Short Take: Well worth seeking out, especially if you are a Bond fan.
OK, so I "grew up" (for better or for worse) on James Bond movies, and Live & Let Die was right is the sweet spot of my early adolescence, at age 11. I saw many of the old Bond movies on the big screen. Always lots of explosive action and tantalizing innuendo. I first owned this soundtrack on an officially released Philips cassette, so the music was more than familiar to me by the time I first heard the quad mix in the 2010s. Yes, VERY late to the quad party!
The conversion of the Q8 I listen to was done by Tab Patterson. He had a Fostex open reel machine which he modified to play Q8 tapes that had been removed from the cart. For those of you who are curious about this setup, here is a good thread:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ostex-reel-to-reel-q8-player.6305/post-168238
Here is also a link from February of 2011 when Tab sold his Fostex to Army Of Quad:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...retiring-selling-the-fostex.14097/post-122932
Tab did many amazing conversions, and I personally owe him my gratitude for the enjoyment he has brought me in the form of preserved classic quad mixes.
OK, so back to the review.
I personally love this soundtrack music, and have no problem listening to the album from start to finish. Someone else here referred to it as "elevator music," and all I can say is that would be one cool elevator! Of course this is all a matter of taste.
Concerning the fidelity, well, firstly it IS from an 8 Track tape, so I am grading on a curve. It's not gonna be 24/96, and we all know that. I would say my conversion has very little hiss - much less than the old 8 Track conversion I had of Dark Side Of The Moon. So fidelity wise I would call it clean for an 8 Track. Even above average. Not sure if this would be true for every source.
As for the mix, Q8 calls it muddy. The words bleedthrough & crosstalk were used. I actually do not believe this to be the case. I think this was "mix choice." By including a small amount of info from the fronts in the rears you shift the position of a given sound to forward of the fronts - more out in the room. True this is less discrete, and not necessarily my preferred choice, but not a technical flaw as seems to be inferred.
The mix itself is adventuresome, with many elements that - while maybe not fully isolated - are clearly placed strongly in one position in the soundfield. Take track 3: Just a Closer Walk With Thee/New Second Line. There is a part where the dixieland funeral all but disappears from the rears. This is where you might really judge the amount of bleedthrough, which ain't much. And then as the song progresses the music moves into the rears to give you the sense of the passing parade (if you know the scene in the movie).
My favorite demo track from this album (yes, I use it as a quad demo) is Baron Samedi's Dance of Death. Super cool percussion!
So to reiterate, I urge you to not overlook this one based on the shrugging reviews above. This is actually a frequent flyer in my Oppo. I gave it an 8, because it is in lesser sound quality. I would LOVE it if Dutton could release this. And I was bummed that the Blu-ray did not include this as a bonus feature. How easy would that have been to do?
Check it out! IF it were in perfect quality I would rate this a 10.