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New Brian Eno Dolby Atmos 5.1 Surround Sound Blu-ray FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE Offers Rich Immersive Listening Experience

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

It took me a bit to get my head around the new Brian Eno recording, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE. Once I understood it’s intent, I was able to allow myself to follow this legendary artist on the deep musical journey contained within.

For those not familiar with his music, Eno is one of the pioneers of what we now commonly refer to as “ambient music.” He is also a leading light in experimental musics including with collaborators as diverse as King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, Harold Budd, Jon Hassell and The Velvet Underground’s John Cale. Eno also has a great legacy of his own having come out of Britain’s legendary glam rock band Roxy Music. After leaving the group, he created four particularly inspired rock oriented recordings in mid 1970s before mostly directing his career towards ambient soundscapes, soundtracks and audio-visual installations around the world. 

While FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE is available on vinyl as well as streaming, it is also available as a surround sound experience which will be the focus of this review.  Mixed into the new Dolby Atmos format and available only on Blu-ray Disc, the album delivers a rich immersion which can take the listener even more into Eno’s mindset than the Stereo mix.

The music on this new Eno record is beautiful but admittedly a bit heavy as it is warning people about what is happening on our planet and its likely effects on mankind.  

His website explains: “It’s a sonically beguiling, ultimately optimistic exploration of the narrowing, precarious future of humanity and our planet. As Eno himself concludes, “Briefly, we need to fall in love again, but this time with Nature, with Civilisation and with our hopes for the future.” 

While it isn’t all doom and gloom, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE isn’t the dreamy, optimal bliss he explored long ago on tracks like “On Some Faraway Beach” from his solo debut Here Come The Warm Jets (“Given the chance I’ll die like a baby on some far away beach, when the season’s over….”).  A beautiful track like “These Small Noises” offers a harsher endgame vision (“Go to Earth, our hair on fire, go to Hell, in Hell to burn).

I think you get the idea… this isn’t easy, but many things that are good are worth working to appreciate. 

The mix on FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE is gently immersive yet very effective, delivering music and sound effects from all the surround channels and fields.  One of the challenges of mixing for Dolby Atmos is that it is a format originally (primarily?) designed for movies in theaters, not necessarily music. So an artist has to really consider what they want to do with those additional channels to make a compelling, notably the new “height” channels. 

I have heard some remixes of older music into Dolby Atmos and most have been quite disappointing as the producers simply added a bunch of artificial reverb, not really thinking about the experience as a three dimensional space where discrete information can be delivered to the listener. 

On Eno’s FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE in Dolby Atmos you’ll hear distinct detailing coming from each of the speakers at different points. Whether it’s a chime or the chang-like sound of an exotic bell, or some other kind of sparkly percussive instrument, all of these combine to create a beautiful, rewarding listening experience. At points you’ll feel like you are sitting in the out of doors, perhaps in or near a forest, with birds tweeting and other sounds of nature around you.  

The Super Deluxe Edition website offered some useful additional insight into Eno’s creative process in making this new Dolby Atmos listening experience. Engineer Emre Ramazanoglu reported: “It was fascinating approaching this Atmos mix with Brian in the room. He approached the mix in an extremely unorthodox fashion, removing the concept of a ‘front’ in the mix stage. It’s a fully immersive experience unlike others I have mixed. The song was still kept at the heart of the Atmos transformation though and he paid enormous attention to the position of each element and how that supported the piece as a whole. There will be also be differences from the stereo mix other than the spatial reimagining, due to the creative process that involved certain elements being subtly different from the original stereo masters.”

In many ways surround sound is the ideal way to hear FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE because it’s all ultimately about nature and man’s relationship to it.  As I said earlier this album is a little bit heavy so don’t go into this expected to hear purely soothing music. Eno sings on most of the tracks on here his voice is rich and compelling. Lyrically some of the songs may deliver a gut punch but that is the point. Ultimately, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE is a wake up call. Listen with open ears and open mind.

Brian Eno’s FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE in surround sound was only available for a limited time from the Super Deluxe Edition website, which is where I ordered my copy from. It is sold out at this point but if there is demand perhaps there will be another pressing run. It’s well worth getting if you have a Dolby Atmos set up and are into Eno’s music.

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Listening Report: Robert Fripp’s Exposures 32-Disc Boxed Set (Part 1, A Frippertronics Primer, Surround Sound & More)

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

If you know David Bowie’s hit song “Heroes” you are familiar with the sound of Robert Fripp’s guitar playing of its signature riff. If you’ve ever heard the landmark progressive rock album by King Crimson called “In The Court of the Crimson King” then you know some of Robert Fripp’s early work as well.  There is so much more…

That said, if you haven’t heard his 1979 release called Exposure you probably don’t have a complete picture of what Robert Fripp and his music is about: where it came from, where it went and where it might still be going. Arguably, in many ways this album helped shape the sound of popular music in the ‘80s and beyond.

The genesis of Exposure is a very involved story worthy of super deluxe boxed set. The new 32-disc boxed set, appropriately named Exposures, celebrates the album and this fertile period of Mr. Fripp’s life. This collection tells his story in music and words  about the evolution and exploration of a new sound, the power of a rich artistic statement which would effectively drive his career through into present times. 

Central to  Exposures was the development of his tape-loop recording process known as “Frippertonics” which blossomed from his work with Brian Eno on 1973’s No Pussyfooting and 1975’s Evening Star, in particular.

