On what the Chinese believe is a most auspicious day, 9-9-09 (this Wednesday, to be exact) there are two very exciting events happening for fans of The Beatles.

Firstly, for the first time since the late ’80s, the entire recorded catalogue of the group’s albums will be released in what one assumes to be properly remastered form.

Secondly, the people who brought us Rock Star bring us a game dedicated to the fabulous foursome.

Having waited patiently for The Beatles remasters for what now seems like an eternity (and spans the entire life-span of the compact disc) my enthusiasm for the remastered catalogue is strangely subdued.

For many years I would have gotten all worked up just thinking about a remaster of albums like Sgt Pepper, “the White Album”, or Abbey Road. The original CDs (as per the majority of early analogue to digital transfers) was thin-sounding, a bit dulled around the edges, and a bit hissy. I can live with a bit of tape hiss (as long as it’s properly remastered!) but I always liked the idea of the various components of the multitracks having lavish care taken in their transfer to digital, with the possibility that every nuance is brought out. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if somehow, magically, these songs could sound as good as they must have done through the monitors at Abbey Road studios when they were being recorded?

I’ll probably dutifully buy the remastered catalogue (although the expense will mean saving my bikkies for a few months), but buying into CD reissues – no matter how lovingly they’re presented – is starting to seem a bit old when the format is so close to expiring.

[Note: Negotiations are still under way to get The Beatles catalogue up on download sites like iTunes, so outside of illegal file sharing, the hapless music fan is stuck forking out major bucks for the privilege of buying the Beatles catalogue all over again... and let's face it, many purchasers will be doing so for the third time, having consumed the original vinyl, then the first-gen CD issues, and now...]

I doubt that EMI will be supplying review samples of the entire reissued catalogue. The default mechanism is a double CD sampler that I received in the mail a couple of weeks back. Containing a selection of remastered tracks, I’ve found it to be both a revelation and a disappointment. I was expecting to be bowled over by the sound of the remasters, especially after reading about the attention to detail that was paid to each and every song. There were moments when I caught myself thinking “this is stunningly clear” or “I never knew the bass was this loud” or “Ringo’s drum sound really rocks!” but overall, I just found myself listening to the music anew.

What really surprised me was just how “stereo” all the tracks were, going right back to the early songs. Apparently the first three Beatles album are being released in real stereo on CD for the first time, and it’s a shock to hear, because the stereo mixes are as unreal as those on the group’s later psychedelic masterpieces. Which brings me to my next point: I think many critics of those original Beatles CDs were really commenting on the somewhat fake-sounding stereo separation, in which bass or drums would be heard only in the left speaker, and different elements of the music in the right. The craft of stereo recording has over the years become much more “natural”, creating a sense of performance. In the case of The Beatles, their catalogue was really a big experiment with early stereo and doesn’t sound natural at all. But of course, this doesn’t make it bad, just different. In fact, it brings a novelty value to listening to their work, along with some sonic surprises.

The disappointment of the CD sampler is that so many comparatively minor songs were chosen, and very few from those later years. This makes it much more difficult to judge the efficacy of the remastering. Those early Beatles songs may have been masterpieces in their own right, but they were comparatively simple, naive pop and rock sides, and it’s the denser, multitracked work of those later albums that will allow the modern listener to judge the success of these new versions.

The notes did explain that the tracks had been made “louder” in line with contemporary demands, but that the producers/engineers had been very careful to keep the sonic integrity and much of the original dynamic. I find this worrying, and would like to read more details on the “loud” issue. Certainly on my speakers, there were a few times I felt the vocals in particular sounded a bit tinfoil-loud. If compromises have been made just so these songs can sound good in record shops and on the radio, then a crime has been committed.

What about the Beatles game? Well, I’m not a gamer, but why shouldn’t there be a Beatles game? It would be arrogant and stuffy of me to suggest that the most popular entertainment medium in 2009 shouldn’t be applied to the greatest pop group of all time. I guess we’ll know within a few days just what the gaming community “across the universe” think of the Beatles game, but I’m sure it will in its own way provide another slant, another perspective, on what makes The Beatles so utterly amazing.

I’m already getting some backlash from friends about the hype surrounding The Beatles. Were they really that great? Isn’t it all just nostalgia? Often I’m in accord with such sentiments, but the Beatles catalogue is special: not only is it the ultimate achievement in commercial pop but it’s also an artistic triumph. Let it not be forgotten that each successive Beatles album was at the time an experiment, and yet somehow their audience accepted their radical (at the time) new sound designs. Now think back a few years to how enraged Radiohead fans were when their fave group put a few electronic elements on one of their albums. Proof, I think, that today’s mass media market expects more of the same, where in the ’60s The Beatles made it a given that moving forward was the only option. GARY STEEL