Glenn Williams
MUSIC WRITER IN JAPAN
Sony Music Japan International
The announcement of the return of Mike Portnoy to Dream Theater was, with no disrespect to Mike Mangini, greeted everywhere with great joy. That was back in October 2023 and although there have been gigs between then and now, this is the first new album with their classic line-up since 2009. With baited breath and a somewhat uncomfortable look at the title and front cover (I suffer from nightmares), the disc started to spin. Just over seventy-one minutes later, I wondered if I listened to their best album…it’s certainly one of the best.
From the start, it's creepy. Sound effects depict someone coming home and drifting off to sleep, a slumber that then slips into an instrumental. Haunting and dramatic in equal measures, it’s a monster and an overture for what is to come. Night Terror has everybody playing to the max but also playing to the music; I.e. they never overplay, letting the song come to the fore rather than their virtuosity. It’s something that runs through the album but don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of dazzling solos, impossible drum fills and bass gymnastics in there. It’s just they are more structured within the framework of the song.
Onto the production and quite simply, the best I’ve ever heard on a Dream Theatre album. I can only put this down to Andy Sneap whose credits on their last album (A View From The Top Of The World, 2021) were Mixing and Mastering. This time, he is also the Engineer and it shows. Whilst retaining everybody’s signature sounds, he has achieved a far better balance and separation between the five members than anyone ever has before. The clarity and power at times are overwhelming. Particularly in the final track, a nineteen-minutes epic which incidentally, I think, is the best epic they’ve written.
Disc 2 has surround mixes presented in Dolby Atmos and DTS 5.1 as well as a high resolution 24bit/96k stereo track, all available with animated visualisations by Wayne Joyner. Which surround is better is purely personal taste, usually defined by the set-up you have. Both were mixed by Mark Gittins and he’s made great use of the rear channels to really immerse you in the music. Dream Theater have once again called on Hugh Syme to do the artwork and he has come up with some nightmare images, stuff that you really wouldn’t want to dream. Those horrors are presented in a 20-page booklet, the Japanese release having a 12-page B/W booklet with translated lyrics and liner notes; everything comes in a silk finish digipak.
I wrote at the start that Parasomnia is possibly their best album. No doubt most Dream Theater fans will disagree but personal opinions aside, every fan will agree that this is a very worthy addition to their catalogue.
Track List
Disc 1 (BSCD2)
Disc 2 (Blu-Ray audio)
ALBUM
DREAM THEATER
PARASOMNIA
BOX SET
BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND
STILL BARKING
Madfish
Twenty discs from a band that only released five albums, that seems almost impossible but here it is and justifiably so. For those of you that don’t know, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band were the creditable music link between Music Hall, Avant-Garde, Monty Python and pre-war Jazz. If that isn’t confusing enough, add in that their pianist created the Beatles spoof, The Rutles, their lead vocalist provided the announcements on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells and their drummer was Elton John’s tap-dancer. Believe me, I’ve only just scratched the surface there.
They didn’t last long…but then, actually, they did. Originally a jazz band formed in 1959, they added a vocalist in 1962 and then went through several musicians before settling on the line-up that released their first album in 1967 and this is where the box set begins; they end just five years later in 1972. Over half a century later, it is all here for you in this extraordinary collection. Lovingly put together, it includes a 148 page hardback book, seven reproduction photos individually signed by four members, three art prints, a reproduction of Imperial Records US promo poster and a copy of Liberty Records 1967 press release making it a set that deserves the word ‘definitive’. There is also a ‘Super Delux Edition’ with even more goodies but get in there quick because that set is limited to 150.
Eclectic would be a good word to start describing the Bonzo’s music. Weird at times, whacky at others, underneath it’s very serious and there is some amazing musicianship going on in there; the remastering of the original albums and The Singles CDs really brings that out. Having enough demos and outtakes from a 1960s band to cover three discs is remarkable in itself and along with the BBC sessions discs, fans are going to enjoy playing ‘Spot the difference’ between the various versions of their songs. Oddly enough, given that the first eight discs cover everything they recorded, the remaining nine discs never feel repetitive even there is, obviously, repetition.
To really appreciate the Bonzos though, you had to watch them and the three DVDs, totalling just under two and a half hours, show that there was no other band quite like them - not even now. A.I. has been used to reconstruct the Colour Me Pop programme and several clips have already been released elsewhere but it is nice to have everything known to exist (barring their appearance in The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour) in one place.
Madfish have, in the past, released some superb box sets and this one is as complete as can be. The Bonzos legacy is secured through it and there will never be a better release of them.
Contents
CD 1 Gorilla (1967) (Mono)
CD 2 Gorilla (1967) (Stereo)
CD 3 The Doughnut In Granny’s Greenhouse (1968) (Mono)
CD 4 The Doughnut In Granny’s Greenhouse (1968) (Stereo)
CD 5 Tadpoles (1969)
CD 6 Keynsham (1969)
CD 7 Let’s Make Up And Be Friendly (1972)
CD 8 The Singles
CD 9 Demos and Outtakes Vol 1
CD 10 Demos and Outtakes Vol 2
CD11 Demos, rehearsals and Outtakes Vol 3
CD 12 BBC sessions 1
CD 13 BBC sessions 2
CD 14 BBC sessions 3
CD 15 The Netherlands (TV Broadcast 1968 and Radio Broadcast 1969)
CD 16 Fillmore East (live)
CD 17 Manor Rehearsal and Live at The Marquee
DVD 1 Starters
Neil Innes’ art school film (1965)
Blue Peter (1966)
New Faces (1967)
Pathe Footage (1967)
Beat Club (1967, 1968 and 1969)
Starparade (1968)
I’m The Urban Spaceman (US promo)
DVD 2 Main Course
Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967 and 1968)
DVD 3 Dessert
Colour Me Pop Reconstruction (1968)
Colour Me Pop The portions that exist with slates (1968)
Tienerklanken Jazz Bilzen Festival (1969)
Ten Years Of What? (1969)
Pik-in ‘Tis Winter (Interview with Roger Spear 1970)