Bull Moose records, a retailer from Maine, shared this press release over at QQ and I figured you guys would be fired up about it so here it is: CHICAGO QUADIO Quadraphonic And Stereo Mixes For The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Band's Early Albums Come Together In A Blu-ray Audio Boxed Set Available From Rhino On June 17 LOS ANGELES - Hot on the heels of Chicago's recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the celebration of the legendary "rock band with horns" musical legacy continues with a new boxed set that includes quadraphonic and stereo mixes in high resolution 192/24 DTS-HD Master Audio on nine Blu-ray Audio discs. The CHICAGO QUADIO collection will be available on June 17 for a list price of $159.98. Housed in a rigid two-piece box, nine albums are presented in sleeves that replicate the original release down to the last detail, including mini posters, and the iron-on that came with Chicago VIII. To ensure optimal sound quality, Rhino has remastered each album in both its original quadrophonic and stereo mix on each disc, and so that the quadrophonic mix will play on surround sound systems. Formed in 1967 in the band's namesake city, Chicago is one of the longest-running and best-selling groups of all time. It's the first American band to ever chart albums in Billboard's Pop Top 40 in six consecutive decades, and is the highest charting American band in Billboard's Hot 200 All-Time Top Artists, earning the #9 spot. The group's extensive accomplishments include: a Grammy Award, multiple American Music Awards, 11 Number One singles, five consecutive Number One albums, and record sales in excess of 100,000,000, with 47 albums earning gold and platinum certification. From its inception, through to the late 1970's, Chicago perfected the art of making melodic, jazz-tinged rock with a keen pop sensibility. On those early albums, the band was led by guitarist Terry Kath, keyboardist Robert Lamm, bassist Peter Cetera, drummer Danny Seraphine and Chicago's signature horn section: trumpeter, Lee Loughnane; trombonist, James Pankow; and saxophonist Walt Parazaider. CHICAGO QUADIO spans seven years and includes eight studio albums, in addition to Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits. The group's long string of jazz-rock mega hits includes: "Make Me Smile," "Saturday In The Park," "25 Or 6 To 4," "Feelin' Stronger Every Day," "If You Leave Me Now," and many more. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, including Chicago's performance, will premiere on April 30 on HBO. And next year, the group will celebrate its 50th anniversary. CHICAGO QUADIO Album Listing: Chicago Transit Authority (1969) Chicago (1970) Chicago III (1971) Chicago V (1972) Chicago VI (1973) Chicago VII (1974) Chicago VIII (1975) Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits (1975) Chicago X (1976)
Wow, that looks great! (Ignoring the fact that you could probably fit all of that on a couple of Blu-Ray discs...) I'm not the biggest Chicago fan but it might be worth a buy - there are other artists I'd kill for this kind of thing from, though!
Yeah, but then you wouldn't get the iron-on! I think packaging them as separate albums makes sense and certainly there would be much outcry from fans if they did not. And number of discs used wouldn't necessarily make the set cost any less. (Although the reduced packaging costs certainly would.) Blank discs are cheap.
The Second Spin piece that started all this earlier today, thanks to @lukpac Now More Than Ever: Chicago Collects Early Albums in Surround, Stereo on Blu-ray Audio Box - The Second Disc ยป
I know they had quad mixes of the studio albums, but was the Greatest Hits album released in quad back in the day? I didn't think they would have released the 45 single versions in 4-channel... but hey, I've been wrong before. Either way, I'm in!
The Chicago VIII iron-on is apt to be tiny... perfect for my brand new grand daughter's sleepers! Gotta start early... resistance is futile and all that stuff...
Funny, I don't remember Quad really being discussed, or played back then. The only real memory I have is of a buddy, too stoned, being freaked out by a quad 8 track of DSoTM in a VW Beetle. Love seeing albums like the GH above, for the first time in 41 years ( junior year ). .
While Chicago isn't my thing, my brother in law and his son will love this. I'll be doing the same thing when they finally get around to those Roxy Music 5.1 re-issues.
Heck yes on the press release, more surround the better! Looks like a really nice package. Also for what it's worth, I think sometimes the amount of audio that can fit on a Blu-ray disc is over-estimated. If you're doing 24/192 5.1 PCM, you will require approximately 12GB for every hour of music. So you can fit around 4 hours of 24/192 5.1 PCM on a BD50, around 2 hours on a BD25. That's with no other extras of course. Obviously when you use dts-MA or TrueHD you're saving space.
Of course when you use PCM AND dts-MA AND TrueHD (which they probably will) you aren't saving any space at all. This probably could have fit on one (or maybe 2) disc, except for all the redundancy (and unnecessary 24/192 as 24/96 would have been fine). But it is a lot easier to justify $160 for a 9 disc set than for one disc with 9 albums on it.
