- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080i/50
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), LPCM 2.0 Stereo (48kHz/24-bit), Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: N/A
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Certification: N/A
- Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD)
- Studio: Waste/Sandbag
- Run Time: 60 Mins.
- Blu-ray Release Date: December 19, 2011 (Digital Download and DVD)/January 2012 (Blu-ray)
- RRP: £20.00
[amazon-product]B006IOJL3O[/amazon-product]
[amazon-product region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B006IOJL3O[/amazon-product]
Available for purchase directly from the Radiohead website
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.co.uk
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Performance
[Rating:5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Performance
[Rating:5/5]
I’ve had the King of Limbs on CD and on my iPod for nearly a year now and, after giving it a go several times, it just never seemed to click with me. I am now a convert. Full disclosure before I go any further – I have been a Radiohead fan from the very beginning, when they were lighting up the airwaves with their hit single “Creep.” I’ve watched them grow from a somewhat melodic alternative brit pop band circa The Bends to the nihilistic, Pink Floyd-inspired, post-apocalyptic paranoid geniuses of O.K. Computer and right on through the experimental years of Kid A, Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief, and back again with In Rainbows. That last album, in fact, being the first time that I recall, at least, the band actually performed on From the Basement, the British podcast turned television series from Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich that places bands in a studio to perform live without a host or audience.
On King of Limbs – Live From the Basement, Radiohead perform their album The King of Limbs in its entirety plus two additional, previously unreleased tracks, “The Daily Mail” and “Staircase.” Not only do they prove that they can pull off recreating the odd soundscapes and structures of this ambient, experimental album in a live setting, but they breathe new life into these songs like never before, elevating them to a whole new level of genius. From the primal opening rhythms of “Bloom” that transition into the plaintive piano ballad “The Daily Mail” in which Thom Yorke croons “we’ll feed you to the hounds/to the daily mail,where’s the truth what’s the use…” the performance is majestic and magnetic. Filled with the usual stylistic shifts and surreal lyrical references of isolation, broken love, and political discord, the songs evoke the many influences the band, and Yorke especially, always claim or conjure up, like Miles Davis, U2, Kraftwerk, and Leonard Cohen.
Yorke’s vocals sound as good as they ever have, showing a definite growth and maturity, while the musicianship is spot on straight through. This is an instant classic in the band’s already illustrious career.
Track Listing:
- Bloom
- The Daily Mail
- Feral
- Little by Little
- Codex
- Separator
- Lotus Flower
- Staircase
- Morning Mr. Magpie
- Give Up the Ghost
Bonus Track:
- Supercollider
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
The first thing that should be mentioned about this Blu-ray release is that, even though it is region-free (ABC), it is encoded at 1080i/50, meaning you either need to be in a Region B area to play it natively or need a region-free player capable of converting this frame rate.
With that being said, The King of Limbs – Live From the Basement does not look spectacular on Blu-ray, owing mainly to its low light photography, which yields a high amount of video noise and a soft appearance. Still, this somehow works to the advantage of this in-studio performance and grants it a more intimate, claustrophobic feel. I did notice some slight aliasing, but that could very well be my Oppo BDP-93 causing some minor conversion errors.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Two reference quality audio mixes are offered in the form of a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) mix a LPCM 2.0 Stereo (48kHz/24-bit) mix. There is also a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on offer. Since this “live” performance was captured in a deadened, anechoic studio, don’t expect a big ambient sound, or even the sort of sound you might hear in a small club. This sound is up-close, dry, and intimate. It is very well defined and separated. The PCM 2.0 mix has the definite advantage, I must say, for being better balanced and having a wider dynamic range and far less pushed toward loudness. In contrast, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, while still good, is far louder, forcing me to turn my system down a good 8 db or so. It also overemphasizes the low frequencies a bit, which bass lovers will love and, for the sort of music that is on The King of Limbs, rather works. It does, however, tend to drown out some of the nuances of the performance that can be made out in the 2.0 mix, like a bleep here or a small echo there.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
A “bonus” performance of “Supercollider” has been tacked on as the only extra.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4/5]
A magnificent performance that turns what was an otherwise average Radiohead album into one of their greatest, simply by adding an influx of energy, life, and superb skill. The King of Limbs – Live From the Basement not only shows off the power of the band as a live entity, but also the quality of the songs beneath all sonic maneuvering. Highly recommended.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B006IOJL3O[/amazon-product]
[amazon-product region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B006IOJL3O[/amazon-product]
Available for purchase directly from the Radiohead website
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.co.uk
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Performance
[Rating:5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
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