Warner Music`s subsidiary Rhino has been forced to issue a statement following complaints from New Order fans of defects in the new reissues.
The statement reads "Warner Bros. UK, Rhino and New Order regret that the initial pressings of the Collector Editions of 'Movement,' 'Power, Corruption & Lies,' 'Low-Life,' 'Brotherhood' and 'Technique' contain some minor audio problems on the bonus discs”."We are now in the process of correcting the problems, but it should be noted that due to the age and condition of some of the original source tapes, the sound quality may vary. A further statement will be issued once the corrected product is available. At that time, the procedure for exchanging CD's will be announced. Thank you for your patience while we resolve this situation"
At his MySpace site, New Order’s Peter Hook blasted Warner for not allowing the band to hear the finished reissues before they went into stores. “This is a very difficult one, we are aware of the problems and because we did not have finished product to listen to? It has, shall we say... slipped through the net??”
“My great friend Claude Flowers has taken it on himself to sort this mess out personally, but please be aware, that after the fact it is going to be very difficult, unfortunately because many of you have purchased them already (a great compliment in itself) we are doing all we can to try and get fresh masters made and available , somehow? To try and remedy the situation, so please bear with us”.
I have said before how difficult it is compiling this stuff, the masters Steve and I listened to, were all basically from people's collections, so it was then left to someone in the library department to compile, as much as possible from original masters. This is where it seems to have gone wrong. Unfortunately, it is industry standard these days to not have production masters of the CDs or the sleeves, much to Pete Saville's amazement, but that's just the way it is. Hopefully they might resurrect the process after this. Here's hoping.”
The problem effects the collectors editions of the first five New Order albums. Fans have noted more than 300 errors.
