New Musik ‘From A To B – The Sony Years’ 2023 CD box set (Lemon Recordings, CDLEMBOX249, 2023)

New Musik will always be a favourite of mine and there has been no shortage of previous VersionCrazy coverage, what with ‘The Planet Doesn’t Mind’ version craziness, ‘Greatest Hits’ Promo 7″ EP (GTO, XP112, 1981) and New Musik ‘Anywhere’ UK cassette (GTO, GTMC044, 1981) posts. They have also been relatively fortunate in that their back catalogue has been re-issued fairly regularly since the 1990s onwards, so they have never been left behind and forgotten about. My slightly sanguine ‘relatively fortunate’ is because over the years the re-issues have had a tendency to play a little fast and loose when compiling extra tracks as bonuses to the standard album track  lists.

Before diving on into the new box set, here’s a brief summary of the previous New Musik re-issues across the years:

• 1994 UK/EU CDs of ‘From A To B’ and ‘Anywhere’ on Sony Music/GTO. These included a few B sides each.
• 2000 UK ‘…Plus’ series CDs of ‘From A To B… Plus’ and ‘Anywhere… Plus’ on Edsel. These included the same few B sides each as the 1994 releases for ‘Anywhere’, though ‘From A To B’ managed to add all of the B sides from the ‘Sanctuary’ single too.
• 2001 Japanese CDs of ‘From A To B’, ‘Anywhere’ and ‘Warp’ on Epic Records. First time on CD for ‘Warp’ and it included a lot of bonus tracks. The ‘From A To B’ and ‘Anywhere’ CDs included even more extra tracks each including extended versions and the extra cassette-only tracks from ‘Anywhere’ (though confusingly as extras on on ‘From A To B’.)
• 2011 ‘From A To B’ and ‘Anywhere’ (double CD) and ‘Warp’ on Lemon Recordings (Cherry Red).
• 2022: ‘From A To B’, ‘Anywhere’ and ‘Warp’ as coloured vinyl double LPs including extra non-LP tracks on Music On Vinyl Records.

The ‘Sony Years’ box set

First off, the titling has caused a few raised eyebrows – the Cherry Red website itself website and pre-publicity for the release has consistently referred to it as ‘From A To B – The Sony Years’.

Puzzling first of all because back in the day the releases were on GTO Records, who in time were bought over by Epic, which was part of CBS, which ended up being bought up by Sony BMG, which is now Sony Music. Got that?! Good! So, I guess that’s the logic behind the name.

Even so, puzzling on a second count, as on this actual physical product though, it doesn’t even have that name – the spine of the box just says ‘New Musik ‘From A To B / Anywhere / Warp / Remixes’.

Anyway, when I first heard about this release I had cautiously high hopes that at last we might have a release that gathers everything up and brings some order to proceedings, it being one of those box set CD collections that Cherry Red have tended to specialise in over the past few years (on this occasion by way of their Lemon Recordings imprint). The set features the three studio albums on three separate CDs without any extra bonus tracks (unlike the previous re-issue CDs) and a fourth disc that gathers together various non-album tracks by way of B sides, remixes and so on.

The tracklistings:

Disc 1: ‘From A To B’

1. Straight Lines
2. Sanctuary
3. A Map of You
4. Science
5. On Islands
6. This World of Water
7. Living By Numbers
8. Dead Fish (Don’t Swim Home)
9. Adventures
10. The Safe Side

Disc 2: ‘Anywhere’

1. They All Run After the Carving Knife
2. Areas
3. Churches
4. This World of Walter
5. Luxury
6. While You Wait
7. Changing Minds
8. Peace
9. Design
10. Traps
11. Division
12. Back To Room One

Disc 3: ‘Warp’

1. Here Come the People
2. Going Round Again
3. A Train on Twisted Tracks
4. Repeat
5. All You Need Is Love
6. All You Need Is Love
7. Kingdoms For Horses
8. Hunting
9. The New Evolutionist (Example ‘A’)
10. Green And Red (Respectively)
11. The Planet Doesn’t Mind
12. Warp

Disc 4: ‘Edits, B Sides, Versions’

1. Straight Lines [Single Edit]
2. While You Wait [Single Edit]
3. The Planet Doesn’t Mind [Single Edit]
4. Sad Films
5. Missing Persons / Tell Me Something New
6. She’s A Magazine
7. Chik Musik
8. Magazine Musik
9. Twelfth House
10. From The Village
11. Guitars
12. The Office
13. 24 Hours from Culture (Part 2)
14. While You Wait [Extended Version]
15. Here Come the People [Remix]

Sadly, looking at the originally published track list and now having the final product to hand, it is obvious that it lacks a few fairly obvious selections that a comprehensive ‘Sony Years’ box set really should have had in there, namely:

• The two bonus tracks that were originally exclusive to the ‘Anywhere’ cassette release back in 1981 (‘And’ and ‘Under Attack’)
• The extended 12” mix of ‘The Planet Doesn’t Mind’ single.

Perhaps less obviously intrinsic but of note, there are quite a few ‘single edits’ missing too (and since the box set includes some… well, why wouldn’t you just include them all?);

• ‘World Of Water’,
• ‘Sanctuary’,
• ‘All You Need Is Love’,
• ‘Warp’,
• …and, for completeness, the single edit of ‘They All Run After The Carving Knife’ as issued on single in Germany and the Netherlands.

In addition, the short, unlisted and uncredited piece of music between the two tracks on the B side of ‘While You Wait’ – namely ‘From The Village’ and ‘Guitars’ is not included (That music is an earlier version of ‘Kingdoms For Horses’ that was later released on the ‘Warp’ album. This short snippet can be found on CD, as it is included on the 2001 ‘Anywhere’ Japanese CD as part of the track ‘From The Village’.)

