DIR EN GREY - GAUZE+ (LP)

[zeus]

Still making my way through some of these songs, so I may come back and update later.

GAUZE+ still sounds fantastic. Many of the original mastering decisions are unchanged, but the sound stage is improved compared to what I’ve been listening to for all these years. The rhythm section gets the biggest uplift here - the definition of both is stellar! I’m hearing percussion I haven’t heard before and the low-end is punchy and defined without becoming boomy. This is what drums are supposed to sound like!

Shame about what happened with Cage, even if it’s quite minor. I need to double check my copy and see if some or all copies were affected.

I’m going to quote myself from a relevant thread here, because even if I didn’t mention tape the phenomenon is still relevant.

@zeus

On a more practical tangent, the lifespan of an average CD is 25 to 50 years before it succumbs to bit rot. You need a special CD-R treated with phthalocyanine dye and a gold metal layer to get over 100 years. CD-Rs and audio CDs with that dye but a silver alloy metal layer cap out at 100 years and may only last 50. Literally anything else caps out at 50 years, with some forms of media only being good for 5 to 10 years. A vinyl can last for 100 years easily with good care under good conditions, and it can last up to 1000 years before it begins to decompose. Let’s be completely honest - most visual kei bands are not breaking the bank to make sure they get great quality CD-R’s. There are already CD’s from the 90’s that are quickly reaching their expiration date - and if they remain in those cases and they aren’t ripped and preserved digitally then someone is going to have a nasty surprise when they finally crack that case open and find a pristine CD with garbled, unreadable data on it. Ripping and preserving Japanese rarez digitally is going to be essential and I fear that by the time the scene “realizes” this we will have already lost quite a few things to bit rot.

We are essentially on the same page - physical CDs are nice but expensive and digital preservation is going to be the way forward. I’ve just reached a point where if I’m going to buy physical media of an artist, I only buy the CD if I have to. If I already have digital files, I’m opting for buying a vinyl or cassette as a collectors item (trivia: cassettes under good conditions can last for about 30 years). It just so happens that vinyls last longer than CDs under optimal conditions.

This is why we need MACABRE and Kisou on wax pronto!