Billy Cobham: Spectrum Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Billy Cobham: Spectrum Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 14, 2025

There was a time when vinyl was the "high tech" standard for audiophiles, and when high fidelity gave way to stereo in the late fifties and especially into the early sixties, things started to get quite interesting at times courtesy of "wide imaging" albums from the likes of Enoch Light's Command label or "audio franchises" like RCA's Stereo Action series. Many of these early quasi-demonstration records tended to feature batteries of percussion that ping ponged between the (two and only two) channels, offering delighted listeners their first example of sonic directionality emanating from their home systems. Maybe just slightly hilariously in the "everything old is new again" category, something quite similar is on hand for the quadraphonic presentation of Spectrum, the first solo album from drummer Billy Cobham who was at that time probably best known for providing some of the manic energy propelling the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Mahavishnu, despite its excesses, often provided absolutely rapturously beautiful songs (Apocalypse and Visions of the Emerald Beyond spring instantly to mind), with Cobham supporting everything by bashing and battering his kit in the background. Things probably fare a bit less well here, or at least a bit less consistently engaging from a melodic standpoint, but the album provides some fun four channel "theatrics" which may engage listeners.

The album's track list can be seen on the screenshots of the disc menu I've uploaded to accompany this review.

Billy Cobham: Spectrum Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Once again as with most of the Quadio releases, the video content here is simply the static menu seen in the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review. Regular readers of my reviews already know what a fan of hi res audio in general and Rhino in particular I am, but if there's one thing they could definitely improve on, it's how they author their discs in terms of navigating the different audio codecs. Unfortunately this is another disc where you need to journey down through the track list to get to the audio options to change things, and then making things even worse, the song starts over once a choice has been made. A lot of Rhino Blu-ray discs are authored much more conveniently, with access to audio codecs available via the colored buttons on the remote, and without the song starting over (though there are frequently brief handshake pauses). As can be seen in the screenshots, navigating from track to track changes the colors of the track title from yellow to blue.

Billy Cobham: Spectrum Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Billy Cobham: Spectrum features DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks. I'd frankly stick with the quadraphonic track the whole way through, though some may like the added spaciousness of the 5.1 track. I personally found the sound much more vibrant and less dispersed in the quad track than in what I feel is a slightly anemic sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. This is a rather interesting quad mix that really emphasizes the left rear channel, beginning with the crazy guitar antics of "Quadrant 4", but really noticeably utilized in a lot of the tunes. A lot of the instrumentation is rather interestingly placed in the rear channels throughout the album, with Billy's drums focused in the front channels, though there are some fun ping ponging effects for percussion instruments that can, for example, offer a kick drum in a rear channel with a tom in a front channel. Occasional effects, like the gonzo synth musings at the beginning of "Snoopy's Search" are placed in the front channels, but this is a curiously directional outing that has a lot of material behind the listener.

Billy Cobham: Spectrum Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with every Quadio release I've reviewed, there is no on disc supplemental material. The insert booklet recreates the original album's cover information, while offering the Quadio standbys of a picture of the boxes holding the master tapes, as well as Rhino's typical verbiage on setup.

Billy Cobham: Spectrum Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm a huge fan of Mahavishnu Orchestra and in fact grew up in Salt Lake City in the rather large shadow of keyboardist Stu Goldberg, whom some may remember from both Mahavishnu and Shakti. I frankly never quite warmed to Cobham's solo material that much, but this is an immersive listening experience and tunes like "Le Lis" offer some nice proto-fusion material with strong melodic and harmonic hooks. With caveats about material and Rhino's authoring choices noted, Recommended.