Surroundablog

A Valid DualDisc

Editor's note: After a 2 year wait,the best DualDisc of the last couple of years has hit the market. Alan Parson's 2004 release "A Valid Path" whimpered onto your local store shelf with nary an upraised eyebrow. No front of store presentation for this one 5.1ers.....Sam the Record Man brought in 1 copy (which was probably bought by my buddy Dave) and HMV brought in only 1 as well. Given that these are the 2 flagship stores for Canada..I suspect tht these are the only 2 copies north of the 49th parallel. And what a shame too...this is easily the best sounding DualDisc in my collection and one of the best dvd-audio recordings that I've ever heard. Its no wonder that Parsons was pissed when it was delayed and shelved. I suspect that its on shelves now because of the David Gilmour appearance on it and as a tie-in crosspromotional thingamajigumma with "On an Island"....How good is it....I'll be reaching for this one again and again and again. This is not your mother's HDAD of "Eye in the Sky" or "Turn of a Friendly Card". I've always preferred The Alan Parson's project instrumentally versus vocally. This recording is no exception to the equation. I would rank these pieces alongside "I Robot" and "Where's the Walrus" AND "On the Run" from Darkside of the Moon. They're that good. The other instrumentals from the rest of his catalogue quite frankly take a back seat to this offering. And now for surrounda-ummagummage aspect....in a word, it's the most adventurous DualDisc offering of dvd-audio period. Put aside your "Dead Wing" sportsfans cause Parsons is at the plate and he's just hit this one right out of the park. The transitions, reproduction, imaging, frequency response and most of all, FUN, are clearly involving and exciting. This is not your average pedestrian listen.My only pratty sort of knock against it is the remix of "Dream within a Dream-The Raven". Being somewhat of a traditionalist...this mini-medley would've been better served with the original version from "Tales of Mystery and Imagination". IMHO though....if you are gunning to millenium-ize that recording....do the entire 1st side as a 12 minute orgasmic overture...Ron Wheeler says "buy this one" now....cause its probably deleted already....read on Fauntleroy.. (Press Release) After it's critically acclaimed release in 2004 on CD format, Alan Parsons' A Valid Path was re-released on April 4th (via immergent) as a specially-designed DualDisc featuring extensive interviews with the album's guest collaborators and a personal track by track artist commentary, all packaged in a deluxe jewel case. Re-issuing the album in the cutting edge DualDisc format is a natural progression for Parsons, who has long been a technological master and innovator in music production.

A Valid Path combines Parsons' love of studio wizardry with edgy electronica, club-inspired drumbeats and ethereal guitar solos. To build Path, he recruited the best of all musical worlds to collaborate with him, including David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), The Crystal Method, Shpongle, Uberzone, The Nortec Collective and even actor John Cleese. The end result is both fascinating and breathtaking, a powerful mélange of instrumentation, technology, musical styles and complex compositions.

The new DVD side of the DualDisc features the entire album mixed in 5.1 surround sound by Parsons himself (a recording process seemingly tailor made for his multi-layered music), a track by track commentary from Parsons detailing the songs and how they were structured, as well as in-depth interviews with Alan, David Gilmour, The Crystal Method and the other musicians on the album. Lyrics to all the songs, website links and a DVD Launcher feature are also included.

Alan Parsons began his career as a studio engineer, working with the Beatles on Abbey Road and later Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. He stepped to the other side of the microphone in 1975, recording his own lush, high concept music, and has amassed a devoted, cult-like loyal following. His recent work with electronica leaders such as The Crystal Method has been embraced by the dance club and DJ community, proving his ability to cross genres and that his song construction and production acumen are timeless. The DualDisc release of A Valid Path finds Parsons yet again at the leading edge of music and production, an artist determined to never duplicate himself from one album to the next.

A Valid Path tracklisting:

1. Return to Tunguska featuring Shpongle & David Gilmour
2. More Lost Without You featuring P.J. Olsson
3. Mammagamma '04 featuring Jeremy Parsons
4. We Play The Game featuring The Crystal Method
5. Tijuaniac featuring Nortec Collective
6. L'arc En Ciel featuring Uberzone
7. A Recurring Dream Within A Dream featuring Jeremy Parsons
8. You Can Run featuring Deep E
9. Chomolungma featuring Jeremy Parsons, P.J. Olsson, & John Cleese

Talking Heads throw a brick upside your head or how I stopped worrying and learned how to love the Brickheads

Editor's note: Here's a review of that Brick-business published in the Winninpeg Sun...one more word out of you and we're turning this blog around and going back to Toronto...

Talking Heads
Brick
(Rhino/Warner)

DISCS: Eight DualDiscs, which is like eight CDs and eight DVDs.

TRACKS: 205, counting all the different mixes and videos.

YEARS: 1977 - 1988.

DETAILS: It's what Talking Heads fans have been waiting for -- all eight of the seminal New York new wavers' studio albums, properly remastered for CD. But on the aptly named eight-disc box set Brick, remastering is just the start. Everything has been refurbished, expanded, supplemented, revamped and upgraded with enough goodies to keep fans occupied for hours. No fooling; to get the full Brick experience, you're gonna need a CD player, a DVD player, a home theatre and a couple of days. Every CD comes in DualDisc format. On one side, you get the original album, augmented with a handful of high-quality B-sides, outtakes, working tracks and alternate versions (an acoustic version of Psycho Killer with tons o' cello? Killer indeed). On the other side you get the same album remixed in stunning 5.1 Surround Sound by guitarist Jerry Harrison, who recasts the cuts as widescreen cinematic epics, with stabbing guitars that ping-pong from corner to corner and keyboards that swirl around you. From the edgy early discs like Talking Heads 77 to overlooked later works like True Stories and Naked, Harrison's expansive mixes make you hear the Heads with new ears. (Best of the batch: 1983's African-influenced, percussion-laced, Eno-produced funk freakout Remain in Light, which drops you smack into the middle of a psychedelic drum circle.) Every disc also comes with a couple of video clips, including early live performances, German TV footage and latter-day music vids. Toss in booklets with full lyrics, liner notes, plenty of pictures, blurbs by Harrison on the 5.1 mixes, art-print cards -- then put all the discs in white-backed jewel cases that fit snugly inside a white moulded-plastic box covered in raised song titles -- and you've got a box that's exhaustive, entertaining and extremely arty. The kind of box that comes along ... well, once in a band's lifetime.

QUIBBLES: 1) The CDs have cover art but no song titles on their all-white backs, so you have to pull out the booklets again and again, which is a pain.

2) Exhaustive as Brick is, it's missing a few no-brainers. Like the video for Once in a Lifetime. 3) Not all the CD bonus tracks are remixed for 5.1. What gives, Jer? 4) We got two copies of one art card -- which means there's at least one other buyer out there with the same complaint.

DAMAGE: About $200. But if that's too much, be patient; individual discs are due in a few months.

SUN RATING: 4.5 (out of 5)

Los Lonely Boys in the garbage

I rolled on over to HMV this week to invest my birthday money in one of these new-fangled DualDiscs that everyone's been writing about. The selection is quickly becoming quite tasty with the likes of both new (Judas Priest and Velvet Revolver) and old titles like Miles Davis polluting front store bins. After a quick and close scrutiny, I settled on the DualDisc version of The Los Lonely Boys. For those of you stumbling on my blog for the first time, DualDisc is the format equivalent of the "taste of the day" that all the labels are banking on. One side of the disc is a cd...on the other side is a dvd with a mix of audio presentations and visual content.