The
Latin Sound Of Lex Vandyke: Concerto de Aranjuez
(2004/Intermusic/Top Music
International/Super Audio CD/SACD/SA-CD Hybrid)/The
Permission Seeker's Guide To The Legal Jungle: Second Edition,
Expanded & Updated by Joy R. Butler
(2017/Sasha Softcover/446 pgs.)/Simple
Minds: Acoustic In Concert
(2015/BBC/Universal Music/Eagle Vision DVD w/CD)/Thelonious
Monk Quintet: Les
Liaisons Dangereuses 1960
(Saga/Sam Records CD Set)
Picture:
X/X/C+/X Sound: B+ & B/X/B & B-/B- Extras: C-/D/C-/C
Book: B Main Programs: B-/X/B/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Lex
Vandyke
Super Audio CD is now only available from our friends at Intermusic
and can be ordered from the link below.
Here's
our latest look art music releases, but this time, they reach into
other arts and even commerce...
The
Latin Sound Of Lex Vandyke: Concerto de Aranjuez
(2004) has been reissued in the underrated but still very much alive
Super Audio CD format. While vinyl has made its special comeback,
most people have still
not discovered its greatness or fidelity equal to any other sound
format out there. Fortunately, Intermusic/Top
Music International is one of the big supporters of the SA-CD format
and this Hybrid disc has a high definition DSD layer and regular CD
layer that will play on most CD players.
This
18-track set includes songs you may not have heard before and some
you have but cannot name (like the title song), but we do get the
instrumental theme from Michael Cimino's The
Deer Hunter
(1978), Besame
Mucho,
Vaya
Con Dios
and The
Girl From Impanema,
so you get a good mix of material to thoroughly enjoy here. If
someone asked me for a good demo of Latin music, this would now be
one of my top picks. Nice!
A
paper pullout with more info on the album is the only extra.
A
little while ago, I tackled the infamous ''Blurred
Lines''
controversy and got into detail about both authorship, ownership,
music and the arts, but could only say so much about getting
permission to use other person's music works. Besides researching on
the Web or at your local library, you have to get an attorney for
such things. However, an excellent new book that is always involving
and rich in all kinds of detail and ideas has arrived and it is now
my top recommendation on where to start on the subject.
The
Permission Seeker's Guide To The Legal Jungle: Second Edition,
Expanded & Updated by Joy R. Butler
(2017) leaves no stone unturned and not only on music, but getting to
use (as a mature adult or respects the works of others) film, video
and other visual sources from feature film, TV, Internet and other
places as well as not music sound (think speeches, radio dramas,
audio books, commercials, etc.) and is a priceless volume all serious
users of media should own, even if they actually have a lawyer or are
one.
Further
updated from its original release, I am surprised more people have
not seen or heard of this book, but there are those foolish enough to
sample and use other's work without permission (my favorite excuse
being that something is too 'old' or the like, which they would never
say if they
owned it and were making money on it) as if it were a game to get
away with such things. A very stupid game! Just by being honest
with ones self, you can get the facts, do the work and save yourself
untold trouble and a giant waste of time by doing it correctly and
being professional.
It
is worth a look even if you're not immediately planning any licensing
just to see what it all entails. Very impressive, smart writing and
highly recommended.
Simple
Minds: Acoustic In Concert
(2016) has the underrated band in a recent BBC-backed show offering
16 songs that includes their still-oft-played ''Don't
You (Forget About Me)''
from the screwy hit film The
Breakfast Club,
''Sanctify
Yourself''
and their ever-classic ''Alive
And Kicking''
(even the original music video is a classic) so can these songs work
decades later paired-down?
The
answer is actually yes and like their contemporaries of the time
(Crowded House, The Human League, Howard Jones, Depeche Mode) are as
capable as ever and though a few parts were uneven, I thought they
pulled this show off very well, embarrassing most such new music
acts. Fans will be happy, but even non-fans will be surprised how
good this show turned out. The group should have had and deserved
more success in the U.S. than they got, but they get the last laugh
by enduring as well as they have and this is easily one of the best
concert releases on home video for the year.
Not
counting the CD, a thin, illustrated booklet with tech info an an
essay (beware the small print) is the only extra.
Thelonious
Monk Quintet: Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960
is a double CD set in which the original recordings that became the
soundtrack for Director Roger Vadim's (And
God Created Woman,
Barbarella)
version of
Dangerous Liaisons
with Jean Moreau has finally been issued and apparently was only just
discovered independently of the film. That makes this set possible
issued by Saga and Sam Records. As was the trend at the dawn of the
French New Wave, the music juxtaposes the origins of the original
work in a then-modernized approach to it and
An
extensive, highly illustrated booklet with five essay/note sections
is the only extra, but it is a fine one. This is so interesting that
even not knowing the story, you want to see the film.
CD
1 has the music as recorded for the film, while CD 2 offers alternate
takes and single versions of the music that actually gives us more
insight into the way the music was thought out. Avant Garde? Yes.
Clever? Yes. One of Monk's most underrated works? Probably.
Modern Jazz of this period was still considered cutting edge and even
a threat and the makes might have known that, but it was music of a
certain intelligence few genres in its wake since have achieved and
it is miraculous this was all found after being lost after 58 years!
Catch it!
The
Simple
Minds
release is the only one with any image performance and its
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image if fine for the format and a
live HD recording, with some flaws and some good moments. A Blu-ray
would look better, but might reveal a few more flaws, but I do like
the color here. Of the DVD soundtracks, I liked the lossy DTS 5.1 mix
a bit more than the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and PCM 2.0 48kHz
Stereo supplied,. But this is a good live recording and as good as
most we've encountered of late, but I bet this would be really
interesting lossless. The accompanying CD has decent PCM 2.0 16/44.1
Stereo, but it pales in comparison to the DTS on the DVD.
The
sonic champ here is the lossless DSD 2.0 Stereo on Concierto,
which is an amazing studio recording that has great warmth, range,
impact and detail, making me wish this was a 5.1 SA-CD, but the
makers
knew what they were doing and it comes across very clearly in the
recording's impressive range reminding me that many motion pictures
in lossless 5.1 don't sound this good. The remastering for this
version is by talented Povee Chan and the equipment he used
includes...
32Bits/192kHz
High Resolution Mastering
SADiE
DSD Digital Precision
Mastering
Monitor: Almarro M
Monitor
Amplifier: Octave Jubilee Preamp
Power
System: Isoclean Power Conditioning System
Mastered
with Fap Cable
Made
in by Sonopress
PCM
2.0 16/44.1 Stereo tracks are good, solid and passable, but harder to
listen to after the audiophile-quality DSD playback. The Monk
CD set has PCM 2.0 16/44.1 Stereo that sounds good, but the first CD
of the original recording sounds a little harsh at the edges like an
older digital recoding or copy, so beware, but the second CD ids much
smoother, more naturalistic and better sonically.
You
can order the Lex
Vandyke
Super Audio CD directly from Intermusic at this link...
http://www.topmusic.com/ud-sacd8921.2.htm
-
Nicholas Sheffo