Customer Reviews

Here Is What Is

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're at all interested in Daniel Lanois, then clearly you must own this DVD. The filmmaking may not blow your mind, but the wonderful musicianship and the gentle and thoughtful spirit of the artist likely will. My favorite part, oddly enough, are the special features, where it's REALLY about the music, and specifically about Brian Blade, who's a giant among artists. I thoroughly recommend this, despite any minor shortcomings.

This is an enjoyable Dvd for a true fan or someone wanting to know more about Daniel Lanois. While it is interesting and gives you good insite, it will not blow you away. He is so much more live, being a Grammy winning producer you would think he would be able to duplicate the rawness and the hard rocking music he can put on. So for a solid fan but others may find it okay and not watch more than once.

Lanois really ventures into fantastic new music with Here Is What Is and it's our good fortune that the cameras were rolling for the recording of the Here Is What Is which ultimately became the soundtrack for this film. Garth Hudson (The Band) delivers a performance for the ages in the opening sequence. While the production is decidedly low budget, the graininess of some of the low tech video effects and some of the color effects done in editing really give the film a special character and it goes to reinforce the analogy of "it's not the kitchen; it's the chef". However, there are moments where the images become framed into a smaller box on the screen, making it difficult to watch the film and grasp the totality of what is truly taking place... which brings us to the aspect ratio: Basically, you'll have to watch this film in 4:3 mode on a widescreen. Why would anyone film or edit anything for that format any longer? It doesn't seem to make any sense. The Stereo only audio, doesn't bother me since the stereo mixes are so good. Regardless, a great film and lots of great shared wisdom. I recommend Lanois' book, "Soul Mining: A Musical Life" as well.

hiwi grasps at your soul. Daniel Lanois writes, plays, and produces a marvelous disc as only he does. The lyrics are thought provoking, the music is fun. It's layered but not compressed so it comes out super great sounding. Only better if it were on vinyl, have not seen that. If I were to choose between this and Shine I'm not sure what I'd do. Maybe Shine and the hiwi DVD so I could still have both!