More Frippertronics music emerged, including solo live performances as a self-contained “small, intelligent, mobile unit.” Fripp toured with his guitar and several Revox reel-to-reel tape recorders, along the way refining and redefining his sound. The resulting performances and a series of formally released albums were immediately mind-boggling and breathtaking, simultaneously timeless and futuristic.

This music — and musical mindset — which Fripp crafted between the years of 1977 and 1983 (or thereabouts) is the heart and soul of the Exposures boxed set. 

As a Fripp fan from way back, I find this new boxed set as exhilarating as it is exhausting — but its a good exhausting! However, I can certainly understand that many casual listeners might not be able to wrap their head around an undertaking this massive. However if you are into the King Crimson universe and all things Fripp – and there are millions of us out there around the world – you probably want to invest in this madly wonderful collection if you haven’t already.

In Exposures we get several original albums from the period Including Exposure (and its several variant incarnations which the album underwent due to music industry machinations) Let The Power Fall, Under Heavy Manners, and The League of Gentlemen. We get this music on CD and on DVD Audio discs. And, we also get everything and more on Blu-ray Discs including brand new Steven Wilson produced remixes into 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio surround sound and even 7.1 Dolby Atmos! 

But wait, Krimson shoppers… There’s more!

On the Blu-ray especially we get the full archive of Fripp’s real-time tape loop performances from his concert series and other appearances, recorded between 1977 and 1982.  These stereo sequences seem to last on average about 30 minutes each, filling up two entire Blu-ray discs. This is a whole lot of music! I did some crude math and it seems that one of the discs alone has something like 30 hours of Frippertronics on it!

We get live concerts including the spectacular Washington Square Church show from 1981 which has also been mixed into 4.1 quadrophonic sound.

This is admittedly a bit involved and takes a great deal of open minded-ness to get one’s head around all that is happening here. In that sense, this set is a fantastic academia-worthy study not only on the artistic process but also on the evolution of new musical concepts and sounds. Nothing before or since sounded quite like Frippertronics!

“But for the uninitiated, what exactly does Frippertronics sound like?,” you ask…

That is a good question and it is difficult to answer easily in a way that anyone might be able to understand… but I’ll try (and I’m sure I’ll fail even though I’ve been trying to explain it to people since the early 1980s!). Fortunately in the boxed set Mr. Fripp has not only given us a replica of his press kit from that period of his career — with requisite publicity photos and lovely reproductions of concert posters, ticket stubs and memorabilia one would hope for in a super deluxe boxed set of this nature —  but he’s also included a photocopied background document explaining how it all works!

Anyhow, first recognize this music was made in pre-digital times — Frippertronics was initially an all analog process — many years before sampling and looping foot pedals existed. Using professional tape recorders, Fripp was able to record loops of very long, warm sounding, distorted and sometimes arpeggiated electric guitar tones which would regenerate upon themselves and decay naturally over time as new layers of sound were added.

The core of Fripp’s musical constructions feel almost classical in nature, almost waltz-like, often build upon a progression of single string picked short notes which — as they loop upon themselves — start to form chord-like washes of musical sound.  These loops would then become the musical bed for Fripp’s solo guitar improvisation on top of it all. 

The result is a haunting kaleidoscopic and hypnotic music which I can feel fairly safe in saying that it sounded like nothing else before or since. 

It is this intersection of structured musical invention and spontaneous improvisation which makes Frippertonics so powerful.  You know that the artist has had to think about certain sounds and note structures from the start before interacting with those recordings live without a net. 

Its almost like Jazz but it isn’t anything like Jazz. Its almost like minimalist classical music but it isn’t anything like minimalist classical music. It is just… Frippertronics!  When you stop to think about all he was doing then on these recordings, you realize this is the work of a master musician/composer at an early peak. 

If this Frippertronics music doesn’t sound enticing enough as a simple Stereo experience, try to consider how it might sound in surround sound.  I have been dreaming of hearing this music in a multi-speaker environment since I first started listening to it in the early 1980s… Talk about dreams coming true!

I’ve began my journey into Exposures by listening to two of the original albums included in the set on the Blu-ray Discs. These showcase very different aspects of the Frippertronics process, presented in rich sounding 96 kHz, 24-bit DTS HD Master Audio (you can also listen in high resolution PCM Stereo).

Let The Power Fall (navigation screen)

Let The Power Fall is a powerful pure Frippertronics listening experience, all taken from live performances. Steven Wilson’s wonderful and sympathetic new surround sound mix is gently immersive without feeling gimmicky — it is quite subtle and tasteful as the burbling bubbling layers of free flowing Frippery gently envelope the listener via the surround channels. At times, the music seems to fill the room and almost wash over and through you. Imagine if you were lying in the sun on an isolated island beach as small waves of gentle tropical waters lapped their way over you. 

It must have been a temptation to avoid having Frippertronic musical passages ping-ponging around the room in a discrete speaker-to-speaker manner.  As fun as that might be for one listen I am glad they took this more musical and non-gimmicky approach to the mix. 

The bigger surprise was how great the new wave punk oriented League of Gentlemen album fairs in surround sound: it’s almost like hearing an entirely new album and I mean that in the best possible way.  This album came out in the early 1980s — featuring Barry Andrews from XTC on keyboards and Sara Lee on bass who would soon after join The Gang Of Four — and it was an effort to mix Frippertronics with rock song structures. It was effectively a stepping stone toward the new incarnation of Fripp’s King Crimson which emerged later that year.   

