I'm surprised anyone would pay for boots nowadays.

elmer said:

If you think an ipod or a pc is 'storage' then yes your remark's context is right.

NouveauDance said:

tbf their WOW release was A+ quality, and disc2 here comprises the BOC and the pulled I'll Do Anything EP which're as good as you're gonna find.

i don't give two shits about the artwork. it's music by musicians, they didn't create the fucking artwork in the first place

elmer said:

Not sure if I understand this?
You're basicly saying this release is justified, because they ripped-off FREE releases and are charging money for it???
Except the odd 2 D4Me Remixes, NOTHING on this set is new or an upgrade.
But it's alright to charge crazy money for it, only because it's pressed?
What a joke of a release. (and so was WOW for the record)

How much of Vegas would we have had if Eye didn't make money to fund those kinda trips?

Chrisebabey said:

And your point is??
I didn't read anything about Vegas in this topic?
And I couldn't care less about those Vegas shows tbh.

How much of Vegas would we have had if Eye didn't make money to fund those kinda trips?

The moralistic fallacy.....

Chill, stand back and look at all the points of view.

look at all the points of view.

here’s a number of reasons you don’t see outtake sets anymore. The fact that there really isn’t anything new out there is the most obvious one (with the rare exception of FBG’s recent release listed here but more on that later). In truth, what a set like this really amounts to is just a ‘collection’ of tracks put together by people with little or no imagination left. It’s the equivalent of going through your hard drive, chucking a few tracks into a favourites folder then charging an obscene amount of money to people for the privilege of listening to it. Of course, the carefully chosen wording dotted around the accompanying artwork for this set would have you believe otherwise but once you start sifting through the contents you soon realise that’s a bit of a con actually.

There’s a lot of stuff on here so I won’t talk about each track individually. Suffice to say, there is nothing new and what you have to decide is whether you can be bothered to go and get any of the tracks you need yourself (really not hard in the majority of examples) or actually buy this release to save you the bother. Well, you have a think about that while I talk about the content.....



The title ‘Lotus Box’ would suggest that we’re looking at a collection of mostly recent material and whilst that is true of Disc 1, the remainder of this box set amount’s to little more than uncredited theft and random filler material from related artists. I can’t abide these monstrous 3 or 4 CD sets that have no structure or purpose, seemingly being little more than being a pressed version of somebody’s iTunes folder. Anyway, let’s look at the first disc. This one comprises mainly of newer material from Prince. Everything from Discojellyfish and Ambient Loop ripped from Lotusflow3r.com to recent atrocities Purple & Gold and Cause and Effect. The Morning After is also just a rip from the downloadable version of the Lotusflow3r album and we’re also ‘treated’ to a couple of other tracks grabbed from the (now defunct) website. Great start....



As we progress we start to see the worrying trend of website pillaging continue as various Ahdio shows from the NPGMC days are raped of content for no logical reason whatsoever and the odd 3121.com download thrown in for good measure. Actually, truth be known, it’s a good job they put these tracks onto disc for me as I’d been living under a rock for the last 10 years. The only saving grace on this opening disc for me is that there is a chance the Dance 4 Me remixes are taken from the original acetates so we may have true lossless versions of them finally and seeing as these promo discs are extremely rare, this could be perceived as a positive inclusion. It would have been useful, of course, if Eye Records could have confirmed the source on their liner notes but they didn’t so we may never know for sure.



And so to Disc 2 (takes a large gulp of whisky....). The opening portion consists of the snippets collection that saw the light of day early in 2009 and are basically one and half minute teasers of a bunch of songs Prince recorded for possible use by other artists. The tape was passed around various studios for consideration and is a mixed bag but was certainly great for fans at the time, finally getting hold of the ‘legendary’ unreleased songs like ‘Cosmic Day’ and ‘Adonis & Bathsheeba’. There’s a good chance you may have missed these so their inclusion here isn’t all that bad.....shame the same can’t be said for what follows.....



Hey look, we’ve got a selection of Dream Factory era outtakes here....and WOW, they’re in new and improved quality. Where on earth did Eye scoop these gems from. They must have some real great contacts to have got.....oh wait, sorry I’ve just realised they stole them from FBG’s ‘Box O’ Chocolates’ release. Hey, at least they did the honourable thing and mentioned the source of the tracks on the artwork... They didn’t? Wait, let me just check the covers again.....err, nope, you’re right they didn’t. They did, however put a truly reprehensible quote on one part of the inlay cover with the words ‘Life is like a box of chocolates....’. Not sure they could sink much lower than that, do you? I’ve said all I need to say about these new versions in the original review I did (link further up) so I won’t waste any time repeating myself. I’m sure you get the general idea of my feelings about their inclusion here. The remainder of the songs also throw up some glaring errors with the liner notes. For instance, we have ‘Joy In Repetition’ billed as the ‘full intro’ version when in actual fact it is the segued version from ‘The Ball’ and ‘Rebirth Of The Flesh’ is described as “When the 3-LP [referring to Crystal Ball] was rejected, Prince included the song on the Camille album and it remains the only track from that album to be released” Well, that’s just all kinds of wrong. As for the rest of the disc we’re presented with the ‘I’ll Do Anything’ session tracks.....again. Bravo.



Disc 3 is material from related artists and its appeal is limited to whether you actually like these people’s music or not. Pop My Clutch is just the album version and I’m told that 'Exploding All Over Europe (Junior Vasquez Dance Mix)' and 'Hit U In The Socket (2001 Version)' are available to purchase officially from Rosie Gaines’ own website. Nothing else on this portion of this set does it for me personally, but that’s just my opinion as I don’t hold any real interest in these artists.



So I’m guessing it’s pretty clear by now that I don’t like this release. I don’t care for the content and I don’t care for the hefty price tag that accompanies it. It’s a lazy effort designed to attract the casual collectors or ill-informed. Eye Records need to get their act together and soon as they’re rapidly becoming the bootlegging equivalent of a bad cover band who waits around for someone to write a good song, then makes some money off it by playing it to others on the small club circuit. In the modern age of file sharing, releases like this are not going to win them any new fans or new customers for that matter and anyone who really feels the need to own this set will more than likely seek to download a free copy from any number of places around the internet. There’s still hope left with the upcoming Prince shows in Europe and maybe a small chance that Eye can redeem themselves with a quality release. However, they would do well in taking stock of their current output and thinking long and hard about whether any of it is truly worth it. You can only pull the wool over peoples ‘eyes’ so many times before they start to see you for what you truly are and with the recent slew of lacklustre releases, now might be a good time.

Some time ago I lost a lot of audiotracks for a crash on my old PC.
With CDs I've got no worries

You've taken it to a whole new level...voicing disatisfactuon about Prince ripping you off whilst you rip him off.

The rose-coloured glasses brigade are goingbtonhwve to come up with a whole new category of distane for you

BoraBora said:

Not really considering CD's have a very limited life span before the contents start to deteriorate. What do you think is in a HD?

Not really considering CD's have a very limited life span before the contents start to deteriorate. What do you think is in a HD?

In x years' time, CDs will become museum articles. Before that happens your only option will be ripping the stuff onto your computer (or equivalent device) in the best possible format.

...Exactly the same as if you only had a CDr.

But don't worry, someone will be there to do the same Eye Records are doing now: get your money doing the 'work' for you.

As I said earlier in this thread, I can't feel sorry about someone taking your money for what you could get for free if it's that what you want.

vitriol said:

Museum articles? Same thing was said about vinyl 20+ years ago, its still around.

I'm still gonna buy it anyway. And so will all other Prince "completists"...

so there is a market for this rehashed stuff unfortunately.