If you have been following along for a while, you probably remember that I really enjoyed David Gilmour’s latest solo album Luck and Strange, and that I have been working on an ongoing comparison project covering the numerous variant editions of the album that have been released all over the world. If you’d like to find out more about that project, you can do so here. It’s just been updated again today, and I am finally getting very near to closing that out and rendering my final verdict on which ones sound the best to me. Mostly though, I think it’s just been an excuse to collect all the different colors.
Given that I haven’t really been thrilled with any of those vinyl pressings though, I have been looking forward to the inevitable flood of unofficial versions of the various live concerts that I figured would eventually flood the market. And flood the market they have. In recent days, many versions of this show, recorded from every stop on the tour, have been released on CD and LP. It’s always possible that I may talk about a couple different releases, but I think that there is clearly one dominant title in the field right now. That title is, of course, The Night’s Embrace: Circo Massimo 2024 by The Godfatherecords (Casino Records).
This massive and beautiful box set spans four LPs and 2 CDs, and is available on your choice of purple marbled, or blue marbled wax. In addition to the discs, each set also comes with a 4-page photo booklet, poster and numbered certificate. The two colors are limited to 250 copies of each, and include a numbered hype sticker. When I originally saw the sample photos, I found it very difficult to choose one color over the other. So, I decided to pick up a copy of each one. After seeing both in person, I think the blue looks best (some of the purple discs came out a little dark), but I don’t regret adding both to my collection.
First things first… let’s talk about the actual audio source. Right away, many of you will notice that this is advertised as an IEM Matrix recording. I have noticed on a lot on various forums, that there’s sometimes quite a bit of debate about whether recordings claiming to be IEM Matrix are genuine or not. As we shall see, there’s really no question with this one. If you are unfamiliar, IEM stands for In Ear Monitor. In the old days, monitors were large speaker boxes that would sit on the stage, facing the musicians. The sound guy would custom mix a blend of instruments and vocals for each musician to play through the monitor so they could hear themselves and the rest of the band. This is necessary so everyone knows where they are.
These days, technology has advanced quite a bit. Most musicians, especially larger acts, are using an in-ear monitor system. It’s less to carry around, and they work better. Apparently though, the signal can also be picked up by bootleggers within range. The “matrix” part of the equation comes in when the guy recording these signals blend all those monitor feeds together. As you will hear if you pick this set up, the sound quality is quite stunning. The Night’s Embrace is particularly clear, but I think it could have stood to be mixed a bit better. For the most part, the music sounds great, but some of the harmonies and backing vocals are a little heavy in the mix. The fact is though, I think we’ll be hard pressed to find a better sounding performance of this show until something official is released.
Physically, this box set is certainly a thing of beauty. Both colors of wax look stunning, and all the included extras are certainly up to Casino’s typical standard of quality. The box itself is heavy and high quality, and all the paper items are printed on high quality stock in vibrant and sharp colors. The vinyl itself has a unique type of marbling that I haven’t seen any other record label except Casino use. The paper labels themselves have a bit of feelable texture to them, and the records I received are totally flat. They also looked very clean and free from defects, but I cleaned them anyway as I normally do. The discs came in standard paper sleeves, so I moved them over to MOFI ones.
The sound of the vinyl pressing is near perfect. For this review, I was listening to the purple set. I haven’t tested out the blue ones yet, but I haven’t seen anyone complain about them or have anything bad to say. I heard a few extremely light clicks and pops at the beginning of some of the discs, but nothing major at all. My copy had no detectable surface noise which is impressive. Audio source wise, the IEM Matrix recording really is a major step above any other recording method I have heard as far as unofficials are concerned.
In addition to the 4 LPs, you are also getting the same exact recording pressed on two CDs. The CDs are actual pressed silver discs. They are not burned. The artwork on each disc is also professionally printed, and they come housed inside printed cardboard sleeves which are inserted into a very attractive poster/holder type thing. I really love when releases also include CDs. I’m sure some people would prefer a digital download, but I think physical media wins every time in situations like this. We get another professionally produced physical product and can then rip the CDs any way we want. In my case, I ripped the discs to FLAC files to play on my digital audio player in the car.