The League Of Gentlemen (navigation screen)

The surround mix opens up this very dense and angular music significantly and seems to rock a lot harder than my old LP version. While I haven’t had a chance to compare/contrast it with the new remix, that idea seems almost a moot point here — the original vinyl mix will always be there and it will always be what it is (I have heard from some folks online that there have been some edits made to this new version). 

This surround sound mix is a new way of appreciating this music and this short lived band. You can better appreciate the connectivity between the supporting instruments and Fripp’s interwoven guitar tapestries. One of the bigger stand outs whose playing I appreciate much more on this mix is keyboardist Barry Andrews. His parts just jump out of the speakers in the best possible way, interlocking wonderfully with Fripp’s playing to unleash fascinating new sound combinations. The League of Gentlemen album still sounds fresh and energetic after all these years and even more so in surround sound.

Yes, this is Frippertronics that you can dance around to in the mosh pit!

There’s so much more to go into in this review series exploring Robert Fripp’s epic Exposures boxed set. Please stay tuned as my journey into this set will continue…

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Why Do You Need Springsteen’s 1979 No Nukes Concert Video?

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

You may have heard that an acclaimed Bruce Springsteen concert has been released on home video formats recently called The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts. Whether you are a deep Springsteen fanatic or just mildly curious about this legendary artist, this is a near perfect performance that is just long enough to be satisfying for hardcore fans and yet short enough to not overwhelm the uninitiated.

Now… A little background…

After Springsteen’s double whammy of releases in the mid-1970s — the groundbreaking Born To Run in 1975 and its powerhouse follow up, Darkness On The Edge of Town — Bruce was ascending very rapidly to superstar status. I first saw him live at Madison Square Garden in 1978 and the energy in the room — the connection between fans and the band as well as the emotional impact of the concert — made me a fan for life… And, I’d already been following him since his second album!

In 1979, Bruce was invited to perform at a benefit concert for Musicians United For Safe Energy (aka MUSE). Unfortunately I was in upstate New York at that time in college so I couldn’t go to the show but I really wanted to. It was no doubt going to be a special evening with all the artists on the bill including Tom Petty Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and many others.

A soundtrack album from those concerts — No Nukes: The Muse Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future — was issued in the early 80s.  Referred to most people I knew at the time as simply the “No Nukes” album, it was a good snapshot of the event but certainly not representative of everything that Bruce put the table that day.

His performances there have long been fan favorites and in need of an expanded view of what went down in those shows. 

Now, with The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts  we finally have the best possible document of Bruce’s legacy from those shows: a film with a high-quality Stereo soundtrack.

When I first started watching The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts I have to admit that I teared up because it captures that same energy and emotion that I experienced a year earlier in that same venue. Bruce is perhaps extra amped-up here because he knew he was being filmed — and this is significant given that by this time Bruce was renown for his fever pitch three-plus hour shows, increasingly giving even Dead Heads a new benchmark for epic concert experiences (for those not in the know, The Grateful Dead were by this time well known for there long dynamic concerts).  

Bruce always delivers and in this show he and the band pull out all the stops, firing with all cylinders 1000-percent on. It is a spectacular experience. 

If you didn’t have the chance to see Bruce this early on, you really need to experience The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts film to better understand what his first wave of star power was like…

Bruce breaks out early versions of some songs that would appear on The River a year later including the title track and “Sherry Darling.” There is a spectacular version of “Rosalita” and the “Jungleland” performance is simply spine tingling. 

Honestly it’s hard to pinpoint one favorite moment on The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts because they’re all great and really need to be seen as a whole to best appreciate.  Even the famous (so called) “Detroit Medley” (which was on the original No Nukes soundtrack) is way way more impactful taken in context with the full show. 

And as good as it is to listen to just the audio soundtrack – available on CD and vinyl –  when you watch the film and see Bruce interacting not only with the band and the audience, that is where his magic lies.  Talk about knowing how to control and work an audience, I saw him reduce the 1978 Madison Square Garden crowd to hushed silence where you could hear the air conditioning system hum.

Consider that Born To Run was just a few years old at that point when Bruce breaks into “Thunder Road,” so listen how the audience sings along in perfect time with the band during a key verse. They know the lyrics down cold. If you’ve ever been to a rock show where people try to sing along with the group usually it’s a messy affair but these fans tapped in to the heart and soul of what Bruce was doing.  

In that sense, the audience here on The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts is almost as important as the band itself. Bruce was the hometown hero and he was clearly the champion of Madison Square Garden at that point in time.

The film quality is excellent on the Blu-ray. It hasn’t been digitally cleaned up so expect to see periodic scratches and certainly film grain but in general the lighting and camera work are outstanding. Much of it was captured on handheld cameras working the floor of the show, improvising in the moment, capturing the essence of what Bruce was about on stage. 

The audio sounds really good and is mostly in stereo. The 5.1 surround sound mix uses the rear channels mostly for a concert hall ambience. I’m ok with this because if you consider yourself as a fan sitting in the front row of Madison Square Garden at that time, this film is as close as any of us will get to that feeling of what it was like at that time and place.

In that sense, more than ever you need to own The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts, your time machine to front row center with Bruce and The E-Street Band. 

You even get a concert ticket stub reproduction with the package. And how cool is that?!

