Peter Gabriel is bringing the ‘Scratch My Back‘ experience to select venues early in 2010. The New Blood tour is Peter Gabriel, orchestra, no drums, no guitars and we have a pair of tickets to give away for Peter Gabriel’s O2 gig in London on Sunday 28th March.

The album has received stunning reviews and news from Real World regarding the rehearsals suggest the concerts are going to be equally breathtaking. Have a look at the official  tour diary and read about the preparations leading up to the first date of the tour in Paris.

If you can’t make it to London don’t forget that if you join Society of Sound you can get an exclusive 24-bit FLAC download of Scratch My Back which means you have a studio-quality version and can hear the album as it was intended to be heard.

Peter dispensed with his usual band for this stunning collection of cover versions leaving only his voice accompanied solely by orchestral instruments. The approach makes for some radical reinterpretations.

“After all,” protests the album’s arranger John Metcalfe, “what’s the point of covers that don’t make any effort. So many are just really the same song with a different singer.”

All you need to do is tell us here what your favourite cover version of all time is and we’ll pick a winner next week.

Congratulations Gabor and Dirk Steffens, you have each won a Beatles box set.

We’ll be emailing you individually to get your contact details.

Society of Sound member and all round composing genius, Ennio Morricone, is to perform a number of his acclaimed film soundtracks at a one-off London show on April 10th.

The composer and conductor has worked on the scores for such classics as A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Morricone wil perform at London’s Royal Albert Hall on April 10th as part of ATP’s Don’t Look Back series of gigs. He’ll be joined by a 100 piece orchestra and the 100-strong Crouch End Festival Chorus for the performance.

We’ll be running a competition to win tickets shortly so watch this space.

Our MM-1 computer speakers are now available to buy from UK Apple stores and have been getting some stunning customer reviews, “impeccable”, “wow”, “oh my god!” and “perfect” are just some of the responses that customers have left. Read more of their comments here.

There’s something very special about listening to music on headphones. A sense of closeness to the artist, and, of course, with the right headphones, just enough isolation from the hustle and bustle of the outside world to make listening a real pleasure.

And while a great album is always a great album, sometimes a particular recording will lend itself to the intimate atmosphere of a great pair of headphones. Whether those headphones are connected to your home hi-fi or to an iPod for listening on the move, the experience can transport you.

We’d love to know what your favourite headphone listening pleasures are. Whether it happens to be on a pair of Bowers & Wilkins P5 mobile hi-fi headphones or something else.

Here’s a selection of ours just to get you started.

Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
Read about it here.

Richard Buckner – Devotion and Doubt
Wonderfully recorded, simple guitar and wonderful voice.

David Crosby – If Only I Could Remember My Name.
Gloriously produced, and wonderful on headphones.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I see a Darkness
A great hi-fi album full stop. Wonderfully intimate recording.

Massive Attack – Mezzanine
If your headphones can do great bass, this is a must-have recording.

What’s your favourite headphone album?

The stunning super-high quality version of Peter Gabriel’s new album ‘Scratch My Back’ is available now from Society of Sound as a 24-bit FLAC download.

If you have bought an enhanced CD you will have a voucher code entitling you to download the album from us as well as giving you three months full membership. If you don’t own the album you can subscribe for six or twelve months to access it.

Have a look at the some of the music available to members here. Artists curated by Peter Gabriel and recorded at Real World Studios feature alongside established artists such as Ennio Morricone, Brett Anderson and Dave Stewart.

For more information on playing 24-bit FLAC files you can see our Definitive Guide or read how other people play their FLAC files here.

Kraftwerk – The Catalogue Remastered

EMI / Mute – LP

By Paul Rigby

My friends, allow me to introduce the biggest punk band the world has ever seen.

This was a band with a totally new agenda, with a wholly new method of creating music often via DIY instruments. They offered a new look to accompany their new sound. They ignored – and largely continue to ignore – the press, they abrogated the traditional rock band lifestyle, they were wholly selfish in how they created their music, how that music was structured and was arranged. How many of these facets could truly be attributed to other, so-called, punk groups? This is a band that were so punk, they were never even labelled with that epithet. They, instead, influenced entire generations of future musicians from, not just one musical style, but multiple genres.

As an electronic outfit they amazed and wowed their audiences and the music industry as a whole: I remember watching them at a Tribal Gathering music festival in the 90s, when every other sound stage closed down just so the other international musicians could stop, stand or sit and watch four blokes from Germany.

I remember, around 1981 I think, sitting in the Royal Court theatre in Liverpool and watching the curtains open to reveal a Star Trek bridge of synthesisers and twinkling lights. Behind each synth was a member of the band. Standing next to each band member was a mannequin double of that band member. Each pair adopted exactly the same pose and no-one moved. The crowd went wild. For long, long seconds the pose was struck. No-one in the crowd could tell the difference between mannequin and band member. This was machine music. This was Kraftwerk.

EMI and Mute Records have now reissued eight of this seminal band’s LPs. The classic albums: Autobahn, Radio Activity, Trans Europe Express, The Man Machine and Computer World plus the more recent black sheep of the family, which saw a drop in creative quality for the first time, Electric Café or, as it’s named here in its original working title, Techno Pop plus the ‘best of’ project, The Mix and, finally, the ‘soundtracks’ album Tour De France.

You will notice that the three earlier works: Kraftwerk 1, Kraftwerk 2 and Ralf and Florian are not included.

