Incubus-Morning View Sessions (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Menu Animation & Audio Music Video-WIsh You Were Here Featurette-Making Wish You Were Here Featurette-Living On Morning View (7) Featurette-At The Concert Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	54:25 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Jeb Brien
Studio Distributor	Sony Music	Starring	Brandon Boyd Jose Pasillas Mike Einziger Lance Dirk Chris Kilmore
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$29.95	Music	Incubus

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Nothing to do with spiritual vampires, of voracious sexual appetite, who visit those who slumber, Incubus are a five piece band in the genre of Californian funk-rock. Formed initially in 1991, whilst they were still at school, the four founder members, Brandon Boyd - vocalist, Dirk Lance on bass, guitarist Mike Einziger and drummer Jose Pasillas were later joined by DJ Lyfe with his own brand of hip-hop and turntable effects. In a similar vein to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Faith No More, the music of Incubus combines original songs, a variable mix of thrash rock, yell-singing and grunge, with an innovative blend of electronic and disc generated effects. More recently their musical style has expanded and diversified with an inclusion of  ballads and acoustic works whilst still managing to steer clear of  "stratospheric string orchestrations or trip-hop escapades".

    The album Morning View was released in 2001 and the title is taken from the location of the mansion in Malibu, California rented for the writing and recording of the album. Changes in line-up result in Dirk Lance playing bass and DJ Chris Kilmore on turntable and effects. Situated on a beautiful section of the Californian coastline, the location no doubt partly inspired the varied mix of song types on the album ranging from the 'unplugged' ballad Mexico to the heavier hard-rock Circles and the hit-single Wish You Were Here (no relationship to the Pink Floyd number of the same name). The DVD Incubus:The Morning View Sessions was recorded in New York's Sony studios to coincide with the release of the album and was broadcast live to over 100 radio stations. Just under half of the 13 album tracks are played to a studio audience, together with earlier works, in a set lasting just under 55 minutes. The rest of the DVD package is made up of extras including the video promo of Wish You Were Here.

    There's no doubt that a considerable investment of time and expertise was put into the production of this DVD, as Brandon Boyd said: "Our record cover will look great even in the used CD bin". The DVD slick and the disc artwork are indeed impressive, as is the technical production. The studio performance is perhaps a little constrained and it would have been good to have Aqueous Transmission, Echo or maybe Under My Umbrella included in the set.

Video

    The video transfer of this movie is excellent. Filmed using the latest Sony digital video production system of CineAlta 24P, that gives content creators 24-frames per second high definition video, the technique is supposed to create a look similar to 35mm film origination.Sadly the transfer is not 16 x 9 enhanced, so what could have been a reference transfer, loses some resolution for widescreen display devices.

    The transfer is a little on the soft side, probably due to its NTSC origin and lack of 16 x 9 enhancement, but nevertheless confers an impressive amount of detail. Shadow detail is excellent though the set is quite well lit and there is just about no low-level noise.

    Colours were excellently rendered. The set was a little minimalist, supposedly to recreate the Morning View mansion, so there wasn't an extravagant, Technicolor light show. MPEG artefacts were absent and there was just a minimal amount of guitar string aliasing.

    The subtitles were available in English and seemed pretty accurate.

    The disc is a dual layer DVD-9 with extras on Layer 1 and concert footage on Layer 0 and so has no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The sound transfer is also of excellent quality.

    There are two audio tracks on offer, a Dolby Digital 5.1 and a stereo PCM version. I listened to both versions in their entirety and found better definition and clarity in the PCM version.

    Dialogue was of reasonably good clarity, although the style of some of the yell-singing and the Californian accent made some of the lyrics difficult to decipher - the subtitles can come to the rescue if required. Audio sync was not a problem at all with this recording.

    The surrounds were discretely but tastefully used to convey audience sound effects and the occasional swirling effect of a phaser or turntable hip-hop effect.

    The subwoofer was barely exercised enough to blow the dust out of its reflex port but wasn't really needed.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu was an unusual kaleidoscopic photo montage which rotated around after a menu selection. The transfer was again 1.33:1 and it suffered severe aliasing around the photo edges. Apart from song and audio selection, the extras aren't highlighted and a little exploration is needed to find your selection.

Wish You Were Here: Original Cut

    3:43 of the promo video for Wish You Were Here - presented again in letterboxed 1.33:1 and a stereo PCM soundtrack. Entertaining concept video and good quality sound.

Making Wish You Were Here

    Tricks of the trade: how they threw 5 members of a multi-million dollar band off a bridge, into a mermaid infested river, without incurring a law-suit.

At The Concert

    2:31 of back-stage recording accompanied by video stills from the sessions.

Living On Morning View

    Reality TV-like feature on the time spent at the Morning View Mansion. It is a little irritating and time-consuming to have to select each of the 13 selections individually and not play them all together.

Easter Egg

Click down cursor on menu selection 'At The Concert' then press 'Enter'

    The content of the R1 and R4 versions of this multi-region release appear identical.

    One of the more interesting California 1990's rock bands - poignant and pertinent lyrics with a fairly basic style of music, enhanced by some electronic and DJ effects. Caught my interest enough to go out and buy the album!

    The video quality is superb, and is of reference quality.

    The audio quality is excellent though the studio live session misses out on some of the recording studio embellishments.

    The extras are of interest and reasonable quality though a little on the limited side. A band biography and discography would have been good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall