Mine is out for delivery. I was hoping the swirly-ness that I heard on the streaming Smoke was not indicative of the whole album. That and other aspects felt so gimmicky.
But after watching the Dweezil interview, seeing Gillan’s comments, and reading the initial thoughts here, it looks like I’ve paid decent money for the U.S. quad. And I suppose that’s OK. I’m going to love having that. Kudos to Rhino for including it.
What really disappoints me, though, is that this is possibly our only chance to get a great Atmos mix of this classic album. It’s not like we’ll get Machine Head: The Atmos Apology Mix by Wilson or Tayler in a year or so. At best, maybe we get another shot on the 60th anniversary with whatever audio format is making us buy our favorite albums again.
In one sense, I can appreciate the stance that this is meant to be different, so let it be what it is. It’s just that we know there are mixers who can bring something fresh to a surround mix while keeping it true to the original work.
Dweezil is now at the top of my “Investigate heavily before buying” list when it comes to Atmos mixes of classic albums.
(Adding Roger’s comments)
Regarding how Dweezil ended up helming the new "Machine Head" remix, Roger said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It wasn't our choice. I mean, this was coming from the record company. The record company wanted Dweezil, because of, obviously, his father's connection. And we'd met Dweezil, I think, four or five years ago. He got on stage with us and played a couple of songs with us when we played Montreux Jazz Festival. And I didn't really get to know him much. He was just a nice chap, and he came and played guitar. That's all I remember, really, about that. And when they said that they wanted Dweezil to mix the album — well, I'd already mixed the album for the 25th anniversary, so [I said], 'Well, why do you need another remix?' But they said, no, they wanted Dweezil. I think it's probably a marketing thing. They thought it was a cool idea."
