remaster and will buy "Pleasure Victim" without hesitation. So glad you chose to breathe new life into both of these great albums.

I'm only familiar with the LP and 7" b-side (of the USA "Sex" 7") versions of "Tell Me Why". I always preferred that 7" version, will that be among the bonus tracks or is that the version you can't get?

Yes, both of those versions are included. And a surprise is the master includes an additional 20 seconds of Tell Me Why at the end, so where the 7" faded out at 3:50, the master goes to 4:10. It is the same exact version only slightly longer at the end.

Wow, what a fun discovery that had to be for you!!! I love that you shared a photo of the tape too - I love that so many re-issues these days include photos of the master tapes. Kind of a "behind the scenes" element of nostalgic interest, but it also lends credibility to the new releases as "proof" that they were indeed remastered from the original masters.

Looking very much forward to this release. Thanks for the heads up and for sharing your stories about how you've gone about bringing many of your releases to fruition. Kinda makes me feel like I've been a part of the process in a strange way, and when I hold the final product in my hand I almost feel like I had a tiny little stake in it lol. It's a bit more special than just going to a store and picking it off the shelf, not having any clue what it took to get it there in the first place.

Yes, I'm always excited to get the master transfers and see what I find. If it's the original master then there are surprises like longer versions but if it's a production master then the version generally matches what was released. I'm still waiting on a couple of tape transfers from the UK and I'm really curious about one because there was little info in the database other than the song title, so it remains to be seen if it will have more than one version of the song I'm looking for.

I do love getting the scans of the tape boxes and stuff inside of them at times, but it doesn't always happen. I'm grateful when it does because it's interesting to see the notes scribbled. Plus, in the case of Berlin it was rumored that all of their masters were burned in the 2008 fire but this original Geffen master adds further proof that is not true.