YES - Tales From Topographic Oceans 5.1 - Reality

[FVDnz]

While I've yet to have my copy in my hands (should be tomorrow hopefully - Skylarking too also), I decided to give the album a spin in anticipation of the Wilson remix and wow, I should have picked up on that All Fighter's Past lyric during the first track. Clearly I had the Fragile bonus track in my head the moment that came up. And I thought to myself what a treasure of a track they managed to unearth for last year's release. Was trying to figure out how The Revealing Science of God factored into that little tune, and now it all makes sense. Should have picked it up immediately given the fact I've listened to Tales numerous times over the years.

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[Frogmort]

Frogmort - I'm with you. No need for two almost-identical 20 minute tracks. I like the extended one & moved that to the front. I kept the original, but will not play it most times I listen to the album. I always thought the beginning of TRSOG was kind of jarring, like it needed something in front. Problem solved. I think the intro sets up up the album theme nicely too.

Yeah, I mean I have the blu-ray on a shelf for posterity, and I may just save the flac file of the original somewhere on my pc, but it's just too redundant to have both of them in the main album that I'll be listening to regularly. Also, since even the original album version builds from a quiet vocal part to a massively dynamic eruption from the whole band, the extended intro just gently fading in makes the dynamic build-up seem even more pronounced, which is pretty cool. It goes from absolutely nothing to absolutely everything within about three and a half minutes, which is kind of in keeping with the cosmic and spiritual aspects of this album, and also with the fact that this album is not trying to get in too big of a hurry to get to the next part.

To me this album is the very definition of not trying to come up with the next big hit to be played on the radio. This is the absolute pinnacle of big, full-on classic album prog-rock of the highest order, and I absolutely love that about it, although I also love their more concise and radio friendly songs too.

 

[rontoon]

Still waiting for my Burning Shed order that was posted on 10/3. I really liked supporting this company in the past but this may be the last time they get a purchase from me.

 

[GOS]

Still waiting for my Burning Shed order that was posted on 10/3. I really liked supporting this company in the past but this may be the last time they get a purchase from me.

My Amazon UK posted on the 6th. Word on the street is I'll get my copy Thursday. We'll see.

 

[Frogmort]

Still waiting for my Burning Shed order that was posted on 10/3. I really liked supporting this company in the past but this may be the last time they get a purchase from me.

My Amazon UK posted on the 6th. Word on the street is I'll get my copy Thursday. We'll see.

That really sucks that you guys are still waiting on yours. I also ordered from Burning Shed and it took quite a bit longer than I originally expected. It seems like the vast majority of people that got theirs way earlier ordered direct from Steven Wilson's Headphone Dust, so next time I order a must-have-now disc, I'll go through them. I really hope you guys get it soon.

 

[rontoon]

Guess what finally arrived in the mail today?

 

[peterzach]

Guess what finally arrived in the mail today?

Something to tide you over till your Pink Floyd arrives

 

[rontoon]

Guess what finally arrived in the mail today?

 

[GOS]

I've had my disc for several days, yet work has not allowed me to even listen. I just sat down, no one at home, cracked a Stella Artois and cranked it. Remember, I've never heard this album...

My first impression is that this is very unpredictable music. You really have to sit and absorb the music and if you do, I think you will find it very rewarding. I simply had NO clue where they were going next, even during the same song. It's an adventure, on a very broad landscape. Wow. I Like it, and I'd say, I like it a lot. Oh, and the presentation in surround is stunning IMO.

As many have said, this takes some time to take in. This isn't top 40! And, you certainly can't put it on and go walk around the house. You need to sit, quietly, with no distractions and listen. You have to FEEL it. This is my short take on this, with no previous history.

I will refuse to vote until I've had the time to listen to all tracks. No distractions...straight through. This will take time.

 

[GOS]

Guess what finally arrived in the mail today?

Eh.....tickets to game 3 of the World Series? GO CUBS! Oops...wrong thread. Carry on....

 

[Ge Someone]

Just in case anyone is interested, I've been playing around with 'The Revealing Science of God' and the extended bonus version at the end 'Dance of the Dawn' in Audacity [..]
What are your opinions on this? Do you have a preference between the two?

I have the CD/DVD-A package, where the original edit is in surround but the extended is on CD only. I will listen to the surround version a lot more.

 

[q4me]

The trainwreck-thread over at stevehoffman.tv was finally deleted, although I am not sure what the final tipping point was.

Things are so much more civilized over here.

 

[ProgRules]

The trainwreck-thread over at stevehoffman.tv was finally deleted, although I am not sure what the final tipping point was.

Things are so much more civilized over here.

Much speculation over there as to why in a convo I'm in w/ 5-6 other members via PM. The host came in and made a comment that seemed to me to be a threadcrap. He stated that when DCC wanted him to remaster some Yes albums back in the day, the original mix tapes were so compressed that the VU needles never moved more then 2 db- and sounded so bad he declined the project. I replied w/ incredulity and asked how could the albums I had be so dynamic if the tapes they came from were so compressed and also asked which tapes he heard. Another poster relied that that would make them great candidates for a re-mix- contradicting the hosts previous claim that nothing should ever be re-mixed. The thread was deleted not long after. And usually when a thread goes bad, they lock and delete offending posts, not delete the whole thread. Though it's possible that will happen eventually.

