Hanoi Rocks' Oriental Beat receives the Redux treatment, officially mixed and resurrected from the original sessions and released on deluxe vinyl, CD and digital formats. CD and vinyl contain lyrics reviewed and approved by Michael Monroe.
Dubbed the 'Re(al)-Mix', this 40th anniversary edition was mixed by Petri Majuri at E-Studios in Finland in collaboration with the band. Singer Michael Monroe calls this release 'the longest and slowest album project ever," stating that "40 years in the making, it's not just a remix, it's the REAL MIX overseen and approved by Hanoi Rocks."
Recorded in London, UK in 1981 for £200 a day, Oriental Beat emerged during the heyday of the British punk and new wave movement, when the band hung out with everyone from Phil Lynott to the Damned. Hanoi Rocks original drummer Gyp Casino says of Oriental Beat, "We used to put heart, soul and a little bit of pain to make this record something different," but the sound of the album originally released in 1982 didn't fit their efforts at the time. Bassist Sami Yaffa called it "the worst sounding album of our career" and Michael Monroe said that "the album's producer had no idea what the band was about and his mix of the album was horribly wrong ".
Oriental Beat's original engineer, Peter Wooliscroft, was not a rock producer, and according to Hanoi Rocks manager Richard Bishop, "he was trying to mix the album to make it sound like Spandau Ballet" before the band released it remix or re-record since the label had run out of money and the master tapes had disappeared, the band has always considered Oriental Beat's original mix a "disaster". When the tapes mysteriously showed up in Universal's vault recently, the band were finally able to mix and re-sequence the album the way it was supposed to sound.
Oriental Beat is a pivotal masterpiece, born just as Hanoi Rocks was about to explode on the world stage, and written at the absolute peak of lead guitarist Andy McCoy's creativity as a songwriter. Rhythm guitarist Nasty Suicide says, "Only now, after stripping it down to the bare minimum and tweaking it to bring out what was truly laid down, has our dream come true! THIS is what it's all about," as this definitive edition of Oriental Beat now fully demonstrates the ultimate arrogance and attitude that defined the band. Monroe says, "Now, 40 years after its original release in 1982, the album sounds finally as great as it deserves, with no overdubs or samples," adding McCoy, "It's better now than ever. That's how it should sound. So enjoy... Another shot of Hanoi Rocks". Get your shot of Oriental Beat the way it was always meant to be.
1 Oriental Beat
02 Motorvatin'
03 No Law Or Order
04 Teenangels Outsiders
05 Sweet Home Suburbia
06 Mc Baby
07 Visitor
08 Don't Follow Me
09 Lightnin' Bar Blues
10 Devil Woman
11 Fallen Star
Hanoi Rocks – Oriental Beat (40th Anniversary) 2023, MP3+FLAC
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