Tag Archives: Bluray Disc

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Around The World With The Police on Blu-ray

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

It’s probably just as well that I never saw the original 1980s VHS video tape released version of the live quasi-documentary / concert video about Britain’s reggae-punk-pop sensations, The Police. Hold on to that thought for a moment…

Watching the new restored version of The Police Around The World has been very enjoyable in all its media-buzzed, manic pop thrilled, superstars-ascendant glory. The visuals are excellent as 1979-80 concert footage goes, especially for a then still-up-and-coming band. The Police were really big by 1980 but not as massive as they were about to get in the next couple of years by the time this video tape was originally released.  Apparently the film was shot in 16mm and transferred to HD video for the restoration process. 

Actually, The Police Around The World is quite stunning at times, showing the band just at that point between selling out larger theaters but before they became a stadium-filling act. The shows in Japan and Hong Kong are especially powerful but all the footage throughout shows just what a great band they were at that moment and how the fans were responding in kind. The music here is solid basic rock ‘n’ roll Stereo and it’s sounding very good indeed on the Blu-ray Disc at 48 kHz and 24 bits.

The accompanying CD is also very enjoyable because it gives you the full songs from many of the performances on the video and then some.  The performances are of course outstanding and still pretty exciting. This is prime Police from that initial adrenaline-rush era of hits including “Message In A Bottle,” “Bring On The Night,” “Can’t Stand Losing You,” “So Lonely” and of course “Roxanne.”  

My only nit with The Police Around The World package is that I wish the producers had also given us all the same album of songs on the Blu-ray as is found on the CD.  Adding them in high resolution Stereo audio probably would not have taken up much additional space on the disc.  Even with the bonus video clips that are included — full performances of four songs from Japan which are excellent! – they could’ve fleshed out the Blu-ray significantly.

Of course, there is that factor of bang for the buck and with it selling on Amazon for just over $20, The Police Around The World is a very fairly priced package all things considered.

Still, there are some what-ifs to consider. I was talking with a friend who is a much bigger Police fanatic than I, and learned that there hasn’t been much new archival material for the hardcore fans in some time. So I can appreciate the desire for more extras in the package.

Going back to my opening paragraph, the reason I mentioned that it was a good that I’d never seen the original VHS version of The Police Around The World is that apparently there have been quite a number of edits and even some changes to the program in making this new Blu-ray and DVD edition. Personally, I have no problem with this and certainly respect the decisions of the band to present their music as they see fit. Looking at some of the edits fans are missing on the new edition, many seem to be surrounding special effects and transitions and such.

If you are interested, click here to explore a fan wiki page with a very detailed contrasting of the differences. I don’t know why certain decisions were made but it is entirely possible that in trying to create an updated 21st century version — which involves going back to original source footage and high definition film scanning, transfer and restoration processes — that some of those old early video effects were not reproducible in high resolution.

Having done a fair amount of video editing (supervision) work in the late ’80s and early ’90s I know that some effects put to master U-Matic or Betacam tape stock were done on-the-fly in real time. So there isn’t necessarily just some button one can push to recreate that exact look and feel. Some elements may also be missing from the archives at this point. And, certain elements used from different interview sources may be unavailable for technical and licensing reasons for use on modern formats including streaming and Blu-ray. Assembling a collection like this can be a bit of a production Pandora’s Box!

So… it is understandable to me that a new incarnation of The Police Around The World might be created. Perhaps a bit more clarity in marketing future products/changes might help to set realistic expectations with the fans.

Personally, I’m thrilled that they have the original film elements of the concert footage in their archives. That is the most important thing!

Anyhow, I am hoping that this release is just the beginning of a new era of archival releases for The Police. I do hope that the band will take a cue from artists like Bruce Springsteen, The Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa and XTC who have done a great job of giving the fans everything they might want and more as far as archival releases go. Bob Dylan has also in many ways set a standard for how this kind of a series can be executed successfully for fan and artist alike. Oh…. and The Beatles haven’t done too shabby a job with mining their archives. 

Just sayin’….

