Oh, how many different copies have I collected, let me count them now. From vinyl, to CD, the Quad DVD issued in 2013, and now these incredible all new Atmos and 5.1mixes on Blu-ray by Steven Wilson that hit the shelves in June 2021. Yes, and let me count the ways how at each step there was an incremental improvement that has spiked into pure audio ecstasy on this latest Gentle Giant “Free Hand” edition. It seems that Wilson has heard the immersion drum beat from fans and twiddled his free hand to make an awesome use of the surroundscape, easily ranking this as one of his best remixes to date. But, before I show all my cards at once, I must first note the significant differences between the… Continue Reading

I was first introduced to the UK prog supergroup Lifesigns over eight years ago while operating a streaming review site, and I was immediately hooked. Thanks to an extraordinarily successful crowd-funding campaign from over 40 countries, they have released their third album, “Altitude” which finds them taking the progressive rock genre to new heights with an accessible and energetic twist. Founding member John Young comments that the group style focuses on a positive and uplifting narrative that certainly is needed after these pandemic times. His writing has been influenced by luminary progressive rockers such as: Yes, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Caravan, Camel, as well as fusion oriented… Continue Reading

When I was first introduced to the music of David Miles Huber over a decade ago, he was already on the cutting edge of the emerging Auro 3D surround codec and making use of the recently available High-Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-ray physical media format. The multi-Grammy nominated artist remains in the forward-looking camp with his 2019 release Haida (Raven) by meeting listener demand for FLAC downloads, thus he has mixed the surround version of Haida (Raven) in 96kHz / 24-bit discrete 5.1, instead of his customary 7.1 format found on earlier releases. Additionally, the 2.0 stereo mix makes use of the Ambeo Sennheiser Orbit plugin, which emulates the binaural characteristics of the Neumann… Continue Reading

On his 2021 release, Garry Havrillay finds himself escaping the Covid-19 lockdown as he travels through a wide-ranging and conceptually cinematic set of five songs on the album “No Overtaking.” Performances, recordings, and production of this entirely instrumental album have been born out of the need to find comfort through music that aids listeners imaginations to travel. Crossing multiple genres and styles fans will be met with incredible diversity on the six-part feature track “Travelling Without Moving,” with include influences ranging from jazz noir to reggae, gamelan, Indian drone, and African percussion, plus a guest performance from flautist Howlin' Wind. For high resolution and… Continue Reading