I saw this pop up on streaming and thought I'd listen to a bit and see what it was like, and lo and behold almost two hours later I'd completely lost track of time and listened to the whole thing. The mix (at least on streaming) isn't quite at the level of Snarky Puppy's Atmos mixes, which are really my benchmark now, but given that it was a more traditional "live" gig I think that's understandable, and it's still very immersive with plenty of sound spread around to the height and rear speakers. I definitely heard some discrete things from the rears too, including congas.
The performance itself is phenomenal though, and includes a couple of fantastic covers (an epic version of Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up and a soulful downtempo rendition of Tears for Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule the World) in addition to a great selection of the band's own repertoire.
Lettuce, in my opinion, get unfairly lumped into the "jam band" category, and it seems only by virtue of the fact that they attract some of the same fanbase that like some of those bands like the Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic, Phish, etc. Maybe I'm biased because I really don't like that kind of noodly second-rate songwriting bluegrass-influenced kind of stuff, but I hear virtually none of that in Lettuce's sound, which owes much more to jazz-funk of the '70s (Herbie Hancock, Bob James/CTI, EW&F, etc.) and '90s/'00s hip-hop, but isn't beholden to sound exclusively just like that. Their guitarist described them as a "post hip-hop funk band" but I think that really only scratches the surface - there's a lot of R&B and soul in their sound, jazz improvisation and dynamics, and psychedelic (again, the soul version) sound in that iceberg.
Lettuce are an independent band, so I figured they didn't just commission this mix for streaming and after doing some digging I discovered they're selling a Blu-Ray (which they're probably mistakenly calling a "Blu-Ray DVD") on their website for the princely sum of $15. It doesn't have any information about the audio formats and I haven't reached out, but you have to presume that the Atmos mix is included as part of this package. The band recently did an interview with Denver-area publication Westword to promote the release and their sax player Ryan Zoidis mentioned the Atmos mix:
"We're so stoked to have this come out. It's a great collaboration. The Colorado Symphony is fabulous and Tony and Chris Dragon do a wonderful job of bringing in all these bands to work with them. The symphony album sounds fantastic, too. We mixed it at a really great studio called Colorado Sound with Jesse O'Brien, who is our engineer and who has been there a long time. Our last few records were recorded there as well as this symphony record. It includes a new kind of spatial audio called Dolby Atmos that sounds incredible."
The performance itself is phenomenal though, and includes a couple of fantastic covers (an epic version of Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up and a soulful downtempo rendition of Tears for Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule the World) in addition to a great selection of the band's own repertoire.
Lettuce, in my opinion, get unfairly lumped into the "jam band" category, and it seems only by virtue of the fact that they attract some of the same fanbase that like some of those bands like the Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic, Phish, etc. Maybe I'm biased because I really don't like that kind of noodly second-rate songwriting bluegrass-influenced kind of stuff, but I hear virtually none of that in Lettuce's sound, which owes much more to jazz-funk of the '70s (Herbie Hancock, Bob James/CTI, EW&F, etc.) and '90s/'00s hip-hop, but isn't beholden to sound exclusively just like that. Their guitarist described them as a "post hip-hop funk band" but I think that really only scratches the surface - there's a lot of R&B and soul in their sound, jazz improvisation and dynamics, and psychedelic (again, the soul version) sound in that iceberg.
Lettuce are an independent band, so I figured they didn't just commission this mix for streaming and after doing some digging I discovered they're selling a Blu-Ray (which they're probably mistakenly calling a "Blu-Ray DVD") on their website for the princely sum of $15. It doesn't have any information about the audio formats and I haven't reached out, but you have to presume that the Atmos mix is included as part of this package. The band recently did an interview with Denver-area publication Westword to promote the release and their sax player Ryan Zoidis mentioned the Atmos mix:
"We're so stoked to have this come out. It's a great collaboration. The Colorado Symphony is fabulous and Tony and Chris Dragon do a wonderful job of bringing in all these bands to work with them. The symphony album sounds fantastic, too. We mixed it at a really great studio called Colorado Sound with Jesse O'Brien, who is our engineer and who has been there a long time. Our last few records were recorded there as well as this symphony record. It includes a new kind of spatial audio called Dolby Atmos that sounds incredible."
“Lettuce with the Colorado Symphony” – A Live Record & Film Experience 🎞 With over 90 minutes of music, this release is available on DVD, CD, a 3-disc LP collection, digital platforms, and in Dolby Atmos for a fully immersive experience."
Sometimes we gotta take a bullet for the team.