So, what about the performance itself? Well, here’s the fly in the ointment, so to speak. This is not the best show of this tour. In fact, from what I’ve heard from recordings at other venues, this is the worst one, performance wise. I can tell you that the two shows I saw at the Hollywood Bowl were flawless, so whatever the problem was, it was worked out by then. The band is perfectly fine, but David’s singing just wasn’t great in Rome. In fact, I recall the media reporting on this. I’m not sure what the issue was… he could have been ill or simply still settling in, but there were definitely problems.
There are some forgotten lyrics here and there. The most notable probably being on “A Great Day For Freedom”. The phrasing for some songs like “Time” and “Coming Back To Life” have been slightly altered from the versions we are used to hearing, probably to make them easier to sing. When I saw the shows in LA, I think its notable to mention that “A Great Day For Freedom” had been dropped by that point, and most of the phrasing was back to normal. I’m not sure if that song made it back in by NY or not. Also, “Sings” is listed as a bonus song on this recording, implying that it wasn’t performed every night. When I saw the tour, it was present in both shows.
One problem with the IEM Matrix recording is that they really seem to pick up everything. There are some weird stage sounds that are included between tracks. Most noticeably, however, is that the click track has been left in during “High Hopes”. The ringing of the iron bell for this song has an odd pattern to it. If you watch videos from over the years when Gilmour plays it, you will notice drummers keeping time for this song in an unusual way. Most of time, they tend to hit the bell with a hammer and silently tap on their leg with the other stick to make sure they are keeping everything in time. In this case, the sound engineers just gave the drummer a steady click track so he didn’t have to do that. In normal circumstances, the audience would never hear this. Since we are listening to the monitor feed though, this was left in. I’m guessing the person mixing the recording didn’t know it wasn’t supposed to be there, because it should have been quite easy to leave this out or remove it. There are some other small anomalies with the recording, but this is the most noticeable one.
What I find most interesting here is that the Gilmour camp has stated that the Circo Massimo shows were the ones recorded for the planned Blu-ray release. Ironically, these seem to be the only shows where there were serious problems with David’s voice. It wouldn’t surprise me if they end up using footage from these shows and then subbing in the audio from other performances to fix the mistakes. Most of the songs are fine vocally, but on “Comfortably Numb”, for instance, he stops singing entirely on the high part. This would obviously have to be fixed somehow.
Do I think collectors should avoid this show because of the mistakes and small recording issues? Not at all. After all, the point of these types of releases is to bring the concert experience to those folks that couldn’t be there or want to remember it how it was when they saw it in person. At least, that’s how I always see it and why I like to collect shows like this. Overall, the audio is incredible, and the show is very fun. Gilmour even drops the F-Bomb at one point during the band introductions which was kind of fun to hear.
What wasn’t exactly fun to hear is that David was also obviously frustrated with his performance at certain points, and I could tell. Part of me is afraid that he’ll be mortified to know that this recording got out. I do hope that if he sees/hears it, that he understands how much people love his music and that not only do fans accept mistakes, but they also understand them and appreciate the honestly. When the official Blu-ray comes out, I’m going to be the first person in line to buy it. I also know I’m far from the only collector who has amassed every vinyl variant released for Luck and Strange, even though the pressing wasn’t all that great. These things are fun for fans, and we just want to hear and collect everything. David Gilmour simply can’t release things as fast as we want to buy them. What an incredible problem to have as an artist.
I could continue to write about this show, and other recordings from this tour for pages and pages. I think I have included enough information here for you to decide if this release is for you or not. The pressing and packaging are an easy 10/10 for me, as is almost always the case with Godfather/Casino Records. The audio source itself is more complicated to rate. The sound recording is 10/10 as far as bootlegs and unofficial sources go, but the mix has some problems that could have been avoided. Because of artifacts like the stage noise and the click track still being present on “High Hopes”, I would give the mix an 8/10. Still excellent, but not perfect.
Honestly, I think this is the best release I have added to the collection in a while. If you are looking to pick one up, now is the time to find a copy. It seems like people are posting more pictures of the blue version, so I guess maybe that was the more popular color. I was guessing the purple would be more popular, but I suppose blue fits with the David Gilmour style a lot better overall, since we stared at On An Island for so many years before anything else was released. The CDs also add an incredible amount of value to the overall package, and I hope we see more releases in this format in the future.