Yes, I was very excited today when my mobile text tone rang out
"heeelllooo Daaaad"(2 daughters,5&7), and it was a text from our
Leading Edge music store, stating that my "order has arrived and
awaits collection", it could only mean one thing!!!!
Shame there's nothing new, and having only listened to it in the
stereo of a my Holden Rodeo with only four inch front speakers, can't
say I can quite pick-up the remastered quality. But hey, it's an Oils
release, and I would also have liked to have bought it packaged as the
BFWF DVD with bonus remastered D&D CD, to match the video, like they
did with BofB with the Oils on Water CD. Who else also bought both
those packages for the same discs?
Craig
OILS5710
--- In powderworks@yahoogroups.com.au, "Powderlurker ."
<powderlurker@...> wrote:
Well... the re-release of D&D has hit the shelves of our local JB
Hi-Fi, this morning! And... the Oils' webpage has been updated to
accomodate the new release!
Well... on first impression, what can you say??
The Fan:
Yes. Veddy nice. Tenk you veddy much.
The Train-spotter:
Um, yeah. Sounds OK... but what about all the extra stuff?
There's nothing that I don't have already!
The Uber-Geek:
Oh, fer fuck's sake. 26 bucks for 46 minutes? Are you kidding? The
sticker on the front says "Limited Edition bonus DVD"... meaning that
at some point this will be cut from the package and probably be
released as a cut-price, stand-alone DVD (if I know Sony). So, I
suppose we ARE getting something extra, for our buck. Annnddd... it
did include Gunbarrel Highway. Wow.
Package - It's a 3-fold digi-pack with everything re-scanned from
the original package. Booklet likewise re-scanned from original with
new type-setting. No big deal.
It will be interesting to see what they do when they slip it back to
a single-disk release when the 'limited edition' runs out (ie - will
have to remove one tray, so sleeve will have to be re-made, 1/3
chopped off or just 'squashed' to fit).
AUDIO CD:-
The booklet mentions:
"RE-MASTERED by BOB LUDWIG at Gateway Mastering, Portland September
2007.
With special thanks to Warne Livesey."
No mention of Jim or anyone else's involvement. Curious.
The CDDB (Gracenote / iTunes) brings this up as the same ID as the
original CD release. Since Gracenote works on a code built from the
length of the tracks partnered with the length of the breaks between
tracks, to give a CD it it's identity, then a completed master (of the
whole album) was used. ie - no new work, here, just 'processing' the
final-assembly master tape (which is at least one gen down from the
individual track masters).
I didn't actually compare, 1-1, because I couldn't be arsed, until
tomorrow. CDDB is good enough for me, right now.
There's nice separation between the different layers of audio.
Vocals nicely @ front. The bass & mid-tones are more defined (and I
can hear all the words from Pete & the back-up vocals without having
to resort to the lyrics sheet). Brass is nice & clean.
Ultimately, the quiet passages come off the best. Put Down That
Weapon, Dreamworld (!), Arctic World, Warakurna and Bullroarer all
benefit as a result, much punchier and cleaner and a much better sense
of space between the instruments. Since the original tape hiss isn't
apparent, i've got to presume that a fair degree of noise reduction
was applied. I think that shows with some digi-distortion in a couple
of the quieter passages. Maybe not... I could be wrong... maybe it's
supposed to sound like that? Anyway, a lot of stuff that was lost in
the previous mix is now a lot more apparent... like guitars & vocals.
And... there's all these special effects that I don't remember hearing
in the original release!
OK. I've probably been spoiled by the Capricornia release but is it
too much to ask for this to be done as a Dual Disk with standard
release on one side & 5.1 on the other?
Capricornia is superb in it's full (DTS ES 6.1) glory. Diesel and
Dust could have been, as well. Annndddd... we could have had the
original flat stereo spectrum as well as a fully spatial 5.1/6.1 version.
Have a look at the Talking Heads re-releases for what could have
been. They have it all.
DVD:-
The DVD has an unusual sequence, when I play it through my machine.
Black Fella / White Fella starts with a quote from Rob then segues
into the clip for The Dead Heart which is the lead-in for the
documentary.
Also included are the clips for The Dead Heart and Beds Are Burning.
However, when you access the clip for TDH, it starts at the tail end
of Rob's quote, from the documentary, and then slides into the clip
from the start of BF/WF and stops on the last frame before the
documentary gets going. Nice.
Why no clips for Dreamworld or Put Down That Weapon?? Oh yes... 20KWRSL.
Justin - nice job on the colour grading. Who was cloning out the
dags in the film stock? ; )
This is a PAL release and I presume Sony has a NTSC version just
waiting in the wings for the US unveiling.
The DVD was mastered at Sony Australia (Hi Wayne!) and runs 66.23
mins. It also has the aforementioned TDH and D&D 'clips' and a credits
roll-through. Didn't find any eggs on first run.
Ummm... nice to see this, again, after so long out of print.
With all the push to move the consumer to hi-res and large-screen
formats, I would have thought Sony would have been particularly keen
to give us something that would come up well on large-screen plasma /
lcds (yeah, right). Not so. View this one on your computer monitors.
With the push to spend money on the 'great leap forward', led by Sony
with their accomplished Blu-Ray product, you'd think that they would
be aware of the trends in current audio and video releases? Maybe
they'll fix this in 2 years time when this is offered, again, in their
new music/video standard (Blu-Ray-A / Blu-Ray-Super?¿?) and they gouge
another 30 - 50 bucks out of us for stuff we already have. At least
Elvis Costello always offers demos, alternates or a live show when he
re-re-re-releases product (ie - new stuff we haven't already got!).
All up? Underwhelming.
I'm probably going to get bollocksed for this... but I actually
think I was quite restrained and polite. : )
Bring it on. Share the lurve.
What do YOU think of the package?
- lurk.
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