Review of George Clinton Mothership Connection Live

Introduction

This is the sort of release that really makes me despair. There`s a lot of bare-bones material released on DVD from time to time, but it takes real skill to put something out that so little care has been taken over.

This is a video recording of a live concert. Nothing more, nothing less. The sound was recorded at the time in Stereo, and it has been remixed to Dolby Digital 5.1 before being resynched to the video, but that is all that has been done to this recording. Otherwise it`s just a straight transfer from videotape to DVD with only a static navigation menu to differentiate it from a VHS tape.

Video

The image, for what it is, is pretty bad. Originated on videotape, the transfer is grainy (due to low light) and the image is marred by interference that looks like it might have come from the master tape. The picture is in 4:3 NTSC and exhibits atrocious colour smearing.

Audio

The audio track is the only area where any care has been taken and this is simply to render the Stereo original to Dolby Digital 5.1. The mix is completely unremarkable and would have been better left as a 2.0 surround, perhaps.

Features

What features? This is one of those discs that would try to claim `scene access` as an extra, but to its credit it doesn`t.

Conclusion

One for fans only. And I mean real fans. The copyright date on this is 1998, so I suspect somebody has been sitting on this for a while.