Peter Gabriel släpper remastrade vinyl versioner av sina 4 första album

On October 2nd Peter Gabriel’s first four self-titled solo albums are being made available on vinyl for the first time since 2002. Also being made available are the long out-of-print German vocal versions of Peter Gabriel’s third and fourth albums.

The first three albums are affectionately known as Car, Scratch and Melt due to their iconic Hipgnosis designed covers. The fourth album was named Security for the American market on its initial release.

All the albums have been Half-Speed Remastered and cut to lacquers at 45RPM, across two heavyweight 180g LPs to deliver maximum dynamic sound range. The vinyl was cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy Mastering, mastered by Tony Cousins at Metropolis and overseen by Peter’s main sound engineer Richard Chappell. The expertise and care that has gone into remastering these albums is incredible and consequently they have never sounded so good.

The vinyl editions will be gatefold sleeves, utilising imagery from the initial first LP pressings, sourced and re-scanned from original artwork.

Each English language album comes as a limited edition of 10,000 Worldwide (German versions limited to 3,000 Worldwide). All are individually numbered.

Albums include download cards with a choice of digital download (Hi-Res 24-bit/96k or 16-bit/44.1k).

These releases form the first wave of vinyl re-releases that will see all of Peter’s albums given the Half-Speed Remaster treatment over time. Further roll-out details to follow. They are also notable for the inclusion of the two, often over-looked, German versions of Peter’s third ‘Ein Deutsches Album’ and fourth ‘Deutsches Album’ that are noticeably different from their English language counterparts, as Peter explains:

"I wrote to the French, Italian, German and Spanish labels, saying I wanted to experiment creating a version of my album in another language. The only label to show any interest was the German, hence the choice.

It also gave me a chance to try new mixing and remixing approaches, with some new overdubs and to take another look at the lyrics through the process of translation with Horst Konigstein, with whom I spent a long time going through layers of meaning in the new language - I also insisted on having the German lyrics independently translated back to English.”

The albums will be released on Real World via Caroline International.

Pre-order now from: www.petergabriel.com/vinyl

Currently Peter remains in the studio working on new music.

TRACKLISTINGS:

PG1 – CAR (1977)

A1: Moribund The Burgermeister

A2: Solsbury Hill

B1: Modern Love

B2: Excuse Me

B3: Humdrum

C1: Slowburn

C2: Waiting For The Big One

D1: Down The Dolce Vita

D2: Here Comes The Flood

PG2 – SCRATCH (1978)

A1: On The Air

A2: D.I.Y.

A3: Mother of Violence

B1: A Wonderful Day In A One-Way World

B2: White Shadow

C1: Indigo

C2: Animal Magic

C3: Exposure

D1: Flotsam and Jetsam

D2: Perspective

D3: Home Sweet Home

PG3 – MELT (1980)

A1: Intruder

A2: No Self Control

B1: Start

B2: I Don’t Remember

B3: Family Snapshot

B4: And Through The Wire

C1: Games Without Frontiers

C2: Not One Of Us

D1: Lead A Normal Life

D2: Biko

PG3 – EIN DEUTSCHES ALBUM

A1: Eindringling

A2: Keine Selbstkontrolle

B1: Frag Mich Nicht Immer

B2: Schnappschuß (Ein Familienfoto)

C1: Und Durch Den Draht

C2: Spiel Ohne Grenzen

C3: Du Bist Nicht Wie Wir

D1: Ein Normales Leben

D2: Biko

PG4 – SECURITY (1982)

A1: The Rhythm Of The Heat

A2: San Jacinto

B1: I Have The Touch

B2: The Family and The Fishing Net

C1: Shock The Monkey

C2: Lay Your Hands On Me

D1: Wallflower

D2: Kiss Of Life

PG4 – DEUTSCHES ALBUM

A1: Der Rhythmus Der Hitze

A2: Das Fischernetz

B1: Kon Takt!

B2: San Jacinto

C1: Schock Den Affen

C2: Handauflegen

D1: Nicht Die Erde Hat Dich Verschluckt

D2: Mundzumundbeatmung

NOTES

Following his departure from Genesis in 1975, Peter Gabriel released his first solo album, Peter Gabriel (often referred to as ‘Car’), in February 1977. It featured ‘Solsbury Hill’, his debut solo single, which remains one the best-loved songs in the Gabriel canon. Produced by Bob Ezrin, with guest musicians including Robert Fripp and, notably, the first appearance of long-term collaborator Tony Levin. The album charted at number 7 in the UK, and number 38 in USA.

The second album, Peter Gabriel also known as ‘Scratch’, followed in June 1978, with Robert Fripp installed as producer. Fripp continued to feed Peter’s growing fascination with electronics (see the use of ‘Frippertronics’ on the track ‘Exposure’), and the resulting album is denser and more experimental than the debut.

Writing in the NME, Nick Kent said, “closer to the root of the album, there’s a purity of strength to the songs individual enough to mark Gabriel out as a man whose creative zenith is close at hand.”

The third album, Peter Gabriel also known as ‘Melt’ released in May 1980 was Gabriel’s first solo UK number 1 album. It also included his first UK Top 5 single ‘Games Without Frontiers’ (which featured Kate Bush, who also appeared on the album’s ‘No Self Control’) and Peter’s first overtly political song ‘Biko’. Of ‘Biko’ Peter has said; “It was as much a song that helped shape me as the other way round.” Produced by Steve Lillywhite, the album features notable contributions from not only Kate Bush but also former band-mate Phil Collins, Paul Weller, who played guitar on ‘And On Through The Wire’ and Gabriel stalwart David Rhodes.

The final album in the series, Peter Gabriel, also known as ‘Security’ was released in September 1982. It further showcased Gabriel’s questing spirit, as not only did it point to Peter’s increasing interest in non-Western music and rhythms, it was also his first fully digital recording. The extensive use of sampling through the Fairlight CMI also brought a new dimension to this record. The album included his first US Top 40 hit ‘Shock The Monkey’.