Innehållsförteckning för April/May 2024 från Sound & Vision

Customer Service And Subscriptions soundandvision@emailcustomerservice.com Call (800) 666-3746 (international calls: 386-447-6383) or write to: Sound & Vision, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235 Please include your full name, address, and phone number on any inquiries. Vision of the Future? When Apple first announced the Vision Pro mixed reality headset, it set off a chain reaction of responses and predictions. There are those who’ve been waiting for VR and AR technology to mature, to manifest as a genuine leap forward, as the iPhone did upon its release—back when physical keyboard lovers scoffed at the notion of an all-screen phone. There are, of course, many applications for Apple’s new toy. However, its steep price point is notable for a first-generation, strictly personal device. Still, its extremely high-resolution OLED display holds promise…

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 and fun music video by director Peter Jackson. The story of “Now and Then” goes back to 1977. As was his custom when songwriting, John Lennon would record a little demo for himself, likely…

THE MARVELS begins with Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, journeying to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary. While investigating the strange phenomenon, her powers become inexplicably entangled with super-fan Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau. This unlikely trio must team up and work together to save the universe. As a fan of 2019’s Captain Marvel, I was certainly eager to revisit this corner of the MCU. Unfortunately, an overabundance of narrative threads, odd tonal shifts and misplaced shtick result in a lackluster entry that many found disappointing. The concept of having the three heroes join forces is fine, but the attempt to give them an equal share of the narrative pie is where things go awry. The lack of a well-drawn…

OH DAE-SU is a husband and a father and right now he is a belligerent drunk who is about to wake up in a strange hotel room… or is it some sort of prison? By the time he’s released 15 years later, the life he knew is gone, and now he’s confronted with a dual mystery: Why is he being subjected to this bizarre, extreme form of punishment, and how exactly will this revenge ultimately manifest itself? The answers are sad to be sure but the consequences are far darker. This is Oldboy, the most intense, most disturbing thriller you’ve never seen, where the shocks don’t let up and the final twist cuts deep. It’s violent to the extent that I still need to turn away once or twice, but surprisingly…

BY 1985, DC Comics was juggling a vast stable of characters with too many variations across an unwieldy menagerie of alternate planes of existence. How to simplify matters and also make an honest buck? The answer arrived in the form of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a popular and influential crossover comic book maxi-series by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez that effectively reset the lineup for a new generation of fans. Warner’s long-running slew of excellent direct-to-video animated movies has finally gotten around to adapting this particular storyline, understandably making some changes while retaining the gist: An unknown and incredibly powerful being has dispatched an antimatter wave capable of erasing entire realities, and none of the Earths heroes, villains, or any version of them is safe. The themes and plot points…

Q (Don Hamilton) I have an existing housewide audio system with a receiver connected to a speaker selector and speakers and volume controls in four rooms. The bass isn’t very good, and I’d like to improve it. How can I add a subwoofer to my housewide audio system? A On the surface, this seems like it would be a simple answer: “Just plug a subwoofer into your receiver and set the volume! Done and done!” But that won’t work correctly for various reasons (unless you never adjust the system’s volume level or don’t mind mismatched bass). In the system described above—a receiver powering a housewide audio system with volume controls in each room—you have two different volume controls: the receiver’s volume, which sets the overall maximum level of the system…

Whenever the calendar turns over to a new year, there’s a pretty good chance a new Steve Hackett solo album will also be in tow and ready to greet our collective ears. And lo, what do you know—early 2024 has indeed blessed us with the presence of the onetime Genesis guitarist/vocalist’s (yes) 30th solo album, The Circus and the Nightwhale (InsideOut Music). Naturally, the 1CD/1BD mediabook version of the genre-straddling Circus includes a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix of its 13 tracks done by Hackett’s longtime keyboardist, Roger King. In a recent Zoom interview, Hackett, 74, and I discussed the importance of sound placement, what his favorite Genesis song in 5.1 surround is, and what Genesis track we’d both like to hear most in Atmos. (A longer version of this…

BASED ON the extraordinary, iconic character at the center of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, one of the best-selling children’s books of all time, Wonka tells the wondrous story of how a young chocolate-maker, armed with nothing but a hatful of dreams, manages to change the world, one delectable bite at a time. 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory will forever hold a special place among my favorite childhood films. To me, it has an endearing charm and timeless appeal that can be shared from one generation to the next. I never tire of watching it. However, I am not so certain that we needed an origin story for Willy Wonka, an established and beloved character whose imagination and flair for invention needs no introduction. Fortunately, Wonka’s…

HANG ON for a wild ride through ‘90s Scotland as Trainspotting returns, nastier than ever. Adapted from the book by Irvine Welsh, it traces the ups and downs of a group of working-class young friends, most of whom are habitual intravenous drug users. The movie gets right to the heroin and not in the way audiences of the era likely expected, proclaiming narrator Mark Renton’s (Ewan McGregor) love for the stuff even as it sends his life out of control. Instead of lapsing into the heavy-handed clichés of a cautionary tale, it’s actually incredibly funny, in a very R-rated way that can also be rather unsettling. In other words, there’s never been a movie that’s balanced boundary-pushing comedy and drama like this, before or since, and it remains required viewing.…

