idk this may be a long shot. so i met this cool ass guy who had VIP at the saguet IL show in 2022. june 11th. he had longer hair and he freaked out when he saw manyard on the projector screen during the documentary bit. i don’t remember his name whatsoever. i held his VIP stuff while he went to the bathroom! just reaching out because the guy was really cool :)

So I've loved Failure ever since I discovered them through Autolux back in high school. Comfort grabbed me first, Fantastic Planet is, y'know, fantastic, and Magnified slowly became my favorite of all three after it taking a little bit for me to get it. Even their post-reunion stuff has been pretty good--THIAM had its moments, In the Future is stellar--so I'm not opposed to the very tidy and studied sound Ken likes to go for or anything. I just find the remixes of their original run albums perplexing.

Magnified and especially Comfort were recorded "odd". They have a very distinct sonic profile. Comfort because it's an Albini album, and Magnified, I felt was both thin and muddy when I first heard it (now I've grown to love it, as I said). Neither sound like how the band likes to record now, and the band own the masters and the rights to the albums, so a remix isn't the worst idea. Unfortunately, it feels like Ken tried to mangle material recorded a really specific way into his normal mixing style, and the results are a bit mixed.

Comfort has as many clunkers as it does improvements. It sounds unnatural. It was clearly recorded with that Albini drum sound where the heft of the drums is meant to be matched by a lot of room, but there's much less room on the drums. The cymbals are pushed back, leading to a very artificially loud and close snare and kick. Screen Man is the perfect example of the dullness that results from sapping all the room off the drums. I feel like I'm listening to the Comfort demos, and the total lack of dynamic shift into the solo is just disappointing (though the extra effect on the guitar is neat). Muffled Snaps is another disappointment; the drum hits at the start of the track just slap you hard on the original mix, and they're very dull and buried in the remix, with again, that artificially loud snare and total lack of high end on the kit when the band kicks in. Given that the room sound and the very live, ambient drums are a big part of the sound of Comfort, I was disappointed. Kindred, Salt Wound, and Macaque (even with the pitch lowered on it, bizarrely--maybe they ran the tape slower?) are nice in their remix form because of the extra vocal volume, and the drums sound a bit more live and a bit less tweaked for the sake of it, but I do wish for better mastering. The original album had a lot of headroom and a nice pulse to each big snare hit. I feel like Albini drums don't sound great when you compress them. Things just congeal into a wall of sound on Princess, which must just be how the band likes it, I guess.

Magnified's remix is less drastic and I like it for that, but I don't really feel what they thought they were improving with the remix either. With Comfort, they were effectively trying to un-Albini the album (low vocals and big drums are his specialties). With Magnified, I'm not sure what their goal was. I could list stuff off per-track, but the big thing I notice is that the vocals have been pushed back and the drum sound again tweaked to have less of the cymbals and high end. The original mixes, the vocals were very forward and often rather trebly. Again, part of the odd sonic character of the album, but it works. The treble seems toned down across the whole mix, and it results in a duller sounding album where the vocals are sat behind very flat, thudding drums, which I don't really understand the intention of. I've tried it on my big speakers and my smaller computer speakers and both places, I prefer the original.

Maybe I'm just biased because the originals are what I'm used to? Perhaps, but given how much I've heard about the remixes, I wish I got what the big deal was.

I feel like this remix frenzy started when Enjoy the Silence 2020 got issued. I prefer the original, but 2020 isn't bad. Actually, I wish they did with these remixes what they did with that song, which was just to (partially or completely) re-record it. Anyone who makes music knows that there's very little "saving it in the mix" you can really do. Ken and Greg have been home recording for well over thirty years now, and they can get great sounds out of their instruments and spaces when recorded brand new. My issue with the remixes is that they feel like they took stuff recorded a specific way and mixed it for how they'd mix an entirely new recording done with Ken's very clean and methodical recording style (Small Crimes' loud section really sounds like it has a modern Failure album Kellii drum sound, as a great example), so everything has this tweaked feeling that isn't particularly flattering to albums not recorded for that.

