Music and Soundtrack Features

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Music and Soundtrack Features
The Creation of The Beatles’ Last Song and the Rebirth of Red and Blue
Matt Hurwitz  |  Feb 09, 2024  |  4 comments
How does the most popular band in rock music history both close out their recording history and celebrate their iconic legacy at the same time? Well, in early November, The Beatles accomplished both by releasing their last new recording, “Now and Then,” and reissuing their ever popular catalog compilation albums, The Beatles 1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970—known informally as the “Red” and “Blue” albums (Apple/Capitol/UMe), augmented with dozens of new tracks and completely remixed in stereo. “Now and Then” was accompanied by both a 12-minute documentary about its creation, by filmmaker Oliver Murray, and a joyous, fun music video by director Peter Jackson.

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Music and Soundtrack Features
Magic Before and After: Peter Jackson’s “Now and Then” Music Video
Matt Hurwitz  |  Feb 09, 2024  |  2 comments
Paul and Ringo join their 1967 counterparts in the “Hello Goodbye” music video - © Apple Corps, Ltd.

It starts with Paul and George tuning up their acoustic guitars, during the February 1995 sessions for the recently-released final Beatles tune, “Now and Then.” Before long, we’re being reminded of just whom their brother, John, misses every so often and why, in a way that both stirs our hearts and also makes us smile.

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Music and Soundtrack Features
High Fidelity First Class
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 05, 2023  |  4 comments
Fifty years on, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon remains one of the most important recordings of the rock era. Here’s why it will continue to endure, long after we’ve all gone on to join the great gig in the sky.
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Music and Soundtrack Features
Remaster Class: The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies & Everybody's In Show-Biz
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 20, 2022  |  0 comments
The Kinks were at a crossroads. As they entered the 1970s, the British pop/rockers hadn't yet ascended to the next toppermost level, even after achieving new heights following the songwriting leap Ray Davies took with the still poignant 1967 track, "Waterloo Sunset." It took two critical back-to-back albums, November 1971's Muswell Hillbillies and August 1972's Everybody's in Show-Biz, to fully get them there—and then they never looked back.
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Music and Soundtrack FeaturesAudio Video News
Recording and Remixing Revolver
Matt Hurwitz  |  Oct 28, 2022  |  17 comments
All photos courtesy of Apple Corps Ltd. unless otherwise noted.

For many Beatles fans, Revolver is their favorite album. A balance of great songwriting and first dips into experimentation and change even place the 1966 LP above Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road for some. The album was a clear step forward into new kinds of music, fresh sounds, and pioneering recording techniques. Following in line with Special Edition packages of Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road , The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album), and Let It Be, Apple Corps, Ltd/Capitol Records/UMe today released a series of new special editions of Revolver featuring the original mono mix and a new stereo remix by Giles Martin (son of original producer Sir George Martin) and engineer Sam Okell plus a Dolby Atmos mix of the album, now available via download. Matt Hurwitz explores the creation and lasting legacy of the work that marked a turning point in the evolution of the world’s greatest band.

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Music and Soundtrack Features
The Atmos Branch
Mike Mettler  |  Sep 01, 2022  |  3 comments
Porcupine Tree returns after a decade-long hiatus to deliver a career benchmark, Closure / Continuation. All three bandmembers give us the scoop on how it all took root, and Steven Wilson takes us inside the making of the album’s truly stunning Dolby Atmos mix.
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Music and Soundtrack Features
Remaster Class – Black Sabbath: Paranoid
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 17, 2022  |  1 comments

"We Sail Through Endless Skies"

The key to the enduring appeal of Black Sabbath’s career-making second album, September 1970’s Paranoid, doesn’t only reside within its fist-pumping, headbanging, metal-genre-establishing bonafides. Actually, the secret sauce can be found via something you may not have even considered — Black Sabbath’s inherent sense of melody. And where might that come from, you ask? Two words — The Beatles.

