Review of Deep Purple: Rock Review 1969-1972

Introduction

Another Ragnarok disc arrives for review, and I find myself faced with the same `in over my head` feeling as the last time. This time the band in question is Deep Purple. Yet another prog rock combo, however this time I have heard of them, vaguely.

The Deep Purple Rock Review 1969-1972, is just that, featuring archive footage from the early seventies, with various rockers and journos chipping in their contributions regarding what Deep Purple meant to them, as well as what they feel about these particular songs. For your notes, you get 74 minutes of music (and reviews), eight tracks in all taken from various archive live performances. This Anthology is released in a "Special DTS Enhanced Version". Before you get excited, it also has printed discreetly on the slipcase, "With such a wide selection of sound sources covering 35 years inevitably not every recording will live up to today`s exacting standards and some recordings will show the limitations of the available technology at the time" Take from that what you will.

Video

Poor quality video and archive television from the early seventies typify the content on this disc. None of it will tax the capabilities of your display devices. The final few tracks are taken from a particularly poor recording of a concert, not so much black and white as black and pink. The contemporary interviews on the other hand are crisp and sharp.

Audio

You can choose from DD 2.0 Stereo, DD 5.1 or DTS. The surround is a tad richer and encompassing, the Stereo more strident. The archive material doesn`t really impress, but more problematic is the recent interview footage. Although it sounds fine in Stereo, in DD 5.1 there is significant echo, as if someone left the auditorium mode on the recording equipment on by mistake. The music is unaffected by this. There are no subtitles.

Features

Nothing.

Conclusion

I`m not going to say much of consequence about Deep Purple, a band that passed me by, and I don`t feel all that diminished by my loss. Still, this disc isn`t marketed at me, but at Deep Purple fans. So what do Deep Purple fans need to know? The archive footage is of poor quality, as you would expect from a 30 year old source, the sound despite the multiplicity of formats is hardly special, although with these being live recordings, I`m sure that there will be nuances and improvisations that never made it into studio recordings, and aside from the first track Speed King (which serves as an intro to the disc and is interrupted by the commentators), no-one speaks over the music. All in all there`s about 65 minutes of music and the rest is talking heads. There is that annoying sound fault with the interview footage to consider. If this constitutes value for money, you`ll know better than me.