"Monster" music....by electronica artist BT

[FunkyHiFi]

Here's the album: Music From & Inspired By The Film "Monster", a CD+dvd set (samples/reviews (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001ADAVU/sr=1-11/qid=1154338130/ref=sr_1_11/103-2071435-9999052?ie=UTF8&s=music)).

I've been slowly getting into this genre of music, but being on a tight budget doesn't help but what's worse is the amount of cheap/poser electronica out there that you have to wade through to find the good stuff.

The only reason I know about this guy is because this soundtrack was mixed into 5.1 form for the movie and then sold as a music dvd (plus a separate CD). It came out a couple years ago but I didn't even listen to samples because 1) I don't like depressing movies like this and 2) to me most movie soundtrack albums have a discombobulated feel to them & don't sound right without the visual part.

Well I guess this soundtrack CD+dvd sold well enough that the independent label selling it (DTS Entertainment (http://www.dts.com/entertainment/catalogue/music.php?upc=692860111226)) decided to also sell BT's next regular* album, it also being in 5.1 CD+dvd form. Soooooo I finally listened to the soundtrack album and was really surprised with how it sounded: it sounds NOTHING like what the sometimes creepy track titles describe. Very pretty, airy & ambeint stuff, great in stereo or surround.....but better in surround I'll bet (because - duh - you're surrounded by it). The music is good enough that its on now on my albums to buy list.

FYI: discs like these contain real surround tracks, made from the studio mutlitrack masters. I.e. these are not the "surround" mixes made artificially by a receiver's "rock concert", "club" or "Dolby Pro-Logic II" buttons, most of which are just a bunch of randomly placed sounds or just bland reverb coming out of the rear speakers. Unfortunately, many companies use a similar professional system for their dvds, a cheap-n-quick way to make a pseudo 5.1 soundtrack so they can list it as just another feature on the packaging. :( The Beasties' Video Anthology has such a track (I'm sure Capitol made that decision), though the bass IS much better than on the stereo version.

I checked out some of BT's earlier albums but with a few excpetions, didn't much like it: too rave-ish(?) and plasticky sounding, if that's the right word.

BTW: these are regular dvd video discs, not those dvd-audio discs I've talked about. That format and its competitor, sacd, have been pretty much abandoned by most companies because of crappy sales & hardware difficulties (read about this here (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showthread.php?t=237885)). Remember, if you're using a separate dvd player hooked up to a receiver: make sure the receiver has the "DTS" logo on it & that the player is set up to output a DTS audio stream (they usually come out of the box with this feature disabled).

I know most people think the iPod & MP3's are the only way to listen to music now, but that's only what *Apple* wants you to think. ;)

* this one has syncronized computer graphics videos for each track - here's a pre-review (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showthread.php?t=239081) of it.

[FunkyHiFi]

I ordered this guy's new CD+dvd surround album This Binary Universe from the Soundwaves store here and it will be here either today or next Tuesday. According to someone who preordered it (post #10 (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/showthread.php?p=2953962#post2953962)) , the music is:
It is very mellow, chill/ambient, with a few nice basslines here and there, though at times it does sound a bit soundtrack-ish (not that there is anything wrong with that). Some acoustic guitar, piano, synth/samples,.........
So music-wise it sounds like it's a good bet for me.

Here is the official website (http://www.thisbinaryuniverse.com) for the album, with a trailer(?) for the special computer-generated videos that are part of the album. I LOVE spacey visuals combined with good music. This is my first encounter with this stuff, AV:X.02 - Spaced Out (http://www.amazon.com/Moonshine-Movies-Presents-AVX-02-Spaced/dp/B00005UERK/sr=1-1/qid=1157141490/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-9041693-9239241?ie=UTF8&s=dvd). Not every track is awesome but it only cost $12 (btw: this is a regular stereo dvd). This label has many more & will be trying out some of those when I'm able.

Another place to check out music + visuals: www.res.com (a website and paper magazine).

[FunkyHiFi]

I always intend to make these reviews short and to the point, but maybe I have some hidden A.D.D. or something :) because as you can see..........

BT's This Binary Universe

Music

Um, what can I say – I guess you could call it chillout + ambient + drum & bass + little jazz + classical. Just like many other people who have listened to this album there is no one catchall term that fully describes these songs.

