HiRez Poll Blackfield - V [Blu-Ray Audio]

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Rate the BDA of Blackfield - V

  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Poor Content, Surround Mix, and Fidelity

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    26

rtbluray

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Please post your thoughts and comments on this 2017 release from Blackfield, the 5th collaboration between Steven Wilson and Aviv Geffen, available as a CD/Blu-Ray release from Burning Shed: https://www.burningshed.com/store/kscope/product/272/7967/
5.1 mix by Steven Wilson except tracks 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11 mixed by Simon Bloor and Bruce Soord.

(n) :) (y)

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While I still haven't ordered this yet, I did get to finally listen to the songs already released on YouTube thus far, and I'm really digging Family Man and How Was Your Ride? So I really don't know why I'm procrastinating in ordering lol. Also, pity the HDTracks download is currently not available for purchase as yet...

Sent from my HTC 2PS6200 using Tapatalk
 
Hokay it arrived this morning and the Blu-ray was straight into the Oppo, I'm on my 3rd listen now, 1st was in LPCM 2nd in DTS-HD MSTR. It's only 44 minutes long. The visuals are a slideshow of a man and woman splashing around in the sea!

I am enjoying the songs on here now, as you'd expect the surround is very good some tracks mixed by Steven Wilson and some by Bruce Soord and Simon Bloor.

The high end seems a little lacking to me (symbol splashes a bit muted) bass really kicked in on 'Salt Water & 'lonely Soul' The song 'Sorrys' has the vocal in the front and acoustic guitars and backing vocals from the rear speakers.

The book is very nice with pictures of the sea and the lyrics, the CD and Blu-ray are slid into cardboard pockets in the front and back covers, won't be to everyone's liking. So now I'll leave it there and let someone else have their say.
 
OK, zdigital the Australian site has the Hi-Res download link available - and just purchased. Will still pick up the physical copy eventually and will leave a review in a moment. ☺️

Sent from my HTC 2PS6200 using Tapatalk
 
How come Steven Wilson only mixed a handful of the tracks in 5.1?
 
How come Steven Wilson only mixed a handful of the tracks in 5.1?

I would guess it's because he didn't have enough time to mix all of the tracks in 5.1 himself, so he passed the remaining tracks on to Bruce.
A similar situation happened with the upcoming Tim Bowness album "Lost in the Ghost Light".
Steven mixed the album in stereo, didn't have enough time to mix the album in 5.1, and passed that mix on to Bruce too.
 
The orchestration sounds wonderful on the release. I would have loved an instrumental 5.1 mix of this album. For some reason, I just think the lyrics get in the way of the music. Probably just me.

The mix seems immersive to me but a bit shaky at higher volume. I had to bring the master volume down a bit lower than I normally like.
Still, a decent 5.1 mix to tie me over until Tim Bowness' new album gets to me.

I thought there might be a difference in the 5.1 mix styles between SW & BS but you can't really tell the difference between them. They compliment each other well.

The biggest surprise to me was to see in the credits that SW wasn't involved 100% in the songwriting. I thought I read that this album was a return to his full involvement in the partnership.

To me, no better or worse than other Blackfield albums.

Content: 7 - Love the music, the lyrics not so much.
Surround Mix: 9 - Quality immersive mix
Fidelity: 7 - Sounds harsh at higher volumes

Guess I will round down to a 7
 
The biggest surprise to me was to see in the credits that SW wasn't involved 100% in the songwriting. I thought I read that this album was a return to his full involvement in the partnership.

Full involvement for SW in Blackfield does not equate to more songwriting. His songwriting is still largely reserved for his solo material.
Full involvement for SW means more singing (he sings on half of the tracks) and more of his involvement in making production and arrangement decisions, especially when it comes to the guitars. That's his territory, while Aviv is more concerned with the keyboards and orchestral arrangements.
 
Full involvement for SW in Blackfield does not equate to more songwriting. His songwriting is still largely reserved for his solo material.
Full involvement for SW means more singing (he sings on half of the tracks) and more of his involvement in making production and arrangement decisions, especially when it comes to the guitars. That's his territory, while Aviv is more concerned with the keyboards and orchestral arrangements.

Thanks for that.
I guess I view that differently. On the first album SW is given credit on 8 of 10 songs and 5 out 10 on the second album.

It wasn't until the time of "Welcome to my DNA" where it was noted that SW's future involvement with Blackfield "will be as a contributor rather than a member." I think in 2014 (after IV) SW was quoted as saying he was walking away from the band completely and gave his blessing that Blackfield was now under "AG's sole curatorship". So if anything, I think your description fits the last two albums but not the first two.

In an interview with Teamrock last September, Wilson describes his latest work with AG on Blackfield V as “a return to the full partnership that made the first two albums such firm favourites with fans.” I guess I took that as a return to more of a writing input.
 
I am a big, big Steven Wilson fan and I have very high expectations in everything that he is involved in.

Sorry to say that I am somehow disappointed in this release. If it should have been a solo release from SW I would have been massively disappointed but I know that he is only one part of the whole here so let's keep it to that I am a bit disappointed.

OK, the record starts with a nice string arranged song with a 5.1 mix by SW which sounds like a plain stereo mix to my ears... To be followed by Family Man which to me is the worst song on the album, with a non dynamic arrangement and where both the fidelity and the mix is a total mess (at least from a SW standpoint).

Then it gets better and there are very good songs, arrangements, 5.1-mixes, singing and playing to be found on this album but I find it to be very inconsistant on all these parts and the record as a whole really suffers from this.

I think that the first surround moment that really stands out is the whole track 5 (Sorrys) which means there are four songs before that with more or less big stereo...

I give it overall a 7.