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

George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary, Part 1: The High Resolution Stereo Remix

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

There is no question that George Harrison’s 1970 release All Things Must Pass is a classic collection of outstanding song-craft. It was an exuberant and emotional release for the then newly ex-Beatle after years of toiling in the shadows of primary songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The album is also widely considered by many to be the best of the post break-up solo albums issued by any of the solo Beatles in the wake of the band’s break-up. 

In 2017 a fine new remaster of the original All Things Must Pass album as co-produced by infamous – but legendary and undeniably influential — producer, Phil Spector was released. This was a significant reissue, a marked improvement over the original domestic U.S. pressings in many ways. Please click here to read my review of that still important release.

Despite that fine release’s stature, one of the most anticipated new reissues from the Beatle universe is the newer still expanded 50th anniversary edition of All Things Must Pass  coming out this week on a multitude of formats. Included amongst the many options is a tasty five CD plus Blu-ray Disc compact boxed set as well as a luscious eight-LP vinyl version.

Over the next several articles I’ll be exploring those sets in semi-microscopic, quasi-forensic detail. Today we explore the new Stereo remix which was crafted by Paul Hicks of Abbey Road Studios who worked with George’s son Dhani to create a compelling new vision for what All Things Must Pass could be.

Most audibly in general — and this is in keeping with the work Hicks did on John Lennon’s sets of the past several years — the new 50th Anniversary version of All Things Must Pass feels like several layers of gauze and remnant ‘60s haze have been removed. The resultant mix delivers much clearer vocals, more distinctive bass and drum parts as well as increased detailing on sometimes significant melodic parts which somehow were buried in the wake of Phil Spector’s legendary “Wall of Sound” mix design. 

Inevitably some of Spector’s imprint will remain on the album since he drove the recording process. I suspect that there are very likely certain techniques employed which can’t be “undone” even with a new mix. And that is ok. 

Certainly the vocals are much clearer with a significant amount of reverb removed. Yet the new 50th Anniversary version of All Things Must Pass retains the basic aesthetic of what the album sounds like. 

Now you can hear George’s lyrics quite vividly. Ringo’s (and the other drummers on the album) contributions sound especially remarkable with Kick-drum and Tom Tom fills taking center stage with increased presence and vibrance. Klaus Voorman’s bass lines also shine in this new mix allowing you to hear more of his note-perfect melodic inventions.

It is hard to pick favorite tracks at this stage while listening to the high resolution version of the new 50th Anniversary version of All Things Must Pass on Blu-ray Disc — in 192 kHz, 24-bit fidelity. But some initial stand outs which caught my ear include “Wah Wah,” with clearer less muddied vocals, super clear and particularly distinct saxophone parts (especially on the signature hook breaks and the sax solo!). These are details that were somewhat obscured in the original Spector mix. 

There is less reverb overall in this new mix. Be sure to listen for that great bomb-like sound, now much more clearly audible (I suspect it is the spring reverb of vintage guitar amplifier which either was kicked or knocked over — I know that sound intimately as we intentionally put one of those moments on my old band’s album!).  The sound of the car driving away is also much more distinct (another one of those little details I never paid much attention to on the original,  though it clearly was always there). When the band kicks in after the opening riffs, the impact is that much more powerful. 

I can now hear nice cellos chugging along on “Isn’t It A Pity.” ”If Not For You” sounds particularly brilliant with the big acoustic guitars front and center.

The harmonies on “Behind That Locked Door” sound amazing and Pete Drake’s pedal steel on that song is beautiful and clearer than previous versions.

The drums on “Let It Down” are simply huuuge! If you have ever wanted to hear (what I think are probably) Ringo’s Tom Tom fills with Cinemascopic clarity, you’re going to love this version.

Of course the question remains as to whether you need the new 50th Anniversary version of All Things Must Pass for your collection just for this new Stereo mix? That is a question only you can really answer, depending on how much of a fan of the record you are. I for one am proud to include this in my collection side-by-side with the originals so I can compare and contrast them. 

Ultimately, it depends on your listening needs. This new version will probably be much preferred for listening on streaming platforms, in playlist mixes and on mobile devices given the newfound clarity it presents. If you are new to George Harrison’s music, you may want to at least listen to the original mix somewhere first. Even though this new vision is much more direct and punchy sounding with less of the dated production aesthetic of the times on it, it might be just different enough to warrant experiencing the 1970 mix as a bench mark.  Don’t get me wrong, this sounds like All Things Must Pass but all those little revealed details formerly buried in the original mix add up to something a bit different (again, this is not a bad thing!). 

For example, one of the more wonderfully creepy and haunting moments in the new mix can be found on “The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll).” There, we now can hear a very audible low voice chanting his name — the original owner of Harrison’s legendary English countryside estate. It is super cool (and it is down there in the original mix, but just barely audible). But, it is also just different enough that purists might balk.  I like it! But it is important to acknowledge that the new 50th Anniversary version of All Things Must Pass is a distinctly different view of the music. Again, I think this is a good thing.

And for those who get nervous about new remixes, I refer back to my earlier statement about the original mix restoration from 2017 being an important release and that isn’t going away any time soon. Rest easy knowing we can always listen to our original pressings (and I will do that as well!).

In a later installation in the series I will look at the vinyl version the new 50th Anniversary remix of All Things Must Pass. But before that, tomorrow we will explore the Surround Sound remix.  So be sure to tune in again here on Audiophile Review!

