Love and Rockets Seventh Dream of a Teenage Heaven- Pure Audio Blu-ray disc

Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven was recorded at John A. Rivers' Woodbine Street Studio onto 2" multi-tracks. At the time john mixed down onto the latest technology i.e.. digital and the masters for both vinyl and CD were on a F1 digital format. For the 2000 re-issue John re-visited his digital masters and corrected faults that were inherent in his gear at the time but the quality was still 44.1 / 16 bit.
Fo the Blu-ray release Neil Wilkes made 94/24 transfers from the analog multi-tracks and took it from there. As an afterthought it was decided to also do a new stereo mix at 96/24. The track Lucifer Sam was on the same multis as Ball Of Confusion / Inside The Outside although it wasn't actually released until around the second album but it belongs with these sessions.
Beggars Arkive are selling the disc direct for £16.00 The Arkive »

 

It's a cut and paste error on the press release. Pixies stereo is the MFSL transfer but the Love And Rockets stereo is a brand new mix in order to get 96/24 quality

 

Not reading everyone... So this release will be high definition if you have a regular 2.0 system?

 

I'm very curious to hear reviews on this when it comes out, although my preference would be to get a 96/24 download of this great album for my Pono.

 

I'm in for this, already eager to be engulfed by Dog End of A Day Gone By [please reassure me it's the drum-dense original and not the insipid later remix].
So if this one sells can we expect an Express 5.1? That's the one L&R album that's practically pleading to be heard in surround.

 

Correct if sells well there is definitely hope for more to come as these are direct words from Neil Wilkes who has mixed this album. These quotes are taken from QQ Forum,first is post 105 & 2nd from post 112,some pic's of bluray as well on post 105 if you go and check :

Love and Rockets and Pixies-disk's listed at Simon Heyworth website - Page 5 »

"You guys say the nicest things - and I hope whoever buys the L&R gets as much fun out of it as I had mixing it.
Trying to talk Beggars into doing some more, and on the bright side the label archive manager is heavily into high resolution & surround so who knows. I will give it my best shot."

and

"Tones On Tail would be a fascinating project to do - I always felt their material should have done better but like L&R they were under rated at the time.
Express would be another great one (L&R again) as would be the Earth.Sun.Moon album ("No New Tale To Tell" has a wicked flute solo) - such a great band.
The Cult & The Pixies & The Cocteau Twins again incredible in 5.1 - here's hoping these sell & the beancounters agree to do more."

 

I would love to hear some Tones on Tail in 5.1.

 

Amazon.uk has a pretty good preorder price for this L&R as do your usual USA sites like importcds,amazon.com and Bull Moose.

Hopefully this sells well so that more titles get released from L&R and maybe even some other bands as previous post alluded to.

peter

 

'Burning Skies' and 'Rain' would be fantastic with this treatment...

 

Looking forward to this. Still not seeing it on Amazon in Canada aside from some marketplace vendors. I'm waiting to see if I can get it as a high-resolution download (only really interested in the stereo mix) before ordering from the US or UK.

 

This is an odd, shocking choice and I did not even know it was coming out until today. I just pre-ordered this, love this album and cant wait to hear it, more extras would have been nice but........ It would be nice if they re-visit the whole Love and Rockets catalog, I'm mostly interested in the 5.1 mix

 

Mine is still on the way... any thoughts on the 5.1 yet?

 

Got my disc from Deep Discount today. Gotta say, I am so impressed with those vacuum sealed corrugated mailers that many retailers are using now. I don't know what kind of magic is being invoked but those flimsy looking things seem to protect better than anything else. The packaging for this disc is somewhat delicate but it arrived in perfect condition. I really like the case they used... it's a lot classier than throwing a sheet of paper into a generic blu-ray case.

Just finished listening to the 5.1 and IMO, Neil Wilkes hit this one out of the park. I was a fan of Bauhaus and Tones On Tail so I picked up the gatefold vinyl of this when it was released and it has always been Desert Island Disc material for me. I am just so thrilled that this album was chosen to be treated this way given it's obscurity compared to other titles picked for release in surround.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I won't go into much detail but I'm very impressed with both the mix and the sound quality. He even breathed new life into my least favorite song on the album, The Game. And, Saudade has a few extra seconds of fun at the end. Couldn't be happier with this release (well, maybe if they threw the promo videos on but that's no big deal).

So, what else have I missed by Mr. Wilkes? I need to find more of his work! And, I'm not a huge Pixies fan but I've just ordered the Doolittle disc. I hope these sell well so they can release additional titles. Express is the obvious next choice for me but I'd love to see Bauhaus, Tones On Tail, Clan of Xymox, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and Lush!

 

Wow!

 

Awesome...can't believe this came out on blu-ray! I just ordered it from amazon....will be delivered by friday! Can't wait to hear it...it's my fav. L&R album!

 

I concur. Great mix all around. Both stereo and surround sound really full. You'd never guess this album is now 31 years old.

Listening to the isolated channels is a blast as well. The rear channels sound like an alternate funky mix by themselves and the center has almost all the songs with isolated vocals and a few other instruments here and there.

 

Yep, I'm enjoying this immensely. This is up there with Steven Wilson's XTC remixes. Subtle but exciting little differences everywhere, such as the ending of "Saudade" mentioned above. I'm also having fun isolating some of the 5.1 channels to get even more out of the experience. One thing I've noticed: I'm sure that "Inside The Outside" is a good minute or so longer than any previously released versions [which is good or bad, depending on your POV - let's just say it's the most '80s' of all the tracks here].

My only quibbles, but they're very small ones: a couple of the 12' mixes are missing, and while they're not all essential it'd have been nice to see them included. It'd also have been nice to have had instrumental mixes as part of the set like in the XTC surround series. Something to consider for "Express" [which is hopefully up next, and soon]...

My hopes are that this series continues until the self-titled album from 1989 [which was their last on the Beggars label I believe]. I know we're lucky to have gotten this at all, but I'd still like to see any future releases expanded to fully utilise the BD format [album remix, 5.1, demos and/or rehearsals, instrumentals, live concert]. I certainly wouldn't mind paying a little extra if they kept up the kind of quality we're getting with "Seventh Dream".

 

I bought a copy of this at Amoeba a few weeks before this thread started up. It was really nice to revisit such a great album, and one that kicked off a nifty little streak of great albums, I might add. Sounds like I need to scrounge some pennies together to grab this Blu ray.

 

Finally got some alone time to listen to this after getting it several weeks ago.

Absolutely agree with other comments in this thread that Neil Wilkes did a fantastic job in this album. Certainly one of the more unexpectedly enjoyable surround mixes I've heard in some time. Some of the songs are significantly different mixes compared to the original album - The Dog End Of A Day Gone By is like a brand new song without so much reverb. I really hope more Love and Rockets and possibly even Bauhaus or other Beggars Banquet artists (like The Cult) get this treatment.

My only complaint and it's a small one is the packaging/case is very cheap and flimsy. It's basically a cardboard DVD/BD thin case w/plastic disc tray with a booklet that's oddly CD-sized. It's not a big deal as it's the audio contents that count and in that respect it's a solid 10.

 

Thank you so much for all the kind words on this release - as you can tell, I had a blast mixing it.
Reason for replying is to answer a couple of things that have popped up in this thread:
@Surferghost.
When we started this project it was in the way of being a demo/test mix for beggars, and Steve loved it so wanted it released - this is why the 12" mixes are missing, as the material to rework them is definitely there in the multitracks on 2 tracks in particular which could easily be very, very different depending on what versions are on the CD or vinyl copies you know:
1 - If There's a Heaven Above - this has so many different versions it was hard to pick a way through it, as the original UK release on vinyl has a very different version to that on most CD releases (which had the "Canada Mix" instead of the UK mix) and even a very strange one called "God & Mrs Smith" on some CD versions as well as the extended version.
2 - Ball Of Confusion - again, this one had the UK single edit, the US single edit & 2 different 12" mixes.
I went with the edit versions on both of these and in hindsight I wish I had done the extended versions so much so that I will be doing these as soon as time permits, and hopefully Steve Webbon will be able to make these available as downloadable files (we could also do FLAC versions easily enough - all requests to Steve Webbon!) and instrumental versions is absolutely something I would do - still could on this one - as there is plenty of room on a Blu-ray for them.........I just did not think of this at the time we mixed it. Also kudos and many thanks to Simon Heyworth & Andy Miles for a great & sensitive job in the mastering.

On "Dog-End" the drums are a large part of the mix for me. I am familiar with the remixed version but chose to ignore that as a reference point and wanted to try & get the effect of a house falling on you when cranked up in volume - and another thing I wanted to do was to try & both bring it up to date as well as maintaining the feel of the originals but without the 80's trademark reverb washes. The whole album was a total labour of love - when I started to talk to Steve I chose this album precisely because I have always thought it vastly under-rated at the time and have loved it ever since release.
I would absolutely JUMP at the chance to do Express, Earth:Sun:Moon & the 4th self-titled one, as well as the US releases like "Hot Trip to Heaven" - gotta love an album with a 17-minute opening track (Body & Soul) that relentlessly builds up and up - awesome band whatever way I look at it.
OTOH, The Cult, Cocteau Twins, Bauhaus - beggars have so many great albums in their catalogue! "She Sells Sanctuary" extended mix in 5.1 would be fantastic to do.

 

Absolutely - but be aware the disc loads to the 5.1 DTS-HD MA stream, so press the Yellow button on the remote to get the 2.0 version, or the Green button for the PCM 5.1. The DTS-HD is on the Red button.

 

I finally got my copy today. Listened to the 2 ch mix (I don't have 5.1 for music listening) and absolutely loved it except for my favourite track Saudade. There is some "ding-dong" notes played practically from beginning to end that I've never heard before and wish I never had. Not sure what its played on, sounds percussive to me. I couldn't help but focus on those 2 notes.

S0 Neil, if and when you get around to the extended mixes, could you do a version of Saudade without those notes.

Edit: I just listened to my cd version and, much to my surprise, those two notes are there! I'll never hear the song the same again.

 

Finally got my copy and gave it a spin. This is probably my favorite multichannel release to date. It's just simply done perfectly. There are some liberties taken, but they are all tasteful and suit the mixes wonderfully. It's like a rebirth for this album, and an improvement at this. I hope that word gets out and others in the mixing and mastering community take note. I feel like there's a lot to learn from this release.

Dbucki- the ding dong is the harmonic notes played off David's bass guitar.

On that note, it's quite enjoyable to hear the full melody of David's bass present in the mix. This is one of the benefits of this new mix. You can hear a presentation that recreates the musicians in the room, so you can hear David's bass or Kevin's drums as a single performance all the way through. Things aren't eq'd to avoid mud as would be necessary with 2 channels.

 

Perhaps those notes are more subtle in the 5.1 mix. I'm not setup for 5.1.

 

Hi dbucki.
Thank you for your observations on the stereo mix - this is greatly appreciated, and the 2 harmonic bass notes for me were always a kind of stand out in the original, so I guess it is a case of one man's feast being anothers famine here - remixes are always tricky and with an album such as this is, believe me when I say it was not as straightforward as others I have done mainly because of John Rivers' massively layered sounds on the original - he did such a great job in the first place all I can really do is try to follow in his footsteps and I hope I have not spoiled it for you as a result.