Black Dog Productions – Bytes

Warp finally reissues Bytes 10+ years too late. This was one of my most desired represses, and for me, it's too late.

30 years for a repress!

This original press is JUNK. It's notoriously poor. Buy the repress.

warp pressed some of the best electronic music ever! P.E.A.C.E

I really dig that Discordian Popes track... a good compilation to add to collection.

its a great press! i wouldnt pay the scalper prices but if youre able to find it at a reasonable price 100% go for it

Best electronic album of all time. Thought so when I bought my bronze copy 30 years ago and have heard nothing in the intervening 30 years to touch it, so I was over the moon to stumble across it being re-released and instantly snapped up a new copy to replace my original which has had so much play over the years it sounds like it's been trawled by a dredger rather than a Stanton diamond.

Whoever decided to repress this, you will surely go to electronic heaven.

'Merck' is as beautiful as the first time I heard it: my favourite electronic track of all time. I could do without the Detroitian tangent in the middle, typical of Detroit stuff of that era e.g. Rhythim is Rhythim, but the first and third 'acts' touch me in a way that I can only explain by the Welsh word 'hiraeth' which roughly means experiencing a sense of missing something you've never experienced.

The other Balil track '3/4 heart' is also absolutely gorgeous and arguably attains perfection in of coherence and composition.

'Object Orient' kicks it all off with the latiny thing Plaid were doing back then, notably on the Scoobs in Corblimeya (sic) (Blakey's hypothetical On The Buses mix) release on GPR. If you can't pitch this up to +1.5 and play it out you shouldn't be playing out.

The only bad thing you could say is that this album was so mindblowing to us at the time that someone decided to coin the abomination that is 'IDM' (intelligent dance music). That term should have been made illegal and its use carry a suitable punishment. But the rave scene had gone badly wrong by '91 and '92 and while I've never heard of Ed and Andy complaining how dreadful it was, how dreadful the music was, this album does feel like the kind of thing you'd write as a sort of antidote, to save the future of music. And they did, bless em.

Did any copies of this blue edition show up in EU/UK? Appears to be US only via Bleep for some reason?

Yeah. loving this. Quick, snappy 'n' punchy remastering here. Jumps off the wax, directly to my ears.
Vinyl has no noise, flat and perfect. Warp rarely fails to impress.

Flawless pressing on my side, flat and silent (blue vinyl).
I can spot some of the imperfections and occasional distortions that I also hear on the original vinyl from 1993 as well, so I guess they are probably in the masters and impossible to correct.
Otherwise on first listen I can hear many new positive subtleties that don't overshadow the original. There is clear separation overall and good balance.
Probably psychological, since it has been many hears without listening frequently to this record, but some effects like the reverbs on "Merck" seem to stand out more with this version, as well as the more deep layers of percussion on some tracks.
The opaque blue is quite bold and fits harmoniously with the original artwork.

On a side note, I always wondered why the album title is always mentionned and written BYTES, while on the cover it is clearly (BYTES).
Always thought the ( ) give it a kind of computer programming kind of touch that goes well with the spirit of electonic music making at the time.
Wonder if someone has some information on this...

Fantastic remaster. The bass leaps out. Heft, slam, impact - check

This is such a treat, a masterpiece from start to finish, and I can gladly say this reissue sounds top notch. Side 4 is worth the entry price alone. Now we need a reissue of the excellent Plaid 'Trainer' compilation to continue the journey.