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- Cat.no: PPDVD 7002-2
- Cert: E
- Running time: 12 minutes
- Year: 2000
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 3 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Linear PCM Stereo
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: varies
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes & No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £5.99
- Extras : Scene index, Trailers, DVD-ROM content, Interview
Director:
- Alan Maxwell
Music Producer:
- Howie B
Music:
- Sly Dunbar
(Drum programming and synpads)
Robbie Shakespeare (Bass Guitar)
Lloyd “Gitsy” Willis (Guitar)
Jony Rockstar (Programming)
Jeremy Shaw (Keyboards and tuning)
Howie B (Additional keyboards and programming)
Sly & Robbie: Superthrusteris a collection of three music promos on a DVD Video EP, created by AbbeyRoad Interactive. There are two versions of themain track, the first being a rather energetic and funky affair and featuring the duo as two SWAT team-typeguys with guns fighting all manner of weirdos and the second is a remix, albeit more for thevideo rather than the music.
The other track is Zen Concrete, a four-minute piece of more sombre music, set againsta backdrop of clips from another recent Palm Pictures release, Ghost in the Shell.
Sly and Robbie have hardly been the most prolific of chart hit-makers in the UK, only makingthe grade with “Boops (Here To Go)” (No.12, April 1987), while following it upwith a comparitive flop, “Fire” (No.60, July 1987).
The picture quality, on the whole, is fine. It’s better for the main track – which is presentedin an approximate 2.00:1 ratio and is not anamorphic – and for Zen Concrete which showsclips of the aforementioned film and is anamorphic, although it’s just the 1.85:1 film squashedinto a 4:3 frame, so while it looks good on a widescreen TV, there’s no standard letterboxequivalent on here. The Superthruster remix changes ratio more often than it’s possibleto keep track of. The average bitrate ia very high and varies between 8.99Mb/s and 9.21Mb/s.
The sound is very good too, but while I quite got into Superthruster, I didn’t quitewarm as much to the other two. However, it’s presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 andwill have the neighbours complaining if you turn it up…
Extras : Chapters and Trailers :There are 3 chapters on this disc – one for each track – plus trailers for four other PalmPictures releases: Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense,Baaba Maal: Live at the Royal Festival Hall,Ghost in the ShellandDancehall Queen. Languages & Subtitles :The only language that features here is English and only in the interview. No subtitles,even though they’re very necessary! And there’s more… :A 7-minute Interview with Sly & Robbie, although throughout I could not make out asingle word they said. I think they mentioned Bob Marley at one point, although it lookedlike they’d been on the loopy toast that morning…
The DVD-ROM content features music samples, info and rough-lookingvideo clips of a range of Palm Pictures produce: Sly and Robbie, Baaba Maal,Mocean Worker, Ernest Ranglin and Kora Revolution.
Menu :It’s a silent one, but as for the animation it’s one for epileptics to avoidgiven the amount of flashing light and colours on it – almost on a par withThe Simpsons‘s Samurai Seizure Robots 🙂
Apart from the main track, Superthruster, this isn’t really my cup oftea, but DVD-owning fans of the pair will no doubt snap this up at its cheapprice.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
For more information, please visitPalmPictures.com
Angels
Superthruster
Detonator / Diagnosis
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.