4 out of 5

Label: Thrill Jockey

Produced by: Sanford Parker (remastered by Josh Bonati)

Sifting through these Pelican remixes chronologically backwards in terms of when the rereleases dropped, the first of the trio – Australasia – is probably the release that feels the least altered by John Bonati’s remaster, accounting for the ranking: while there’s still value in hearing what was done (these first few Pelican albums were all steeped in reverbed low-end, and that’s cleaned up here), the lack of anything day and night and the arguably poor extras make this more of a purchase for non-completists only if you’d prefer a vinyl version.

Regarding the remaster: as mentioned, Bonati has (in my poor, likely wholly inaccurate description of audio stuff) dusted off Australasia’s sound a bit, lifting the mid-range to bring out more nuance in the guitars. This is especially noticeable in the acoustic interstitial – the original being so syrupy – and the title track, which is probably where we get the most striking differences, giving the song more urgency. Elsewhere, though, the effect is more subtle: the original mix and master were already pretty solid, I’d say, despite the murky bass / drum sound; I flipped back and forth between the old and this version, and equally enjoyed both. Subjective, for sure, but with my “average” ears, that was the effect.

The extras: James Plotkin’s Angel Tears remix is interesting, as he goes, initially, all Plotkin-y destruction on it, but I’m not sure it works as a Pelican song. I mean, it’s a remix; I should allow for that. But Plotkin’s fiddling, while intriguing, starts to go too far astray for too long to hold my attention, and then the back half of the song it’s like he kinda gives in and lets the riffs play out. It’s a half-and-half thing that doesn’t wholly work for me. That’s the only physical extra; on the digital you get two live tracks… which are pretty poor recordings. ‘Song 4’ is noisy as hell, and not balanced; Australasia is tinny and with a lot of crowd chatter – there’s no energy.

So let the rating be for the approximate “value” of this remaster – there are reasons to own it, but not overwhelmingly so.