SoundBard » Nick Beggs

Steven Wilson’s Raven in 5.1 on Blu-ray: The Undisputed Surround Sound Standard

Mike Mettler — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 23:50:03 +0000

BY MIKE METTLER

Just when you think Steven Wilson is at the surround sound pinnacle, he ratchets it up another level.

Studio Rats: Wilson and Mettler behind the board at Avatar Studios in NYC, 01.15.13.

I first heard The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) at a playback session in New York’s Avatar Studios back on January 15, 2013. And this is how you know I’m super-hardcore dedicated to championing the glories of 5.1, since January 15 was literally the day after I had returned from a full, exhilarating but exhaustive week at CES in Las Vegas. But nothing was gonna stop me from hearing Raven in the best environment possible.

Right from the outset of that listening session, I (and everyone in the room) knew Raven was something special. Since then, I’ve played the album countless times, and I can unequivocally say that the 96/24 LPCM Blu-ray mix of The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) has wiped the surround slate clean and set the benchmark anew. Yes, it’s that bloody good.

(Oh, sure, you can also select the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 option if you wish, but 96/24 is the way to go. And, naturally, there’s also a wonderful-sounding vinyl release if you want to take Raven out for a double-disc 180-gram spin in stereo.)

Shoot, the Moon: Cover art for The Raven album.

One of the reasons Raven cuts such a wide aural swath is that the man and his associate producer and recording engineer, Alan Parsons, captured the core of Wilson’s Grace for Drowning touring band performing live off the floor at East West Studios in Los Angeles in September 2012. (You can watch the band at work in the “Studio Documentary” that was shot by longtime Wilson visual collaborator Lasse Hoile in the Blu-ray’s Bonus section.) The intuitive muscle of that band, buttressed by the addition of lead guitarist Guthrie Govan, comes through in the improvs and overall natural mastery of A-level material.

Raven commences with the 12-minute hard-charger “Luminol,” with a Nick Beggs-driven bass line leading the way while Guthrie’s guitar swatches ping-pong in the fronts and Theo Travis’s flute lines swirl around your head until the instrumentation halts and a massive, layered vocal bed swoops down on you. And then Wilson deploys the King Crimson MKII mellotron as Beggs’s bass returns to the center stage (and the subwoofer channel) before giving way to keyboard wiz Adam Holzman. The second movement begins with an almost buried “Planet Caravan”-like guitar line setting the stage for the verses. Drummer Marco Minnemann deftly Bruford-izes a Yes-like passage that’s anchored in the rear channels, and there’s an elegiac vocal harmony section that would make Crosby, Stills and Nash proud. And as I noted in my Top 25 Songs of 2013 list, “Luminol” is officially my personal favorite benchmark 5.1 demo track.

The tone downshifts a bit with Track 2, “Drive Home.” On the verses, Wilson’s near-falsetto vocal warble weaves around his acoustic guitar figures, while the track opens up wide on the choruses thanks to the all-channel reach of the London Symphony Orchestra string section, conducted by Dave Stewart (as in Hatfield and the North/National Health Dave Stewart, not onetime Eurythmic Dave Stewart). In November 2013, Wilson released a Drive Home Blu-ray EP that includes hi-res live tracks, a new track (“The Birthday Party”), remixes, and video footage, and it’s well worth picking up as your official Raven companion.

Holy Thinker: Wilson contemplates Govan’s licks in the East West Studios sessions in Los Angeles, September 2012.

Track 3, “The Holy Drinker,” opens with shimmery, Twin Peaks-ian keyboard riffage that leads into snarling guitar, a left-turn cool down, and an eventual full-channel pummeling that’s a twisted cousin to the sinister undertones of Drowning’s “Index.” (And, uh, those outro, rear-channel howls? Chilling.)

“The Pin Drop,” Track 4, is another tone break, commencing with a dreamy, clockwise, Gilmour-ian guitar line as Wilson vocalizes high notes in the center channel before a full-band, full-channel assault hits you at 1:15, with drummer Minnemann just tearing it up in the rears and Travis’s lofty sax solo wafting all around you.

The epic Track 5, “The Watchmaker,” begins plaintively, Wilson’s guitar delayed front to back as he starts singing the verses, his doubled vocal lines emphasized in the rears. The aforementioned mellotron makes a welcome return to echo a vocal lilt before the middle movement commences and picks up the pace, Minnemman’s cymbal work sharp in the rears with the rest of the band filling in — Travis’s flute and Holzman’s organ setting the stage for Govan’s down-the-middle overdriven solo. Another movement commences with lush, overlapping harmonies until mellotron and band absolutely envelop and crush you with their abject power.

