4 out of 5

Label: Landland Colportage

Produced by: Carl Saff (remastered by)

Collects the already collected early singles found on Old Material, New Format, the Hannibal single, a soundtrack song, and a live cut.

We’re not missing much, but we’re missing a couple of things with this set still, and that’s where I’ll harumph a little bit, but also acknowledge that the group decided on this playlist, and so that should make it “definitive:” this was the non-album stuff they wanted remastered. So I’m not knocking it for not being complete, but I am noting it. (And harumphing.)

More positively: this stuff plays really well together. It’s approximately chronologically sequenced, running us from the vocal-heavy, post-rock early stuff, to their track from the “Reach the Rock” movie – beat-forward momentum that rather aligns it with Qhnnnl’s sounds – to Battle Champions-era smoothness on Hannibal, and then a very energetic live cut recorded in the 2020s that speeds and amps up a call back to their earlier days. Carl Saff followed in Dave Gardner’s steps on the other remasters in separating and amping up the low end a bit, focusing a bit more on punching it up in general and slightly less on making it sound / feel live. This avoids trying to find grit where it’s maybe not needed, though doesn’t completely avoid the way that can blow out certain sounds – i.e. the earliest material here, when listened side by side with the originals, can feel a bit too polished to bring it up to the standards of the newer stuff.

Minor quibbles overall.