Cat Stevens-Majikat: Earth Tour 1976 (1976)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Interviews-Cast-Parts 1, 2 And 3 Featurette-Archive Material - 6 Songs Discography Lyrics Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1976
Running Time	78:43 (Case: 135)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Cat Stevens
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

    I have to confess that I used to be a devoted listener to AM radio (4BH to be precise). Sad, I know, but I got to learn a few classic songs belonging to that massive genre of easy listening, including several gems from Cat Stevens, the artist currently known as Yusuf Islam. Wild World, Moonshadow, Peace Train, Lady D'arbanville and that bizarre tribute to a "special" fruit, Banapple Gas, all manage to get themselves playing in my head at random moments. I guess I'm a closet Cat Stevens fan, and since I don't own a single one of his albums (horror!), reviewing his concert film Majikat seemed a good way to fill a gap in my collection. I'd have to say this is one of the most enjoyable concerts I've seen.

    Filmed in 1976, not long before Stevens' rejection of the pop world and conversion to Islam, the concert featured magicians (they don't do much in the film though) and Cat Stevens playing both solo acoustic and with a full backing band. Everyone on stage and especially the audience seem to have a lot of fun. Stevens always appears to enjoy performing, even though in the interview included on the disc he suggests that he was becoming quite disillusioned with it all at around the same time, and jokes happily with the audience (although his jokes often fall flat). All of his classic songs are here (although his encore performance of Wild World is relegated to the special features) along with a few I didn't recognise. Some of these songs are fairly unmemorable but Cat Stevens adds a spark to the entire proceedings, so that even the 'dull' songs are a pleasure to listen to and had my feet tapping.

    Fans won't be disappointed and even casual fans (like me) will definitely enjoy this disc. Everyone knows (and I'm willing to bet likes) at least one Cat Stevens song and the enjoyment obvious in Stevens' performance is infectious enough to make an evening watching Majikat an evening well spent.

Video

    The video transfer for Majikat is very good, but suffers from several issues. I couldn't find any information on the film's original aspect ratio but am fairly positive it would be around 1:33.1. The disc presents the film in (what appears to be) its correct full frame ratio. It is not 16x9 enhanced. Sharpness and shadow detail are generally very good, but there is a lot of low level noise. Crowd footage is very grainy compared to on-stage action. Colours are generally handled well, with natural skin tones, although reds and pinks seem to be a little oversaturated at times. Colour bleeding is very regular, particularly in reds. Stevens' chair and the concert's background are both very red and this issue becomes very irritating.

    Pixelization is a regular problem. Blue lighting seems particularly plagued by this artefact. The colour bleed issue causes lines against red to pixelate heavily, resulting in very "jagged" lines. Posterization effects faces as well, although not heavily. Film artefacts, consisting of scratches, specks of dirt and the occasional hair, are regular but never distracting.

    Majikat includes subtitles in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and English. Subtitles only translate the opening credit sequence. The English subtitles don't appear to do anything at all.

    This is an RSDL transfer. The layer change occurs in between chapters 19 and 20 as Cat Stevens looks up to speak at 68:17. The change was very disruptive on my review player, although I didn't notice the change on my Teac.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Majikat gets a very good audio transfer, with only minor issues. The disc includes three soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s, surround encoded), Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), and DTS 5.1 (768Kb/s). The 2.0 track is the default. I listened to the DTS track, sampling most of the Dolby 5.1 track and segments of the 2.0 track. The DTS is far and away the best track, with excellent detail and much more depth in the bass end. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is also very good but not quite as expansive or dynamic as the DTS (which is to be expected). The 2.0 track sounds very thin compared to the other two and is included to match the original sound recording. Stick with the DTS if your system supports it.

    Cat Stevens' voice is directed to the centre speaker in all tracks and comes through beautifully, despite the fact that he just can't keep his head still. Back up vocals are also nicely done and spread across the front sound stage. Audio sync seems to be very slightly off on occasion, but is mostly spot on.

    The surround remix has been handled quite nicely. The music spreads well across a very stable front stage with excellent separation. Crowd noise and echo fill the surrounds and sound very natural (surround activity is much more limited on the 2.0 track). Percussion and vocal echo in particular give you the feeling of really being there. My only concern is that there is perhaps just a little too much separation between the fronts and the surrounds: it's almost like listening to two soundtracks, one in front and one behind, that don't quite come together. It doesn't sound horrible at all and I stopped noticing very quickly. The audio is otherwise very immersive.

    The subwoofer is given plenty to do on just about every track, but is never overemphasised and is very clean.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is animated, including footage and audio (Dolby Digital 2.0) from the concert. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

Featurette - Talking with Yusuf

    This is an excellent feature. Yusuf Islam relates his early influences, his rise to fame as Cat Stevens, his disillusionment with the music world, and his conversion to Islam. Yusuf is very candid about why he made the choices he did, but still maintains a very happy connection with his past life. At 35 mins it is divided into three segments that can be viewed individually or as a whole.

Archive Material

    This includes four live performances and two promotional videos.

    Cat Stevens' encore from the Majikat concert, Wild World, is presented, though in significantly worse condition than the main feature. There is no detail at all, plenty of scratches and even microphony. It is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0.

    Live performances of If I Laugh, Maybe You're Right, and Tuesday's Dead are presented with all the usual problems accompanying BBC video footage from the 1970s.

    The best feature is the promotional video for Moonshadow. Based on Stevens' album art for Teaser and the Firecat, the clip is a short animated story about Teaser and Firecat's attempts to put the moon back in the sky. Narrated by Spike Milligan, this is a fantastic little film. The video quality is generally very good, with a little visible grain. There's even some nice use of surround sound here and there. Highly recommended.

    Also included is the promotional video for Father and Son. The video quality is not fantastic, with plenty of scratches, but the audio is fine.

Discography

    Album titles and cover art

Lyrics

    Lyrics for all the songs included in the concert. It might have been nice to have a subtitle stream for the lyrics but this will do

    Eagle Rock has released Majikat in Region 1 and Region 2 with identical specifications and features. No need to favour any particular region.

    Majikat is a fantastic concert film.

    The video is generally good with a couple of serious problems.

    The audio quality is outstanding, especially the DTS track.

    The package is rounded out by several excellent special features.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall