Bear Machine Records release an anniversary reissue of Radical Face's 2007 album Ghost. Radical Face is the Los Angeles-based project of musician Ben Cooper, and this release includes a remastered version of the original album as well as a second disc full of new interpretations of some of the tracks...

In recent years there seems to have been a spate of record labels reissuing "anniversary" albums of well known bands of their time, as well as others you may have forgotten about. The majority of these either just reissue remastered versions of the original release, or add a few live tracks as bonus material.

The press information for Radical Face's Ghost indicted that this is a 10th anniversary release, but even my appalling maths can work out that it's actually 12 years since the original was available to buy. For those of you who bought, and enjoyed, the album in 2007, Bear Machine Records reissue the original album (completely remastered by Greg Calby), with an additional disc of reinterpretations of some of the tracks. This makes it an anniversary album worth owning.

Talking about the release, Cooper says: "The original release was just my mixes that I leveled as best I could, back in a tool shed in 2006. But actual, professional mastering has this way of bringing out elements in a mix that were formerly buried, which is what happened here. It's fun to hear the record in a new way, and it sounds really cool. There will also be a very limited edition physical edition which will be double LP with a 10 page book of original artwork."

While the entire album is pretty flawless, the one stand out track is the new orchestral reworking of 'Welcome Home Son' - well, it says "orchestral" but even those that have a pretty bad ear for music will spot that a lot of the instruments appear to be digital.

This release adds an additional 12 tracks (39 min, 26 sec) making the full runtime up to 1 hr, 27 min, 15 sec. This is one reissue that actually manages to improve on the original.

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Nick Smithson