Content: 6-9 - Low point is Family Man, some high points are Sorrys + the last 6 songs
Surround Mix: 5-10 - 50/50, half of the songs have a nice 5.1 mix but SW is not behind all of them
Fidelity: 5-8 - Given that both SW and Alan Parson are involved the fidelity is generically speaking pretty bad
 
Listened twice and the second time took notes song by song. Rather than share those because there are similarities between the comments I will summarize. Sound overall: dreamy, indistinct, I was surprised to learn in the credits that many of the violins were actual violins and not a mellotron. Some pet peeves of mine were violated but the good news is that no new ones were created. The biggest pet peeve (which I would also attach to SW's "Raven...") is that the cymbals sound smeary, lack a metallic quality, and are somewhat remote. A cymbal crash sounds like someone could have sung "Shhhh...." into the microphone. There is one standout song "From 44 to 48" and about 3-4 more OK songs and then the rest kind of go nowhere for me. If SW comes out with an album this year and "From 44 to 48" was the song he gave up, then that just might portend to some really high quality songs on his solo album. The surround utilization is good, but there aren't any real "wow" moments that we have become spoiled to when SW's name is attached. Lyrically some of the lesser songs reminded me of high school yearbook poetry and they seemed to gravitate to topics that are a bit down. I like a little happiness once in a while, especially as it rains and rains this winter in the pacific northwest.

This is my first Blackfield blu-ray, and really didn't have expectations good or bad. I think it was a good effort, and I will probably return to several of the songs. So I gave this a 7.
 
OK, the record starts with a nice string arranged song with a 5.1 mix by SW which sounds like a plain stereo mix to my ears... To be followed by Family Man which to me is the worst song on the album, with a non dynamic arrangement and where both the fidelity and the mix is a total mess (at least from a SW standpoint).

I totally agree with your comments regarding "Family Man". Given that the first track is less than 1.5 minutes (more of an intro), "Family Man" is the first full song on the album, and it gives a terrible first impression. The fidelity is atrocious, both in stereo and 5.1. The mix is slightly more listenable in stereo than in 5.1.

I notice neither SW or Alan Parsons are involved in the production or mix of this track. Rather it is produced by Aviv, and mixed by Simon Bloor (in 2.0) and Bruce Soord (5.1). Tracks 5, 7, 10 and 11 are produced and mixed by the same team. I need to go back and listen again to determine if there is a noticeable drop in quality when these folks are involved in the production and mix. But, there is no question that Family Man sounds really poor.

I haven't decided on a final rating yet. There are definitely some good songs on the album, and many of them sound quite fine too. Unfortunately, it is really inconsistent.
 
Blackfield in V.I has to be a good thing let's get those first two albums remixed and rereleased.

To this album, the 5.1 is remarkabley consistent given that this was not a single person mix. For me the album sounds more in tune and with more of the DNA of the first two albums and is certainly a good album. The Geffen Wilson harmonies work so well together.
The song writing is good though I have to agree for me 'Family Man' is one of the weaker songs luckily this has a leave them wanting more closer 'From 44 to 48'.

A 9 from me
 
Haven't listened to the 5.1 yet, but the stereo isn't exactly great. It's a bit flat and dull for me, although some songs/parts are much better than others. I haven't the packaging in front of me right now (don't remember who mastered it) but I'm disappointed that it has clipping peaks all over (hi-res stereo).

Still need to give it a fair chance but so far it's not doing much for me and after only 2 listens I've moved on.
 
Great mellow rock album! Concise, mellow pop/rock songs with gorgeous string/keyboard/guitar arrangements throughout, and possibly a loose concept about love, life, and the sea(?). No extended solos or instrumental sections (other than the short instrumental track "Salt Water" which I think is fantastic and a little reminiscent of Floyd). I don't know if I would call this progressive rock, but when taken as a whole the album has a somewhat progressive feel. The melodies really stuck in my head after a couple listens and I found myself craving repeat listens. The sound quality of the songs is a little mixed ("Family Man" is a little muddy sounding), but generally enjoyable. Standouts for me in terms of content are "How Was Your Ride", "The Jackal", "Salt Water", "Lonely Soul", and "From 44 To 48" (but I actually like every song). The surround mixes are discrete and balanced with generally static placement of elements; nothing flashy but completely enveloping. As a Steven Wilson fan with no previous Blackfield experience, I highly recommend the album... it's kind of like "Steven-Light" (even though it was primarily written by Aviv Geffen). 8 (Content=2.5/3; Surround Mix=2.5/3; Fidelity=2/3 and 1 bonus point for the book/blu-ray/video etc.)
 
I am a bit of a SW fan boy, I will admit... and this is the first release he's been concerned with in a while that I've given less than a 9.

As I've mentioned on another thread, there's a harshness to some of these mixes that turns me off, particularly some of the Bruce Soord mixes. Aviv's lyrics have always been a weak point of every album, so a recurrence of that here doesn't surprise me in the least. Been listening for a week or so, and hoping that it will grow on me further in the coming months. Still got my fingers crossed for a 5.1 release of 'Blackfield II' to be honest.

I gave a rating of 8, rounded up from a 7-ish as I quite liked the packaging and the accompanying images on the blu-ray.
 
Pre-ordered mine on Jan. 3rd. from Amazon.com, got an email April 14th that there was a delay shipping order with a approval to wait, approval granted but I guess this means I probably won't be receiving this one at any point.
 
Yes, that was my reason for contacting Burning Shed. I had this on preorder from Amazon for over 6 months. I just cancelled the Amazon order - the shipping delay notifications were just adding insult to injury. I am not blaming Amazon - they are only a third party in this. For whatever reason KScope has deleted the CD/Bluray configuration for this title. Bummer.
 
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