Now, remixes aren't gonna do it for everyone, I get that, and that's fine. A lot of people seem to like them and I'm the odd duck. (I liked some of the remixes on R.E.M.'s anniversary edition of Monster, whereas everyone else seems to think they're pretty meh, so that's another example of me being strange about mixes.) I think what I have more of an issue with is that it's a lot harder to buy lossless copies of the original mixes than it is the remixes. It seems you can buy Magnified on CD through Hellomerch, which is great and I like that it seems to be back in print (I have original copies of all three of their original albums on CD already), but what's more easily accessible for most people now, the Bandcamp copy or a CD? You can stream the original mixes, but streaming is terrible for preservation. A song can get pulled from Spotify at any moment (Failure fans should know that well). I'd like to see the band have the original Comfort and Magnified up on their Bandcamp so that way folks can decide which they prefer for themselves or have both.

I know this is already well known but I want to say it again non the less,Ken is a beast when it comes to mixing and mastering.I remember being blown away when I listened to Fantastic Planet for the first time.The first thing that amazed me,alongside the brilliant bass performance on the album,is the overall sound.The way he blended all the instruments together without losing any detail at all.How lucky am I that 2 of my favorite music engineers worked on the discography of my favorite band(Steve Albini on Comfort and obviously Ken).

Finally guys, enjoy! https://open.spotify.com/album/2KrI4ABS4wYOE7qFFTN7oR?si=oiUL5GmXShS14rDIuqzk3w

Title says it all really; im mainly wanting to know what gain pedals they used to get that droning thud. Any help is appreciated!!

Do you recon failure will ever come to the uk? I discovered the band a couple of years ago and have been a massive fan since, it’s a dream to see them live but I live in the uk. Have they ever been to the uk before or is there a chance they ever will?

i fuckin love ken andrews vocal style and the guitars sound awesome. the distortion and post hardcore sound is so cool. my favorite album of theirs is magnified.

saw someone mention Failure earlier in r/nirvana and decided to check them out and I felt like telling you guys hi lol

I think the later albums don’t get any recognition but. Itfybwbtftfym is better than Fantastic Planet and I’ll argue that point forever.

A) I know that Failure also objected to Spotify's royalty setup and not just the Joe Rogan podcast

B) I know that I can listen on Bandcamp

C) I know that I can upload local files and play them on Spotify, but this does not help me on my work computer, which is where I do 99% of my music listening

I respect that they decided to take a stand, but now that Neil and Joni have restored their discography, is there any chance that Failure might do the same?

Couldn't find info if cinquanta will be released for streaming on Spotify etc? Any info?

Been a fan of Failure's older stuff for a few months now, and only recently I checked out their post-comeback records after getting them on Bandcamp. Needless to say I love these and have been replaying them a ton, it's unfortunate the band is so lesser known today. But what's y'all's favorite album since the comeback? They're all quality to me, but I've found myself spinning In The Future Your Body Will Be The Furthest Thing From Your Mind the most.

Also, it's crazy to me how similar this band is to Hum. Not sonically, but with being lesser known alternative rock bands from the 90s that broke up for about 2 decades and came back with amazing work. And the fact that there's so much overlap with the fanbases. I see Hum mentioned all the time by Failure fans.

Posted this as a reply on another post here and thought it would make for an interesting discussion point. Everyone has their own interpretation of the album, I'd like to hear them.

My idea as far as the "space" story goes is that it's overall a reinterpretation of the Solaris story. If you haven't seen any film version of the story, or read the original novel, basically Solaris can read your thoughts and construct aspects of your memory that seem to weigh heavily on your mind into reality. It can be person or place.

By Heliotropic he's basically being consumed by the ocean planet to the point that his humanity barely remains. Daylight sees the Protagonist now dead, drowned and entombed in the depths of the ocean planet. Different songs here and there are the Protagonist in a tug-of-war between reality and losing himself to the enticements of the planet (or could be seen as heroin/a relationship).

Leo and Pitiful are the Protagonist believing that they're back on Earth but it's just a mass creation of Solaris. He notices little hints but chooses to ignore them as he misses Earth/sobriety, so to speak.

The album fading in and out with the same sound effect implies a cycle. The story goes on and on from person to person. The album tells a relatable story and it can be inferred that the album warns against letting yourself get consumed by "Solaris", whatever that may be for you.

The Tarkovsky version of the film has an ending that terrifies me more than any horror movie. I used to live and think not unlike Kelvin and would have made the same ultimate decision, if I were in his shoes. Glad I've made choices to better myself. But it's a struggle.

I’ve been on a science fiction kick lately and have been watching movies referenced by the band.

So far I’ve watched Fantastic Planet and Solaris, but I know there are more.

What are the others?