All in all, if you are a fan you will want to own The Police Around The World.  The footage is great, the performances and the energy fantastic.  And it sounds pretty fabulous all things considered as 40-year-old punk-pop-reggae live recordings go. This has primed and rekindled my interest in their music with fresh ears and eyes. I for one am eager to see and hear more Police releases from the archives in the future. 

World News

Listening/Viewing Report: Elton John’s Madman Across The Water 50th Anniversary Boxed Set Preview (Part 1 – The Bonus Videos)

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

I’ve waited 50 years to review one of my all time favorite albums and about 20 to talk more publicly about the surround sound mix (which I’ll do later this week). The new 50th anniversary super deluxe edition box set of Elton John’s fourth studio album Madman Across The Water — coming out later this week! — is a wonderful celebration of a crucial crossroads in the artists’ career. It also happens to be a very important album to me personally.

Keeping a long boring story short, when I was around 10 years old my Dad noticed I was playing my older brother’s first Elton John album a lot. So he started buying me Elton’s subsequent albums as they came out, first Tumbleweed Connection and then Madman Across The Water.  I can’t underscore how much this latter record meant to me then and still does today.

While I will soon get to the Surround Sound and Stereo mixes ’n demos ’n stuff in an upcoming segment of the this listening report, I thought it would be fun to begin this boxed set journey with one of the happy surprises included in the set: high quality broadcast video from the period.  On the Blu-ray Disc are two live performances filmed at the BBC: Sounds For Saturday (taped November 11, 1971, aired April 29, 1972) and The Old Grey Whistle Test (broadcast December 7, 1971).  The video quality — especially the Sounds For Saturday piece — looks pretty incredible for its age.  

The Old Grey Whistle Test material has some visual anomalies but it is important to consider that it is amazing that this footage even still exists! The BBC was notorious (especially in the 60s, and I assume into the early 70s) for “wiping” video tapes after a performance had been broadcast.  Given that this was recorded on relatively primitive color video of the day, it looks pretty terrific all things considered, even playing on my 50-inch 1080p television. There might have been clips of this circulating among fans on VHS back in the day but I suspect that most of us haven’t seen early footage of Elton from this period in quite this quality. Some of this footage seems to have been previewed on Elton’s YouTube channel in recent years but its great to be able to add it into the collection, accessible whenever we’d like without having to worry about internet connectivity. 

Navigation screen from the Blu-ray Disc of Madman Across The Water

Of course the performances are exemplary, with Elton and his band — drummer Nigel Olsson and bassist Dee Murray — remarkably delivering the necessary buoyant lift to these songs which on LP were often wrapped in lush orchestral studio creations. If you’ve ever heard Elton John’s live album from 1970 (originally titled 17-11-70 in the UK and 11-17-70 in the US) you know just how rocking they could get when performing material from the prior albums.  

To hear tracks like “Indian Sunset,” “Levon” and “Tiny Dancer” in this manner is spectacular. We get to hear different arrangements and even some alternate lyrics (there is an extra verse in the live version of “Holiday Inn” which is fun, though I can understand why it was left off the studio release). 

It is especially rewarding to hear “Madman Across The Water” live as it became a platform of improvisation for Elton. Given that there are none of Paul Buckmaster’s over-the-top (and wonderful) orchestral arrangements here, Elton and the band rock and jam out on the song for quite some time, with often great washes of sound coming from his piano.

The Old Grey Whistle Test performance is exciting for me as Elton performs a solo piano version of arguably my favorite of his songs, “All The Nasties” live, a song which I suspect he didn’t have much opportunity to play live at the time. That it is a fantastic performance makes it all the more mesmerizing.  

Taken together, these performances give us a complete live version of the Madman Across The Water album!

It is worth noting how impressive Elton is on these live-without-a-net performances, especially as they were taped at the end of their exhaustive U.S. tour. He appears incredibly calm and confident, barely breaking a sweat under the no doubt hot studio lighting (especially when wearing likely polyester clothing at the time!).  The band is perfectly in sync with Elton, especially their harmonies on tracks like “Razor Face” and “Rotten Peaches.”  The vocal blend is just about perfect.

