Music Disc Reviews

THE WAY THE MIXES GO

You should probably go here for a quick MVI primer before I go any further. That's okay, I'll wait....

Up to speed? Good.

I would characterize Snakes & Arrows as a "smart" 5.1 mix on DVD-Video (sorry, no DVD-Audio here). Having already shepherded no fewer than five surround mixes for live Rush DVDs from various points across the last 26 years, Lifeson must have been champing at the bit to twiddle the knobs on studio material. Achieving immersion balance is a delicate thing, and Lifeson has already shown his mastery of the art of live surround mixing. Now he's taken the next step by putting the listener in the middle of a studio mix that's exciting, invigorating, and fulfilling - a "prize every time," to borrow a phrase from the Peart-penned bio that appears as one of the MVI's extras. (Assisting with the mix is Richard Chycki, who'd previously co-mixed R30 with Lifeson.)

Opening track "Fry Cry" sets the stage. Geddy's lead vocals are ensconced upfront but not isolated in the center channel, with the appropriate amount of delay in the surround channels. His "ooh" harmonies, however, are more prominent in the rear (as are the majority of his "ooh" and "whoa" harmonies throughout the album). A key phrase from the chorus, "rolling over me," gets extra punch in all channels each time it's repeated. Alex's sustain-laden solo builds and squeals, and his chiming, chordal nod to "Cygnus X-1" (a suspended F-sharp that he calls "the same chord from 'Hemispheres' " in the extras documentary) gets full-channel treatment at the outro.

"Armor and Sword" gives Neil room to shine, his cymbals suitably sibilant and his bass drum duly emphasized during the bridge. (Incidentally, that potent, frequent cymbal-and-bass-drum combo is known as a "booujze" in Rushian parlance; see Peart's bio in the extras for details.) You'll also hear Lifeson's fingers slide up and down the strings on the acoustic passages and on his electric during the choruses (think of the "crunch" from Donnie Iris's "Ah! Leah!").

More emphasis for various words and phrases appears on "Workin' Them Angels": "Overtime" gets some echo, "fly" repeats and buzzes in the rear, and "moving picture" goes up in volume and dominates all channels. (Hmmm, that last one can't be by chance. . . .) Lifeson's initial, shorter mandolin break features a slight rear delay, while the second one takes a more prominent position out back.

Not everything has a role in the surrounds. The acoustic guitar segments in "The Larger Bowl" stay hard front, for example. But Peart's tambourine stakes a claim behind, as do Lee's counterharmonies that come after the understated solo.

One of my favorite tracks, "Spindrift," begins with an ominous swirl, putting you literally in the middle of the coming maelstrom as it moves from channel to channel before Lifeson's dominant doom riff kicks in. I kept cranking this one up more and more (and had to make sure I hadn't inadvertently dialed in a Black Sabbath disc).