Mr. G, aka producer Colin McBean, has announced the forthcoming release of a compilation, OG Retrospective, which tracks his musical journey over a 25-year career.
Set to be released via his Phoenix G label on 12 December, the 23-track compilation came about after McBean rediscovered his original recordings and set to work.
“The day I found my original studio masters and got my rights back was the starting point, and then I realised it’s 25 years on and it’s time to recode, remaster and reevaluate because I’ve never looked back
properly,” he says. “I’ve always been like a bat out of hell, never quite thinking I’m good enough or great at what I do, but it’s important to celebrate, because there’s not a lot of people still here, still doing it after this length of time.”
For the remastering process, McBean turned to Simon at The Exchange London, providing a connection to the original masters that were done by the late ‘Nilz’ (Nilesh Patel), who mastered much of his early material.
“All I’ve ever done is write and move forward, but more and more, I get the new generation sending me videos of my old tracks and sometimes I don’t even recognise them, so finally I thought, ‘ok, you’re comfortable in your own skin, let’s really see how you sounded at the beginning, how you’ve changed, how have the techniques changed’?” he says.
“It was quite raw going back over these; some of the memories are riddled with pain and angst – friends dying, where I was in my life at the time, having a heart attack and so on. Having a sound, too, can be a cross to bear. You’re only ever competing with yourself, your only game is being better than your last game, so if you dwell on the past too much you can’t move forward.
“Getting to the point where I can look back and feel happy, feels good.Invariably, what will come from this is ‘more’, because, with my own label I have endless possibilities and will continue telling my story.”
OG Retrospective will be issued as a limited six-12” box set and as a digital release. You can pre-order it here: https://phoenixg.bandcamp.com/album/og-retrospective
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