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Saturday Deluxe / 4 February 2023

Peter Gabriel + SDE Surround Series news

By Paul Sinclair

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78

SO… things are looking UP as Peter Gabriel treats US to some great audio

Not only am I really enjoying Peter Gabriel’s new song ‘Panopticom’, but I’m loving his engagement with his fans and, in particular, his generosity and interest around alternate versions of his new music.

For example, as some of you might be aware, PG has released two mixes of ‘Panopticom’ already, the standard Bright-Side Mix and an alternate Dark-Side Mix. The man himself explains:

“I’m lucky to have two of the world’s best mix engineers; Tchad Blake and Mark ‘Spike’ Stent, working with me on the music from i/o. Rather than choosing only one of their mixes to release I have decided that people should be able to hear all the great work that they are both doing. 

I intend to ask them to mix each month’s song, with Spike’s mixes being called the Bright-Side and Tchad’s the Dark-Side. Whether you hear the Bright-Side or the Dark-Side first will vary each full moon, depending on the order we decide to release them”. 

Tchad Blake’s Dark-Side Mix of ‘Panopticom’

Of course, we don’t know which version Gabriel considers definitive and therefore which variant will end up on the forthcoming i/o album. Perhaps we’ll get a 2CD set with ‘Bright-Side’ and ‘Dark-Side’ versions of the entire album. Who knows?

SDE readers will be pleased to hear Peter has embraced spatial audio and a week ago issued what he is calling the In-Side Mix of ‘Panopticom’. This is a Dolby Atmos version, created by Hans-Martin Buff. Hans said some interesting things about the process:

“3D music, as presented in Dolby Atmos, is SO much more than moving sounds all over the place. It’s not just a new way of mixing, it’s a way of making music that’s bigger and more rewarding than anything that came before. Peter gets it. To him, stereo and 3D versions don’t have to match, they just “both have to be great.” and to me, that is a creative dream come true.I get to bring anything to the table I can possibly imagine in order to fill Real World Studios’ Red Room with music. I get to streamline, I get to focus, I get to embellish, and I get to rough up the sounds that make up Peter’s arrangements. I get to emphasise, to hide, and I even get to record specifically for the immersive Peter Gabriel, and in the end, Peter will be in the room to be the judge of what’s best for his new songs. “When people want to know what great Atmos can be, I want them to listen to this,” he says. I think we’re well on our way.“

The good news is that “all the tracks from i/o will get the In-Side treatment” so we can look forward to more Atmos Mixes of Gabriel’s new music. At the moment, the only way you can listen to these Atmos Mixes is via Apple Music and because there’s no stereo version of this unique In-Side Mix, PG’s team have linked it to the Dark-Side Mix, so that’s where to look if you want to hear this spatial audio version on the streaming service.

Finally, I’d recommend you check out Peter Gabriel’s Bandcamp page. He’s making all this music available (except the Atmos Mixes) and subscribers are also given exclusive audio. For example, the other day he offered up the “Original Band Tracking Sessions 24/9/21” version of ‘Panopticom’! Nice.

In a world where pre-release campaigns tend to consists of the familiar lyric videos, ‘instant grats’ and no physical product, I’m loving this approach from Peter Gabriel. Short of issuing CD singles and vinyl 12-inches, this is about as good as it is going to get in the modern era. I suppose a you could argue we’ve had Bright-Side, Dark-Side and In-Side versions of ‘Panopticom’, so how about a B-Side?

Update 5/2/23: A Dark-Side Mix of the next song ‘The Court’ has just been made available. Listen to it below.

The blu-ray and slipcase for the SDE-Exclusive Blu-ray Audio of Orbital’s Optical Delusion (click to enlarge)

SDE Surround Series update

#6 – Orbital

The slipcases for the Blu-ray Audio of Orbital’s Optical Delusion arrived yesterday. They look great. All stock is now in hand and we will probably start international shipping around Friday 10 February in an attempt to get the product to our friends abroad as near to the release date (17 February) as possible. If you are not aware, there was recently a major issue with Royal Mail’s international delivery service where they were subjected to a ‘ransomware’ cyber attack. Royal Mail effectively halted all international shipping for a while but things are now up and running again although there are backlogs and delays.