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Reconsidering Lynyrd Skynyrd: Live at Knebworth, England 1976, Blu-ray

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

I see now where I screwed up as a mid-1970s teenager in my appreciation for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Then, “Southern Rock” was almost as big as Prog Rock and Disco (maybe even bigger depending on who you talk to). The kings of the genre were The Allman Brothers Band, and The Marshall Tucker band came up quickly in the ranks as a very popular number two, both prototypes for what later got labeled as “jam bands” in the ‘80s and ‘90s. 

I like both of those bands a real lot, and grew up with them because one of my older brothers was into them, I will admit.

But then this band called Lynyrd Skynyrd happened and everybody was saying that they were the best “Southern Rock” band. Clutching my cherished copy of The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East, I bristled and ignored Skynyrd as much as a teenager could at the time — which means that even if you didn’t own the albums you heard their music everywhere on the radio, at parties, even as walk-in music at other concerts.  

Skynyrd was huge!

Of course, after the tragic plane crash just as they were beginning their ascent to superstardom, I never had an opportunity to give them a second chance, to see them live in concert, to really find out what they were all about. 

None the less, Skynyrd’s hits have set up shop in the back of my mind and in recent years I’ve actually picked up a bunch of their albums. I now appreciate them for what they were: a really solid rock ‘n’ roll band, not really a so-called “Southern Rock” band.

This is never more in evidence than on the great new Blu-ray disc that is coming out soon from Eagle rock entertainment: Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76.  

The Allman Brothers and Marshall Tucker Band’s brand of Southern Rock was a heady brew of jazz-inspired country-fried blues rock with a major emphasis on improvisation over long jams. 

Lynyrd Skynyrd is pretty much a straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll boogie band (albeit a really tight one!).  They were a big band delivering a rich-but-rootsy wall of classic rock sound — drums, bass and keyboards plus three guitarists and matching backing vocals on stage. Their power is palpable, no doubt. They were a very very tight live band. 

There’s not a lot of slide guitar playing, nor a lot of deep blues and there’s almost no improvisation going on — the solos are great but clearly well crafted and mapped out.

In this fine concert video, lead singer Ronnie Van Zant looks at times a bit unsure of how to handle the giant stage and the massive audience there at the Knebworth Festival, grabbing the microphone stand in awkward rock star poses. But any of his uneasiness is made up for with a strong vocal delivery and — again — the three guitar assault which was a force to be reckoned with.

The other bedrock of this band is the drummer Artemus Pyle who really kick some serious booty driving the sound of this group. 

These guys were tight and well scripted. They knew all their licks, hooks and riffs — so there’s no room for anybody to drop out in creating their big sound. 

The audio on this Blu-ray Disc is generally excellent, presented at 48 kHz and 24-bits in DTS HD Master Audio surround sound. The 5.1 mix is perfectly acceptable for a live concert experience like this with a good sense of ambience and crowd feel. Not surprisingly, most of the music is centered up front and center with a nice stereo separation.

After watching  Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76, more than ever I see this group as more of an Americana roots rock band not unlike Northern California’s Creedence Clearwater Revival by way of English groups like Foghat, Savoy Brown, Ten Years After and maybe even Humble Pie. 

They knew how to write some good tunes and they knew how to rock.

There are some exceptions. On Jimmy Rodgers’ “T For Texas” they fall into an Allman’s sound as the song (and arrangement) is very much like “One Way Out.” As soon as the slide guitar kicks in, Van Zant delivers a remarkable Greg Allman-esque performance.  

“Free Bird” of course is another song featuring the slide guitar and it was later dedicated to Duane Allman and Allman’s original bassist Berry Oakley (both of whom were killed in separate motorcycle accidents about one year apart in the early 1970s).

It’s really interesting watching the very English crowd embracing all this American essence of the period — it could have been a festival stage in the U.S.

The video quality on Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76 is excellent for a live recording made in 1976. This looks like it was captured on early video tape, so the resolution is what it is —all things considered, even on my trusty old 1080p Panasonic plasma TV it looks pretty darn great. If you’re playing it on a 4K TV it may look a bit more fuzzy (upscaling may help). 

Anyhow, if you are a deep Skynyrd fan, you’ll probably want Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76 as it is nice and reasonably priced package. The CD is great too for those times when you just want to hear the music. It also includes a relatively recent documentary film If I Leave Here Tomorrow which I have not had a chance to watch yet as of this writing (but plan to soon!).

Lynyrd Skynyrd Live at Knebworth ’76 is about as close as many of us will get to understanding what this great band was like live in concert.  Worth checking out.

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Did I Really Need Another Copy Of In The Court Of The Crimson King?

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

The 50th Anniversary Blu-ray Disc version of King Crimson’s classic progressive rock landmark, In the Court of the Crimson King is one of those releases I’ve been meaning to pick up for some time. But, time kept marching onward and it never presented itself to me…

Arguably the birthplace for progressive rock as we came to know it, In the Court of the Crimson King was recognized as an instant masterpiece upon its release and it has held on to that crown for 50 years… and counting!

I’ve had this debut album by King Crimson for ages. I have it on a nice original US pressing in mint condition. And I own the 40th anniversary DVD Audio version with the high resolution surround sound mix.What more did I need, my wallet reasoned?  

I admit I don’t yet have the drive to get the even newer massive new Complete 1969 Recordings boxed set (which includes a Dolby Atmos mix, which I can’t play anyhow just yet).  (Note: I do have the 81-84 Discipline box set and the Thrak box of 94-95 era recordings, so I’m not being a slouch here folks)

Still, I have been tempted. I’ve heard that the 200 gram vinyl version of In the Court of the Crimson King is quite stunning but I haven’t been able to justify buying that just yet (I still want an original UK and US white label promo copies, truth be told).  

None the less, the 2019 Blu-ray Disc edition continued to call to me as I was curious to hear the new surround sound mix. I just needed to find it at the right price, time and place. Whenever I went to look for it online it always seemed to be sold out and I never saw it in the stores. That is until recently at Amoeba Music, I found a perfect condition used copy. 

At last, In the Court of the Crimson King 2019 presented itself to me in a manner I could not refuse!

Accordingly, I thought it might be helpful to review it now from my vantage point for those you out there who are also struggling to keep pace with and catch up on the intense flow of archival musics coming from our favorite artists… Better late than never!

For those of you who are wondering about the title of this review and whether I will answer it, you can stop holding your breath.  Yes, I needed this and if you are a fan of the album, so do you.  

Why?

I could hear the difference immediately. First, I did a refresher reference listen to In the Court of the Crimson King via the 40th Anniversary 2009 DVD Audio Disc version which sounded thinner than I remembered. That surround mix is presented at 48 kHz, 24 bit resolution. The new Blu-ray edition is twice that at 96/24 and all that extra disc capacity is in part why it sounds better — you are hearing more of the music.  

But it is also a different mix! 

Clearly, remix producer and surround sound engineer Steven Wilson felt he could do more with the recording, enough to revisit the project anew. No doubt there have been advances in the technologies available for mixing. And, frankly, there is probably even more demand now for hearing this album in the highest quality possible than in 2009, so taking advantage of the Blu-ray Disc’s capabilities makes good sense. 

So how does it sound, you ask? Pretty terrific! 

How is it different than the old DVD Audio mix?

Good question… 

Somebody online asked me if this new version of In the Court of the Crimson King is just louder than the old DVD Audio version. After listening to them back to back several times and sampling select tracks, I do not think so. 

I’m hearing much more detail on the new version in the 5.1 mix in particular, again now presented in 96 kHz, 24-bit fidelity. The most immediate thing I noticed was that Greg Lake’s bass sounds much richer, and if you listen closely you can hear the slap of his Fender bass’ guitar strings, a detail I didn’t hear on the earlier version.

The drums also sound more natural and realistic, effectively delivering a hearty crack instead of just a tap on the snare. The tom tom drums in particular seem to resonate a bit in the room now.  Details like that are super impressive, especially when you consider these are 50 year old recordings of an embryonic band that didn’t yet have access to the finest studios in the land. It was however recorded on an 8-channel multi-track recorder which was still a big deal in 1969.

The overall sound design of the 5.1 mix seems to be fairly similar to the original version yet everything feels more in focus somehow.

That wonderful excitement when you first hear “21st Century Schizoid Man” in surround is preserved as Fripp’s guitar stabs during the verses jump from speaker-to-speaker in time around the room. It is a fun moment that works without feeling gimmicky.  

Similarly on the title track, on those rolling opening drum hits you can almost feel the smack of the drumsticks on the tom tom head, the skins bending as the drummer works his way around the kit. Greg Lake’s vocals sound much better on this new version too, feeling more open and air-y somehow. The cymbals are also now much tighter and natural sounding, delivering more of a ringing ping than just a clink.

There are so many bonus tracks on this Blu-ray Disc, it is hard to go into all the detail. I’m still exploring!  From Burningshed.com we learn it contains:

  • 2019, 5.1 and stereo mixes by Steven Wilson in 24/96 resolution (for the first time)
  • Original master edition of the 1969 album mix in 24/96 stereo.
  • A complete alternate album comprising 2019 mixes by Steven Wilson including a much extended duo version of I Talk to The Wind, a June 19th version of ‘The Court of the Crimson King’ from the band’s final day at Morgan studios in June 1969, an isolated voice dominant version of ‘Epitaph’ & a version of ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’ which combines the Morgan studios instrumental with Greg Lake vocals from Wessex studios and August 2019 overdubs by Mel Collins & Jakko Jakszyk – the latter two mixed by David Singleton.
  • A further album’s worth of additional material drawn from studio takes – much of it mixed by Steven Wilson & including extracts from the ‘wind session’ that produced the intro to 21CSM in stereo for the first time, the single a/b sides of the album title track drawn, for the first time since on disc, from the original master tapes & more are also included.
  • The Blu-Ray is completed by a set of 2019 instrumental mixes and the surviving fragment of black & white footage from Hyde Park in 1969

So, you can see why I’ve been hesitant to get the big 1969 box set – there is so much right here on this disc! 

Of the outtakes I’ve heard thus far, I love the June 1969 basic trio recording of the title track — just drums, bass and acoustic guitar. The latter is significant because you get to hear Fripp’s beautiful acoustic guitar work, something you don’t get to hear much on later King Crimson recordings and which gets sort of overlooked (in a way) in the final mixes. That said, the instrumental versions of the album tracks are lush and wonderful.

Anyhow, I think you probably get the idea by now that this is a fine release. I’m glad I finally got a copy of  this 50th Anniversary Blu-ray Disc version of King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King. 

Perhaps it is your turn to get it now too!  

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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.

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Jazz On A Summer’s Day: Classic Film Restored On Kino-Lorber Blu-ray

Posted on by Mark Smotroff
Thelonious Monk

I was excited to read about the availability of a new restored version of a legendary and influential music film call Jazz On A Summer’s Day. Created in 1958 documenting the Newport Jazz Festival that year, the film was put together by then unlikely candidate, noted fashion photographer in Bert Stern.

There is a quite fantastic back story on how this film came together told in a great essay included in the new Kino Lorber Blu-ray Disc edition of Jazz On A Summer’s Day written by jazz critic, writer and Newport Jazz Festival expert Nate Chinen, so I don’t want to spoil his story for you.  

Dinah Washington

But in short, this film was created to help elevate the status of jazz as a popular art and music form in the public eye. They wanted to show that jazz music wasn’t just limited to dark basement clubs and late night party culture — I suspect the genre had at that time gotten some bad press, what with the substance abuses of noted Jazz icons like Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Charlie Parker probably not helping matters much in terms of public acceptance at the time. 

Big Maybelle

Where the film takes some fascinating artful turns begins with its producer/director who came from the Madison Avenue fashion photography universe.  So Bert Stern knew how to deliver a sense of close up elegance through a camera lens.

Coupled with skillful storytelling editing by Aram Avakian — brother of Columbia Records executive George Avakian who was integral to this film’s genesis — Jazz On A Summer’s Day is wonderfully successful on multiple levels.  

Louis Armstrong

A clever combination of extremely tight handheld camera work and creative cutaways to people in the audience — and other mood setting scenes — delivers a tale of the boundary breaking possibilities of the music. 

Showing the upscale alongside the average, all colors and ages sitting and sometimes dancing side-by-side, peacefully and engaged deeply in the sounds, the music is the connective glue between these diverse communities.   

Gerry Mulligan and Art Farmer

As a film on its own Jazz On A Summer’s Day is a wonder to behold and it works well 60 years on as an 80 minute long entertainment. Watching this will be ideal for anybody who is just getting into Jazz.

And for those who are already into the music, you will want to see this new 4K transfer to absorb the stunning color footage of legends who just jump off the screen including Thelonious Monk, Louis Armstrong, Chico Hamilton, Eric Dolphy, Dinah Washington and the great Mahalia Jackson! 

Louis Armstrong

How amazing to see Gerry Mulligan leading his band in all its jumbo Baritone Sax wielding glory.

We even get a glimpse of Chuck Berry at the peak of his initial popularity, young and vivacious best, sparring with a Clarinet player in the house band. Called The Newport Blues Band, the group includes the great Jo Jones on drums and Ray Bryant on Piano.

It is perhaps the first time I’ve seen a Clarinet solo rock! I’m not sure who the player is but I think it might be saxophonist Buddy Tate although Tony Scott is supposed to have been in that band too (according to the original event program which I found posted online, click here to look at that).

Chuck Berry

Probably my favorite moment is watching Louis Armstrong perform his classic “Rocking Chair” with his lifetime friend Jack Teagarden. You can feel their love for one another which just embodies everything that event was about. 

Ray Davies of The Kinks once sang how “celluloid heroes never really die” and this is one of those instances where, indeed, they feel so fresh and alive on screen it is almost unnerving at times.

Chuck Berry

The film was restored from best available sources in a 4K transfer and the look is quite spectacular, all things considered. Perhaps my only disappointment is the sound quality which was taken from best available digital sources. It actually sounds excellent all things considered but it it might have sounded better with a bit more attention. 

Initially it sounds like most of the music is coming out of the left channel but once you get past Anita O’Day’s segment the sound balances out. It is a very real raw mix in that sense, so when a mic on the right channel isn’t being used initially, the sound comes more from the left (and vice versa). Periodically I heard some tape speed issue and at certain points in the film the vocals aren’t exactly in sync with the onscreen movement (most noticeably on Anita O’Day’s performance).  

Anita O’Day

Apparently there were numerous tape reels in deteriorating condition in the producer’s archives so the mind boggles as to whether any sort of digital restoration might be possible down the road.  

If you’ll let me dream for a moment:  perhaps they can “bake” the tapes and transfer them over to digital. Maybe they have and just need some budget to do micro surgery on the tapes (such as was done on some James Brown tracks many years ago). Perhaps there were tape speed issues and too much wow and flutter, so maybe the good folks at Plangent Processes could restore and stabilize them.  

Mahalia Jackson

I wonder if they had reached out to fans and discovered other sources that might be available somewhere — there is a scene in the film of one fan shooting 8 mm film for a bit — and then and synced that up with any other available soundtracks from the archives?

Ahhh… I know… keep dreamin’ baby, dream…

Anyhow, the main reason you should want to buy Jazz On A Summer’s Day  is simply to enjoy it for what it is: a classic music documentary — arguably the first — that looks better now than it ever has. And given that it only cost less than $20 it is a no-brainer to add to your collection.

Kino Lorber’s Jazz On A Summer’s Day, Blu-ray

If you want to listen to some music from the Newport Jazz Festival, following are links to a number of live sets from this 1958 festival which have been released previously and are streaming on Tidal and Qobuz. Just click on artists and you’ll jump to the service which you can hear if you are a subscriber. On Tidal:  Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Anita O’Day and Mahalia Jackson. On Qobuz: Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Mahalia Jackson, Jimmy Giuffre

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Steven Wilson’s The Future Bites Is Tasty On Blu-ray Disc

Posted on by Mark Smotroff

The Future Bites is the new album by Steven Wilson, the now near legendary producer composer performer musician and all around progressive music renaissance man.  The album is a fascinating study about consumerism and modern living — by way of identity loss and technology overload — in some ways it feels like a 21st-century update on Radiohead’s landmark OK Computer album which also dealt with these sorts of themes. And I mean that in the best possible way…

Steven Wilson, for those of you not in the know, came to public attention as the founder of a number of progressive-leaning independent groups, most notably Porcupine Tree. And over the years he’s become an incredible front leader of the resurgent interest in not only progressive rock but also surround sound music. 

Somehow this one-man army that is Wilson seems to have gone were no other producer / engineer has been able to go in terms of making the surround sound format more visible, viable and interesting to a mainstream consumer.  In the early 00s, many fantastic surround sound producers had embraced the medium (then largely delivered on DVD-Audio Disc and SACD formats, amidst an industry format war) and most efforts stalled at retail. Beyond the format confusion, support also stalled with many artists who were not always thrilled with the liberties taken in creating the surround mixes. 

Thus it was  a big deal years later when Wilson secured the confidence of many of the leading edge progressive rock and pop groups beginning with Robert Fripp and King Crimson. This work led to catalog reinventions for no less than Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Tears for Fears, Jethro Tull and XTC.   

While there is no doubt a big vinyl resurgence — and I am certainly a huge life long vinyl fan, as many of you know — when it comes to Steven Wilson’s music I prefer to get his surround sound releases, usually on high resolution Blu-ray Disc these days. 

I know that his mixes are going to be fascinating and they will probably sound the best that they can since I’m quite sure that he works in the digital domain to begin with. Plus, on these discs you usually get both Stereo and 5.1 mixes, sometimes in multiple codec options so really it is the best value in that sense. 

On this Blu-ray Disc of The Future Bites there are are four different variants of the album to explore including regular Stereo plus three flavors of surround: DTS HD Master Audio,  LPCM and Dolby Atmos.

As I currently do not have a Dolby Atmos-ready AVR, my primary format of choice is indeed the 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio version. I choose this not because I handled PR for the company for eight years — true story, look it up – but simply because it sounds the best on my particular system. The LPCM version sounds a little weak on this edition. And contrary to a factoid somebody on a Facebook forum told me, on my system the Dolby Atmos version gets cut down to Dolby True HD at 48K and it sounds it. The DTS HD Master Audio track plays at 96 kHz, 24 bits and sounds richer and more complete.

For those who might not believe me, I took some photos and included them here to show you what my Oppo BDP203 Universal Player was delivering into my AVR from the disc when I called up the information screen.

But really, it’s not even so much numbers of the frequency response that bothered me — I’ve heard plenty of excellent sounding 48kHz recordings! No, what bothered me is that there was some sort of alteration to the music occurring when I played the Dolby Atmos/Dolby True HD version. The DTS HD Master Audio track sounded very crisp with much discrete detailing going on in all the channels on the great track “Follower.” 

However, in the Dolby True HD presentation that perspective seems to get lost and ends up feeling a bit like a fancier version of the classic Dolby Digital processing with a rather non-distinct and decidedly non-discrete approach to sound delivery. Again this is not a slam, this is just me reporting on what I’m hearing and it may well be a stylistic presentation of the music that you personally might well prefer.  Also, your system might handle the sound differently than mine, so take this for what it is — just one reviewer’s perspective. Someday, when I get an Atmos systems I hope to circle back to update reviews like this once I can hear that mix (I mean, if Wilson is embracing it, I’m sure it is going to be great!).

Not surprisingly, the sound on The Future Bites is excellent, crafting a terrific balance between modern 21st century pop sheen and the rich warmth of his instrumentation and textures.

I’m especially enjoying how it seems to pick up — at least musically — where Wilson left off on his last brilliant album called To The Bone which I reviewed previously (click here to jump to that article). 

There are some beautiful chord sequences amidst the new song craft, once again underscoring that Steven Wilson is a quite brilliant composer of strong pop melodies, not just epic progressive rock dramatics. In some ways, I think this type of music is actually more difficult to create than progressive rock because it has to be so concise, engaging the listener in 3-5 minutes or less.  There are nice touches echoing classic 80s electronic music and synth pop from the likes of Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears and perhaps even Heaven 17 and The Human League. 

And yet there is room for a gorgeous acoustic guitar driven strummer like “12 Things I Forgot” with a lovely lift in the chorus that is a classic Steven Wilson twist. It has some magnificent sequences and melodies going on there. 

The Future Bites is growing on me a lot even after just a few listens. The three videos you get on the Blu-ray look fantastic and “Personal Shopper” is particularly powerful to watch with the 5.1 soundtrack. The animated “King Ghost” is quite gorgeous while “Eminent Sleaze” is dramatic, if a bit MTV-ish in it’s look and feel (that may be intentional). My only disappointment is that there was no video for the song “Follower,” which sounds like quite a take down of the whole social media universe and mindset.

The Future Bites is another bright, bold statement from Steven Wilson and I suspect it will make many people’s favorites list for 2021.  I know I’ll be playing it a lot in the months to come, and that is the best compliment I can offer.  

You can also find the album streaming in high resolution 96 kHz, 24-bit Stereo, in MQA format on Tidal (click here) and Hi Res via Qobuz (click here). Both versions sound excellent as streaming services go. But to get the surround sound experience, you’ll need to get the Blu-ray Disc so do seek out a copy soon.