7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Filmed live in Tokyo, this energetic concert features the four original members of 1980s supergroup Asia on their 2007 reunion world tour celebrating their 25th anniversary. Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, Carl Palmer and John Wetton play some of their biggest hits, including "Only Time Will Tell," "Heat of the Moment," "Sole Survivor," "The Heat Goes On," "One Step Closer" and more. A 40-minute interview with the band members is included.
Music | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English, French, Spanish, German
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Have you ever had the experience of attending a concert and leaving the venue so blown away that you just couldn't believe what you had experienced? That's how I felt after viewing Asia: Fantasia Live In Tokyo. The quality of the performance, the skill of the individual musicians and the artistic and creative complexity of the music is staggering and completely blindsided me. This four-piece band achieves the musical density of a twelve- piece; the group uses sound as a painter uses a brush. It is not just notes; it is color, texture and density. You can easily tell these men are accomplished and classically trained musicians and not a garage band. There is an air of compositional sophistication to every song they play that is recognizable to other trained musicians. This is a tight and well rehearsed band with no apparent weaknesses. The band members' complex and well- honed technique leaves the viewer breathless. For example, I was impressed with how bassist John Wetton patterns his playing style after the technique used to play organ bass pedals; rendering his style in a smooth and fluid manner. Being a keyboard player myself, I couldn't take my eyes or ears off of keyboardist Geoff Downes' skillful playing; his use of timbral color to accentuate the music demonstrated his tremendous skill and discipline as a player. This group has some serious chops.
Geoff Downes on Keys.
Asia: Fantasia Live In Tokyo powers on to the Blu-ray format in a stunning 1080i/MPEG-4 AVC encode, framed at a 1:78:1 aspect ratio. Did I say stunning? If that's not good enough, how about perfect! Images are clean as a whistle, with no digital artifacts, compression, or pesky compression issues. Black levels are deep and inky black, shadow detail is excellent; I was able to see distinct shapes in the crowd amidst the complete darkness of the concert hall. Contrast is excellent, with very white whites that were never overblown. Every shade in the grayscale shines through boldly and accurately. Colors are very well saturated, but the simplicity of the lighting design does not allow for a tremendous amount of vivid color. Skin tones look natural and detail is first rate; skin details and clothing are exceptionally rendered. This production deserves the highest possible score for picture quality. Eagle Rock Entertainment has hit a home run with this release; congratulations are in order!
As enthusiastic as I am about the video, I am less so about the audio. Asia: Fantasia
Live In Tokyo offers three audio tracks to choose from. A 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track
at a 24/48 kHz, a 5.1 Dolby Digital track encoded at 640kbps and a
LPCM stereo track at 24bit resolution. I found some serious balance and equalization
issues in the 5.1 mixes that seemed to be caused by the addition of surround channels. The
keyboards were far too loud and
forward in the mix, which spilled over into the surrounds. This covered up the drums, guitar,
and made the bass sound muddy and undefined. Worse, a healthy dose of
equalization applied to the mid bass and lower midrange caused the complete sonic
presentation to lose its definition. The assignment of instruments within the acoustic space
seemed constricted to the space between my speakers, with no information at the edges of
the mix. There was no air between them, which turned the entire spatial picture into mush.
With the frontal sound stage wrapping into the surrounds, everything turned into a gigantic
auditory mess. Vocals suffered intelligibility issues every time the keyboards kicked in.
I listened to all three of the tracks, and, surprisingly, I preferred the stereo LPCM
track. Almost all the issues I outlined above disappeared completely with this track.
Even the keyboard balance issues were reduced to a point where much of the sonic detail
that was
previously hidden suddenly revealed itself. To put it frankly, mixing and equalization issues
ruined this otherwise fine performance. Fortunately, the LPCM track helps to remedy these
issues.
The only extra content on this disc is an interview with each band member. I watched this before the actual concert and found it to be a valuable source of information about the band that shouldn't be missed.
As soon as I finished viewing Asia: Fantasia Live In Tokyo, I went directly to Asia's
web site to see when
they are scheduled to tour the United States. I was bummed when I discovered they have
no shows in
America scheduled for 2009. This is not a group I want to sit and listen to on a CD, rather, I
want to
experience this amazing band in that fashion that so impressed me on this Blu-ray release.
While each musician in the band brings a huge amount of skill and showmanship to table,
when playing together, the synergy among them raises the group's musicianship to
unprecedented levels.
It seems every time I review a music video, my wallet catches fire at the hands of iTunes.
This time was no different. I highly recommend this disc, but I also highly recommend you
go see this band live. You will not be sorry for the experience.
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