4 out of 5

Label: Cascadia Archives

Produced by: Chris Common (remaster)

Remasters are tough when you’re really close to the original material.

764-Hero were definitely one of the first bands that felt like “mine:” where I discovered them organically, and got hooked at an early enough stage to watch them grow and then fold. That’s not to discredit all the radio plays and suggestions and whatnot that got me onto any one of my favorite bands or albums, but I suspect many of us have those listens that we feel more closely tied to as part of our music discovery journeys.

We’re Solids was a pretty easy find in used bins once I was on the hunt for 764 back catalogue; it is a funny record since it’s definitely got the markings of an earlier recording, but also ends up showing off an amazing amount of range that indicated the direction the group’s music would take. I’m not here to rereview that; I’m just here to comment on how the remaster affects that.

And it’s a tough one.

Chris Common, remastering Phil Ek’s recording, happens to be a favorite mixer / producer of mine, and I think he understood the difficulty of this assignment: We’re Solids’ charm is definitely in the roughness of its sound, and you don’t want to fuss with that too much, even though that’s the most likely thing to go after – cleaning up some fuzz; clarifying some edges. So Common – to my ears – went pretty subtle with it: lifting the range with John Atkins’ vocals up to the front slightly; sharpening and spreading out the layers. You can hear slightly more wiggle in the guitar, which is nice, and the vocal layer is kind of a “refresh;” the original definitely sounds like a late 90s Up Records album, and now it can pass for something modern, even though the music retains some of its reverb and warble.

I think this works really well on all tracks except the opener: Stutter Steps is a completely out-of-nowhere song that sounds like no other Atkins composition, and it thrives on how raw it sounds in the original recording; it loses some bite in this edition. But everywhere else, the remasters are worth it. Maybe subtle enough that it’s only worth the double-dip for super fans, but probably you’re the ones paying attention to this limited release anyway.

The liner notes from John are also charming – very rambling (and occasionally hard to read), but definitely another reason to add this to your collection.