Now, the booklet text does touch upon these omissions: “Due to master and licensing issues the above tracks have had to be omitted.” I would speculate that the single edit master tapes have long since been lost – the ‘master issues’ – and the licensing issues affect the cassette tracks and extended version? Who knows…

It really is puzzling that the two ‘Anywhere’ cassette edition bonus tracks have been missed and the 12” mix of ‘The Planet Doesn’t Mind’ – the latter especially, since it has been judged influential enough in recent years to warrant a 12” vinyl re-release of its own and has been included on previous CD issues of ‘Warp’. They were even included on the 2022 Music On Vinyl Double LP re-issue of ‘From A To B’.

The single edits are a more contentious issue and I fully understand why many people might be of a ‘why bother with them’ attitude – but for the sake of completeness (and since not long ago I compiled my very own New Musik ‘Greatest Hits’ for my listening pleasure where I either sourced them from releases or re-created them from CDs), here are my notes about the single edits and where you can source them on CD (or not, as the case may be) or recreate your own approximation of them (since single edits may have had further, more subtle sonic tweaks to make them punchier, over and above just edits).

‘Straight Lines’ – a genuine single edit not just an early fade out, chopped down from the longer 5 min plus album mix – in particular, an extended instrumental portion with string synth is removed from the single edit. The single edit has previously been issued by Cherry Red on the compilation CD box set ‘Harmony In My Head: UK Power Pop & New Wave 1977-81’ and it is included on this box set.

‘Living By Numbers’ – largely the same as the album mix except the ‘white noise’ sound doesn’t fade out at the end like the album does – the UK 7” single, at least, has a gimmick that the white noise plays all the way to the end of the record’s groove and locks, so it ends suddenly only when the needle is lifted.

‘This World Of Water’ – largely the same as the album mix except it fades out early – easy to recreate digitally from a CD version of the album track. I don’t think the single version has ever been issued anywhere on CD.

‘Sanctuary’ – largely the same as the album mix except it ends abruptly – no fade – easy to recreate digitally from a CD version of the album track. I don’t think the single version has ever been issued anywhere on CD. The ending was so bizarrely abrupt that a childhood memory of mine is of UK BBC Radio 1 DJ Tony Blackburn commenting something like “that’s just how it ends!” when playing it on the Sunday night Top 40 chart rundown show. The single edit has never been issued on CD as far as I know.

‘Luxury’ – single version is the same as the album version.

‘While You Wait’ – another genuine single edit – there is a portion of the latter part of the track snipped out, rather than it just being an early fade – there is a distinct guitar part that is unique to the very end of the track that is the giveaway. Hasn’t been issued before on CD but is present and correct on this box set.

‘They All Run After The Carving Knife’ – issued as a 3’19” single edit in Germany and The Netherlands – it omits the opening electronic intro and starts with the rhythm/guitar/synth part and then fades out at the end before the mainly synth-only outro from the LP mix begins. There’s also a 4’52” edit on a US promo 12” – I don’t have that one but I would guess it just omits the electronic intro but doesn’t fade out early at the end.

‘The Planet Doesn’t Mind’ – the original 7” version is a completely different mix/recording compared to the album version. It has been included as a bonus track on CD re-issues of ‘Warp’ and is on this box set, though the mastering varies between releases.

‘All You Need Is Love’ – the standard single edit removes the extended instrumental intro, so starts up with the drum/vocals part then proceeds as normal (compared to the album version). I don’t think it’s ever been issued on CD. There is also an even shorter edit that was issued on the promo version of the single.

‘Warp’ – another genuine single edit – there is a portion of the latter part of the track snipped out, rather than it just being an early fade. Hasn’t been issued on CD.

Where to find the two bonus tracks from the ‘Anywhere’ cassette edition

To find the two tracks from the ‘Anywhere’ cassette on CD it is to Japan once again you need to turn, but not to ‘Anywhere’, oddly enough, but to a different album release – it turns out that these two tracks were included with the Japanese ‘Art School Pop Series’ 2001 re-issue CD of the band’s first album instead, ‘From A To B’ (Epic ESCA7850).

Since then, they have been re-issued on the following;

• 2022: Music On Vinyl MOVLP2866 double Vinyl edition of ‘From A To B’.

As for the tracks themselves – both are pretty decent and its a shame that for such a long time they were so obscure and difficult to obtain, in fact ‘Under Attack’ in particular is very catchy and would probably have fitted right in on the first album as possible single material (at least I reckon so).

The cover design and booklet

The cover design is a variation of a design they used for the US only 10” ‘NuDisk’ EP series from 1980. The design seems to have garnered some negative comments – I quite like it myself, what with it’s very ‘new wave’ stylings.

The booklet is a disappointment, sorry to say – pre-publicity made mention of an interview with Tony Mansfield – notoriously media-shy in the decades since the band’s heyday. Now that was something to look forward to, the possibility of some new answers to long standing mysteries. Sadly, it does not contain a new interview, just re-used quotes from back in the day. So, while the text is a decent history, it’s misleading to have had ‘an interview’ dangled as lure when there is no such thing present.

NB: These are only a few example pages from the booklet – it is much longer – you’ll need to buy it to see it all!

A final word – compared to the 2022 vinyl re-issues, the packaging is minimal. Each CD comes in a card sleeve that reproduces the front and rear original cover designs. But otherwise the original details are missing – the inner sleeves, lyrics and gatefold spread of ‘Anywhere’.