Van Der Graaf Generator - 5.1 mixes coming in 2021. It's happening!!

[riskylogic]

Alright, just listened to H to He for the first time ever while doing some housework. Singer definitely sounds like Bowie (for better or worse). When I first listened to a few snippets before buying the cd my first thought was they sounded like Genesis musically, but now I am leaning more towards a King Crimson influence. The music was a little too meandering for my taste and I still am on the fence about the vocals. Definitely not music that you will be whistling the rest of the day as you go about your business. If there are stand alone 5.1 releases, I will definitely pick up a couple because they sound like, if done correctly, they could produce an awesome surround mix. I will listen to this again because bands with music like this usually take a few listens to gel in my brain. I also gravitate towards music with a heavier rock sound which this is not.
Put on Zep 4 after.... that's better.

That is just silly. "Killer" is a total earworm.

On a black day in a black month at the black bottom of the sea
Your mother gave birth to you and died immediately...
'Cos you can't have two killers living in the same pad
And when your mother knew that her time had come
She was really rather glad.

Once that gets in your head, it just doesn't go away. But when I sing it to myself before I go to sleep it gets condensed to "You know when your mother died giving birth to you, she was really rather glad. Because you can't have two killers living in the same sea"

 

[colsky]

My current Van Der Graaf earworm is the song Still Life:

"Living through the millions of years,
A laugh as close as any tear...
Living, if you claim that all
That entails is
Breathing, eating, defecating,
Screwing, drinking,
Spewing, sleeping, sinking ever down and down
And ultimately passing away time
Which no longer has any meaning."

A song that always gets people moving at Karaoke!

 

[erebus]

I'm about to learn about Kraftwerk, a band I should have heard 40 years ago. Crazy.
That said, Van Der Graaf in 5.1 is a must.

 

[Mistee]

Premonitions only had two real 5.1s plus two pretty worthless upmixes. Broken Skies Outspread Winds only has seven songs in 5.1, but didn't have all the albums already to was more worth it. In Search of Hades only has two and a half albums in surround plus a bunch of CDs I already had. So, I'm hoping it's not a surround mix of a couple of albums plus a bunch of other discs I don't want. OTOH, if it's a full set of 5.1s like the Genesis, Talking Heads and Quadio boxes then I'm in for sure.

While I would adore separate releases in the vein of the Be Bop Deluxe or Tull releases (there's something special about getting a new one each year), I too would still be pretty excited about a release similar to the Genesis box sets that came out a while back, which did give us 5.1s for each album and some bonus stuff. And how were those talking heads docos with discussions running in sync with each release? I loved them! Now that would be something, not just hearing from Mr Peter Hammill, lovely, beautiful gentleman though he is. (I was lucky enough to meet him a number of times, so I can state that with some authority.) But how amazing it would be to hear from some of the others as well as we moved through each release. But I imagine Peter would be a bit ambivalent about this last idea.

Oh! And I've just had another thought. I know who should do the liner notes? Peter, of course, but a contribution from Chris Judge Smith would also go down very, very well.

 

[colsky]

Someone at Progressive Ears forum has now said:

The latest bit of info I have says "Only four albums will have the 5.1 - H to He, Pawn Hearts, Godbluff and Still Life."

So, not as good as all of them, but better than just 2 of them. Twice as good in fact!

 

[Matt Wilson]

Someone at Progressive Ears forum has now said:

The latest bit of info I have says "Only four albums will have the 5.1 - H to He, Pawn Hearts, Godbluff and Still Life."

So, not as good as all of them, but better than just 2 of them. Twice as good in fact!

And if most fans could pick four VDGG albums to hear in 5.1, these would probably be them.

 

[riskylogic]

Someone at Progressive Ears forum has now said:

The latest bit of info I have says "Only four albums will have the 5.1 - H to He, Pawn Hearts, Godbluff and Still Life."

So, not as good as all of them, but better than just 2 of them. Twice as good in fact!

No World Record is a bummer, but that sounds like enough to suck me in.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Someone at Progressive Ears forum has now said:

The latest bit of info I have says "Only four albums will have the 5.1 - H to He, Pawn Hearts, Godbluff and Still Life."

So, not as good as all of them, but better than just 2 of them. Twice as good in fact!

Just hoping they're all contained on BD~A. Already sprung for the Universal Stereo SHM~SACDs and would hate for them to be 'downgraded' to lossy DVD~V with DTS and/or DD 5.1.

 

[IMachine]

DTS is always fine for me

 

[4-earredwonder]

Just hoping they're all contained on BD~A. Already sprung for the Universal Stereo SHM~SACDs and would hate for them to be 'downgraded' to lossy DVD~V with DTS and/or DD 5.1.

DTS is always fine for me

I already 'presented' MY case, IM! Universal did release splendid LOSSLESS STEREO SHM~SACDs a few years ago and keep in mind when they prepare the 5.1 remixes for release they're remastered from the original analogue multitracks in 192/24 or 96/24 LOSSLESS codecs!

DTS IS a 90's technology ..... and once the VDGG 5.1 remixes are finally released unlikely they'll be re~released. So why not hope for the GOLD instead of tarnished silver!

Have we learned nothing from Dutton Vocalion's fabulous and ongoing QUAD SACD program? IN EVERY INSTANCE, they more than comfortably eclipse all previous SQ/QS/CD~4 Vinyl, QUAD 8 and even QR releases.

 

[sjcorne]

Have we learned nothing from Dutton Vocalion's fabulous and ongoing QUAD SACD program? IN EVERY INSTANCE, they more than comfortably eclipse all previous SQ/QS/CD~4 Vinyl, QUAD 8 and even QR releases.

You're comparing apples & oranges. Lossy encoding schemes have nothing in common with analog technologies like vinyl and tape.

 

[4-earredwonder]

You're comparing apples & oranges. Lossy encoding schemes have nothing in common with analog technologies like vinyl and tape.

Well, Jonathan, if you're perfectly content with 90's technology like DTS ..... then so be it. If you cannot hear the difference between 192/24, DSD and DTS, what more can I say?

LOSSY ENCODING SCHEMES in 2021 SHOULD BE REMNANTS OF THE PAST......and if you disagree with me on that point, FINE!

My point was that Michael Dutton took a chance by introducing QUAD SACD at a time when American reissue companies abandoned it. And since you're obviously NOT into Classical music, Dutton Epoch's QUAD SACD releases from the RCA RED Seal/Columbia Masterworks vaults are, IMO, simply ASTOUNDING.

The Tangerine Dream box set did include 5.1 remixes on a LOSSLESS BD~A so I'm wishin' 'n hopin' the VDGG 5.1 remixes follow that same template.

And is there anything, ANYTHING, wrong with that?

 

[IMachine]

Nothing is wrong with DTS for me!

 

[4-earredwonder]

Nothing is wrong with DTS for me!

I too, LOVED DTS ...... IN THE NINETIES!

 

[IMachine]

I love it in the TWENTIES!

 

[Sal1950]

DTS was Godsend for getting us 5.1 files on a common CD back-in the day.
But this is 2021 and I'd expect 24/48 flac at a minimum. Any more is just wasteful of bandwidth IMHO.

 

[quicksrt]

There is a newer flavor(s) of DTS, right? It's not all the same as the late 90s tech. I thought I read here where someone explained it was DTS 24/96? Or is that just the name of it and not really the specs?

 

[Simplepast Presentperfect]

I love it in the TWENTIES!

Let's strike a compromise and they release it in DTS-HD master audio.
You take your tiny 24/48 lossy DTS file, we enjoy the gorgeous lossless 24/96 file. What about that?

 

[IMachine]

Let's strike a compromise and they release it in DTS-HD master audio.
You take your tiny 24/48 lossy DTS file, we enjoy the gorgeous lossless 24/96 file. What about that?

No problems with that

 

[Simplepast Presentperfect]

Alright, just listened to H to He for the first time ever while doing some housework. Singer definitely sounds like Bowie (for better or worse). When I first listened to a few snippets before buying the cd my first thought was they sounded like Genesis musically, but now I am leaning more towards a King Crimson influence. The music was a little too meandering for my taste and I still am on the fence about the vocals. Definitely not music that you will be whistling the rest of the day as you go about your business. If there are stand alone 5.1 releases, I will definitely pick up a couple because they sound like, if done correctly, they could produce an awesome surround mix. I will listen to this again because bands with music like this usually take a few listens to gel in my brain. I also gravitate towards music with a heavier rock sound which this is not.
Put on Zep 4 after.... that's better.

Interesting to me to hear some "fresh ears" impressions about VdGG.
My first exposure was listening to The undercover man (from Godbluff) on the radio in the late 70's. By chance I recorded it and noted that it was from a band called Van der Graaf Generator --- but in those pre-Internet days I was able to trace it to its album and listen properly to it and many others only many years later.
So from that limited sample of their large musical output my "fresh ears" impression was different from what I learnt to appreciate later in VdGG.
I still like The undercover man, possibly my favorite song precisely for that reason !
Maybe another good reason is the feature major sixth interval sung downwards that makes total melodic sense --- I cannot identify another musical example right now
But my first impression of PH's voice stayed.
It didn't sound schooled or cultivated to me, rather wild, and I learnt to like it in its musical context.
I would say that technically DB was by far a better vocalist, and cannot find a proper comparison to PH.
Regarding influences, maybe there is a general background tying Genesis and King Crimson to VdGG, but they are basically contemporaries and they grew quite independently from each other.
As Robert Fripp once quipped, that generation were people that didn't know what they were doing, and they did it quite well.
Chasing that quote that I definitely read somewhere, but cannot find it !