5 out of 5

Label: Data Discs

Produced by: Shaun Crook (vinyl master)

Wow. Well, when listening to this digitally, I claimed ignorance: I wasn’t doing a side-by-side comparison to the original Mega Drive release, but it sounded great, and yadda. Now, with a physical release, it’s a bit more conducive to the process of contrasting, and I could follow up my listen of this PC-88 sourcing with the other.

Day and night.

Smugly, because I own both, I can say both still feel worthwhile: while the PC-88 repress / master is ridiculously crisp, and gives the compositions a wonderfully organic, live feel – the percussion, in particular, is so much more present, and not as much of a digital beat – the comparative distortion of the MD version sounds more nostalgic to me, and more like (in terms of fidelity) a video game score. Crook’s mastering plays a part, here: the low end feels much more amplified and then leveled on the previous release, which is what I think gamifies it a bit, whereas the PC-88 edition is naturally more nuanced in the sound, and it pays to let all its levels take the spotlight.

It makes sense that DD is only pressing the one (PC-88) going forward, as that is more “true” to Koshiro’s compositions, but if you were questioning the double dip on a physical edition, while it’s nice, the Mega Drive score is still absolutely worthwhile, and you can always check out the PC-88 one digitally.