The Messiah Blog (Full Box Set Information)
Hello,
So this is the follow up containing many of the details and answers to questions about the forthcoming Messiah box set - very exciting!!!
Let's get right into it!
The Messiah Saga: Year Three
Over the last few years, many ideas were kicked around as far as releasing Messiah's huge back catalogue goes.
Initially, we were thinking of releasing something to coincide with Messiah playing at Knite Club 2, but it quickly became apparent that there was no way we would be able to meet that deadline. There were a lot of obstacles to overcome and a lot of work to be done. Messiah's back catalogue is extensive, perhaps the largest of any we have worked with, when it comes to the sheer amount of singles and remixes in their arsenal.
On the plus side though, Messiah, are very careful with what they do - and they always have been. Which meant that they had kept all their sample disks - most acts do NOT have that at their disposal 30 years later. I certainly do not for the older Kniteforce releases. Unfortunately, many of the disks were from a W30 keyboard, and to get them, well....you need a W30 keyboard. Other samples were on DAT. Thats right. Because back in the day, as a "much better" alternative to floppy disc, you could connect your Akai sampler to a DAT machine and do a data stream, saving each sample to DAT.
Of course, that means you need a DAT machine to extract the samples.
And we wanted the samples, because not only did we all want to get some new remixes done, Messiah wanted to rebuild some of their original work. Why? Because they wanted to release the best versions of their music, and back in the day there were issues due to studio limitations and the equipment the tracks were built on. They were not overly happy with some of the original masters, even back in the day, and were keen to use this opportunity to fix things they did not like from the past recordings. An additional benefit to a rebuild or a rerecord would mean they would once again own these compositions outright, because there is a whole bunch of legal stuff when it comes to master recordings.
All in all, it was going to take a little while to get the origial tunes ready for release, and it simply couldn't be rushed.
New remixes take a little more time, as samples must be gathered, and where some acts used obvious samples, or at least samples that are easy to source, Messiah's music is full of small but essential details that are fantastically obscure. The operatic "ooh" sound, which appears in a number of their tracks, for a start, and thats just one of many.
And once samples are found, a remix pack made, the remixer in question has to have time do his thing...
And then of course, rebuilds take much longer, especially if, like Messiah, you want to rebuild exactly and make no musical or content changes, but you wish to make the overall sound quality much higher, the eq more exact, and the production as a whole as near to perfect as you can. Which is what they did.
When you hear the rebuilds on this set, you will hardly know they have been rebuilt...except for the fact they do, indeed, sound considerably better than the original recordings in every way.
So combing through old DATs and finding the tracks and the samples and finding various alternate mixes and rare music, rebuilding and editing where needed, and putting together a box set based on all the above...well, it takes a long time.
But that was fine - we were not in any hurry. Apart from anything else, we still had to work out exactly what we were releasing, and how. Messiah's catalogue is extensive, so there was a lot of chat about what to do. While that was going on, and as samples came in, remixes started to get put together, remasters started to get done, and over a period of time, a plan slowly started to form.
I always base every release I put out on a simple premise: Let the music dictate the form. So some things say "this should be a 12' with a single A side" where others say "how about a double 10" for this?" and others say "triple pack" or "box set".
Messiah's music was tough to work out, because it is was not easy to split into individual parts. The various EP's and the style of the music, bleeds from one release to another. It is cinematic in sound and scope. Musically, the overall content is a little like an entire orchestra, and it requires all the parts to really feel whole. You can't just have a single violin over there, and then some trumpets doing their thing in the other corner - it kind of has to be all together. There is...a thread...that runs though it all, ties it all together, and there are tracks that rearrange and appear in other forms later in their catalogue, and samples that appear in multiple tunes.
In the end, whichever way I split it up felt wrong, so we decided...not to split it up.
For the first time in Kniteforce History, we are going to release an entire artists catalogue in one incredible collectors box set.
Messiah: Total Recall
Total Recall is the work of three years and hundreds of hours of meticulous planning. It is the complete messiah works, remastered, rebuild and remixed, spread over ten twelve inch vinyl EPs, and two special edition color ten inch vinyl EPs, USB and a cassette.
The set contains all the classic tracks from Prince Of Darkness, through 20,000 Hardcore Members, There Is No Law, Temple Of Dreams, I Feel Love, and all the way through to Thunderdome.
It also contains rare mixes and unreleased material.
On top of that, we have the cream of the crop with the remixer featured, including:
Acen, Pete Cannon, Hyper On Experience, The Criminal Minds, NRG, Jimmy J & Cru-l-t, Swankout, Al Storm & Euphony, Stu Keating, Manix, Joey Beltram, Silent Approach, Industries Of The Blend, Z-Neo, JX, The Braddercase, Renegade Bob Ross, Birchy, and me as myself, Dj Luna-C.
The bespoke hard box case has been designed specifially for this release, and it contains the vinyl records as two "internal" box sets, Chapter one and Chapter two, and then the two 10" EPs as well. Each record has its own individual artwork.
The set comes with a USB of all the digital work, as well as numerous bonus mixes and other rarer content from Messiah.
It also has a fantastic cassette, with handpicked tracks, all mixed by the one and only Jay Cunning - it is, quite simply, glorious.
Each box set comes with a unique slipmat. There are 12 designs in total, meaning very few box sets will have the exact same slipmat design within them, and each design is based on the artwork of the various releases.
All of this comes in the gorgeous box which closes using a magnetic strip, and which was specially designed andmade for this project...and each box is indiviidually numbered.
This Box Set is a once in a lifetime collectors item.
Because of that, we are ordering what we need based on the pre sale. In other words, we will NOT have extras to sell once the pre sale closes, or if we do, it will literally be a few we got as spares. This set is limited to a maximum of around 150 copies.
The presale opens on the 31st of October at 7pm, and will run until the release date (1st of December) or until we meet the 150 limit.
I know a lot of you will ask about the price, but as we are still getting the final tally on things like the cost of the bespoke box, I do not yet have an exact price. I always endeavour to make things good value, and with the 12 records, USB, Cassette and slipmate plus the bespoke box, it is likely to be around the £200 mark.
In the recent past we have sold parts of box sets, such as the USB and so on, as individual items. This is unlikely to happen this time, as we are pressing what we need based on the pre order. Anything we have left will be due to pressing overstock (which is always a part of pressing vinyl), and if we do have anything left to sell on its own, it will only be some of the 12" EPs.
Everyone at Kniteforce is very, very excited about this project, and we can't wait to have it in our hands. We have always done something special at Christmas, and this year I think we have really pulled out all the stops.
Best of all, it allows me to end with this pun, that has been wanting to burst out of me since we decided to make the Messiah box Set the Christmas release. Deep breath...
"This Christmas, Get Messiah"
Nice one,
Chris