Whatever it is, I like it. Lots of electronic instrumentation is used but this is tempered with the use of acoustic instruments (though for all I know they could be software based themselves; whatever the case, they sound natural to me). Though at first the “stutter breaks” & “glitchy” effects took me by surprise & was worried they would be too distracting. But after listening to the CD version a couple more times, I realized all those stutters and glitches fit right into the overall beat of the music (some sound like samples of acoustic instruments and some seem to be purely electronic). They make for an interesting soundscape as you relax to the rest of the instruments’ contributions.

BTW for reference sake, some albums I own & enjoy by other (vaguely!) similar artists: Stereolab; Kruder & Dorfmeister; Zero 7; Thievery Corporation; Massive Attack; DJ Cam; DJ Shadow; Blue States; Groove Armada; The Karminsky Experience; Brian Eno (specifically, Music for Airports: Ambient 1, where chillout all began); Crystal Method, Medeski/Martin/Wood and The Cinematic Orchestra.

But the overall feel of this album is one of relaxation, punctuated by several more uptempo sections and in the case of “The Antikythera Mechanism”, full blown (and loud!) orchestral crescendos. That brings up an important feature of this album: it has a very wide dynamic range so you have to be careful where you set your volume level. Many tracks have whisper quiet beginnings, slooooowly get louder and louder then……..get quiet again. Some get louder the same way and end in the way you expected, with everything going at once. Very emotional to listen to, like a musical roller coaster.

Only one disadvantage to this album and it’s not actually a problem. This is an album you need to plan ahead for because the shortest song on here is eight minutes, with several lasting more than 10 and 11 minutes, with “See You On The Other Side” lasting more than 14 minutes. But their length allows you to really get into the mood they are trying to project and they do a good job of that for me anyway.

If you’re like me, pieces of this album will float through your head for hours afterward, even then making you want to tap your foot but in a relaxing way. :)

This is very cool music and I am glad I own this album if only for that reason.

Technical aspects

Surround mix: I think it is excellent. Fits the music perfectly. Fully immersive (in other words you're sitting in the middle of the band) with lots of ambience wrapping around you mixed with many discrete elements placed in each channel. Includes moving elements but nothing gimmicky IMO. One example that shows how movement can contribute to the music are those crescendos during “The Antikythera Mechanism”: a split second before they occur, part of the music starts behind you & rushes to the front right as the crescendos begin – this subtle touch most definitely adds to their impact.

The center channel is used most of the time, and of that time, it’s about a 50/50 split between fill-in duty and very discrete effects.

The LFE channel, also known as the .1 channel, is also active (like the center channel, not every surround mix uses this channel) and on an audio geek side note, the powerful bass issuing from it would be good demo material for picking out a subwoofer intended for music.

This music was written initially for a surround presentation and it shows: the stereo mix sounds good too but this music is usually quite densely layered and many of the delicate/quiet elements are nearly lost in the 2.0 presentation. But with all the extra space (literally) four extra channels provide, all those elements - while still delicate/quiet - are now much more clearly defined & easy to hear. For me this is one of the biggest advantages of surround music vs. the stereo version, the ability to easily hear those small things that can add so much to music, even when using my mixture of Chevy & Toyota-quality audio gear.

And on a *totally* unrelated note, I think Paul's Boutique and especially Hello Nasty would sound SO good in discrete surround form.

Sound quality: I think it is very good for the 5.1 DTS track*, the included 48kHz/24bit PCM stereo track and the CD. Loads of detail but not bright or grainy at all (I wish I could say the same for another DTS Entertainment CD+dvd surround album, LTJ Bukem’s Planet Earth – that is one extra-crispy album, one of the few on *any* format I own where I have to use my receiver’s treble control to make it listenable. In other words, TBU is easy to listen to at high volume levels. :thumbsup:

Videos

While I love visual art (that includes movies) and especially visual art + music, I’m not going into detail with these because except for “Good Morning Kaia” these are just too trippy. Some of them feature just slowly transforming but still attractive & interesting abstract art done by computer. These are also synched to the music which adds to their calming effect. Three that stand out for me: “Dynamic Symmetry” reminded me of the psychedelic art featured on many 60s and 70s prog rock album covers; “The Internal Locus” is a long series of colorful drawings that tell a…..unique…..story; and “Good Morning Kaia” has a good chance of making your eyes a bit damp, with its combination of pretty music, home movies of BT’s two year old daughter and a message from him to her that scrolls softly across the screen throughout the length of the video. “The Antikythera Mechanism” is nice too featuring mostly scenes of snow covered hills & mountains and this is all made even better by including a really cute young woman!


