The Church - any of the congregation here?

I've slowly been building up my collection of The Church albums over the past couple of years. It's hard to pick a favourite though as there are so many different styles. "The Blurred Crusade", "Priest=Aura" and "Magician Among the Spirits" are certainly up there though.

 

Just watched Psychedelic Symphony !
It's a wonderful show, the performance is note perfect and the orchestral arrangements so tastefully done, really adding a further dimension to the music. The concert is really well shot, no jittery camera work or hyperactive cuts all the time, no split screen, and it's a nice lush sounding Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. If I had any criticism at all and it's just a personal thing, I thought Peter Koppes could have got a little more camera time. After watching this, I can't imagine this new album without Marty !

 

Can't wait for mine to show up in the mail.

 

I got the CD of "Psychedelic Symphony" the other day. I only gave it a quick, casual listen but it sounds pretty great to me. Kilbey seems downright overjoyed, which is both surprising and nice.

 

How are the sonics of that cd?

 

Sounded pretty good to me.

 

I will order the DVD ASAP. Thanks for the review, now to decide if I want the CD set as well.

 

All huge Church fans should own "A Psychedelic Symphony". I haven't bought the DVD yet, but the CD sounds excellent -- a really great live performance.

 

1) how is the mastering?
2) who did it?

 

I'm pleased the prices of that cd are getting lower. I just purchased one for 21 euro, more than a week ago it was at least 100 percent more. I just purchased one.

 

Just today I read Steve Kilby's previous online announcement that MWP's continuing involvement in Church projects was under a major cloud. The way it reads it seems this may be a bit more permanent than previous breaks. Kilby's tone seems quite determined, almost to prove a point, that the band can survive and move on without MWP. It's a sad turn of events, as the MWP / Koppes pairing is such a perfect match in tone, texture and creativity. Kilby stresses that Powdwerfinger's Ian Haug is not a replacement, and it will be interesting to see how he fits within such an established group dynamic. I have to admit he's never stood out as a particularly strong guitar presence while a member of Powdwerfinger, the band itself always came across as a little bland to me. Time will indeed tell I guess.
Does anyone know if MWP contributed in any way to the sessions for the upcoming record ?

 

I couldn't either, so I just grabbed it immediately at iTunes. If I enjoy it, I'll order the dvd for the physical collection.

 

I don't think Marty was involved with the new album at all. I believe Steve posted that they had a bunch of material recorded with Marty and they scrapped it all to start fresh.

 

Hopefully a copy of the tapes survived, if only to surface on the deluxe edition to be released a couple of years down the track, with the MWP mix on disc 2 .

 

Well, I more get the impression that all of the material worked on with Marty was scrapped and the new album will not even contain the same songs that he participated in. But no way to be sure.

 

I can attest to this. None of the songs they worked on with Marty will appear on the new album (not even re-recordings). Steve Kilbey said so on his blog.

 

Open mind, open mind, open mind.....

 

Perhaps this means we will get two more Church albums then, one after reconciling with MWP.

 

One listen through so far, and first of all I have to say these songs themselves are great. The setlist could be played acoustic, electric, symphonic, busking in the London Tube, etc and they would be great. Having said that, some of the orchestra arrangements worked better than others but overall I enjoyed it enough to want to see the concert on DVD.

I'll have to drop some hints about fathers day present!

 

"Past/Future/Perfect" and "Psychedelic Symphony" DVDs arrived today (along with the Symphony CD). The "Psychedelic Symphony" DVD sounds AMAZING. The guitars are especially punchy and clear. For the most part, the orchestrations do not overpower the band.

No mastering credits on the CD, but it looks like Tim did the mix.

It's great after all these years to have some live Church in such good quality. The only downside is that watching this really makes it hit home how much they are going to miss Marty.

 

If you are fans of the spacier side of The Church, you are going to want to check out Space Bootleg by Mercator Projection. It's Kilbey, MWP and Powles along with Jordan Brebach and William Bowden. Recorded at a one off show on December 23rd, 2006 directly from the soundboard. The first track is a little aimless but starting with Cortez The Killer they hit a groove and it's solid from there. There is no physical release.

1. Intro / Careful With That Axe Eugene 17:20
2. Cortez The Killer 10:53
3. Magician Among The Spirits 16:09
4. Lord Of Light 04:04
5. Child In Time 11:42
6. Ritz 08:47
7. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun 06:43
8. Seven By Seven 06:16
9. Silver Machine 06:24

http://stevekilbey.bandcamp.com/album/space-bootleg

 

Yeah, I've only had a chance to listen to this once so far, but I really dug it.

 

Love to hear it especially Set The Controls... but I don't believe in paying for non physical media.

 

I saw that Psychedelic Symphony is NTSC but the P/F/P is listed as PAL format. Anyone know if that will play on a Samsung Blu Ray player?

I missed MWP just listening to the PS on my iPod the past couple of days!

 

I saw the Psychedelic Symphony CD at a store in Denver over the weekend but couldn't bring myself to pay $46.99. The price on amazon isn't much better, but thankfully I was able to order direct from The Church web site for less than $30 shipped to the US. Can't wait to hear it!