#6.5 – Concert For George

Orbital is #6 in the ongoing series and has sold out. The product has now been taken down from the SDE shop. Unfortunately, I have to tell you that #6.5 – which is Concert For George – is going to be delayed for a few weeks. The authoring and testing of the disc (which is happening in the US) has taken longer than normal. There’s an outside chance you might get #7 (Ten Years After) before #6.5, but we’ll be emailing everyone with an update soon. Apologies.

#7 – Ten Years After

Talking of Ten Years After, there’s now a button on the SDE shop product listing which reads ‘Notify Me If You Get Some More’. If you click that button, you can add yourself to the waiting list. If we get cancellations (we always do) or some contingency stock becomes available you will be emailed to say that there is new availability. Bear in mind that the way the system works is that everyone on the waiting list gets emailed at the same time, so it’s a case of ‘first come first served’. These buttons will be on other products going forward and it saves you emailing us having to ask about availability.

What’s next?

All being well, #8 in the SDE Surround Series will be announced next week! Thanks for your continued support and enthusiasm for this initiative.

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78 Comments

78 thoughts on “Saturday Deluxe / 4 February 2023”

  2. At first I really wasn’t a fan of ‘Panopticom’ or this staggered release approach, however since jumping on the “bandcamp wagon” I’m actually really enjoying Gabriel’s regular updates, video insights and alt mixes of the tracks and do now much prefer the punchier ‘Dark-Side Mix’ of Panopticom. Still digesting ‘The Court’ but will wait to hear how the ‘Light-Side’ sounds first…

  3. Love “The Court” PLEASE vote for Kate Bush to be inducted at the Rock ‘n roll Hall of Fame, “don’t give up” as Peter Gabriel will be the obvious person to Induct her !

  4. Love hearing how PG is appreciating surround mixes as their own thing. We already have the stereo mixes; have some fun with the mixes. Goosebumps thinking about his catalogue being reimagined in Atmos. Also, these two new songs are very welcome. Listening to “The Court” I can’t help but hear a little of the spiritual connection between PG and Bon Iver. fun stuff!!

  5. Love this song. Bright Side Mix made my 2022 Top 20 + 4 favourite songs. Paul: hope his next album can be released on your very special SDE Surround Series. Also, any chance or interest in releasing Bananarama’s Masquerade with the bonus tracks as No. 8 or 9?

  6. I’d be hoping for a three disc version. The regular album mix – I wouldn’t be surprised if a mixture of both bright-side and dark-side, or other unknown mixes, are used on the album. Plus a disc each of the bright and dark mixes. Of course this and atmos mixes can also be sold on one blu-ray disc.

    It’d be a massive blow to physical product if Peter Gabriel limits the spatial mixes to streaming only. Major artists need to stick up for the physical consumer, and not join the exclusive streaming only gravy train.

    I’m really enjoying hearing Panopticom on radio 2. It’s like the good old days when you get to know and love a song over an extended period of weeks, which whetted the appetite for the album….which at least is on the horizon, however distant that might be. It’s like waiting for a comet to arrive after decades away. Twenty years ago when Up was released, I had a eighteen month old son, who now has a degree and is in his first full year of work.

  7. “I’m loving his engagement with his fans”, with the proviso, ‘as long as they’re willing to pay through the nose for it’. I’ve wanted to see PG for nearly 30 years, that won’t be happening now. Ever. £100 plus tickets for row Z? Yeah, ”man of the people pete is really sticking it to the ‘man” there eh? There is no excuse either. I saw both Tool and Roxy Music last year, same venue, tickets for the same areas were, respectively, 40% and 50% less. With Roxy you could argue, ‘less fancy stage show’, you can’t with Tool. He can whistle for my cash from now on. Although I’m sure his army of wealthy (they must be at those prices!) fans will more than offset my drop in the ocean.

    2. Monopolist TicketMaster will never be satisfied in ripping you off as much as they can get away with, it has next to nothing to do with Peter, who is great with fans in person.

  8. Slightly off-topic but if PG wants to get more mass press for his lp(and tour)he ought to convince Kate Bush to make an appearance at his UK shows.I am not sure if they have ever performed Don’t Give Up on a live stage before.This would be an event to give his new Tour/lp a bit of a marketing bang!

    1. They have. In London she made a surprise appearance one night in 87, I guess. Possibly 86. There is a bootleg recording. The moment the crowd realises its her, they go absolutely bonkers and drown her out for much of the first chorus. Really heart-warming. And the rest that you can hear is just brilliant.