Included in Elton John’s Madman Across The Water 50th Anniversary edition is a dedicated CD of the Sounds For Saturday performance which you can enjoy on its own. The audio quality is excellent for its age.  While it sounds like it is Monaural — broadcast television was only mono at that time folks —the fidelity is terrific to the point where I wonder if they had a dedicated audio recorder capturing the performance as a back up (vs. just taking audio off the video tape).  Whatever the source, is I’m grateful this has been officially released. 

There is so much more to talk about on this set which I’ll get into tomorrow in part two of my listening report on Elton John’s Madman Across The Water 50th Anniversary boxed set. Stay tuned! 

World News

The Beatles Let It Be Super Deluxe Editions: Part 1, The Stereo and Surround Remixes

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

A few weeks ago you might remember that I previewed a new boxed set celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles’ legendary “last” album that wasn’t really their last, Let It Be.  If you missed that feature, please click here so you can catch up on important background for appreciating this current review.

Crafted during a difficult period for the band, the album was actually recorded before 1969’s Abbey Road but not completed and released until 1970.  This new 50th Anniversary edition of Let It Be features not only new Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound remixes of the Phil Spector-produced album but it also includes the much anticipated (and long bootlegged) earlier version of the album by engineer Glyn Johns. Plus, we also get a wealth of session outtakes and a beautiful hardcover full color book that is chockfull of important insights and some incredible photography from the period. 

I suspect that the first question some of you may have is: do I need this boxed set? 

The answer to that will depend on how deep of a Beatle fan— and how “into” the Get Back sessions (as they are often called) — you are.  Deep Beatle fans will want this set.  I personally welcome a set like this which curates and focuses our attention on the “best bits” from the sessions. 

In this part of my listening report, I’ll explore the new Stereo and Surround Sound mixes of the original album as heard on the high resolution Blu-ray Disc included with the 50th Anniversary edition of Let It Be.  

I have to preface this review with an admitted bias: I genuinely like the original Let It Be album a lot! I bought it with my own saved-up money when it first came out; dating myself, I was maybe nine years old!  

Yet, like many of you out there in the Beatle universe, I too have mixed feelings about it.  It wasn’t until many years later — when I started to hear grumbles from some Beatle fans who disliked Spector’s dense orchestrations — that I learned that Paul McCartney himself didn’t like Spector’s treatment of his classic “The Long And Winding Road.” All this gave me pause to consider whether Spector’s work was off the mark.  

On the one hand I can see the nay-sayer’s point of view, especially on “The Long And Winding Road,” where the choirs, harps and strings do jump the shark (if you will) into that sort of schmaltzy easy listening vibe which was popular in some 1950s and early ‘60s mainstream pop productions. On the flip side, that Muzak-esque vibe is not all that far removed from the closing track of The Beatles’ White Album, “Goodnight.”

Listening with fresh ears in preparation for this review — and with additional perspective as a songwriter producer myself — I think that in certain instances Spector’s additions do help elevate and escalate the songs as compared to their stripped down counterparts. They certainly made the songs viable for commercial radio play in 1970. 

As cool as it is, I wonder how engineer/producer Glyn John’s stripped down version of the album (which we’ll explore tomorrow) might have fared on AM radio back in the day — to my ear, his album’s sound is ultimately more of an FM oriented vibe. Again, we’ll explore that more tomorrow.

At the end of the day, Spector’s mix is what it is. And at that moment in time it worked as a sort of bittersweet farewell to the band, delivering an end-of-an-era vibe which still can draw a tear from this lifetime Beatle fan. Giles Martin refers to it as a “timeless sound” in the book included with the new boxed set. 

So it is with that perspective that I applaud The Beatles and Giles Martin’s team for deciding to try to make the most of the Spector production for posterity. 

In fact, Sir Paul McCartney himself — again, he the understandably most upset by Spector’s mix — has gone on record in the book accompanying the 50th Anniversary edition of Let It Be saying “The album we made was given to Phil Spector to put the finishing touches to and even though, I must admit, I was not keen on some of his additions it turned out to be a fine Beatles album in the end.”

So, there we have it. Paulie likes it!  Kidding aside, this reminds me of XTC’s Andy Partridge who has acknowledged in retrospect that despite all the challenges they went through creating their masterpiece Skylarking, Todd Rundgren’s production helped shape the album into the beloved recording it is today.

