One of the pleasures of hunting down remasters is that it forces you to revisit great albums.  So often, I, for one, haven’t listened to a band for a long time and when a remaster promises a new wealth of special tracks and better audio, I am right there “rediscovering” a particular artist or band.  For those not familiar with Caravan, In the Land of Grey and Pink was their third album and certainly one of their strongest.  They always sound “English”, and by that I mean they have the understated humour lyrically, and their songs tend to start out as grand little rock/pop songs but usually develop into complex and interesting jazzy jams that stay within a more listenable arena than bands like Soft Machine.  (Caravan and Soft Machine members came from a Canterbury band called Wilde Flowers).  If you enjoy Camel, which borrowed greatly from Caravan’s overall sound, then Caravan would be right up your alley.  On this recording, Pye Hastings is on guitars and vocals, Richard Coughlin on drums, Richard Sinclair (later of Hatfield and the North, National Health and Camel) on bass and acoustic guitar and his cousin David on keyboards and vocals.  All four musicians are superb, with amazing chops in their arsenals.

I have been waiting for this reissue with great anticipation, not just because it is remastered, but because of the promise that Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree, No-man, etc.) was doing the remastering.  His work for his own back catalogue, and especially the King Crimson ongoing reissues, has been spectacular to these ears.  What would he do with a remaster of one of the great Canterbury classics? I do not have a 5.1 set-up, so my review will be limited to the stereo version and this is fair since the adverts all stated that Steven Wilson was producing a 5.1 mix as well as a new stereo mix, which he has done.  So here’s the lowdown:

There are three discs in this set: a CD of the original album, a CD of bonus tracks, and a DVD of a 5.1 Mix and stereo mix.  Steven Wilson has done the stereo and 5.1 mixes for the DVD and remastered the bonus tracks on disc 2, but he has not done the stereo remaster for disc one.  Paschal Byrne, who did the last most recent remaster, has another here. I don’t know if it is the same as the last one (which was mighty fine, by the way); I would say it sounds marginally better.  I think the instruments are better defined and some of the detail that was weaker in the mix has more presence this time around.  If it is the same remaster, then the transfer is a better one – I don’t know the details and the liner notes do not give a date for the remastering. Paschal Byrnes’ remasters, in general, I think are very good – his work on Camel and Barclay James Harvest and many other Esoteric artists has been exemplary and in most cases you can’t get better sound than his work on those recordings.

I then listened to the Steven Wilson stereo mix on the DVD.  It is different than Byrnes’ – the vocals are not as pronounced, and I would say the sound is slightly warmer.  So it depends on what you like – both versions are worth listening to, but I wouldn’t call one better than the other.  I wanted to let people know that if you are looking for a new stereo mix for your prime CD player, and you wanted Steven Wilson’s version, then you won’t get it with this package.

Is it worth purchasing if you are a Caravan fan?  I think so.  The 11 bonus tracks of alternate versions, outtakes and a few never-released-before-cuts are all worthwhile (Wilson, once again, has done a wonderful job) and there are two short live videos of the band live that are cool (as all that psychedelic camera work was in the early 70s)! So here’s the thing – if you don’t own this album, this is the version to get.  If you are happy with the last remasters of Caravan, and you would only be buying this package for the stereo, don’t expect a huge difference.  If you are buying it for the 5.1, then from what I understand, this will blow you away.

Release Date: June 07, 2011 (UK Import)
Band Website

–Robert Metcalf