        2. Holy Wow. You lucky soul. I’m sure many a concert goer to see PG has held their breath and thought “Maybe tonight?” I know I did in 2013. No such luck, but then we got Before The Dawn straight after so fair enough. But a “live duet”. Goosebumps. What a great memory.

  9. Personally, I feel this release schedule thing is a bit of a mess. It’s like being drip fed a deluxe edition in reverse. Inside, outside, Dark, Light…

    I’d prefer a finished product THEN a bunch of alternatives as to how it could be or how it led up to the finished product [TFF Seeds Of Love being a great example]

    Don’t get me wrong, the tunes so far a brilliant but The Court [Dark Side] feels like it is taken out of context of something bigger.

    Imagine Kate Bush releasing the demo’s and alternate versions of “The Ninth Wave” before the finished masterpiece.

    Full marks for trying somethiung different I guess but it’s a turn off for me.

    1. Given your stated preferences there’s nothing to stop you waiting for the final product, then catching up on these mixes. No-one is forcing you to listen to these tracks. You choose to listen to them, then complain that you’ve listened to them before the full album release, as if this somehow wasn’t your own choice ! Bizarre.

      1. yes…but…… why not just release the album?

        We have had 20+ years of drought of a new-material-PG-album…. and we are being drip fed these remixes………. surely the album will contain peter’s “definitive” versions and these light/dark mixes are just extra fluff ?

        Please, PG, give us the album on pink and yellow vinyl, black vinyl, dark cd, light cd, big blue blu-ray, octagonal book and ….. shake a tree for me and my teddy bear i am trying to lead a normal life in the humdrum.

        when are we getting this album?

        I am waiting for the big one.

        start.

        2. Isn’t this really just more like what we used to have with albums “back in the day”–singles releases teasing the content of the album before the album itself came out? It feels like we’ve turned into a culture that expects everything to be available on demand. No wonder no one has any patience anymore.

          1. Exactly, if people are so upset over previews/singles don’t listen to them and just wait for the album proper. I wish more artists would follow suite then we’d all have a better idea of whether an album’s worth a punt or not…

      2. I never complained I was being forced to listen, it’s just a cockeyed way of doing it for an artist used to releasing albums as a complete work of art. And yes, I will wait for the full release before going through the plethora of mixes to come.

  10. I love this track and feel the vocals especially are very atmospheric. Will be great on headphones. It is a unique marketing campaign yes but I share the view that I just want the album released now. A couple of advance releases are fine by me to give us a flavour of what’s coming but I’m hoping we don’t have to see too many more full moons before we have a full album release to enjoy!!

  11. ” If you are not aware, there was recently a major issue with Royal Mail’s international delivery service where they were subjected to a ‘ransomware’ cyber attack.”

    And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything. In my opinion it was nothing more than a convenient excuse so that the RM could catch up on deliveries missed due to them striking before Christmas, thus ruining a lot of folks’ Yuletide celebrations when gifts failed to turn up on time.

    Also gets people used to the cyber attack narrative that will be getting used on us all in the future.

    1. Sigh. “In my opinion”… based on what, exactly? See also: The Moon Landing was faked and 9/11 was orchestrated by the US government.

    3. Like so many other baseless beliefs, this kind of “thinking” is merely contributing to a general cynicism about Western societies’ functionality and transparency.
      Please, just stop. This road will end in disaster.

  13. A wonderful campaign prior to the album dropping from the PG camp. If only other artists/marketing teams would take note. DM’s ridiculous countdown to a countdown springs to mind…

    1. I think it’s a terrible campaign. We have waited 20 years (TWENTY YEARS!!) for an album, just release the thing already instead of this dribs and drabs stuff. I suspect that even now he hasn’t finished it and is using this process to allow yet more tinkering

        1. I disagree. Fine to release a single or two in advance and that has nearly always been the norm, but the whole album a track a month if I understand correctly! and maybe he should make a decision which mix he wants to go with after working on this for so long

          1. It’s not “the norm” to offer different mixes of singles, early versions and Atmos Mixes before an album is released. And we don’t know when the album is coming out. It might be released in June for all we know, so we won’t have to wait a year.

          3. Yeah, we’ll see……. we are probably gonna get a live mix of all the album songs too AFTER the tour….and then we will get a light/dark/live/studio album release in december 2023 !!!!

