Amorphous Androgynous - The Isness (Abbey Road Mix) 180g vinyl (RSD 2018)

[Rubin Farr]

The far superior version of Isness released officially for the first time on vinyl.

 

https://thevinylfactory.com/news/official-list-record-store-day-2018-releases/

[Rubin Farr]

https://recordstoreday.co.uk/releases/rsd-2018/amorphous-androgynous-the/

[BUNKUM]

I have never heard the Abbey Road version. Sounds great from that blurb.

[tunnocks]

How different is this version, anyone know?

[mcbpete]

How different is this version, anyone know?

Pretty darn different, in both production and track order

 

Here's the released version:

 

1	The Lovers			6:04
2	The Isness			3:00
3	The Mello Hippo Disco Show	5:25
4	Goodbye Sky (Reprise)		1:14
5	Elysian Feels			4:47
6	Go Tell It To The Trees Egghead	4:28
7	Divinity			7:27
8	Guru Song			2:49
9	Osho				2:14
10	Her Tongue Is Like A Jellyfish	2:34
11	Meadows				3:29
12	High Tide On The Sea Of Flesh	5:27
13	The Galaxial Pharmaceutical	14:32

And this mispress/abbey road version:

1	Elysian Feels			6:03
2	The Mello Hippo Disco Show	4:32
3	Goodbye Sky (Reprise)		1:10
4	Osho				2:14
5	The Galaxial Pharmaceutical	15:03
6	Yes My Brother			0:52
7	Go Tell It To The Trees Egghead	5:31
8	Divinity			7:57
9	Guru Song			3:45
10	Her Tongue Is Like A Jellyfish	2:33
11	Meadows				3:28
12	High Tide On The Sea Of Flesh	5:25
13	Goodbye Sky			4:43

The running order definitely makes more sense this way (e.g. ending the thing with a finale track 'Goodbye Sky' rather than dumping a snippet of it bang in the middle of the album), and IMO everything is just so much better and should've been the version that came out.

[tunnocks]

 

How different is this version, anyone know?

Pretty darn different, in both production and track order

 

Here's the released version:

 

1	The Lovers			6:04
2	The Isness			3:00
3	The Mello Hippo Disco Show	5:25
4	Goodbye Sky (Reprise)		1:14
5	Elysian Feels			4:47
6	Go Tell It To The Trees Egghead	4:28
7	Divinity			7:27
8	Guru Song			2:49
9	Osho				2:14
10	Her Tongue Is Like A Jellyfish	2:34
11	Meadows				3:29
12	High Tide On The Sea Of Flesh	5:27
13	The Galaxial Pharmaceutical	14:32

And this mispress/abbey road version:

1	Elysian Feels			6:03
2	The Mello Hippo Disco Show	4:32
3	Goodbye Sky (Reprise)		1:10
4	Osho				2:14
5	The Galaxial Pharmaceutical	15:03
6	Yes My Brother			0:52
7	Go Tell It To The Trees Egghead	5:31
8	Divinity			7:57
9	Guru Song			3:45
10	Her Tongue Is Like A Jellyfish	2:33
11	Meadows				3:28
12	High Tide On The Sea Of Flesh	5:25
13	Goodbye Sky			4:43

The running order definitely makes more sense this way (e.g. ending the thing with a finale track 'Goodbye Sky' rather than dumping a snippet of it bang in the middle of the album), and IMO everything is just so much better and should've been the version that came out.

 

Cheers

[KovalainenFanBoy]

Wouldn't it be better for everyone to have a container thread? Not that it bothers me much but seeing so many FSOL threads for random represses is messing with my autismo

[purlieu]

Elysian Feels - very different mix, much beefier, different structure, actually in a different key (also appears on The Otherness)

Mello Hippo - completely different mix, more '60s sounding, 99% the same as versions of Yo-Yo on The Otherness and 'Life's a Flow' on the Mello Hippo EP

Goodbye Sky Reprise - segues from the previous track

Osho - the same

The Galaxial Pharmaceutical - different mix, doesn't cut the track into two segments. If you listen to this one a few times and then listen to the final version it becomes very clear that this was the full track and then the final version was just chopped up from this, not very well.

Yes My Brother - exclusive to this version, elements of it appeared as 'Yes My Brother (You Gotta Turn Yourself Around)' and 'The Prophet' on Alice In Ultraland

Guru Song - pretty different mix, contains female vocals and none of the excessive phasing of the final version

Divinity - slightly different, mid section has a guitar solo rather than some piano chords. Similarly to Galaxial above, if you get used to this, you can actually hear the bits where it's been cut on the final version

Her Tongue is Like a Jellyfish / Meadows / High Tide on the Sea of Flesh - the same

Goodbye Sky - only found on this and The Otherness

 

The Abbey Road mastering is wonderful too, it's so much louder without losing any of the dynamics.

[BUNKUM]

Cheers for that extra info. I’ve never been a massive fan of The Isness and was completely shocked and disappointed when I first heard it. I sort of hope this version might make me like it more. Big fan of The Lovers but that’s a Translations track to me

[purlieu]

It's a more electronic version of the album than the final version, although it's still very much an Amorphous record rather than a FSOL one. It's the only psych-era Amorphous album that I love, I find the others have their moments but aren't regular players for me (although clips from the forthcoming one sound very promising).