Blur-Starshaped (1994)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Additional Footage-Live At The Princess Charlotte, Leicester Additional Footage-Live At The Kilburn Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	60:28
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Matthew Longfellow
Studio Distributor	Head Film EMI Music	Starring	Damon Albarn Graham Coxon Alex James Dave Rowntree
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Blur

    In the early 1990s there was a growing trend of bands putting out cheaply shot documentaries. The formula was simple: hire a cheap camera crew, give them a cheap video camera, get them to follow the band on the road or in the studio, mix a few songs over the footage, and wring some extra cash out of fans. The quality of the results tended to vary considerably, but they kept the merchandising money rolling in. Nowadays, these are the sort of videos that are frequently slapped on limited editions of new albums. Starshaped is Blur's foray into the fan video. Recorded sporadically on the touring circuit between 1991 and 1994, the period between Blur's first two albums Leisure and Modern Life is rubbish, it was first released on video in 1994. This edition has been remastered and is packaged with a couple of live performances as extras.

    The documentary component is shot in a fly-on-the-wall style - no interviewer or narration, just random clips of the lads put together without a great deal of narrative flow. This is the wrong place to look if you are after insight into what makes Blur the band they are or anything about the lives of the band members. Two sentences can pretty much entirely sum up the documentary component: Blur are lads. Blur are alternative.

    The music component of the feature is much better. There are good versions of some great tracks included (although the sound quality leaves something to be desired), together with some great concert footage. That said, it is important to stress that the music covered comes only from a relatively short period and does not feature any songs from after the first two Blur albums, which covers most of their biggest hits. You won't find Parklife, Song 2 or Country House on Starshaped, which is likely to make this release only appealing to serious fans.

Video

    The video is presented in its original 1.29:1 full frame PAL format (not NTSC, as the cover states).

    The colouration and sharpness of the video give away the fact that this was shot cheaply on relatively low definition video. The image is generally quite soft and the contrast varies significantly between different parts of the feature. There are sections where dirt hairs and other film artefacts are evident, but these have been digitally added for effect. There are some instances of cross colouration (e.g. at 23:38 on Graham Coxon's jumper and the car seat in front of him), but none that are significantly distracting.

    The transfer to DVD is acceptable, but not good. There are no tape drop-outs or tracking errors with the transfer itself, but dot crawl is occasionally noticeable (e.g. at 43:35 on a microphone stand). The image frequently suffers from severe macro blocking. This is not helped by the fact that much of the footage was shot in relatively soft focus and at low resolution. Every scene contains at least one object that is pixelated, from window ledges to microphone stands to shoulders.

    On a positive note, the transfer is free from aliasing.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    One audio track is available, Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192Kbps.

    The audio is somewhat disappointing for a music DVD. It has been mixed at quite a high level and is not very clear. It often distorts in ways it shouldn't (I've nothing against fuzzy bass, but I have issues when there are noticeable pops in vocals) during the music sections, particularly during Pop Scene and Coping.

    The dialogue is occasionally hard to make out, particularly in parts of the documentary that are in areas with a lot of background noise. I was glad that there were accurate subtitles for some scenes.

    There is no specific surround use, but the track does have reasonable bottom end that a subwoofer can pick up.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu Animation & Audio

    An animated concert shot with a loop from She is so High

Additional Footage - Live in Kilburn

    A 56:13 minute full live concert from 1991, presented in 1.29:1 full frame PAL format, with a Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kbps) soundtrack that seems to specifically send no sound to the surround speakers (but is otherwise a very good recording). The video and audio quality are both of a high standard.

    This extra is the main reason to recommend this DVD. It is much more likely to be rewatched than the main feature.

    The concert has the following track listing:

Additional Footage - Live at the Princess Charlotte

    A 15 minute excerpt from a small club show recorded in late 1990, shortly after Blur were first signed, by a fan in the second row. Very fuzzy, but surprisingly well restored for old camcorder footage. An interesting curiosity, but not one that bears watching more than once.

    Region 1 and Region 2 are both identical to Region 4.

    For my money, Blur are a band that got better with every album throughout the 1990s. The material on Starshaped is good, but far from the best the band have put out and the documentary side of things will bore all but the biggest fans of the band. The video is decent quality, but the audio of the feature largely disappoints (although the concert audio is decent). Casual Blur fans will probably be disappointed with this release, but it will appeal to long-time fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall