Sometimes hardship leads to brilliance. This is one of those times. COVID blew their tour but they had a great record they wanted to play. Solution: Play a show on a soundstage with all the elements under your control. Record it with fidelity, film it brilliantly, mix it perfectly and in multiple formats, then give it to us to enjoy. Thank you.
TPT is making great music with deeply engaging songs and the band as tight as the heads on Gavin's drums. Doing the show like this was better than seeing them basically anywhere except a private show. Live concert sound at most venues is not good and at many it is a painful sonic assault with the music hidden in an overblown mass of toxic waste. I wrote about that
problem here.
If you have a quality system, and I have a
ridiculous one, then you will almost never find a better place to hear music than your own sweet spot. But there is still something about a show that adds an irreplaceable energy. The closest substitute to that is a great surround mix and in this case an even better Atmos experience. Sure you’re not at the show, but you have a much better seat, many fewer distractions and hopefully absolutely brilliant sound.
With all those in play, Nothing But The Truth was as good as I’ve heard and seen this done. My previous top live recording was Anesthetize from Porcupine Tree, which led me to these guys after being mesmerized by Gavin’s drumming. Those two can now be tied and everything else can fight for second place.
PT had to contend with a real venue, stage and audience for Anesthetize so they get degree of difficulty points. TPT got to avoid that and build their own very stylish mood for the film. They took huge advantage of that and played a wonderful show.
The surround mix has everything you want and would expect from people who take that seriously. The band was in a round configuration and the mix matches their positions. Bruce Soord was in the center and they used the surrounds to put his vocals right in your listening spot. That was the only gimmick and it really wasn’t even one, just an interesting placement.
The Atmos mix was noticeably more immersive, of course, but again no gimmicks just smart use of the height speakers. This obviously makes it more like a live show with audio from everywhere. But in this case, well-controlled audio crafted to provide a warm pleasant place for them to rock at you.
The recording quality was top shelf and all the elements of the band were nicely separated. You can do a nice critical listening session or pop back out and just soak in the whole thing. There is no reason you shouldn’t own this.
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