Because of his close association with Yes’ signature sound, guitarist Steve Howe is assumed to have been a member of the British progressive giants from the outset—but he only came aboard with the five-man band’s third studio release, February 1971’s The Yes Album. Though his fretboard predecessor, Peter Banks (who later co-founded the prog-adjacent ’70s outfit Flash), foreshadowed the aural adventurism to come on July 1969’s Yes and July 1970’s Time and a Word, it was The Yes Album that cemented the wide-ranging, time-signature-challenging sonic template for one of the most forward-thinking progressive acts of the past six decades. Perhaps somewhat lost amidst the end-of-year box set shuffle, Atlantic/Rhino’s 4CD/1LP/1BD super deluxe edition of The Yes Album is a welcome addition to a canon that has seen a myriad of…

One takeaway from the recent Consumer Electronics Show is that we’re going to need a longer measuring tape. Most top out at 96 inches or less, meaning they’ll fall short when measuring the diagonal on a gigantic TV set…. But wait. Pythagoras to the rescue! Just measure the screen’s horizontal (a) and vertical (b) dimensions, apply the formula (a2 + b2 = c2) that we learned in geometry class, and calculate the longer number—the diagonal (c). No need to upgrade your measuring tape! Except for addition, subtraction and multiplication, formulas are not really my thing. I’ve always had a hard time understanding the math in computer spreadsheets. Still, I can’t stop thinking about them, especially as they relate to display devices. I watch TV and see Lotus 1-2-3. I look…

As I write this, CES 2024 is almost two months past, but that’s roughly the amount of time it takes to decompress and distill everything experienced at the show. This year’s CES brought in more than 130,000 attendees (up from the 115,000 at 2023’s event) and certainly felt more like the pre-COVID levels, with tons of traffic in and around all the major brands. And, after years of the Las Vegas Sphere under construction, we finally got to see it in action! While this is the Consumer Electronics Show in name—and indeed, there is still plenty of consumer electronics on display—it has become far more than that, with the show now dominated by broader things that affect more aspects of our lives, like automotive technologies, sustainable energy solutions, food, healthcare,…

ANYONE ASSUMING that this is a prequel to the four-movie Hunger Games trilogy—all based on Suzanne Collins’ bestselling novels—might find themselves bemused. This time we focus on the winning side in Panem’s bloody civil war, with a thoughtful and fascinating character study of the saga’s central antagonist, the future president. After a brief introduction, we jump 10 years into the annual event that pits pairs of children from each of the losing districts against one another in a fight to the death. But the particulars of the competition are still evolving and, in an effort to keep the sport ongoing, eager students like young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) are each assigned to mentor a sacrificial “tribute” and devise ways to increase viewership. Snow’s experiences in the privileged capital are only…

RETURN WITH us to a halcyon age of cinema when mature subject matter wasn’t forbidden, it was simply rated R. So it was with Little Darlings, a surprisingly sweet and remarkably honest snapshot of adolescence circa 1980. There’s no real violence or profanity, and the teenage coitus at its core is merely alluded to, never shown. See, summer camp brings together youngsters from all walks of life, and one of the more experienced girls strong arms two newbies into a bet: whoever loses her virginity first wins. The subsequent talk isn’t nearly as trashy as we might expect, instead exploring the loss of innocence in more ways than one. To its credit, the sensitively imparted story sidesteps the pitfalls of similarly themed bawdy comedies or maudlin dramas of the period.…

UPON ITS release 40 years ago, Footloose thrilled audiences with its spirited dancing, electrifying soundtrack and inspiring story about a Chicago city-boy, Ren McCormick, who arrives in an uptight small town where dancing has been banned due to its potentially sexual influence on the minds of its teenaged residents. Ren quickly falls for the minister’s daughter, but his love for music and dancing gets him into hot water equally fast, not only with the town leaders but a local hard case with a score to settle. Being roughly the same age as the actors in the film, I was at a similar stage in my life when Footloose came to theaters. I understood its interpretation of young people trying to find their way in the world while dealing with the…

NEIL YOUNG: HARVEST WHEN I spoke with Neil Young back in April 2014 about his ongoing search for how to share his music in the best resolution possible (Pono, we hardly knew ye), he was laser-focused on what he wanted his audience to experience. “Back when I started recording, we did everything we could so that our listeners could hear the music,” he told me. “The more we presented and the more you were able to hear, the happier you were.” And that brings us to one of the best examples of that superb-sounding emotional uplift impetus—February 1972’s Harvest, Young’s fourth and most successful solo album. On it, Young, his then-new backing band The Stray Gators, and a selection of A-list guests collectively capture the rustic charm of the Canadian-born…