(^72) [ April May 2019 [soundandvision.com
HEMISPHERES:
40TH ANNIVERSARY
SUPER DELUXE EDITION
RUSH
RUSH WAS on a roll. Aer the
celebrated Canadian trio had
finally broken through the FM
ether with 1976’s dystopian
statement piece 2112 , they took
the next evolutionary sonic turn
with 1977’s expansively majestic
A Farewell to Kings. The
following year, Rush rotated the
screws once again by taking
their proto-prog metal to the
headiest of limits on 1978’s
Hemispheres, their final
mind-altering statement of the
Me-So-Introspective Decade
before shedding their
muso-skins yet again with
1980’s forward-thinking
Permanent Waves.
And just like its two direct-
predecessor brethren, Hemi-
spheres has been properly feted
in a quite extensive 40th Anni-
versary Super Deluxe Edition
box set. Two CDs and three
180-gram LPs share both the
remastered original album and
10 additional of-era live tracks,
while one Blu-ray contains a
masterful 24-bit/96kHz 5.1 mix
by longtime Rush production
compatriot Richard Chycki plus
four period videoclips, the laer
quartet in stereo at 24/48. A
deep-dive essay focusing on the
album’s technical minutiae from
Grammy-winning Professor of
Music Rob Bowman is included
in a hardbound book along with
other collectibles—all ensuring
this deluxe edition is yet another
fine example of UMe knowing
exactly how to make expensive
box sets worth every penny.
For Rush completists like
yours truly, geing 10 properly
(re)mastered bonus live tracks
from two pivotal late-1970s
performances is nothing short
of an aural godsend. The
first nine cuts come from the
band’s illustrious appearance
at the Pinkpop Festival in The
Netherlands on June 4, 1979. The
various supposed soundboard-
culled bootleg options for
Pinkpop have long been just a
few notches above satisfactory,
so hearing the full breadth of the
band’s aack on “Cygnus X-1
Book II,” “Closer to the Heart,”
and “Something for Nothing” are
most welcome.
Because the Pinkpop perfor-
mance of “2112” hadn’t been fully
captured on tape by the engineer
in charge of that day’s radio
broadcast, a 19:45 version of
the song was instead harvested
from the band’s November
20, 1978 performance at the
Community Center in Tucson,
Arizona. Again, this mix is light
years ahead of what appears on
my passable, alleged sound-
board-drawn bootlegs —but,
naturally, I wouldn’t mind having
a remastered version of that
evening’s entire performance in
hand. Perhaps the Rush camp
will consider instituting an autho-
rized live-archive series akin to
Bruce Springsteen, The Grateful
Dead, and The Allman Brothers
Band, all of whom have similar
artist-veed programs in place
for upgrading and/or replacing
countless unauthorized releases
that span their extensively boot-
legged careers.
And then comes the surround
mix on Blu-ray. While Steven
Wilson did the 40th anniversary
5.1 honors for A Farewell to Kings
in 2017, Rush returned to Chycki
for Hemispheres, and the man
who’d helmed a half-dozen
Rush 5.1 mixes prior was more
than up to the challenge. “The
prime directive was to maintain
the integrity of Hemispheres’
essence, never compromising
the original focus,” Chycki told
me prior to the box set’s release.
“Recreating vintage reverbs and
ambiences so they ebb and flow
just like the original versions was
an exciting adventure.”
True to his word, Chycki
found the surround sweet-spot
where adventure and original
intent intersect. The exceed-
ingly complex, multiple-time-
signature-embedded 18-minute
title track sets the tone from the
get-go. Drummer Neil Peart’s
flanged cymbals, bassist/
vocalist Geddy Lee’s Oberheim
polyphonic synthesizer, and Alex
Lifeson’s chorused guitar lines
entangle accordingly across
the front stage before full-
channel envelopment ensues.
Peart’s first recorded use of a
gong dramatically reverberates
through the channels near the
track’s endgame, leading to Lee’s
final vocal push on the right, all
buressed with Lifeson’s regal
acoustic textures.
The all-out all-channel metallic
assault of “Circumstances” acts
as a tone break of sorts. It is
then followed by the cleverly
allegorical “The Trees,” with
volume-swelled layers —led by
Lifeson’s de classical guitar
intro and Peart’s percussive
effects, crotales, and wind
chimes—all properly delayed
into the rear channels. The
proceedings conclude with
the epic 9-minute instrumental,
“La Villa Strangiato,” a tour de
force that showcases the raw
power of Lifeson’s master-class
guitar-soloing down the middle
as supported by the rhythm
section’s jazz chops during a
key transition that finds Peart
channeling Gene Krupa and Lee
divining Weather Report.
And just like that, “La Villa
Strangiato” has officially vaulted
into my personal Top 3 Rush
5.1 song mixes —the other two
being Wilson’s take on A Farewell
to Kings’ immortality morality
play “Xanadu” and Chycki’s
own all-channel mix for the
pond-hopping Moving Pictures
travelogue, “The Camera Eye.”
With a full gap-year already
underway until the next ruby
celebration in the band’s catalog
surfaces in 2020 for Permanent
Waves, one wonders if Chycki
will once again get the nod
to bridge the 5.1 divide. In the
meantime, let us celebrate the
heady mindfield that is Hemi-
spheres. With the brainpan-filling
contents of this stellar box set,
the heart and mind are indeed
united in a single perfect 5.1
sphere. OMIKE METTLER Me
rcu
ry-
UM
e
music
Label: UMe/Mercury/Anthem/Olé
Audio Formats: 16-bit/44.1kHz PCM
Stereo (CD); 24-bit/96kHz DTS-HD Master
Audio 5.1, 24-bit/96kHz Dolby TrueHD 5.1,
24-bit/96kHz PCM Stereo (Blu-ray audio
tracks); 24-bit/48kHz Stereo (Blu-ray
videos)
Number of Tracks: 36 (14 on 2 CDs, 14 on 3
LPs, 8 on 1 Blu-ray)
Length: 4:38:21 (1:47:48 on 3 CDs, 1:47:48
on 3 LPs, 1:02:45 on 1 Blu-ray)
Producers: Rush, Terry Brown (original
recordings); Sean Magee, James Clarke
(deluxe edition mastering); Richard Chycki
(5.1 mix)
Engineers: Pat Moran, Declan O’Doherty,
Terry Brown, John Brand (original
recordings); Michelle Harrison (5.1
engineering); Andrew Walter (5.1
mastering)
CD, LP & BLU-RAY
PERFORMANCE
SOUND
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