Ugo
Group: Members
Posts: 5495
Joined: April 2000 |
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Posted: June 17 2009, 08:55 |
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Having now listened to all of the 5.1 mixes on the DVD (which are evidently intented as Mike’s “main mixes” – the stereo mixes being just a reduction of those), I can finally comment on them. I’m a teacher, so I’ll draw up a kind of blackboard parted in two halves... like in the olden times, where the names of “good pupils” and “bad pupils” made up the two lists on it. However, I’m not evil enough to concern myself with “good points” and “bad points” when talking about music, so I’ll just list what are IMHO the pluses and the minuses. For clarity, I’ll use the track titles from TB 2003 to identify the ‘movements’ in the original TB, even if (of course) the original work had no movement titles. Also, time references are to the 2009 stereo mix (Disc 1 in the Ultimate Edition).
The mixes, as a whole, sound undoubtly clearer, brighter, more spacious and more open than the 1973 mixes. Those were a little dark, obscure, in some points. Here all of the darkness is gone, and the new versions sound like Mike got finally rid of the demons which haunted him back in 1973 and apparently still haunted him by the time he did TB III. TB 2009 is not ‘demonic music’ anymore, it’s almost heavenly.
Regarding some comments in here about Mike ‘adding’ things to the recording, after reading the book and listening carefully to the mixes I’m convinced that Mike didn’t add anything: everything you hear here was on the original master tapes. You couldn’t hear some things in the 1973 mix because they were either mixed very low or kept out of the mix, you can hear them in the 2009 version because they’ve been brought up in the mix. This is true at least for TB... see below.
Now, on to the single tracks...
Tubular Bells Part One
Pluses 1) The very first statement of the Introduction theme, on solo piano, has more echo on it, which makes it sound mysterious and slightly arcane, more so than the original. 2) When the organ first enters at 0:07, its entry on the original mix has always sounded very slightly rushed to me – like an edit was being performed right there, or like there’s a very quick fade-in. The cut is clearer in the new mix, and the organ’s volume is a bit lower, which fits in nicely. 3) The organ stabs during the Introduction still scare me a bit, which is good. 4) During the transition from “Basses” into “Latin”, the acoustic guitar starting from 7:43 is much brighter and clearer. 5) During “Russian”, the second acoustic guitar part starting from 16:48, which was in the Boxed mix but couldn’t be heard anywhere else (except on some vinyl LP copies of The Complete), which accidentally (?) featured an excerpt of TB Part One in its Boxed mix). So it’s very nice to hear it restored and brought up here. 6) Viv Stanshall’s announcements, in the original mix, sounded a little bit like they were being broadcast on an AM radio. Now, on the DVD, they sound just like Viv Stanshall is standing on a podium somewhere in your living room. 7) The bells themselves don’t sound dull at all on the DVD – they sound very powerful. I particularily like all of the extra clangs which were not on the original mix (these are from the Boxed mix, where AFAIK the whole tubular bells part was re-recorded with a new set, the old one being damaged). 8) The girls singing are definitely Mundy Ellis and Sally Oldfield – it’s not a synth patch. You can get that vibrato from a synth patch.
Minuses 1) I don’t like the fact that there’s an organ playing the main melody in “Basses” along with the double bass parts. The 1973 original was perfect, IMHO Mike shouldn’t have tampered with it in any way. Even the “Basses” track on TB 2003 souds weird to me, as it features just guitars and no basses at all. On the other hand, I love Mike’s reworking of the same theme in TB II (at the end of “Dark Star”), because it features almost the same instrumentation, albeit played on synths. 2) I do miss Mike’s sniffing during “Latin”! In the 1973 mix you can definitely hear him sniffing (inhaling with his nose) out of emotion, while playing his acoustic guitar solo. As far as I remember, that’s one of the main things that Mike wished he hadn’t included in the 1973 mix – one of its faults – but I loved it as an audio verité moment, and I do miss it here. 3) “Jazz” sounds like it includes one repetition too much, which isn’t in any other version of TB and which definitely sounds to me like a cut-and-paste job. Wasn’t Mike the kind of guy who used to hate repeating things too many times (which is one of the reasons why he remixed HR)? Of course he may have changed his mind about that since 1974, but that passage sounds to me like the main theme on lead acoustic guitars is repeated one time too much. 4) The “Reed and pipe organ” in the Finale is the toy-organ-sounding one first heard in the Boxed mix. I prefer the louder, more buzzy sound heard in the 1973 mix (and on the Ultimate Edition’s second disc), but that’s personal.
Tubular Bells Part Two
Pluses 1) From the very beginning of Part Two, and particularily in the organ/acoustic guitar ‘duet’ during “Peace”, the elusive second acoustic guitar part has been pushed up a great deal. I love this. 2) The whole of “Peace”, pretty much, sounds great. The mandolin-like guitars are particularily effective, and when the transition to “Bagpipe Guitars” occurs, the sound really fills up the room. 3) There’s a lot more presence in the massed bagpipe guitars, during the eponymous movement. They really sound like an orchestra, à la Brian May. 4) The “Caveman” section is louder, harder [check out those drums!], rockier and, with Mike’s newly brought-up additional grunts, also funnier. 5) The Sailor’s Hornpipe is the one featured at the end of the Boxed mix, including the scraped fiddle and the ‘pinging’ solo guitar, which I’ve always loved, and which can’t really be heard in the original 1973 mix.
Minuses 1) During the transition from “Bagpipe Guitars” into “Caveman”, the guitars traling off the former movement don’t sound like they go into a full fade – they sound like they’re cut. But maybe that’s just my impression, or maybe they’ve always been that way. 2) “Ambient Guitars” seems to contain an extra guitar track which isn’t there in the 1973 mix. That one has always been my least-favourite section of TB, because it sounds to me like it’s going endlessly round and round without ever arriving anywhere – like most jazz improvisations. The 2009 mix seems to feature an extra guitar, which adds to the piece’s intricacy. To me that’s not a plus. 3) The very last buzzing note, from an acoustic guitar, is very faint. It’s another bit of audio verité which was in the original recording and I’m sort-of missing here.
Continued below...
-------------- Ugo C. - a devoted Amarokian
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