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Buyer Rating: 100.0% positive (3 ratings)

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• Goa / Psy-Trance

Vlado Meller - 06-Apr-08 11:03 AM
Unfortunately, I have to caution anyone who's ended up on this man's page to stay *As Far Away* from *Any* of these releases as possible.

If there's any way you can find a copy of one of these albums in any other format that he has not touched, you're highly encouraged to do so.

Meller is probably the big name in the loudness war, and functionally seems to be a huge proponent of maxing out the loudness of any CD he masters. This makes the CD sound "better" than another properly mastered CD at a given system volume to the extent that the human brain tends to pick out louder noises as sounding better.

The flip side, and something that will be blindingly obvious when one of his masterings are compared against a proper master, is that the sound becomes extremely heavily compressed under his treatment, and all the subtle dynamics of the music are lost.

If you are able to adjust the volume of your system to a level you desire, there is no reason to opt for one of Meller's discs over anyone else's. One common place to look for better masterings of these discs are those vinyls that Steve Hoffman works on, but pretty much any other version that this man has not touched will be more than worth your while.

The real tragedy of this man's work, in my opinion, is the album Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was only ever mastered by him, he did a terrible job, and as a result one of the most intellectually satisfying pop albums of the decade has been utterly destroyed in the ears of many an audio sensitive individual. We can only hope the record companies will work with those willing to clean up after this man's mess, and provide the world with decent remasterings of the more brilliant of the works he has destroyed.

Ethereal 77 - Landscapes - 26-Mar-08 02:51 PM
This is a brilliant piece. It is the great work through which Ulrich's untamed genius as a composer begins to emerge.

It's not great because it's technically a strong work -- the fact that this is what's often pointed to regarding the disc is probably due to the contrast with his even earlier work. Rarely in music do we get to see the total evolution of an artist from such an early stage to such an advanced and masterful position, and because we can (potentially) see that path with Schnauss, it tends to influence how we might think of works like this.

I don't feel that this work is great *because* it's technically strong. I feel that it's great because it has a unique complexity of sound, and crispness of emotion that precipitated what was to come in his catalog.

It is a different project from those works released under his own name. It is a different, sharp, quickly thoughtful work that marks both the culmination of his early works, and the foreshadowing of a very powerful new aesthetic.

As much as I love it, I would not say that this is a masterpiece, but it sure comes close.

I'm predicting, following Goodbye, that Ulrich will move back into this project for some time; he has said that Goodbye was the completion of the trilogy of works released under his own name, and I have to say... If that man returns to this style, I think we would now be in for some true masterpieces.