So, rather than strip away the production aesthetics, Giles Martin and his team have preserved Spector’s work and tried to make it sound as good as possible in the context of The Beatles’ original music.  To that, I think Martin has found a nice equilibrium on the 50th Anniversary edition of Let It Be. More on that in a moment.… 

As with Martin’s work on Sergeant Pepper, The White Album and Abbey Road he has made the vocals clearer and the instruments more defined in this new remix.

In general, the acoustic guitars are lush, woody and resonant sounding throughout in these new Stereo mixes, especially noticeable on tracks like “Across The Universe,” “Two Of Us” and “For You Blue.” Ringo’s drums sound beautiful and natural throughout. They are much more distinct now so you can really feel his incredible fills on the rocking bridge section of “I Me Mine.” 

“I’ve Got A Feeling” brings up Lennon’s backing vocals more so the “oh yeah’s” he and McCartney sing feel a bit more raucous and exciting together.  McCartney’s bass on “One After 909” felt a wee bit hot in the mix on my Stereos but that is a minor point and ultimately it does propel the song on better in an appropriately bouncy manner. 

Back to the Spector portions of the mix, his arrangements seem just a tad lower on “Across The Universe.” There is now incredible clarity on “Let It Be” allowing you to hear each of The Beatles’ instruments vividly while the strings and choirs are just a smidge lower in the mix — it is not as much of an assault (if you will) as it is on the original mix, putting the band at the song’s center.  

As I mentioned earlier, arguably the biggest offender in the original mix — which you will read in the book in boxed set just how much it offended Paul McCartney — happened on “The Long & Winding Road.”  On Giles Martin’s new mix, Paul and his piano are more up front (so it feels more like Beatles with strings vs. strings with Beatles, if you will). The bass is more audible and the choirs are pulled back a bit at times as are the harps. Notably, now you can hear Paul’s closing piano flourishes which are no longer buried by the strings — everything is blended together quite splendidly. You can also more clearly hear the subtle emotions in Paul’s voice which at times were overshadowed by the strings (for example, listen how he holds the note singing “let me know the way…” around the 1:20 mark)

Stereo Navigation Screen From The Let It Be Hi Res 96/24 Blu-ray

In general, I was impressed how warm the 96 kHz, 24-bit Blu-ray treats the music. I’ll put it this way: it feels like Let It Be should feel, not an overly bright effort to make it sound modern or whatever. It is clear and crisp but it also sounds remarkably rich.

THE SURROUND SOUND MIX

As nice as the Stereo mix is, I think I like the Surround Sound mix just that much more because it opens up the music. It reveals even more of the original live band feel yet retains that lush and distinctive studio vibe.   

In general, the orchestral strings lean toward the rear channels leaving you to more fully hear the core of the band in the front channels. It is a logical approach that works very well, creating an immersive effect and a new listening experience that is not gimmicky. For those of you still on the fence, this new perspective might help re-define your appreciation of this version of the album.

Keeping the band to the front channels mostly makes for a gently immersive mix with some tasteful touches, periodically using the surrounds for acoustic guitars and lead lines.

“I Dig a Pony” rocks madly in 5.1 surround (be sure to listen for Ringo’s final cymbal crash).

“Across The Universe” is even more haunting in surround sound, if that is possible.  The choirs and harps are somewhat lower in the mix but you can at times almost feel them around you. The only casualty I noticed is that the Sitar sounds much more blended into the mix (this is true on the new Stereo version as well, by the way). As much as I like that detail popping out on the old mix, this new incarnation sounds tighter and more focused, yet no less dreamy. And again, it keeps the listener’s attention on Lennon’s vocals.

Ringo’s kick drum and tom toms on “I Me Mine” are huge and his awesome rolling fills sound massive here. Again, the orchestral parts being a bit lower in the mix feels more natural, less invasive and beneficial to the song.  I can hear more overdriven guitar amplifier tone coming through on the signature boogie in the rocking section.

“I’ve Got A Feeling” puts the core band and driving rhythm guitars up front and center with Billy Preston’s keyboards emanating from the rear with the lead guitar. “The Long And Winding Road” finds the strings and choirs mostly in the back and I even noticed a nice Fender Rhodes-sounding electric piano part there which was not super audible on the original mix.

