The Daily Swarm

Rhino Records reissued “collector’s editions” of New Order’s first five albums, which all originally came out in the 1980s. Each one features a bonus disc, with 7— and 12-inch versions, instrumentals and remixes.

But alert fans quickly complained of about 300 errors, mostly relating to poor sound quality on the bonus discs. The pops and crackles on many of the tracks suggest they were transferred directly from commercially available vinyl recordings rather than from the original master tapes.

Peter Hook, the bass player with the defunct group, said in his MySpace page that the reissue project was a “mess.” He blamed the label for not sending out advance copies so that he and his former bandmates could do some quality control.

Despite the discontent, Rhino released the discs in the United States last Tuesday, and U.S. fans noticed the same problems. Rhino, an affiliate of Warner Bros. Records, plans to reissue the reissues, and will allow fans to exchange their dud CDs.

“Warner Bros. UK, Rhino and New Order regret that the initial pressings of the Collector Editions of ‘Movement,’ ‘Power, Corruption & Lies,’ ‘Low-Life,’ ‘Brotherhood’ and ‘Technique’ contain some minor audio problems on the bonus discs,” a statement issued Thursday said.