        1. You make it sound like PG hasn’t released or done anything in the 20 year gap.
          Now if you were talking The Sisters Of Mercy I’d totally agree…

      3. Yeah, like that really annoying process that used to always happen when multiple singles were released ‘in dribs and drabs’ before the full album was released. Yawn

  16. Peter Gabriel is mostly impressive with audio techniques and recording.
    I’m amazed Gabriel allows his work to be horrendously reproduced on vinyl – and dont start me with the 5.1 Play DVD. Loving the moon phase shenanigans

    1. ‘Horrendously reproduced on vinyl’??

      Not sure what you mean by that.
      I have all his studio albums on vinyl and play them on a fairly expensive system. They all sound fantastic to me, and the pressings I have (especially the original pressings) sound immaculate.

  17. Has Peter Gabriel said at any point that this WILL be a physical release?
    PG has done a decent RSD release in the past, I’m really hoping there will be something from this album announced this month for RSD.

  19. I would love to see each mixes on separate CDs plus a BR as part of the package [or separate] with both sets of mixes [and maybe some extras!].

  20. I hope there is a 2CD deluxe with ‘Bright Side’ and ‘Dark Side’ mixes included too. Love PG and so happy that he’s back with great new music.

    1. I’d be astounded if this doesn’t happen. Though I’m cynically wondering if there won’t be two individual releases (for that double dip money).

  21. Just subscribed to his club at Bandcamp; thanks for making me aware of this. Also, Every time I come here to leave a comment I have to sign in, even though I always check the “remember me” box. Anyone know why this is?

    1. Drives me bonkers as well. Ha!

      I don’t know much about coding websites but I think “remember me” and “keep me signed in” are two different functions.

  23. I read that and immediately thought wow what a score for SDE Peter Gabriel on Atmos!!, I then thought those eBay scalpers would have a field day selling that!!. But I’m guessing if it ever came to pass it wouldn’t be limited!!. Never say never Paul could possibly pull out the scoop of the year!.

      1. I honestly didn’t think about that subheading at all but I can see how it may have got people excited. To be fair, I wouldn’t be announcing such an exciting collaboration in a Saturday Deluxe :)

  24. And just as I’m reading this, I get an email from Peter Gabriel’s team saying that the next track, The Court, will be released tomorrow morning (Sunday 5th Feb.) A Dark Side mix….

  25. Yesterday, the 50th anniversary edition of one of my favourite albums of all times, Raw Power, was announced. But before you get too excited, it’s a streaming-only release, with bonus tracks that were already released on physical format. Next friday, an Immersive Dolby Atmos Mix of the whole album will also be available on streaming services. I thought that this kind of audio treatment would work for bands like Steely Dan or The Doobie Brothers, but not for crude punk music like The Stooges. But I’m definitely intrigued. I think we have to get used to the streaming-only trick. It might be the future.

    1. Does this reissue use the original David Bowie mix, or the Iggy Pop remix? I prefer the latter, but I have to reduce the volume by 50% or so, thanks to Iggy’s abuse of compression and limiting. It has the dynamic range of a jet engine, up close, at full throttle.

      I was hoping the 2010 reissue would have used a new remix, somewhere between Bowie and Iggy. Alas, they stuck with Bowie, and still sounds very weak for such a raw rock n’ roll album.

      2. This is what’s included:
        -The Bowie Mix
        -The Iggy Mix
        -Live at Richards, Atlanta, GA, October 1973
        -Outtakes, alternate mixes and rehearsal performances

        1. OK thanks. I should have bought the 2012 Record Store Day vinyl reissue of both mixes, which I only read about today. Supposedly, the mastering is not quite as insane as the CD versions, which makes sense for vinyl (though the mixes retain the same faults). Would like to get a digital rip from the vinyl records.

  26. Really enjoying the way Gabriel is releasing all these different versions of the signal(which sounds brilliant!) Really looking forward to hearing the album in in spatial audio! And George Harrison will be well worth the wait!

  27. Just a heads up, I went to the post office yesterday and they’re still not accepting international parcels. That’s FOUR WEEKS after the mysterious ‘cyber incident’. I can only assume someone at the post office tech dept are winding their systems with a wheel as I type ‍♂️

    2. Hahaha, me too! I saw the headline and had already frantically scrolled down two thirds of the page in order to find the order Button, before I realised that something was off

        1. Each of those had a letter in common with the previous one too.

          Also curious that i/o has been the title since shortly after Up. I wonder how many of the songs are actually from that era? The scope of this dwarfs even the Tears for Fears Tipping Point saga…

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