5 out of 5

Label: Landland Colportage

Produced by: Dave Gardner, Carl Saff (remastered by)

Ah, what a time: when people with labels are coming of age to rerelease the music I was listening to in my formative years in beautiful boxsets, remastered, and with extras.

Dianogah was an early discovery for me – during those aforementioned years – syncing with a then-developing and now longstanding appreciation of both instrumental post-rock and bass, their first two albums’ artwork and Steve Albini credits leaping at me from the CD bins I’d peruse. When others were telling me about Slint and Tortoise and Don Cab, I mean, I’d agree, but then I’d waggle my Dianogah albums at them. The love was strong; many a high school day passed with Battle Champions and As Seen From Above swapping back and forth in my portable discman. And nostalgia is a powerful thing, but I’m a consistent bastard: these discs have stayed in my various players across the years, as have Dianogah’s following albums.

I’d grow to appreciate vinyl later in life, but it didn’t dawn on me that the group would probably sound great on that format until Landland Colportage announced their rerelease boxset – all four original albums; an expanded Old Material, New Format – and as I’d always kinda poohpoohed the Millions of Brazilians mix, hearing that they’d all be remastered was a salivating proposition.

Well, great news: proposition fulfilled. Reviews for each individual remaster here, here, here, here, and here. As for the boxset itself, the art design is firstly fitting, and secondly well-applied – we maintain the original LP art on the sleeves, while the box and center labels get synced artwork. A horizontal OBI-esque strip classes the joint up; the box comfortably fits all the sleeves plus a big ol’ booklet and posters. The posters are Jay Ryan, of course; the booklet – though we’re missing representations of original liners, those were admittedly minimal, and in their place – the booklet contains well-worth-it text pages from bandmembers, and tons of fun photos of flyers. (Plus a full (?) list of all their shows ever played, which feels kinda pointless except to spot some show you were at, but is a neat way to pad out the pages.)

Landland shipped the vinyl outside of the sleeves, which sometimes worries me because you find out the albums don’t actually fit, but they do – and then again, in the box – inclusive of the lined inners.

Lastly: I have some individual notes on the remasters, but on the whole, I’m so satisfied with this in both presentation and build / sound quality. I’d also suggest actually listening to the wax and not just the digital albums, as I think these were remastered for vinyl. They sound good either way, but Battle Champions, for example, is easier to appreciate the differences on wax.