Listening to Now (In Surround) - Volume 2

[humprof]

My tastes in big band music run towards Gil Evans and his heirs, so I guess I'd been avoiding Gordon Goodwin, imagining he was going to be a modern-day Maynard Ferguson, big, brash, and overblown. (The jokey band and album names don't help.) But @edisonbaggins keeps evangelizing, and I've heard snippets of his latest album, The Gordian Knot, that were sort of mind-blowing, mix-wise. So when Swingin' for the Fences (5.1 DVD-A/V, 2000) showed up cheap on eBay, I jumped. (It can also be had for a song from Discogs sellers.)

Not sorry I did. Definitely a bigger finger-poppin' factor to his music than I would usually go in for, but it's also impeccably recorded and mixed--in your face and all around--with snappy arrangements, first-rate playing (from top-shelf LA session musicians), and great guest spots. And the dude has been totally devoted to surround for over twenty years now, so he's earned some love.

P.S.: Goodwin's latest, Gordian Knot, is currently on Apple Music in two versions, one of them marked "Mixed for Atmos." Only it's not actually streaming in Atmos. Somebody might want to give the parties concerned a heads up...

 

[Rhinojack]

Alice Cooper’s Muscle of Love, quadraphonic hybrid SACD.

 

[Beefalo]

I forgot that orbital had made this album in 5.1! (....it was 20 years ago though). Bought it from ebay thanks to this post and am spinning it now

@AshBuchanan
I really like the mix and the music. As I remember the menu is a little difficult to figure out and there are a couple of hidden tracks.

 

[humprof]

Whoooo! It ain't nothin' but a Warner Brothers party! Graham Central Station, Ain't No 'Bout-a-Doubt It (1975). I'm listening to an unbelievably fine CD-4 conversion, but have also heard a QR conversion that's equally tasty. People need to hear this album! (And then they need to vote, so as to bring it out of the invisibility zone in the polls.)
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...no-bout-a-doubt-it-cd-4-q8.28676/#post-589527

 

[Tornado Red]

Mr. Big - Lean Into It on SACD in 5.1

 

[AshBuchanan]

@AshBuchanan
I really like the mix and the music. As I remember the menu is a little difficult to figure out and there are a couple of hidden tracks.

That's right, it took me a while to find the doctor who theme, but it was worth the search! Great mix

 

[Hamilton59]

Good Friday Afternoon People !
Playing...

Herbie Hancock - Gershwin's World

 

[humprof]

Graham Central Station, eponymous (1974). Listened to this via a digital conversion of the 1975 quad reel. Plenty of deep, dark, doleful grooves. Good listen--but even more in need of poll voters than Ain't No 'Bout-a-Doubt It!
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...tion-graham-central-station-cd-4-q8-qr.28675/

 

[humprof]

Gordon Grdina, Gary Peacock, and Paul Motian, Think Like the Waves (5.0 SACD, 2006). Lovely guitar-trio chamber-jazz set recorded in the usual Songlines "in-the-room" fashion. I got hold of this after Peacock died last year. (Can anybody think of another surround recording with Motian?) Still available direct from Songlines.
https://songlines.com/release/think-like-the-waves/https://somethingelsereviews.com/20...ck-and-paul-motian-think-like-the-waves-2006/

 

[humprof]

So many Reverend Al quads out there to choose from! And so uneven in terms of mix and sonics. Still, we're lucky to have good conversions of all of them (from Q8 and/or QR). Today I'm chillin' with Call Me and Livin' For You (both from 1973).

 

[humprof]

Urbie Green, 21 Trombones (1973). Listening to a really good conversion from CD4. Reputedly a Phil Ramone quad mix--he definitely engineered--and while it's not "sheets of sound," it can be hard to tell what's coming from where. Sometimes the solos seem to be on the diagonal, sometimes four-corners, sometimes even 3 out of 4...? Keyboards mainly in the right channels, I think, and rhythm section in the left? (although sometimes organ and guitar trade licks in left and right rears), and the trombone choir is spread around the room in an interesting way. Cheesy repertoire with "mod" arrangements--Enoch Light produced--but some big names on board, including giants like J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding.

 

[humprof]

Steve Hackett, Spectral Mornings (DVD-V 5.1, 2016 [1979]). A couple of weeks ago I was listening to the Live at Hammersmith set one more time before moving it off the "recent acquisitions" shelf, and that reminded me how much I like this album. And I think I like the original studio version better. I have to grudgingly accept the fact that Steven Wilson doesn't much care for Genesis, but I'm glad he got this close.

 

[sjcorne]

Steve Hackett, Spectral Mornings (DVD-V 5.1, 2016 [1979]). A couple of weeks ago I was listening to the Live at Hammersmith set one more time before moving it off the "recent acquisitions" shelf, and that reminded me how much I like this album. And I think I like the original studio version better. I have to grudgingly accept the fact that Steven Wilson doesn't much care for Genesis, but I'm glad he got this close.

One of the most underrated SW 5.1's, IMO. "The Virgin and The Gypsy" is a demo track for me.

 

[humprof]

One of the most underrated SW 5.1's, IMO. "The Virgin and The Gypsy" is a demo track for me.

Mutual admiration society. Wilson on Hackett:

[Grace for Drowning] features some notable players, and a very special guest on Deform To Form A Star. “I met Steve Hackett at High Voltage last year. I’ve never been a big Genesis fan, but I’m a huge fan of his first few solo albums –Spectral Mornings, Voyage Of The Acolyte, Please Don’t Touch, Defector. We were talking about them and he said those records came from his love of – guess who! – Crimson and Van der Graaf. I was already in the process of writing Grace For Drowning and those two bands are touchstones for me, so having him on the record made perfect sense."

Hackett on Wilson:

Well, he's basically 20 years younger than me, but I think he's an old soul in a younger body.

So I think that spiritually, he's one with the kind of music that I was doing when I was young - when it was contemporary to work with mellotrons and synths... before those instruments became Jurassic.

He loves that, so he sees what I might see as Jurassic he sees as classic. And so he's a very clever guy, he's a very fast thinker - he works very, very quickly.

I've known people to spend two months on a surround mix; he'll spend two days on it and get it to work wonderfully. It's a bit like a master chef, that's how it functions.

Did not realize Wilson had worked on the entire Premonitions box. Now I have to track down Please Don't Touch....

 

[humprof]

Johnny Hammond (if that IS your real name!...), Higher Ground (1974).

I dislike the Creed Taylor aesthetic--and Bob James arrangements--more often than not. But holy cats! the sidemen on this album: Jon Faddis, Eddie Daniels, Joe Henderson, George Benson, Ron Carter, Steve Gadd, Ralph MacDonald...plus Hank Crawford and Jack effing DeJohnette sitting in on the "Big Sur Suite"! Can't not listen. Hammond--and others--really get to reveal their hard-bop roots on "Big Sur," by the way. SQ LP conversion gets the edge for sonics, Q8 conversion for channel separation--but only barely. (And in spite of my reservations: if Dutton reissued it, I'd still buy it!)

 

[fizzywiggs41]

A sip of irish creme and I'm into Loreena McKennitt-The Visit.


Not fn atmos , but DTS 5.1 fwiw.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

And playing now ;

Bobcaygeon , by The Tragically Hip. In DD 5.1bluray

EDIT ; OOPS! IT'S IN DTS MA 5.1 : Surprise Surprise

 

[Tornado Red]

Billy Idol - The Roadside EP on Apple Music in 7.1 pcm

 

[Tornado Red]

Mary Fahl - From The Dark Side Of The Moon on blu ray in 5.1

 

[marpow]

One of the very first surround discs I bought, still rockn' good. DVD-A 5.1 surround, 24/96, DR's are 11's and 12's.