Kraftwerk co-founder, Ralf Hütter, has talked about his memories of those early days, “We (Ralf and Florian Schneider) met at some improvisational courses at the University (Düsseldorf Conservatoire) and we’ve been doing things together since then. I had a simple electronic organ and we worked with echo chambers, tape machines and other simplistic elements, in those days, because there wasn’t that much in the budget. We produced very minimal records and it has developed from there.”

However, despite Hütter’s acknowledgment of those times, none of these early records have ever been officially reissued. Observers say that the band has chosen to ignore all three releases, acting, in fact, as if they had never existed.

The band’s meticulous standards have not only influenced their work but also these reissues. In fact, Kraftwerk have been wholly wrapped up in the these vinyl packages, being actively involved in the remastering and the packaging. And that, so rumours say, has been the reason that the vinyl releases have experienced delay after delay. To give you one example, one Internet rumour had it that the vinyl reissues were put back by several months because the cover of the Man Machine album was the wrong shade of red.

Playing the vinyl reissue of Autobahn is a momentous experience. Firstly because it reminds you just how new this form of music was back in 1974 and how much of a curiosity the group was to the rest of the world at this time, “We didn’t have much respect at that time,” commented Karl Bartos, part of the classic Kraftwerk line-up back in the 70s and 80s. “I remember the NME producing a collage. We were placed at the centre. Over us was placed a Swastika. The headline ran, ‘The final solution of music’.”

Ignoring the irresponsible core journalism, this, in hindsight, would now be an odd stance to take. Compare this music to modern techno and realise just how human it is compared to the stark techno beats.

Listening to the title track, you also realise that this was a leap of creative faith for the artists themselves, “It was all about cars,” said Ralf Hütter, “Singing a melody, it’s like an Autobahn raga. We would drive around Germany and dream about hearing Kraftwerk music on the radio – which never happened.”  Until, with Autobahn, it came true, as the edited version of the title track charted to a stunned world in 1974. In fact, most people in the UK first heard this innovative music via, who else, John Peel.

I was also stunned. Stunned because of the quality of the remastering on this and the other LPs in this collection. There is no compression to be found, just pure, unadulterated music that exhibits immense clarity and marvellous dynamics within a quiet pressing background.

Putting on Computer World, I was most impressed both by the lower frequency extension and, again, by the dynamic response which promotes a sense a power but also, simultaneously, a lightness of touch that never fails to surprise and change the mood ready for the next piece of music.

Each reissue offers exceptional music quality, excellent pressings and attractive packaging. The sometimes newly stylised cover images often hiding more familiar artworks within, along with large, multi-page, booklets.

For any Kraftwerk fan, this entire reissue set is absolutely essential.

Stand-out track: Numbers (Computer World)

A bass fan’s dream. This track will really rock any decent pair of speakers and will never fail to trigger a rhythmic bodily reaction with its killer melodic riff.

Stand-out track: Autobahn (Autobahn)

Arguably, the track that started the modern Kraftwerk legend. A trance-like, minimalistic paean to the motorway featuring those classic automotive stereo pans that so often seemed to be a silly studio trick on most rock albums but made perfect sense here.

Stand-out track: Ohm Sweet Ohm (Radioactivity)

This relatively ignored minor classic is tucked away at the end of the album and begins with a vocodor speech excerpt, starts in a slow melancholy fashion but then speeds up to form such a sweet melody that you’re transported to a warm cuddly place inside your head.

One of the big hits at the Bristol Sound & Vision show is 3D TV. Unsurprising as it is something of a buzzword at the moment. We had a good look at the What Hi-Fi? 3DTV demonstration. And while it is impressive, and certainly different – although maybe more like layered 2D than actual 3D – whether people will rush to buy it in the same way they did with high definition television remains to be seen.

What is certain though, is whether its 3D or HD, modern day TV viewing is about more than just high-resolution images: there’s also been a massive leap forward in terms of audio quality, with Blu-ray discs in particular packing in amazing high-resolution audio soundtracks.

And to get the most out of their TV viewing, people really need to invest in a sound package that makes the most of it. Otherwise, they really are only seeing half the picture. It doesn’t have to cost the world either, and a system such as the award-winning MT-25 would be a fantastic addition to a TV set up, while larger systems such as ones using the stylish and capable XT range of speakers are great additions to a home theatre.

You can also check out our discussion on whether surround sound is worth it in The Lab

Walking around the show there were at least four stands selling LPs, ranging from the known audiophile classics such as Kind of Blue and Dark Side of the Moon to the latest releases. And each of the stands we visited was populated with people. And they weren’t just browsing either, as the bar and refreshment area was crowded with people clutching plastic bags stuffed with LPs.

Plus, in a time when local record stores are sadly going out of business all over the country, we spoke to someone planning on opening up a new store in Wales, just to serve the growing demand for vinyl.

It looks as though vinyl could outlive the Compact Disc that was supposed to kill it off once and for all.

Read our Lab article on vinyl here, or check out our classic recoding reviews.

The Rotel RA-1520 was substituted for the Rotel RC-1580 RB-1582 pre-power combo, as it was felt the speakers and the room lent themselves to this set up more. It’s always daunting turning up at a hotel room and preparing a sound system for masses of discerning audiophiles to listen to – for three days! – and it’s highly rewarding when it all comes together.

We’ll bring you more from the hi-f room tomorrow, as well as a look at the New Media room, which is still being set up.