Raven’s titular last call, Track 6, balances yearning piano, vocal pleading, wistful clarinet, and the rise, fall, and rise of the strings. It’s Wilson’s most heartfelt, raw-emotion-invoking song since Porcupine Tree’s Stupid Dream closer, “Stop Swimming.” After seeing “Raven” performed in live quad at the Nokia Theater in Times Square in NYC back on April 26, 2013, Holzman’s wife, ace guitarslinger Jane Gitter, told me backstage, “It made me cry.” (Me too — but, uh, don’t tell…)

Raven-ettes: SW & MM & Raven vinyl, in a still from our video interview that will post in early 2014.

The breadth and scope of Raven represent Steven Wilson at the height of his creative powers, where surround sound music and mixing has reached a heretofore unheard aural apex. Our ever-searching ears are lucky to be consistently challenged and rewarded by this man’s muse.

What”s next for the Surround King? Well, I spoke with Wilson recently about his colossally satisfying 5.1 Blu-ray mix for Yes’ Close to the Edge, his upcoming surround projects, and his view of the future of high-resolution audio, and you’ll see the full breadth of our Q&A in The SoundBard Interview in early 2014. Until then — happy immersive listening!

King of Hertz: The Continuing Saga of Tony Levin’s Low-End Progressions in the High-End World

Mike Mettler — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 22:24:34 +0000

Above, an exclusive YouTube clip of Levin Minnemann Rudess jamming on “Marcopolis”

BY MIKE METTLER

“I work hard on the music end of things, and record my bass parts as high quality as I can.” That, in a nutshell, is the mission statement for Tony Levin, noted bassmaster and Chapman Stick innovator known for his sharp-fingered low-end work with the likes of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel. At present, his holy mission specifically applies to the down-low flavors he’s concocted for Levin Minnemann Rudess (Lazy Bones Recordings), a 60-minute ride through quite progressive waters. His LMR namesake triomates are drummer Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, UKZ) and keyboardist extraordinaire Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Dixie Dregs). LMR is on CD, but you should only be interested in obtaining the Deluxe Edition, which contains a separate DVD with filmed interviews, improv sessions, outtakes, and — ahem, fellow audiophiles — 24-bit wav files of the full album.

If you check out The S&V Interview Blog at soundandvision.com, you’ll find us discussing the concepts of composition vs. improv and the trio’s overall sonic goals for their heady collaboration, plus LMR producer Scott Schorr theorizing about the possibility of a 5.1 mix. That was Part I. Here on soundbard.com, you get the exclusive Part II, wherein Tony discusses working with Steven Wilson and Peter Gabriel, and Scott delves deeper into his own 5.1 preferences, including his favorite Steven Wilson surround mix(es).

Stick-ing It to ’Em Live: Levin onstage. Photo by Roberto Scorta.

And yes, all ye faithful Crim lovers, Tony also shared with me his initial impressions of what to expect from King Crimson’s eighth incarnation. “It’s early in the planning stage,” he reveals. “We know the players, and we’re comparing schedules to see when we can get together to rehearse. Likely it’ll start next September [2014], and likely will look back at the King Crimson repertoire for material. However, I expect plenty of surprises along the way — that’s the way it usually is with Crimson.”

To mutate a few lines from Crimson’s bleat-tastic “Elephant Talk,” what follows is more than just small talk, babble, expugnations, and/or idle chit-chat.

MIKE METTLER: Steven Wilson did many fantastic mixes of King Crimson material in 5.1. Would you like to work with him on other projects?

TONY LEVIN: I’ve played on some of Steven’s solo projects, and yes, I do look forward to working with him again. On our [2010] Soup album, we the Stick Men brought Steven in to mix our version of Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” (a particularly complex piece) and were very happy with the results. [I can confirm that Wilson did an amazing job mixing all four parts of the “Suite,” which appear as Tracks 9-12 on Soup; it’s challenging listening, to be sure, but you’ll want to conduct along with each movement, right on through to the ultimately elegiac nature of Part 4 —The SoundBard]

METTLER: You got to attend Steven’s solo show at the Royal Albert Hall in London on October 20. How was it? He and his band must have sounded amazing in that storied venue.

LEVIN: It was excellent. Sound was great, as you’d expect, and it was 3 hours of performance, with only a 20-minute intermission (due, he said, to the venue’s rules). Nick Beggs was super on bass, and he played Stick quite a bit — quite a treat for me to see a Stick player in the rock context. I don’t get to see that often, and I really enjoy it. I even think I saw him thumbslapping on the Stick (though I was far away from the stage, it looked like he was doing that) and I’m going to explore that technique, which I hadn’t heard of before.