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Music and Soundtrack Features
Moving Pictures: Rush's 1981 Masterpiece Gets its Due in Atmos
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 21, 2022  |  0 comments
Rush’s February 1981 masterpiece Moving Pictures ushered in a previously uncharted era that brought prog rock closer to the heart of the masses. And now, 41 years later, this landmark album gets its further due, thanks to a truly comprehensive multidisc box set and a fully immersive Dolby Atmos mix.
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Music and Soundtrack Features
Remaster Class: Deep Purple: Machine Head
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 03, 2022  |  2 comments
Fifty years on, Deep Purple's March 1972 masterstroke Machine Head remains a clarion call for hard rock fans the world over. Stamped onto polished metal, the band name/album title stack appearing atop a funhouse-mirrored image of the five-man group on the cover is the perfect visual representation of in-tune artists at the nexus point of transitioning from their late-1960s blues psychedelia phase into a signature sound clearly on the cusp of birthing heavy metal.
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Music and Soundtrack Features
Remaster Class: Simple Minds: Once Upon a Time
Mike Mettler  |  May 13, 2022  |  0 comments
Talk about peaking at the exact right time. Scottish art-rockers Simple Minds had just hit their stride with February 1984's transitional Sparkle in the Rain and scored an unexpected No. 1 single in the summer of 1985 with the Breakfast Club soundtrack-only smash hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)"—and it was all precursor to the production power that propelled their October 1985 longplayer, Once Upon a Time, into one of the biggest albums of the MTV Decade.
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Music and Soundtrack Features
Remaster Class: Chicago Transit Authority
Mike Mettler  |  Apr 15, 2022  |  0 comments
The seven-man band then known as Chicago Transit Authority were at the forefront of the horn-driven jazz-rock movement when they emerged in April 1969 with their self-titled double-length debut album, thanks in no small part to the knob-turning efforts of their semi-Svengali producer James William Guercio.
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Music and Soundtrack FeaturesThe S&V Interview
Carlos Santana on Blessings, Miracles, and Full Musical Immersion
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 22, 2022  |  4 comments
"I'm just very grateful we're allowed to, by grace, manifest some really, really high-standard, quality music. We do not have to be victims of static."

That's rock legend Carlos Santana, succinctly summarizing two things at once: a) the fine art of making music worth listening to, and b) being able to hear that music as clearly as the artist intended. (To that end, Carlos and I wound up switching phone lines during the front end of our conversation in order to hear each other with a much better-sounding connection, but that's another story.)

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Music and Soundtrack Features
Roland Orzabal on How Tears For Fears Elevated The Tipping Point in the Atmos Universe
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 11, 2022  |  0 comments
Tears For Fears have always been a band who have worn their hearts on their sleeves. And when I say band, I'm really referring to the push-pull creative synergy between the pair of British childhood friends at the core of TFF—i.e., Roland Orzabal (guitars, vocals, and keyboards) and Curt Smith (bass, vocals, and keyboards).
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Music and Soundtrack FeaturesThe S&V Interview
Producer Richard Chycki on Mixing The Tragically Hip's Road Apples in Atmos
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 17, 2021  |  4 comments
"I heard a bunch of things in it I had never heard before."

That's Rob Baker, guitarist of Canada's still-favorite sons The Tragically Hip, recounting the feelings he experienced upon hearing the recent, fully completed Dolby Atmos mix of his band's seminal February 1991 release, Road Apples for the very first time.

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Music Disc ReviewsMusic and Soundtrack FeaturesStreaming Movies and TVSpecial Features
The Making of The Beatles' Let It Be and Peter Jackson's Get Back
Matt Hurwitz  |  Dec 03, 2021  |  2 comments
1968 was a busy year for The Beatles. They had traveled to India to study Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, launched their own record label, Apple, and spent months at EMI's studios at Abbey Road recording their mammoth double-album, The Beatles (aka The White Album). But even before that album was released, they were planning what would end up as their post-breakup album and film, Let It Be. That disc was recently reissued by Apple/Capitol/Universal in a super deluxe edition, remixed by Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell, complete with previously-unreleased bonus tracks, and the film has now been given a reimagining by Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson, in the form of The Beatles: Get Back on the Disney+ streaming service.
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