Blu-ray 96/24 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Surround Navigation Screen

Billy’s honky tonk tack piano percolates towards the rear, coming up more in the mix for the solo on “For You Blue,” while John’s slide parts fill up the room.  

And so it goes on the 5.1 mix for the 50th Anniversary edition of Let It Be — there is much surround sound richness to enjoy here!

Tune in tomorrow when we’ll explore the very important first official release of Glyn Johns’ 1969 vision for what the Let It Be album might have been in its original guise as Get Back. 

World News

Hendrix Live In Maui, Part 2: The Blu-ray Experience

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

In Part 1 of my review of The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui we explored the three album vinyl portion of the set.  If you missed that, please click here to jump to it as it provides much important background on the underlying concert. 

In the included Blu-ray, we get to see The Jimi Hendrix Experience performing live on Maui in Hawaii just over a month before his death. It is a remarkable performance not only from how Hendrix and the band were playing but also just the fact that anything was recorded at all!  The filming and production was plagued by electrical problems, technical glitches and 30-40 mile per hour winds!  

So don’t be surprised when you see the microphones on stage wrapped up in foam (reportedly pulled out of their guitar cases) to act as wind screens. Producer/Engineer Eddie Kramer deserves much kudos for making these recordings sound as good as they do, pulling out as much of the band’s instrumentation and fidelity as possible, capturing that essence of live concert sound without the blustery wind swept madness that you see on screen in some of the film footage. 

Because there were at times problems with the signals going to the drums, back in the day drummer Mitch Mitchell remarkably re-recorded his performance — playing to “rushes” of the film in the studio! For this new definitive edition, Kramer was able to repair and restore more of the original drum tracks. If you listen real closely to the Stereo version you can sort of make out when the ambiance changes a little bit.  But he did such a good job that it is not easy. 

When you watch the performances and listen in 5.1 surround sound (in DTS HD Master Audio, for those of you who are curious) you can hear those sonic changes a bit more easily. I am guessing here, but it seems that as the three dimensional sound field for the different tracks come into focus, the audio seems to move around you a bit as portions of music change from live tracks to studio replacements.  It isn’t bad and in fact I found it quite fascinating as it became a kind of aural cue that some change was afoot. 

More noticeable are those moments where Mitch Mitchell wasn’t able to recreate exactly his live performance in the studio, so there are times when what you see happening on screen doesn’t match up with what you are hearing. 

Once you get accustomed to this incongruity, it is not really a big deal. Ultimately The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui is about the music which is sublime here!

The only significant quirk to be aware of is that the film footage is incomplete. There were times when the power went out for the cameras while the band and the eight-channel multi-track recorder kept cooking along.

So don’t be surprised when you periodically see still images on screen including some that say “All Cameras Stopped.”  Really!  It is weird, but it is also kind of cool, enhancing the sort of archival, archeological dig vibe that we get in a package like this.

Consider it kind of like when you go to a museum and you see the bones of a dinosaur — your mind, inspired by artist drawings and decades of science fiction films from Godzilla to Jurassic Park, fleshes them out so you can imagine their ferocious beauty.

And so it goes with The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui.

The documentary — Music, Money, Madness… — included on the Blu-ray is both interesting and frustrating. In its attempt to tell the story of how the Rainbow Bridge film project came about in the first place, and why The Jimi Hendrix Experience got roped into being in it, the documentary itself gets plenty convoluted. Almost as convoluted, I suspect, as the actual film which is not on this disc!

Personally, I’m am curious to see the actual Rainbow Bridge film as it sounds like a fascinating hippie train wreck — apparently the original four hour epic was whittled down to an hour and a half for commercial considerations and still it failed miserably as a cinematic experience. 

Perhaps it is better in the long run that the film is not included in this collection, keeping the focus on the music which is really all that matters at the end of the day.

If you like Hendrix and the material he was working on on just before his death, you’ll need to own The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live In Maui.  The vinyl sounds great all things considered and the available live concert footage on the Blu-ray Disc is wonderful. Selling commonly for under $50, this is a no brainer to pick up.