HiRez Poll Gentle Giant - THE POWER AND THE GLORY [BluRay Audio]

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Rate the BDA of Gentle Giant - THE POWER AND THE GLORY [BluRay Audio]

  • 7 -

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 6 -

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  • 4 -

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  • 3 -

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  • 2 -

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  • 1 - Bad Fidelity, Bad Surround Bad Content

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    108
Mix is 10 the extras a 10 the music is not my favourite but not bad and certainly not worth knocking points off (Its a grower I think) The Visuals with the music synced lyrics etc take this to the 10/10 level.
 
A SOLID Tenner for me.

This BD takes "Music in BluRay" to a WHOLE DIFFERENT -and higher- REALM...

WOW and can I say WOW????

When the first song started , I thought it was JUST the intro , but the visuals are just OUTSTANDING ALL THE WAY THROUGH ("Aspirations" the only REALLY weak one, as an artist myself I could've done a MUCH better job, but then...)- a LOT of work went onto this...funnily enough, there are NO CREDITS about the Authoring (or Mastering) -are we to assume it was by Ray Shulman at his place?

As for the music, it's your mid 70's GG stuff and the mix is well, another winner from Steven (this guy...never lets anyone down ..and where the hell does he get all the time to do all this stuff?...gotta give it to him , he's a very organized person..or has someone who's VERY organized do his scheduling)---

I won't play this a lot cause GG is not an extreme favorite of mine, but, just for the visuals!!!

(We should start a thread/poll with the best "visuals" on a Music BD and this one, AFAIK, would be NUMBER ONE)
 
When the first song started , I thought it was JUST the intro , but the visuals are just OUTSTANDING ALL THE WAY THROUGH ("Aspirations" the only REALLY weak one, as an artist myself I could've done a MUCH better job, but then...)- a LOT of work went onto this...funnily enough, there are NO CREDITS about the Authoring (or Mastering) -are we to assume it was by Ray Shulman at his place?

Derek Shulman confirms it's his brother's handiwork in this interview. Well for the graphics at least.

No, the fact that it sounds better, not the least because we're having someone look at it objectively. We figured, "Yeah, listen, why not give other albums a shot," and at the same time utilize my brother's skills at illustrating via motion graphics and video to highlight the songs and the stories.
 
I had huge expectations for this release since it is one of my favorite albums by one of my favorite groups. And it does not disappoint - 10! This is another thoroughly engaging mix by Steven Wilson who obviously has great respect for the material. The LP was recorded at a time when conspicuous reverb was out of fashion so SW faithfully maintains a bone dry soundscape throughout. The sound is fantastic - the bass and drums in particular are much improved over previous versions.

I was delighted to hear a longer fade out on 'Aspirations'! There's some nice interplay between guitar and electric piano there. My only qualm is the lead vocal in 'Cogs' strikes me as too hot and out of balance. The visuals are very well done and are a nice bonus. I may be in the minority here, however, in that I'll rarely return to them preferring to focus exclusively on the music.

I know this group is not everyone's cup of tea (particularly the vocals evidently!) but for this lifelong GG fan it's a dream come true. It's exciting to know that the group has enthusiastically embraced this surround campaign and that more releases are in the works.
 
Hearing this album in 5.1 on the Blu ray's the next best thing to having the band in the room with you[that's how good it sounds imho].
 
Speaking as someone who authors discs myself, Ray has excelled himself with the authoring on this release.
It is absolutely stunning visually and I shudder to think how many hours was spent in After Effects doing the backing video - very effective indeed. 10/10 right there for the visuals.
Steve's mix is also as good as ever, and he has extracted every single nuance from the original here - a stellar job. Another 9/10 for this part.
Overall, there is a nice amount of material here all beautifully presented so it simply has to be a 10 because this one has raised the bar so high visually and it really complements Steve's mix.

GG may well be an acquired taste for some people, but even if you have never heard them before this is well worth picking up as a demo disc it's that good.
 
Speaking as someone who authors discs myself, Ray has excelled himself with the authoring on this release.
It is absolutely stunning visually and I shudder to think how many hours was spent in After Effects doing the backing video - very effective indeed. 10/10 right there for the visuals.
Steve's mix is also as good as ever, and he has extracted every single nuance from the original here - a stellar job. Another 9/10 for this part.
Overall, there is a nice amount of material here all beautifully presented so it simply has to be a 10 because this one has raised the bar so high visually and it really complements Steve's mix.

GG may well be an acquired taste for some people, but even if you have never heard them before this is well worth picking up as a demo disc it's that good.

