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Anything but lazy

Machine Head 2024 remix flyer

Sound & Vision magazine (of an audiophilious inclination) has an interview with Dweezil Zappa on remixing Machine Head in Atmos surround.

Zappa’s Atmos mix of Machine Head—which has quite specifically and very deliberately been dubbed a “remix”—will most definitely challenge the ears of any Deep Purple fan, new or old, who knows the core album inside and out. As I noted in my review of the Machine Head box set (which will post here on S&V on June 7), the Atmos version of “Highway Star” is a balls-out ferocious assault wherein you can better discern the layers in Ian Gillan’s stacked lead vocal tracks, and then get blown over by the clockwise swoosh of the keys-and-guitar-solo section. You’ll also be riveted by the height-channel ascension of Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar solo during the forever-iconic “Smoke on the Water” and the full 360-degree dimensionality of Jon Lord’s literal keyboard clinic on “Lazy.”

Of course, there will be those listeners who don’t want to hear something quite so adventurous—and, hey, no one is stopping them from listening to the original version of Machine Head, if they so choose. But, just like Zappa, I prefer to be challenged as a listener whenever I enter the immersive arena in my listening room. “When you listen to the Atmos version in speakers, you really get to feel the immersive quality, versus what happens just in headphones,” Zappa clarifies. “One of the challenges in this format overall is you have compromises that have to be made when you encounter translation things that happen in headphones versus speakers. I think some people opt to let the headphones be the winner, but I feel like that’s not the way to go. I feel like the speakers should be the winner because, eventually, there are going to be more places where you’ll actually hear it in a speaker environment—and cars are probably going to be the main play.” (Let’s go space truckin,’ indeed. . .)

Read the first part of the interview in Sound & Vision. The second part is due some time later in June.



2 Comments to “Anything but lazy”:

  1. 1
    Gregster says:

    Yo,

    Dweezil states qt.“ I think some people opt to let the headphones be the winner, but I feel like that’s not the way to go. I feel like the speakers should be the winner because, eventually, there are going to be more places where you’ll actually hear it in a speaker environment—and cars are probably going to be the main play.”

    So be it ! We have a data-point for discussion if needed lol !

    Peace !

  2. 2
    Uwe Hornung says:

    The Dweezil mix sounds orgasmic played on my Volvo V90 Bowers & Wilkins posh sound system. It sounds like Machine Head in 3D.

    I never listen to music via headphones or earbuds, I prefer room or car compartment ambience. I never listen to music via my iPhone or computer except for a casual listening in. If I like what I hear, I then want to hear it on a real stereo without headphones or earbuds.

    Dweezil was damn right with his preference.

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