(PR) Acclaimed California prog rock band Rocket Scientists has announced the release of Looking Backward, a multi-disc package that reissues and revisits their back catalog in grand fashion. Looking Backward contains expertly remastered CD editions of the band's first three studio albums; Earthbound (1993); Brutal Architecture (1995); and Oblivion Days (1999) along with bonus tracks on each disc. All of the original artwork is included in the package as part of a full-color 64-page 5x7 book. The Looking Backward book also contains thorough liner notes and commentary from the musicians along with extensive photos by Raj Naik, Neil Zlozower and Scott Streble.To complete the Looking Backward package, the core Rocket Scientists musicians, Mark McCrite (v,g), Erik Norlander (k) and Don Schiff (Stick), returned to the same Los Angeles area studio where they recorded the early albums and commenced a series of new sessions with drummer / percussionist Greg Ellis who appears on Norlander and Schiff's solo albums as well as on the Rocket Scientists OBLIVION DAYS album from 1999. The quartet recorded a new disc of "live in the studio" material where they reinterpreted songs from the band's early studio albums, some with the benefit of over 15 years of perspective.
This fourth disc, "The 2007 Sessions", chronicles those recordings. Additional unreleased material recorded over the years was added to "The 2007 Sessions" disc including a special version of the Rocket Scientists classic, "Mariner", with guest vocals from long time Erik Norlander collaborator, Kelly Keeling. Two songs from the Oblivion Days album, "Escape" and "Break the Silence", were also remixed especially for "The 2007 Sessions" disc.
But the band didn't stop there. Producer Erik Norlander brought in an HD video crew to film "The 2007 Sessions", and these live-in-the-studio performances appear in the Looking Backward package on the fifth disc, an NTSC region-free DVD. The DVD also includes lengthy interviews with the band as well as historical footage going all the way back to the first album recording sessions in 1992. Norlander also filmed a bonus featurette, "An Afternoon with Emmett Chapman "where Stick maestro Don Schiff discusses his groundbreaking instruments with their creator, inventor Emmett Chapman.
