Donald Fagen-Kamakiriad (DVD-Audio) (1993) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Music Video-Tomorrow's Girls Music Video-Snowbound Featurette-Behind The Scenes Gallery-Photo Song Lyrics Web Links Credits DVD-ROM Extras-Web links
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	50:28 (Case: 52)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Walter Becker
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Donald Fagen
Case	?
RPI	$32.95	Music	Donald Fagen

    Donald Fagen is best known as one half of the duo behind Steely Dan. In 1982, they broke up and he released the highly successful and critically acclaimed The Nightfly. He then almost disappeared into the underground and did not resurface for more than ten years until this album - Kamakiriad - his second and so far last solo album. Since then Donald has rejoined with his partner Walter Becker and reformed Steely Dan.

    Kamakiriad is a concept album, and confirms Donald Fagen as the intellectual of pop. The lyrics can be a bit hard to fathom, but the songs are ostensibly about someone who has purchased a new car and the adventures he encounters on a long road trip. The setting is the future, so the songs have a vaguely science fiction feel to them.

    Despite this being a "solo" album, it features significant contribution from Walter as a producer and also bass/solo guitarist, so it can almost be considered a pseudo Steely Dan record.

    Many of the songs here have more than a passing reference to jazz, and comes across as kind of upbeat funky with an infectious beat, lyrical choruses and catchy lyrics. However, I didn't exactly find it my cup of tea, although fans will no doubt be overjoyed to see this album remixed and remastered for high resolution stereo and surround. My favourite track is Snowbound, because it reminds me of classic Steely Dan, and perhaps not by coincidence it was written by the pair in the eighties.

Video

    Like most of the Warner DVD-Audio discs released to date, the video content on this disc is in full frame NTSC. Each song is accompanied by lyrics and a link to a photo gallery.

    This is a single sided dual layered disc. All the DVD-Video content is contained on Layer 1, so I was unable to determine where the layer transition is.

Audio

    There are two DVD-Audio tracks on this DVD;

• English MLP 96/24 5.1, and
• English MLP 96/24 2.0

    This is a disc authored to the newer DVD Audio 1.1 specifications, so you can switch between the two tracks "on the fly" using the Audio button on your player (as opposed to fiddling with Groups). The MLP 5.1 track is not encoded with down-mix coefficients.

    The DVD-Video content consists of the following tracks:

• English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) (Title 1)
• English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s) (Title 2)
• English dts 5.1 (1536Kb/s) (Title 3)

    Both the MLP 5.1 and MLP 2.0 tracks sound wonderful, as you would expect. The MLP 5.1 track in particular sounds like a discrete surround mix from the original multi-track source elements, with some instruments being directed towards the rear channels, creating a highly enveloping and immersive mix.

    The centre channel appears to be used as a filler between the front left and right channels, which carry the bulk of the music. Vocals are spread across the front three channels.

    The subwoofer appears to be only lightly used to support the low frequencies in the music.

    The MLP 2.0 track flattens the soundstage considerably, but still sounds quite good.

    Turning over to the DVD-Video section, all three tracks (Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1, as well as dts 5.1) all sound excellent. The two Dolby Digital tracks are encoded with dialog normalization set to +4dB, so sound quite loud. The dts 5.1 track also sound quite loud, just a tad more refined than the Dolby Digital tracks. They sounded good until I compared them with the MLP tracks, and then it's obvious that the vocals on the MLP tracks sounded a lot of "natural" and detailed compared to the lossy encoded tracks.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Surprisingly, there are at least twenty minutes of music videos and featurettes, instead of the usual token 5-minute featurette on this disc.

Menu

    The main menu is full frame and subtly animated. There is also an animated introduction preceding the main menu, and there are some animated menu transitions. The other menus are static.

Music Video- Tomorrow's Girls (4:48)

    This is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s). It features a UFO theme and suggests that aliens are visiting Earth disguised as pretty girls.

Music Video- Snowbound (4:56)

    This is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s). It features a futuristic metropolis containing lots of human heads on top of mechanical cars moving about the city.

Featurette-Behind The Scenes (11:03)

    This features behind the scenes footage of the production of the music videos plus interviews with:

• Donald Fagen (musician)
• Walter Becker (producer)
• Rick Moranis (actor)

    Donald explains the concept of the album, plus we get to hear Walter explaining the producing and the making of the album. This short documentary is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s).

Gallery-Photo

    This is a set of fifteen black and white pictures of Donald Fagen.

Song Lyrics

    This is a set of stills containing lyrics to the songs.

Web Links

    This is a single still highlighting the presence of an HTML file on the disc that, when accessed, points to online content.

DVD-ROM content

    This consists of a launcher program, an HTML file (weblink.html) and a Quicktime movie clip for The Nightfly.

Credits

    These are a set of eight stills providing musician, production and DVD-Audio authoring credits.

    This disc appears to be identically featured across all regions.

    Kamakiriad is the long awaited second solo album from Donald Fagen, one half of Steely Dan. It is a concept album about the adventures of a man in his new car, with science fiction overtones.

    Audio tracks include both MLP 5.1 and 2.0 in the DVD-Audio section, and Dolby Digital 5.1, 2.0 and dts 5.1 in the DVD-Video section. All tracks sound excellent.

    Extras include some music videos and a behind the scenes featurette.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall