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Category:    Home > Reviews > Electronica > Dance > Afterlife (Electronica DVD/CD Set)

Afterlife (Electronica DVD/CD set)

 

DVD: Picture: C+     Sound: B     Extras: C-     Main Program: C+

CD:   Sound: B     Music: C+

 

 

Recently when covering the terrific Future Retro CD, we pointed out how pointless and generic so many remix releases were, but forgot to note how this applied to endless Electronica projects.  Then came Afterlife, a 2005 DVD/CD set that offers a new age approach to the genre, with variations of a few tracks throughout and in both formats.  The DVD runs just over 47 minutes and offers several tracks accompanied by women dancing pretty much the same lame dance throughout most of the very repetitious program.

 

The CD runs a few minutes longer and may have a bit more to it, but the results in both cases are extended party mixes that are not as exciting or aesthetically pleasing as the producers think they are.  It is generic and the theme of life after death is barely covered or dealt with.  I have seen better random images on the subject be more effective on brief shots of three-minute Music Videos.  Essentially, it comes down to a party set with pretension, so brace yourself.

 

Of course, the producers have done two things to try to make it seem like more.  While the 1.33 X 1 video is nothing to write home about and analog PAL that looks more dated than British Music Videos of the early 1980s, the sound is here in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 6.1, with the DTS playing back just richly enough to make this less annoying.  It is also better than the CD’s PCM 2.0 16bit/44.1kHz Stereo, but the CD still has good sound.  The extras include three screen savers and three interviews with some of the most substandard audio we have encountered in a while.  Including Fatboy Slim, who had some interesting things to say, the audio is too hot and raw.  You also cannot freeze it or back it up.  Finally, there is the case, which shamelessly tries to ape the terrific designs of the Directors Label series of exception Music Video directors.  Seven of them and counting are reviewed elsewhere on this site.  That includes fonts, colors and the graphics approach.  Too bad it just does not work.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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