Since these videos are supposedly sourced from HD masters, I checked out their image quality on a new 60” Mitsubishi HDTV at a local retailer (they love me there – I never buy anything! :D But they do get some properly set up 5.1 demo receivers in return). I calibrated it by eye first, deactivated any video noise reduction systems & then watched a random sampling of these 16:9 videos. It could have been all the special effects they used but most had a slightly grainy quality, though actually it was about the same amount as many standard dvd movies. FYI: viewed via my enormous 27” CRT monitor :) they looked perfectly smooth. On a side note: these exhibited much better quality than the videos on my Peter Gabriel Play dvd-video album (for such interesting & thought provoking imagery, I am very disappointed PG or his label didn’t seem to care about their dvd versions). But anyway, there was a good amount of detail present & colors were very rich.

Trivia

Disc operation: the dvd’s main menu offers the user 3 ways to play the tracks. “First Listen” plays the tracks sequentially but with only a still photo on the screen (taken from the track’s video). “Play All” does the same thing but does play the videos; and if you pick individual tracks from the list, like the Peter Gabriel disc mentioned above that track will be played but at the end of that track you are returned to the main menu again.

A minor annoyance: at least with my Pioneer player, unlike my other music dvds I couldn’t switch between the 5.1 and stereo tracks by using the audio button.

This album was very much worth the $16 I paid for it at Soundwaves, an independent music store here in Houston. It is one of those albums that draws you in because of all the layers of sound and feelings they produce, even if you (well, this happens to me anyway :) ) were just planning on listening to a portion of one of these extended songs. It’s rather like a walk in a local forest: maybe you only planned a ten minute jaunt but the restful atmosphere combined with the sounds of life within cause you to walk much further than you intended. And without consciously trying to do so, you feel a little better when you finally do get back home.

***********************************************

Other 5.1 surround albums by (sort of) similar artists that I know of:

both of the following are CD+dvds:

* Richie Hawtin: DE9:Transitions
* DJ Bad Boy Bill: Behind The Decks

the following are all on the DTS Entertainment label (http://www.dts.com/entertainment/catalogue/music.php?sort=&type=&genre=Electronica)......no, I don't work for them!

LTJ Bukem: Planet Earth (CD+dvd)
Studio VooDoo: Studio VooDoo (a dvd-audio disc**; I owned this for awhile and the music wasn't for me but I could tell it was well done and featured an aggressive/immersive 5.1 mix)
Studio VooDoo: Club Voodoo (a "DTS Music Disc" (http://www.surroundassociates.com/fqmain.html#2.7.1) - no visuals)
Crystal Method: Legion Of Boom (dvd-audio; I own this one - good stuff)
Emma Shapplin: Etterna (a dvd-audio disc; think Enigma w/Italian lyrics)

* make sure the DTS sound option in your standalone dvd player is enabled & that your receiver has the "DTS" logo (pretty much all do since the 2001 model year).

** all dvd-audio discs have either a Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 track so they will work on regular dvd players

[Miho Mingu]

I have the "This Binary Universe" album. It's very ambient like, and mellow. Very good. What I like about the songs, is how it'll start out ambient, then at certain points, it switches into music of substance. In a sense, it's like you're on a journey.

[FunkyHiFi]

In a sense, it's like you're on a journey.
That is a great way to describe this album. It would be awesome to listen to at night while driving (but my car CD player died a while back:( ).

[Miho Mingu]

That's a great idea. I should do the same. Another thing, I have to say, I've always enjoyed your threads, as they're thoroughly descriptive, and informative. Keep up the good work. You deserve positive criticism, for all the hard work you put into your threads.

[FunkyHiFi]

Thanks. I've got a $42,000 college loan I have to pay back, so I need to get some use out of all that time sitting on my butt in those classes. :D

Go Lumberjacks!!! (http://www.sfasu.edu/)

[icy manipulator]

BT a great dj, i saw him in brisbane at a club called family last year. his set was insanly good

[Videodrome]

Another thing, I have to say, I've always enjoyed your threads, as they're thoroughly descriptive, and informative. Keep up the good work. You deserve positive criticism, for all the hard work you put into your threads.
i've always thought that also.