Digging in the Dirt: Peter Gabriel’s “Secret World Live” to Be Released on Blu-Ray

While you count down the months until Peter Gabriel’s 25th anniversary reissue of So later this year, we have another catalogue project of his to anticipate this year: an expanded Blu-Ray release of 1993’s Secret World Live.

After the much-anticipated release of Us in 1992, Peter Gabriel had a big surprise up his sleeve: his (arguably) most ambitious solo tour, a multimedia event so big it took two stages to perform. (For pop trivialists out there, it was also the first major appearance by Paula Cole, who went from guest vocalist to Grammy-winning singer/songwriter in her own right, with songs like “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” and “I Don’t Want to Wait.”)

That tour was memorably chronicled on the video Secret World Live, an arresting audiovisual document recorded over two dates in Italy, drawing heavily on material from So and Us.

For its DVD and Blu-Ray reissue on July 2 (July 10 in the U.S.), the program has been remastered and restored from the original 16mm negative for a new 2K transfer. There’s some old and new bonus footage, too: “Red Rain,” omitted from the original set list, is presented as a bonus feature, along with time-lapse footage of the stage setup, a making-of featurette, a photo montage set to a remix of “Steam” and Gabriel’s performance of Us‘ “The Rhythm of the Heat” with The New Blood Orchestra from last year’s New Blood: Live in London DVD.

Pre-order your copies on DVD and Blu-Ray from Amazon here and here.

Do Not See “Lady in a Cage” Alone! Thrills and Chills Come From Kritzerland On New Soundtrack

The name of Paul Glass isn’t nearly as well-known as that of many of his contemporaries, but the Los Angeles-born composer (b. 1934) has carved out a distinguished career writing for the concert stage and the big screen.  Yet none of his soundtracks have ever been released on CD until now.  Kritzerland is offering the first-ever release in any format of Glass’ score to the 1964 thriller Lady in a Cage.  Directed by Walter Grauman (television’s The Fugitive, The Twilight Zone, Streets of San Francisco) and written by Luther Davis (Broadway’s Kismet, Grand Hotel), Lady in a Cage was one of the films to arrive in the wake of 1962’s then-shocking Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? with Olivia De Havilland filling the requisite “aging screen legend” role.  De Havilland had lensed the suspenseful Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte just the year before, but in the words of Kritzerland producer Bruce Kimmel, “Lady in a Cage was something wholly other – as nasty as Baby Jane and Charlotte could be, Lady in a Cage was in a whole other universe.”

Glass matched the outré nature of the movie with a score that Kimmel describes as “dissonant, creepy, jagged and perfectly suited to the film.”  That’s befitting a picture now considered a cult classic.  The film, which also featured James Caan, Ann Sothern and Scatman Crothers, concerns itself with Mrs. Cornelia Hilyard, a moneyed widow with a broken hip who becomes trapped between floors of the elevator cage she has installed in her home.  She places a distress call via the elevator’s emergency alarm, but the only response comes from a derelict wino played by Jeff Corey.  He becomes fascinated by the treasures that are his for the taking with Hilyard trapped.  He brings a prostitute friend (Ann Sothern) back to the house, but they are followed by a trio of unsavory characters.  Needless to say, violence breaks out. Will the “trapped, defenseless” lady in a cage survive?  The movie poster indicated, “What happens in this elevator is not for the weak.  It is, perhaps, not even for the strong!”

Hit the jump for more, including the track listing (spoilers ahead!) and pre-order link!

Not Too Late: Norah Jones Box Set Due On SACD, Vinyl

Much has always been made of the success rate of Grammy recipients in the Best New Artist category, with some artists damning the prize as a curse.  While some winners have, indeed, been unable to match their initial success, the list of winners also includes such long-running artists as Tom Jones, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Carly Simon, Bette Midler, and Sheryl Crow plus unlikely but distinguished names like Bob Newhart and Marvin Hamlisch, and a little band known as The Beatles!

One more recent winner who has certainly been able to dispel the existence of any curse is Norah Jones.  True, Jones hasn’t repeated the titanic success of her 2002 debut Come Away with Me, which topped the Billboard 200, won five Grammys and sold over 10 million copies within its first three years of release.  But she has carved out a dedicated fan base, continues to sell an impressive quantity of records (including 2004’s Feels Like Home and 2007’s Not Too Late, both multi-platinum sellers) and has challenged herself via an array of releases in various genres with various musical foils.  Jones’ latest effort, Little Broken Hearts, arrived this week, and this collaboration with producer Danger Mouse has netted the artist further accolades.  Coinciding with the release of Little Broken Hearts is the announcement of an SACD and vinyl reissue series for Jones’ entire catalogue as a solo artist including this week’s new release.

Analogue Productions, the audiophile specialist label behind acclaimed reissues from artists ranging from Pink Floyd to Nat “King” Cole, is teaming with Jones’ label, Blue Note Records, for the June 18 release of The Norah Jones Vinyl Collection and The Norah Jones SACD Collection.  Come Away with Me (2002), Feels Like Home (2004), Not Too Late (2007), The Fall (2009) and Little Broken Hearts (2012) will be included in both packages, all remastered by Kevin Gray from the original sources.  Although these titles will be available individually, those who purchase them as a box set will be rewarded with an exclusive bonus disc.  The ten-track Covers, available only in the vinyl and SACD box sets, features Jones’ “rare or unreleased” interpretations of songs originally performed by  Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Horace Silver, Wilco and others.  The full track listing has not been announced for the bonus disc as of this writing.

Hit the jump for more information on these sets!