So- I started another thread for admirer's of SW's Tales, where I asked for no analog vs. digital debate and no posts from people w/ a bias against SW since these were the sticky points in the thread where a troll w/ that agenda got things derailed. The thread was going very smoothly for about 20 posts until it got locked!

I've PM's mods about why the original got deleted instead of locked- no one seems to know, though one Mod replied that "I have no information for you." I replied that that sounded like he had info but it was "above my clearance level." Haven't gotten a reply to that one yet... Also asked why after my thread was locked.

I have a lot of respect for Mods- both here and there, who do a great job at an unenviable task for no pay. I don't see this as their doing. I won't get into any "conspiracy theories" or speculation until this plays out for a while, but I have read things suggesting the host has some real issues w/ SW. Mr. H doesn't even believe in re-mixes- that's tampering w/ the Mona Lisa- but of course remastering is cool. He even stopped into the Tales thread to say that a flat transfer of the original mix isn't an upgrade- it's unfinished!

EDIT: I just got an alert on my Tales thread; a Mod posted this:

"Hold up for a bit while I work on getting the original thread back online, please. This could take a while, so please be patient."

Still like to keep my thread though, since it potentially could weed out a lot of the drama.

 

[ssully]

Much speculation over there as to why in a convo I'm in w/ 5-6 other members via PM. The host came in and made a comment that seemed to me to be a threadcrap. He stated that when DCC wanted him to remaster some Yes albums back in the day, the original mix tapes were so compressed that the VU needles never moved more then 2 db- and sounded so bad he declined the project. I replied w/ incredulity and asked how could the albums I had be so dynamic if the tapes they came from were so compressed and also asked which tapes he heard.

Eddie Offord was kind of famous for pushing his tapes into the red. But that's good old warm analog 'artistic choice' not digital dynamic range slamming, right? Hoffman's a twat. I'll bet the only Yes master tape he ever worked on was Fragile, if any. He claimed then that its OMTs were unlistenable as is and needed major tweaking. Yet there's that flat transfer of the (suppsed) OMTs on SW's remixed release, sounding pretty darn good, I'd say.

 

[Plan9]

That trainwreck of a thread was so stupid. Got out as soon as I could.

 

[drphibes]

I left SH because I couldn't keep up with the volume, but I can see it's still quite the angry place. I seem to recall many recording/mixing/mastering big names leaving the place in the huff because they were treated badly.

 

[timbre4]

Not disputing any of that, We are trying to take the high road as far as other forums.


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[ProgRules]

Content deleted by author due to it's inappropriateness, thanks to the good feedback from Timbre.

 

[milt]

Much speculation over there as to why in a convo I'm in w/ 5-6 other members via PM. The host came in and made a comment that seemed to me to be a threadcrap. He stated that when DCC wanted him to remaster some Yes albums back in the day, the original mix tapes were so compressed that the VU needles never moved more then 2 db- and sounded so bad he declined the project. I replied w/ incredulity and asked how could the albums I had be so dynamic if the tapes they came from were so compressed and also asked which tapes he heard. Another poster relied that that would make them great candidates for a re-mix- contradicting the hosts previous claim that nothing should ever be re-mixed. The thread was deleted not long after. And usually when a thread goes bad, they lock and delete offending posts, not delete the whole thread. Though it's possible that will happen eventually.

So- I started another thread for admirer's of SW's Tales, where I asked for no analog vs. digital debate and no posts from people w/ a bias against SW since these were the sticky points in the thread where a troll w/ that agenda got things derailed. The thread was going very smoothly for about 20 posts until it got locked!

I've PM's mods about why the original got deleted instead of locked- no one seems to know, though one Mod replied that "I have no information for you." I replied that that sounded like he had info but it was "above my clearance level." Haven't gotten a reply to that one yet... Also asked why after my thread was locked.

I have a lot of respect for Mods- both here and there, who do a great job at an unenviable task for no pay. I don't see this as their doing. I won't get into any "conspiracy theories" or speculation until this plays out for a while, but I have read things suggesting the host has some real issues w/ SW. Mr. H doesn't even believe in re-mixes- that's tampering w/ the Mona Lisa- but of course remastering is cool. He even stopped into the Tales thread to say that a flat transfer of the original mix isn't an upgrade- it's unfinished!

EDIT: I just got an alert on my Tales thread; a Mod posted this:

"Hold up for a bit while I work on getting the original thread back online, please. This could take a while, so please be patient."

Still like to keep my thread though, since it potentially could weed out a lot of the drama.

All true.
Steve Hoffman is virulent anti-remix and that's fine with me but tim1954 or whatever his moniker, is a know-nothing Luddite on a pointless "mission".

Not to be condescending, which means that's exactly what I'm going to be, but the system spec'd in his profile was far from revealing and really it didn't matter.
I see Jim From West Virginia has started another thread on the topic.

FWIW, the SH SACD of Close to the Edge 2-channel and the SW 2-channel of CTTE were pretty much indistinguishable to me.
But Stevo doesn't do multi-channel so as Grace Slick once said, Fizz Him.

 

[ProgRules]

Not disputing any of that, We are trying to take the high road as far as other forums.


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LOL. And here I sit now feeling a bit hypocritical after my previous rant on that subject in this very thread. I wasn't going to bring it up, but when someone else did, I jumped right in. While it feels good to vent, this forum is not the appropriate place for that and is above that kind of pettiness. My apologies.

For the record, the original thread is now back.