Peter Gabriel: i/o Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

Peter Gabriel: i/o Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 10, 2024

Peter Gabriel's attention to detail in making his studio albums has been well documented in such releases as Peter Gabriel - Classic Albums: So, which may account for the fact that there have often been spans of several years between various releases. Part of the time needed with regard to i/o may be due to some "post production" issues, as evidenced by the three mixes that are offered on this release. The Blu-ray included in this package provides all three, a so-called Dark Side Mix and Bright Side Mix in stereo (LPCM 2.0), and an Atmos mix, rather cheekily called the In Side Mix. But the often visually minded Gabriel has offered those listening to the "audio" Blu-ray a bit of an art gallery accompanying his tracks, and Gabriel himself includes a bit of information about this choice in a note included in an insert booklet:

Much like with the album Us, I wanted to connect music and art on this record. Visual artists have the same sort of obsessive focus on detail that we have with our musical work. I wanted to see if the songs might open up a little more with a strong visual piece attached. This might allow the listener / viewer a different way in. I am delighted so many great artists were willing to be a part of this project and feel that we have created something unique together with i/o.

Now, if I'm being completely honest, I'm not sure exactly how much any of the "illustrations" accompanying the tracks on this album aid in offering a "way in" to Gabriel's music, especially when I'd not so jokingly suggest that the best way to experience this album is with eyes closed, so that the typically baroque arrangements can be better appreciated. Since you can toggle between audio codecs with the colored buttons on your remote, it's not strictly required to even have a monitor or display employed.

Those who follow Gabriel will know that i/o was "parsed out" in a manner of speaking, with Gabriel offering fans one release a month at the full moon, with the album's twelve tracks comprised of a year's worth of such lunar musical "celebrations". If there's an underlying emphasis on time, then, it frankly may be more subliminal than I've been able to glean, but in another way time is very much at play here, since this album seems like a summation of sorts for Gabriel, one that is built out of musical blocks he began assembling decades ago. There's also a perhaps unavoidably elegiac tone to this work, which may therefore not offer the sort of "insta hook" blandishments of previous hits like "Sledgehammer", but which undeniably reward repeated listenings with new understanding and appreciation of the often gorgeously layered arrangements.

Note: For those with a yen for vinyl and who have a relatively fat wallet, there's also this version available.

Peter Gabriel: i/o Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As alluded to above, there is minimal video content here, courtesy of an AVC encoded 1080p set of images in 1.78:1 (including the track listings, as can be seen in any of the screenshots accompanying this review). I've included all twelve images, as well as the complete track listing in screenshot 13, along with the redacted credits info offered on the disc in screenshot 14 (a longer credits list is offered in the insert booklet). I typically don't score video on these audio Blu-rays unless they have actual video content like a documentary or music video, and I follow that tradition here, but the images here are all crystal clear and sharply rendered.

Peter Gabriel: i/o Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As mentioned above, one of the "draws" of this album is that you get (to paraphrase a long ago commercial from the dawn of time) "three, three, three mixes in one". Now I'm sure some will want to parse the sometimes almost subliminal, sometimes more obvious, differences between the two stereo mixes, rather interestingly in that regard Gabriel's site has the following little tidbit about "The Bright-Side Mix, handled by Mark 'Spike' Stent, and the Dark-Side Mix, as reshaped by Tchad Blake":

"We have two of the greatest mixers in the world in Tchad and Spike and they definitely bring different characters to the songs. Tchad is very much a sculptor building a journey with sound and drama, Spike loves sound and assembling these pictures, so he's more of a painter."

Now, I would frankly tend to analogize both of the stereo mixes here to painting and the Atmos mix to sculpting, in terms of a "2D" vs. a "3D" presentational ambience, but one way or the other, while there are numerous tweaks the stereo mixes offer to all of the songs, it's the Atmos rendering that I think will attract the most interest for audio Blu-ray aficionados. There is absolutely delicious (or whatever the audio equivalent of that is) separation at hand in the surround mix from the get go, and tunes like "The Court" which utilized some whimsical percussion effects offer some really fun discrete channelization that frankly reminded me of some of the super wide imaging of early percussion based stereo records as championed by Enoch Light and the old Command label. The Atmos speakers are clearly engaged for a variety of uses ranging from kick drums to any number of accompanying rhythm instruments. As such, the sense of "overhead" activity may not be as obvious as in your everyday science fiction film spectacular with an Atmos track, but I will tell you if you position yourself in the center of an often swirling soundstage, you will definitely experience immersion of the first order. As is often the case with Gabriel's work, the low end here is especially commanding in several tunes.

Peter Gabriel: i/o Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While there are no supplements per se on the audio Blu-ray, you do get all three mixes of the album, and this package also comes with 2 CDs, one for each mix of the album. An insert booklet is also included.

Peter Gabriel: i/o Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's some really gorgeous music on i/o, though it may frankly get buried a bit under the "meta" interest afforded by three separate mixes. I would strongly suggest starting with the Atmos mix on the audio Blu-ray to get the most consistently enveloping version, and then move on to the two different stereo mixes as you see (and/or hear) fit. One way or the other, the audio Blu-ray offers superior fidelity on all three of the versions. Highly recommended.