Part 1 (see my post below) was full of tribute albums and cover songs. Now comes my second stash from 2007: The Year in Books About Music. You still have too much disposable cash left over from the holidays, right? Read (and buy) on! —Ken Richardson
For those of you who enjoyed my piece on Peter Gabriel (and other folks at the AES Convention) in the January 2008 issue (Random Play, page 16), the quotes had to be severely trimmed for the print edition. (What else is new?)
Want more? Here ya go!
First up: Gabriel.
On surround in general: "I like 5.1. From back in the old quad era to today, the idea of being able to immerse people in sound is still an attractive thing for me. In stereo, it really does feel that, sometimes, you haven't quite got the space in which to place everything — especially if you're working on a texture-rich piece. Suddenly, in 5.1, you've got this much wider, bigger space."
Been meaning to post this link for some time now . . .
Fans of DVD-Audio, SACD, surround sound, and so forth are hereby encouraged to check out No Taste for High-Quality Audio, published recently in the British newspaper The Guardian. It's a pretty neat summation by Jack Schofield, who begins: "Today, we live in a world where poor-quality audio is becoming the norm." Required reading, and reflection.
Note that Schofield calls DVD-Audio "extinct."
That got me thinking: Is he right?
As a postscript to my Genesis scoop below: Rhino has just announced that Genesis: 1983-1998, the second boxed set of the band's complete studio recordings in surround sound, has been bumped from October 23 to sometime in November. Meanwhile, an expanded, two-CD "tour edition" of Turn It On Again: The Hits will be released on September 11, to coincide with . . . the tour! The North American leg begins in Toronto on September 7. For complete dates (tickets still available!), click here. —Ken Richardson
That's right, you read it here first: The next installment in Rhino's boxed-set series of the complete Genesis studio recordings has been scheduled for October 23, according to a label spokesperson. That date "could move," however.
As detailed in my review of the previous box (Genesis: 1976-1982), this one will encompass the band's final four albums: Genesis, Invisible Touch, We Can't Dance, and Calling All Stations. As such, the box should be called Genesis: 1983-1997, as originally announced — although an entry on Amazon.com lists the import version as Genesis: 1983-1998.
As before, that import will offer each album as an SACD+DVD, with a high-resolution, six-channel mix on the SACD. Rhino's version will be CD+DVD-Video, with the surround mix in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 96-kHz/24-bit 5.1 on the DVD.
All of this means that we'll now have to wait until 2008 for what we're really waiting for: Genesis: 1970-1974, from Trespass to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
By the way, I went directly to Rhino for this update because, in a recent Billboard.com post, there was talk of a coming Genesis book as well as a live DVD and a live CD from the current tour — but no mention of the next box of studio reissues. —Ken Richardson
