Impressions of Tomita "The Planets 2003" . . .

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I’ve just spent a couple of days playing Tomita’s "The Planets 2003" on DVD-A -- Denon/Columbia (recently ordered from www.amazon.co.jp). And my impressions? In a word: ‘retro’. In fact, just what I wanted. Granted, the manner in which some sonic events are shifted around in 3-D so that you can almost imagine aliens orbiting around you before they fade smoothly into infinity, may not be to everybody’s taste, particularly if you are looking for a note-perfect (albeit synthesized) rendition of the Holst’s Planets. Nope. This is Tomita’s baby, not Gustav’s Holst’s. But I certainly did enjoy the arrangement, for what it was.
Now to sound quality. The first thing which strikes you is the astounding clarity and detail of the high-frequency content in particular. I defy any LP, 44.1kHz CD, or even SACD title to come close. Those formats just wouldn’t be able to handle the frequency extremes and rich harmonic HF content of the Moog synthesiser’s analog oscillators and pulse & ring modulators at full-throttle. If you want to know what I mean about hi-rez high-frequencies sampled at 96kHz 24bit, just listen to the start of track 3 — "Mercury, The Winged Messenger". The transient precision and sheer "zing" gives me goose-pimples and makes my hair stand-up (just joking, but you get what I mean).
Although I enjoy most music (and I am classically trained on the trumpet as well as being a chorister), I also grew-up listening to synthetic sounds as exemplified by the likes of Jean-Michel-Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Vangelis, Ultravox, Visage, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, ELO, Human League, etc. etc. (and of course Tomita), so I’m fully at home with the very "retro" — or as some would describe: "schlocky" — sound.
I do get a buzz from the accurate reproduction of real analog synthesizers, and thankfully, this is just what Tomita delivers for the first time on DVD-A. Synthesizers (along with maybe church organ sounds) can push a music format and the playback equipment to the extreme limits of its frequency response and dynamic range envelopes, in sharp contrast to the more relaxed sonics of classical or jazz "live" music. (Tubes & vinyl-lovers should look elsewhere!)
In short, I would almost go so far as to say that this disc is the best "reference" for sound quality. However, I have just one little niggle — for some reason I can hear very faint little "ticks" which really shouldn’t be there on some tracks (can anyone else hear them?). I’ve deduced that they cannot be anything directly to do with the LPCM/MLP encoding, since I can also hear them (but only just) on the Dolby Digital track. But most people with average tweeters (and ears) probably wouldn’t notice them at all. In any case, their auditory brain cells will be far too busy assimilating the onslaught of all those three-dimensional sonic ‘bells & whistles’.

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Topic - Impressions of Tomita "The Planets 2003" . . . - Martin 14:33:58 04/19/03 (3)

nice review except for... - tunenut 16:52:07 04/19/03 (1)

Good old Tomita... - patrickU 07:56:22 04/20/03 (0)

Great review. nt. . - Duilawyer 16:23:42 04/19/03 (0)

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