Terry Brown Remix of Distant Early Warning Drops at Midnight!

[treeduck]

45 minutes ago, PurpleHayes said:

 

What bugs me about HYF, other than the plethora of mid-paced songs overloaded with Alan Parsons-like keyboards, is that the guitar is so far back in the mix...which was odd since Collins produced both albums and the guitar was definitely more prominent on Power Windows. The guitar on HYF sounds like Alex was in the Yukon and his guitar was recorded over a bad phone line.

By the time that album came out in 1987 I was over the whole synth vs guitar battle with Rush. I was pretty happy with HYF and Power Windows, I just enjoyed the songs without bothering about how down in the mix the guitars were or even that the band were looking like ABC and so forth.

[condemned2bfree]

I like this Terry Brown remix. The highs are tamed a lot with a lot more warmth low end, and Alex's guitars sound upfront and well placed. The separation seems a bit full on, but works as a whole. Ged's bass sounds tamed, without that familiar pinch he typically has, and it seems slight right of centre. Keys are pushed away, and lowered in volume, which i prefer. Snare is thick. Reverb seems less, with a more drier ambiance, drums and overall, which works imo. Overall I like it, this particular separation seems a new approach, but it works. A polished live performance of Rush, fantastic.

 

Oh I'm sure you can hear Neils sticks clatter at the fade out with Ged's bass flubb too, which is perfect.

Edited February 22 by condemned2bfree

[Ged Lent's sis]

On 2/22/2026 at 12:45 AM, PurpleHayes said:

 

Awesome! Too bad the record company didn't know (or care) about that before they foisted that stinker 40th anniversary of Signals upon us.

In this Planet Rock interview, Alex says Terry Brown remixed all the anniversaries and mentions Signals specifically: 

 

[Vectorman]

On 2/21/2026 at 1:56 PM, Holdyourfireal said:

Anyone else miss the prominence of the keys?

I do, yeah. That main chordal motif sounded more majestic with that PPG sound higher in the mix. To me, it's a strange choice. Terry Brown didn't tend to bury keyboards in the mix on the albums he produced...on Moving Pictures or whatever, they were more front and center when it served the song and it was their moment to shine. And heck, that part of "Distant Early Warning" is the only time they're even used to a very obvious degree to begin with...the rest of the song is very guitar-based.