Rudess Behavior: Was there a conscious effort to compose music for LMR, or improvise it? Levin: “Jordan and I did quite a bit of jamming together, ready for Marco to play to, but we had so much good quality material written that there just wasn’t need to further develop the improv material.”

METTLER: You’re been on the road with Peter Gabriel for over a year, and counting. I saw the So — Back to Front tour in Philadelphia last year [on September 21, 2012], and was consistently impressed by the live sound quality. And I also appreciate being able to have an official soundboard version of the show I attended — a soundboard for The SoundBard, as it were. Why does So continue to have such an impact?

LEVIN: We’ve been having a great time out here on the road, doing the So music and tour quite close to the way we did it back in 1987, and with the same band. I can’t say there are favorite songs in the show for me — I’m somewhat equally happy during the whole show. It’s great being part of a band, and a production, that’s really giving the audience what they want. Peter’s ideas about show production are pretty groundbreaking, and the way the lights and crew choreography add to the music in the show is quite special. I can’t resist photographing quite a bit of the show, even while I’m playing in it, so my online diary has become a nice way to get the feel of the tour — both for those of us on it, and for the fans who came to shows and like seeing the “band’s-eye” photos.

METTLER: A number of Peter Gabriel’s tours are available on Blu-ray [New Blood: Live in London, Secret World Live, and Live in Athens 1987]. Do you like the Blu-ray format?

LEVIN: I’m not an expert at formats, but I can say that we just recorded this show in a very hi-def format (4K Ultra HD) on October 21 and 22 [at the O2 Arena in London]. It’ll be great to have a concert film made to commemorate this tour. I can’t tell you when the show video will be out, or even in what manner and format. I hope to find out myself before long! [Keep soundbard.com bookmarked for updates —The SoundBard]

Minnemann of Action: The drummer gave the bassman excellent aural blueprints to work with for LMR, says Levin: “As for the bass parts I played, Marco sent me tracks where he had played not just drums, but guitar and bass, too — the bass to give me a sense of where he was going. In some cases, I played a different part altogether; in others, I played somewhat what he had, keeping the essence of it, but giving my own flavor to the part — and in a couple of cases, I played exactly what he’d suggested for the bass part. ”

METTLER: Ok, Scott, your turn. Tell me what your favorite surround mixes are, and why.

SCOTT SCHORR: My favorite 5.1 mixes are anything that Steven Wilson touches. I see Steven as the modern-day Phil Spector meets John Lennon. One thing I love about his 5.1 mixes is they always seem to stay as close as possible to the original mixes. However, in 5.1, he allows everything to breathe. Just listen to “Elephant Talk” [from King Crimson’s 1981 album, Discipline] on a great surround sound system. Tony Levin’s stick seems to bounce from one speaker to the other. Bill Bruford’s drum sound is incredible, and his snare is tighter and brighter than it usually is. Another Crimson album Wilson remixed, [1970’s] Lizard, is incredibly experimental, and would scare the average listener. But for the hardcore fan, the separation of the instruments in 5.1 is why the medium is growing as fast as it is.

In the original stereo mixes of Lizard, there’s so much stuff going on that it’s sometimes hard to decipher all the parts in the original stereo mix versus 5.1. And to consider that Robert Fripp was occasionally standing over Steven while he was mixing the Crimson catalog in 5.1? Now that is pressure!

I also know this is sacrilegious in some circles, but I’m a big fan of the ’70s classic records when they’re converted from analog to digital for 5.1. It just seems to “crispen” everything up and add clarity to all the instruments — without sacrificing all the warmness. And I’m super-anxious to hear Steven’s 5.1 remix of Yes’ Close to the Edge, one of my all-time favorite records. [Me too! —The SoundBard]

METTLER: Back to you Tony, with a quick barrage of Qs to wrap this up. What was the first record you bought with your own money? Does it still resonate with you today? Do you still have a copy of it? Do you still like the vinyl format?

LEVIN: I’m afraid I don’t remember that. (It was a long time ago!!) I was a classical music fan from a young age and listened to a lot of material, probably mostly on the radio. I did like the vinyl format, and somewhere I have my records from my teens — but like with the CDs I’ve collected, I don’t have much time to listen anymore. Happily and luckily, I’m too busy making new music most days.

Above, an exclusive YouTube clip of Levin Minnemann Rudess tackling the mysteries of “Scrod”