Made In Japan25

Well, it arrived yesterday and I gave it a spin! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed both CD's. However, there were a few things worth mentioning.

First of all, Roger's bass is much more prominent on the remasters than the 1993 remixes. (Must be because Roger was one of the ones who did the original mix back in 1972 - ;-).) I like it better this way. It was one of the things I couldn't quite put my finger on when I first got Live in Japan. Although the organ and guitar are not quite as crystal clear as on Live in Japan, the mix of MIJ25 is slightly better, IMHO. Take a listen to Highway Star and compare it with LIJ's CD2 version - you have to turn your headphones around, of course ;-) - and the difference becomes quite clear.

The one thing they did change was to run the tracks together as though MIJ was one concert. My only complaint about this is that the beginning of Child in Time is too obscured by the audience clapping at the end of Highway Star as it fades out. I would have preferred that they preserved the quiet start it, but, at least it's that way on LIJ. The other places where the tracks run together were done much better. They did preserve the quiet part just before Ritchie strikes that first cord on Smoke.

The encores. What a riot!! Speed King is totally awesome! Lots of firecrackers during the solo! Someone else already mentioned Gillan's telling the security guards to let the people enjoy the show during the middle of the solo. After he said that, he kept saying "Oy!" apparently to get their attention before wacking them with the microphone stand! :-) Jon's solo starts so abruptly that it almost sounds as though this song was edited. Listen carefully to it at this point and you can tell that Paice's drumming and Blackmore's strumming change at the exact same moment. Black Night is truely a treat, especially to hear the beginning which wasn't included with the single release back in the 70's. All three encores are new mixes. Lucille is just a riot! It starts out good, but all hell breaks loose midway through the song with Gillan and Blackmore losing track of where they were in the song. Jon gives some brilliant moments, though. Paice finally gets tired of the mess and picks up the pace (no pun intended) at the end of the song to mercifully kill it! At 4:02 of the song, Gillan's voice jumps to the left track and you hear another voice in the right track for a split second before things return to normal. If this is a remix, than the new master must have a defect in it.

Anyway, it was well worth the money to get a classic like this remastered with "bonus" tracks!

Mike