Alchemy Movie Reviews

There is no justice in this world. This is a brilliant dvd audio disc. It is simply brilliant musically. The separation of the music is very well done. This is because if you have a 5.1 sound system, you would be able to hear respective instruments being reproduced in respective speakers. For example, the bass comes out thru the woofer! The sound engineer clears does a fine job! He is really a great craftsman.

However the same cannot be said visually. The stage which the musicians performed on is 3rd grade. The lighting is too bright. The stage is too small. The director of this video obviously did not attend the rehearsals. He incredible manages to capture all the wrong angels. For example, a microphone was blocking the guitarist's face through out the whole concert. At times, the camera is not on the musician who is doing the solo. The fingerwork of the guitarist was blocked by another musician... What is wrong with the guy? I bet he is not a guitarist!

This is annoying and disappointing. 3 out of 5.

As a longtime AA fan I was waiting for years for a DVD to be published, and the result definitely lives up to my expectations.
Excellent selection of tracks creates a mix of classics from the Nick Webb period (e.g. Cool as a Rule, Lazeez) and selections from the band's recent albums (Beautiful Game and AArt).
Most song performances are excellent, only track I would skip is the Jazz-fusion interpretation of 'The Panama Cat' which can hardly be regarded 'acoustic'. The players are all superb: Greg is always at his best, and Gilderdale is versatile and brings his own personality into the tunes - even the classic ones. His use of electric guitar is limited enough such that it does not break the 'acoustic' brand yet still adds color in couple of tracks. Sound quality is excellent even though Gilderdale's steel string guitar seems faded at times. The minimum lineup (5 in total) manages to give a rich musical spectrum - mainly due to keyboardist Tony White and despite the fact that an additional percussionist and sax/trumpet player would have contributed a lot of color to the overall sound.
Only reason this is a 4 star ranking is due to the long and sometimes embarrassing verbal intermissions between the songs. These come out very annoying and cut the song sequence such that you want to 'skip' to the next track using your DVD remote control. AA is pure music and if you want to hear them talk there is a good interview bonus section added to the DVD. Apart from that - it's great music from great musicians.
AA are still one of the best musical forms you can hear time and again and find new layers and depths each time.

5 stars for the group but only 4 for the DVD. It suffers from uneven sound - especially Miles' crucial riffing on the Flamoco Loco track. The newer tunes from AART sound a bit weak without the brass section. I strongly suggest catching the group live in their current lineup - they can really rock out as well as cruise. The guitars are still stars but the sax makes all the difference by providing another timbre - the sound is bigger now and with more variety. If they had recorded this DVD with the current lineup, it would have been superb. Go ahead - buy it if you like them, just dont expect a polished, seamless, faultless, production. You would buy the stunning new James Taylor DVD for that.