Well said, Neil!
Occasionally I have had harsher critique for Ray's authoring jobs on DVD-V only releases that do not offer any substantial video content ("Thick as a Brick", "Benefit", "A Passion Play", etc)
But this time he has authored a truly visually appealing disc that is available on both DVD-V and Blu-Ray, so everyone wins!
Now let's get "Octopus" and "In A Glass House"! :)
 
And - Three Friends + Playing The Fool (well recorded live reinterpretations at the height of their powers.... And glories)
 
Just listening again. WOW!!. This does sound amazing. The third demo quality 10 score disc for me in recent months, with The Yes Album and Bob Marley's Legend. Actually make that 4 with The Division Bell, and A Passion Play not far behind. What a year its being, with more to come!!!!

Loving the visuals too, very cleverly done.

Great underrated band. And I haven't got a problem with the voice, I like difficult voices - one of my favourite artists is Peter Hammill! I can't wait for the next in this series :banana:
 
I agree with everyone that this is a top notch recording and mix. It might be my favorite mix of SW yet and that is quite a compliment as he's wowed me over and over. The visual content as a way of presenting the lyrics sets a new standard as well. Very cool.
As for the album itself, I love the music but have to say that some of the vocals are not only not my thing, but I find them annoying. The second song I've taken to just skipping. But even with that, I'm finding myself playing the disc more than I thought I would because the quality of the mix/music is incredible and not all of the vocals turn me off. Some of it definitely works better than other parts and it's a pretty original sound. The keyboards are what keep me coming back to the music and , as I've said, the mix is entertaining by itself. Everyone should get to hear this once, but I know everyone is going to have to decide if they think the music is their thing and whether they want this one in their collection. It is priced right, though. Have to give some points back that I might take off for the content by the mix being an 11 or 12. Perfect mix for the music.

K
 
I'm rather impressed by this BDA. I only had a vague recollection of GG and don't believe I ever heard their music. I ordered it from Amazon and it included an AutoRip so I first listened to it as such on my car stereo before the discs arrived. The first run through left me kind of flat but having read the commentaries that they may be an acquired taste, I listened again on another trip to work and appreciated it much more.

I finally sat down with the BD today and listened to the 5.1 mix and watched the graphics show with lyrics. It really came together as a package for me and I believe that repeated listening will augment that. Right now I'm listening to the instrumentals only tracks and appreciate the music even more, though not in 5.1 I am listening in Dolby PL II to quite good affect. It'll be interesting to go back and re-listen with the vocals, which did not grab me initially, though the lyrics really do complete the album concept, and the graphics are a very nice bonus.

I gave it a 10 without hesitation.
 
I have to agree about the visual component taking it to a whole other level. It made this 1974 album seem contemporary and that was wholly unexpected. Perhaps not their best album but certainly not their worst. Always a favorite.


From QQ deep space
100% agree!!! The visual aspect of this disc was completely unexpected and thoroughly enjoyable!!! Music was pretty good too;)
 
The track that I find to be a real revelation in 5.1 on the blu-ray is Aspirations...

I just love the "lingering" sound of the keyboards - lovely deep bass, acoustic guitars...

The visuals suit the track well too & paint a great picture for the lyrics...



I love the way the vocals are done also - a better effect than on the original stereo mix...
 
For once SW got the bass/LF effects right. I purchased this album having previewed in 2 channel loss-full mode. And I did not like it, but boy did I do a complete flip when I heard this mix. It is a always a challenge when an album such as this, a bit oblique, at times discordant but nonetheless very interesting can be mixed to yield a revelatory experience.
I like this mix so much more than previous two SW effort on mixing the Yes albums. And I am not giving him a 10 just because he is SW. I am giving this a "10" because he got it right!
 
As much as I love the CTTE and TYA 5.1 mixes SW did of my favorite band, I have to say this disc is even better, given the creative use of video to enhance the listening experience. I actually dreamed about something similar (though less ambitious) for the CTTE blu, though I never thought it would actually happen: something that incorporated the lyrics with a look similar to the album sleeve- that distinctive RD font in black against a green background- that scrolled down in time w/ the music; during instrumental passages, we could see some of the scenes that are used as screen-savers, but with some movement incorporated that would give different perspectives; and flowing over that green fog from the album cover, w/ the 1st instance of Dean's iconic logo showing up at opportune times, again incorporating movement.

And how we would have liked the time & the budget to animate every single screen frame by frame whilst bringing in pre-built wire models in 3D.
Ray can do this on GG because not only are they his band (well okay, he's a member anyway) but because he can treat it as a showcase for the format - which he has succeeded in doing in spectacular fashion as well.
But the sheer cost of this type of work is prohibitive for most releases - we looked at flowing the water over the edges and drifting things around - and the time it took to prepare 5 minutes worth was incredible. The cost would have been up in the many thousands of pounds in five-figure sums which let us be honest most releases will never sell enough to cover the cost and given the accountant driven mentality these days it is rare indeed that a disc like this can be produced at all - expecting anything like this to become the norm is simply unrealistic because it is prohibitively expensive to do. We are talking an After Effects 3D fest here running 3D models, animated 3D text - all in 1920x1080HD which will bring most systems to their knees in very short order.
Then there is rendering this lot out - wow, it must have taken days - literally. I've seen a full HD concert running 90 mins take 29 hours to encode & this is whole magnitudes of order more complex.

As I said - if I had the budget we would love to take a leaf and do likewise. Now all we need to do is work out how to sell these discs in the millions instead of mere thousands.
But again, serious kudos to all involved with this - it is a true labour of love and if accuracy in language interests you, "labour of love" is exactly what this release is, and it's wonderful with it.
 
And how we would have liked the time & the budget to animate every single screen frame by frame whilst bringing in pre-built wire models in 3D.
Ray can do this on GG because not only are they his band (well okay, he's a member anyway) but because he can treat it as a showcase for the format - which he has succeeded in doing in spectacular fashion as well.
But the sheer cost of this type of work is prohibitive for most releases - we looked at flowing the water over the edges and drifting things around - and the time it took to prepare 5 minutes worth was incredible. The cost would have been up in the many thousands of pounds in five-figure sums which let us be honest most releases will never sell enough to cover the cost and given the accountant driven mentality these days it is rare indeed that a disc like this can be produced at all - expecting anything like this to become the norm is simply unrealistic because it is prohibitively expensive to do. We are talking an After Effects 3D fest here running 3D models, animated 3D text - all in 1920x1080HD which will bring most systems to their knees in very short order.
Then there is rendering this lot out - wow, it must have taken days - literally. I've seen a full HD concert running 90 mins take 29 hours to encode & this is whole magnitudes of order more complex.

As I said - if I had the budget we would love to take a leaf and do likewise. Now all we need to do is work out how to sell these discs in the millions instead of mere thousands.
But again, serious kudos to all involved with this - it is a true labour of love and if accuracy in language interests you, "labour of love" is exactly what this release is, and it's wonderful with it.

Thanks for the info Neil. I obviously had no idea how expensive these video extras are. Nor how complicated the process is to make even simple graphics/video. That makes the GG disc even that much more impressive. Truly a labor of love as you say and a fantastic showcase- not only for what can be done w/ the format but also for Ray's abilities. I hope he gets tons of work from people seeing this to recoup some of what sounds like a gargantuan effort.

It's nice that you considered something more for the CttE disc, but sorry that it's so cost-prohibitive. And I hope you don't take my praise of GG's excellent effort as criticism of the Yes releases; it's all about the music and CttE and TYA delivered in spades where it really counts. But you know us spoiled Americans- we always want more! :howl

I consider all these SW re-mixes of classic albums labors of love- and I am extremely grateful to SW and all involved. Speaking of sales in the thousands, do you know how well the SW's re-mixes are selling? Since these discs always seem a cut above other surround releases, not only in quality of 5.1 mixes (where sometimes other discs can be equal), but also in the quality and quantity of the bonuses, I hope they outperform other similar releases by a significant margin. Do you know if that's at all the case?
 
For once SW got the bass/LF effects right. I purchased this album having previewed in 2 channel loss-full mode. And I did not like it, but boy did I do a complete flip when I heard this mix. It is a always a challenge when an album such as this, a bit oblique, at times discordant but nonetheless very interesting can be mixed to yield a revelatory experience.
I like this mix so much more than previous two SW effort on mixing the Yes albums. And I am not giving him a 10 just because he is SW. I am giving this a "10" because he got it right!
Yes, you are absolutely correct! The drums and bass are fantastic on this album. I can dial in my sub to just the right volume and perfectly compliment the low-end of my full-range speakers. It wasn't until my 3rd listen to this album that everything clicked in. What a groove John Weathers and Ray Shulman got going on - and it comes across so well on this recording. Funny thing is it may or may not be because of SW.

Here's a quote from Steven back in 2012
source:
http://www.soundandvision.com/content/steven-wilson-getting-surrounded-music

SG: Do you use the 0.1/LFE channel in your mixes?
SW: Not much. I put a little bass guitar and bass drum in there, and I let the mastering engineer decide how little or much of that he wants to use. It depends on the kind of music you’re mixing. If you’re doing reggae or dub music in surround, the sub’s going to be fantastic.
 
This isn't my favorite GG album, so I had probably only listened to it a total of 5 times in my life, and I never really got it. But, the combination of the mix, fidelity, and the visuals really made it click for me this time! I am so impressed! The mix is fantastic, as we've come to expect from SW. And the visuals... :yikes I can only imagine the amount of work that went into creating them. I am blown away. There is no question this was a "labour of love" (as Neil described it).

An easy 10, even if it is not my favorite GG album. This has set a new bar for bluray audio.
 
Had another listen tonight and I continue to be impressed with the mix and the fidelity. I'm starting to feel that this is one of Steven's best mixes ever. I never heard the original stereo mix so maybe it's just the type of music that lends itself to 5.1. But as I listen through this 5.1 mix he just seems to nail it phrase after phrase. And the fidelity, for me, is perfect - warm but clear. I swear I can hear every note that is being played.
 
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