I hate being a negative critic but this disc is so boring....
That's my proffesional oppinion as a trained Operating Room Technican and daughter of an actual M.D. who's mother was a nurse and a friend of a friend's patient of Helen Keller, it's my belief that this disc causes narcolepsy. What we have here is a failure to entertain.
There's 38 tracks of various sound effects, drum thangs, sound from playground basketball, some short musical pieces (too little here!), and some subwoofer tests. After the disappointing beginning, middle, and latter middle parts of the disc, you'll have the subwoofer tests to look forward to. If you're not totally bummed out by now, the subwoofers should push you over the edge. It'll out your sub as a dog like it did mine.
I got the SA-CD version. It's also on DVD-A. The Super Audio version is a hybrid (CD) and the Surround Show also plays as a Stereo SA-CD show. It's got 38 tracks (total time 55:15). They're run together. There's not a discernable silence between many of the tracks.
Track one is BLAST OFF, 43 dull and not so well recorded seconds of some rocket taking off, next! Track two features drumming, canned applause, and some not all that clearly audible yelling. My presumption is that he's yelling the track name which is, WELCOME TO THE SHOW. Well, they should've got a professional ringmaster if you ask me.
In all fairness there's some intresting music mixed in with the "stuff". Some of it's purr-dy intresting but there's not all that much. There's an eclectic variety of music amongst the pieces. Track 8, AVE VERUM CORPUS sounds like a bunch of monks and nuns who took vows to study and sing classical music. Track 9 is MUSIC FOR CELLO HELICOPTER AND CARS. It would be better without helicopters and cars. Track 13, WILD NIGHTS, is some red hot fusion with a searin' guitar. It reminds one of when Jan Hammer and Jeff Beck got together, once upon a time, way back when. The only thing to dislike about it is that it's very short, 2:15.
I'm not very impressed with the various sound effects. Track 14 is called NEW YORK SUBWAY RIDE. Not an impressive recording. It doesn't at all capture the ferocity of sound I've experienced in those tunnels. Track 19 is 25 seconds of exciting ameteur PING PONG and fades into one minute of AFRICAN MORNING. AFRICAN MORNING features a flute and folks knocking pieces of wood together.
Track 24, CARS AND HORSES is just that. Somebody proably took a handheld recorder down to Central Park and recorded the carriage ride going by...? There's faint automobile sounds in the background. Whoopty doo!
Track 26, ORGAN & CHIMES, starts off as chimes and a booming organ joins in that sounds like it's leftover from a Dr. Phibes movie. Then a maniac on guitar joins in.... Thankfully it's only 1:41 long!
Tracks 29-36 feature a female announcer and heartbeats at 50, 40, 30, and 20 Hz. All subs should do 50 and 40 really easily. The 20 and 30 may bum you out when you see how little output, if any, your sub has at these low plateaus?
The last two tracks are like Chesky meets Alvin & The Chipmunks. 37 is called CHURCH MICE. It's just 25 seconds of noise that doesn't sound like real mice to me. Track 38 is called THANK YOU FOR COMING TO OUR SHOW. If you're stille awake you will witness 1:10 of totally forgettable 'munk pop. The lyrics are the title repeated over and over by chipmunks.
Question: What's this disc good for after the first listen? Answer: storage or sale!
A better idea than buying this disc would be to buy one of Chesky's other excellent SA-Cd's like one of the Ana Caram albums or the highly under listened to Dave's True Story or The Coryells.
" thank you for coming to our review, thank you for coming to our review, ect, ect,"
