Hello everyone,
This would be my first "in depth review", so please understand that this is a personal opinion of what I heard, liked or disliked. I am not a specialist or a mix engineer, so I could be not 100% accurate in my descriptions. The equipment I used for listening is: FLAC files through Foobar2000 through an RME ADI2 DAC and Adam A8X monitors for stereo. An Onkyo receiver, Emotiva B2+ speakers and 2 SVS subwoofers for spatial (5.2 only, no overhead speakers).
I've been a Fish/Marillion fan for a long time and I really enjoyed the previous deluxe releases from Marillion. The remixes really improved the sound quality and expanded them into spatial audio territory. Of course I got super excited when the deluxe were announced, as these 2 first solo albums from Fish are nothing but solid and definitely deserve more recognition! And...it's stuff I grew up with, which I still love to listen to today, maybe even more.
The deluxe packages from Fish started last year with 13th Star, which came with a new stereo mix by Calum Malcolm and spatial mixes By Andy Bradfield and Avril Mackintosh. I really enjoyed that package! And afterwards, Fish promised new packages for "Vigil" and "Internal Exile", in the same vein like 13th Star but with more content. I could not be more excited!
First, with 13th star I noticed a few things:
The Stereo mix and the spatial one were not exactly sonically identical, but differed in some aspects: dynamics, tonality and ..drum sound. I did a downmix of the Atmos (7.1) mix to stereo and compared the two. For example, the song "Open Water" has totally different dynamics, image and instrument sounds. While Calum's stereo has a different reverb on the drums and the very top end of cymbals is quite missing, the Atmos has a more pleasant sound, warmer, with better top end. Anyway, I was happy with the mixes, as the previous mix of this particular album was very dark, muffled, even distorted at times. By the way, the original mix was done by Calum as well, in 2007. Bringing instruments more clarity and emphasizing the upper midrange worked for that album, I'd say. But here we are today, with these two new ones...
Well, my first encounter with these new mixes was when the radio edits were released and my reaction was "WTF?!!" - the dynamics limiting was over the top, the sound was like someone played with the EQ on old Winamp.
I thought that maybe those were mastered for FM broadcast, but to my big disappointment the actual mastered files released on streaming and CD were not much different.
Please keep in mind that the spatial mixes were made using Calum's tracks, Andy and Avril did not prepare the tracks for these 2 albums. Probably this was done to save time and cost
Vigil
I like the template of this mix! The placement of instruments is quite similar to the original 1990 mix, with some differences that I think improve it. This is the part that works for me, except fading the cymbals in the beginning of "The Company" and "Cliche". That, I found distracting and it's maybe from having the 1990 mix etched in mind, but that is so minor. The brass section in "Big Wedge" is somewhat changed, there are new elements, better than the original mix.
What I don't like is the sound: overly bright, overcooked. It all begins with the drum sound that seems to have an unnaturally bright reverb in places that makes the snare sound like fly swatter. It could be that the reverb had been (overly) equalized, the cymbals sound like they have some saturation, eq, compression, I don't know what that is in technical terms, but I hope I described it well. I did a comparison between the new mix, the 1995 Yang mix and the original mix of Big Wedge and it seems that the 95 mix is the closest probably to the multitracks (No, I never heard the multitracks). The drums sound like drums and even if not perfect, it sounded natural. The original is drenched in that late 80's reverb and the new one is just...too bright, too congested. The drums on Cliche sound very very distracting and bright.
The Atmos mix (to which I only listened to on a 5.1 system) sounds more relaxed, there is a fair amount of dynamics. The sound is cleaner and the mix is quite immersive. Unfortunately, the same drum sound is present but the mix is less "cooked", therefore a little better.
Here is a review of the Atmos mix, a pretty good one!
https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/fish-vigil-in-a-wilderness-of-mirrors-dolby-atmos/
In conclusion, the new mix fails to be a "definitive" mix of this album. I think the work deserves a better mix, it's a great album. And...this is the better one of the 2 releases.
Internal Exile
While Vigil, with all those shortcomings, is relatively ok and consistent...I cannot say the same about Internal. This one...sorry, I truly wanted to like and enjoy this mix, but I just can't. There are some good ideas in the new mix but they are poorly executed and this leads to a lesser experience than the original mix. Let's go track by track on this one...
1.
Shadowplay - Calum must hate drums! I cannot explain why the drumming is so buried in the mix and flat. The song has no punch. None. There is bass, but it seems dissociated from the rest of the rhythm section. Voice echoes way too much, more echoing from other instruments. A very congested flat sound. The eq is quite harsh and noticeable, sibilance is heard. Why couldn't they just take the original and improve on it? There was room for improvement for sure but that was not the path chosen.
In Atmos the sound is more dynamic but this doesn't save the sound. With the same tracks being used, it sounds quite the same as described above.
2.
Lucky - I like the arrangement, some new guitar elements can be heard. But the same flat eq'd sound, brickwalled, dynamics are poor. Could have been great. It falls short.
3.
Just Good Friends - ok arrangement, same issues. Flat. It looks like the top end of cymbals was cut, they sound very harsh.
4.
Favourite Stranger - ok. too compressed eq's, congested.
5.
Tongues - This is one of the tracks I like. The guitars sound really nice, placement of instruments is nice. Still, the upper midrange is boosted, sounds fatiguing, same feeling of ...flat.
6.
Something in the Air - same sound signature, but ok.
7.
Poet's Moon - really bad, sounds like played through computer speakers with some subwoofer somewhere. Cymbals sound like a 128kbps old mp3.
8.
Dear Friend - this one seems to have some extra guitar, sounds really interesting. Same flat sound.
9.
Credo - distracting reverb on snare. The fly swatter is back! This song has a nice groove, the rhythm section is unfortunately not as emphasized as I would like it to be, unnatural. Bad choice of reverb. In stereo, towards the end of the song that reverb becomes really annoying. In surround things sound more relaxed, but you can tell the mix is made with the same tracks.
10.
Internal Exile - cymbals and drums low in the mix, lots of boomy bass, nothing gained (more lost) over the original mix. Compared to the original mix, it sounds low pass filtered with the bass boosted too much.
11.
Carnival Man - like tongues, has a nice arrangement but sound remains the same.
"Internal Exile" is very brickwalled in stereo and I suspect some extra compression and eq in the mastering stage, which make it sound more flat and unexciting. The Atmos mix is spatialized in a similar way to Vigil (which is nice) but the sonics leave a lot to desire.
Now, I know that a lot of people blame brickwalling for many woes, but I can honestly tell you that the impact of that alone is not THAT big. However, I still don't understand why limiting to such extent is necessary. Some limiting of some loud peaks IS necessary to maintain a good balance, but to shave everything like that? WHY, for sound's sakes? I hope that people would realize that dynamics limiting is not to blame here for the sound. The Atmos is dynamic and that shows that the poor sonics began with the tracks.
Well, it makes me wonder whether Calum Malcolm has some sort of hearing loss, because his previous productions for Fish were from good to great! "Raingods with Zippos" sounded excellent, the remasters were good, "Weltschmerz" sounded great...what happened here? Why the upper midrange boost? Some would say to enhance vocals, but it just makes everything sound just shrill. One more thing I noticed: on the Vigil Blu-Ray, the "Pigpen's Birthday" official bootleg is remastered with a shrill top end boost. I didn't go through these official bootlegs really, I have the initial issue CD's. Tried one, heard that, didn't bother further.
At last, I like the fact that these deluxes happened! The packages are nice, reading through Fish's words is a delight. The demos are very welcome, they're a good listen. The documentaries are great. I would have liked to get a complete show from the period, newly mixed, like those on the Marillion issues, but maybe multitrack recordings do not exist. I don't know. The highlight here were the new mixes (for me) and while "Vigil" is mostly OK (except that crappy drum sound that I tried my best to describe above), "Internal Exile" feels completely messed up. Had Calum tried to use the Chris Kimsey mix as a guide, improving on instruments balance, adding new bits, etc., the result would have been different. Or if all would have been done by Bradfield/Mackintosh, like the Marillion ones... Or if Steven Wilson worked on these...
