Telephantasm [Super Deluxe Edition] [2 CD/1 DVD/3 LP] [Limited Edition]

Soundgarden | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 28, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 6
• Format: Limited Edition
• Label: A&M
• ASIN: B003YRIM0Q
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,967 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. All Your Lies

2. Hunted Down - Subpop

3. Fopp - Subpop

4. Beyond The Wheel

5. Flower (BBC Session)

6. Hands All Over

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Jesus Christ Pose (Live)

2. Birth Ritual

3. Black Hole Sun

4. Spoonman

5. Superunknown

6. My Wave

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Dusty

2. Pretty Noose (Live on SNL)

3. Blow Up The Outside World (MTV Live `N' Loud)

4. Black Rain

5. Flower (BBC Session)LP SIDE 2

6. Rusty Cage

See all 20 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

From the Artist

Like the iconic `60s and `70s bands which inspired them, Soundgarden redefined rock music for a whole generation and had a revolutionary impact on the course of musical history. As one of the first bands to release music on the venerated Sub Pop label, and the first band to come out of the 90's Seattle music scene to later sign to a major label, they are once again making history with Telephantasm.

Product Description

The Super Deluxe Collector's Edition will be available for a limited time and will include 2 CDs, the limited edition DVD, three heavy vinyl discs, a collectible poster, lithos, and much more.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

107 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A great collection by an awesome band is ruined by the Loudness Wars, October 15, 2010

By 

Stephen "Podhi" Burke (Earth) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Telephantasm [Super Deluxe Edition] [2 CD/1 DVD/3 LP] (Audio CD)

I was really looking forward to getting this collection, 3 coloured vinyls mastered by Bob Ludwig and a DVD with all the videos on it as well as lithographs, a 7" vinyl of Black Rain also coloured and 2 CD's. The package is very well done, doesn't feel cheap at all. Everything fits nicely together and the vinyl is in a separate side of the box set to the CD's, DVD's and booklets, as it should be. So...where does it go wrong? From the first notes of the first LP or CD you're in for a big disappointment. Another release gets ruined with overzealous dynamic range compression.

Now I wasn't too concerned about how the CD's were going to turn out, I got this first and foremost for the vinyl and secondly for the DVD of the videos. Due to low sales numbers and the methodology in which vinyl records are created, vinyl editions of recent albums have seen better mastering than their CD counterparts. Don't get all defensive and launch into a CD vs. vinyl debate, because this isn't about that. What I'm saying is, the vinyl releases of new albums from Alice in Chains, Dave Matthews Band and others have received less dynamic range compression and less tools that result in dimished dynamics of the master that is to be used to create the vinyl, resulting in a more dynamic performance, one closer to what the producer was hearing in the studio one would hope.

This isn't the case with Telephantasm, the vinyl is as poorly mastered as the CD is, perhaps even worse. The sibilance does not hold up well in Cornell's high notes and Cameron's cymbals and hi-hat, it sizzles into obscurity. There is little in the way of dynamics, everything sounds like your typical 2010 CD. This is very disappointing given that there are supposed to only be 5,000 copies of this. The loudness war sucks wholeheartedly, but with top bands usually only moving between 12,000~25,000 copies of their records per year the vinyl usually escapes as the idiots in A&R at the labels and those musicians who don't know any better usually don't care about the vinyl, it's not getting into enough people's hands, therefore the mastering engineer can master with dynamics intact like most of them want to.

I compared Outshined and Rusty Cage from SIDE THREE of the coloured vinyl with my 2003 German (EU) pressing of Badmotorfinger, man what a MASSIVE difference, the sonics and dynamics of the recording are wonderful on the 2003 edition, which can still be found on the Amazon Germany website, ASIN B000057UWZ.

If you want to order one of the two copies left, just follow through the buttons, you don't need to read German to navigate, it's all the same set-up as Amazon Canada or US. I highly recommend this pressing at 24 Euros, even though you'll have to pony up 14 Euros for shipping to North America it's still worth it to get the best sounding version of Badmotorfinger I've ever heard, although if you don't spin vinyl be content with the original CD, it's also very good.

I was hoping with Bob Ludwig's name attached that the CD's might be okay, but should have know the label and project team probably said "no, we need this to be loud like other bands albums are these days, or kids won't like it" - which is TOTAL BLOODY NONSENSE. You can see a comparison between the Badmotorfinger CD and the Telephantasm CD in a post I made at the Steve Hoffman forums by googling "Soundgarden outshined telephantasm vs badmotorfinger dynamic comparison" and click on the first link that says "New release sounds like crap" and check out post #20.

The 2010 tracks are clearly boosted, well outside the scope of CD's limits resulting in brickwalling and/or limiting to prevent a massive amount of clipping. Dynamics are suffering, what a shame. It's nowhere near as bad as Death Magnetic, but it's still poor.

I will say that the CD actually sounds better than the vinyl to my ears, or maybe it's just that the vinyl sounds so poor compared to the 2003 EU pressing of Badmotorfinger that I don't even remember how bad the CD sounds.

Now maybe there is one saving grace for this package...the DVD. Nope, it suffers too. The audio isn't as bad as the CD and vinyl from a dynamic perspective, but the bitrate afforded the DVD's audio track is poor. They've gone with 2.0 Dolby Digital only at a bitrate of a little over 200 Kbps. No effort was made to visit the studio and create a 5.1 mix, they didn't even add a 2.0 PCM uncompressed stereo mix which would have been much more palatable. I'd love it if they'd included a Blu-ray of all the videos, but really the source material is probably video in most cases and the Blu-ray would only allow for less compression...but a high resolution 24-bit audio track wouldn't have gone amiss. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, it's nice to see some of these videos and remember watching the Buzz Bin on MTV in 1991 seeing Outshined...but the lack of fidelity in choosing only a Dolby 2.0 mix takes away from it. Had they used the full 448 Kbps allowed on DVD for Dolby it would have been a much more enjoyable sonic experience.

Overall I can only give this collection 2 stars. It's well put together and definitely great for collectors, but the sonic misadventures that afflict the DVD, the 3LP's and the 2CD's are just not welcome in my house, I'm probably returning mine to Amazon.

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible collection and packaging, September 28, 2010

By 

Chauncey Gardner (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Telephantasm [Super Deluxe Edition] [2 CD/1 DVD/3 LP] (Audio CD)

Let me lead off by saying this is an incredibly beautiful and thoughtfully designed box set which is not going to appeal to fans hankering to get their hands on a Nirvana styled WITH THE LIGHTS OUT type boxset. I can somewhat understand the need for some hardcore fans to air those sorts of grievances, but ultimately that's judging Telephantasm on what it is not, versus what it is, setting that aside, this box set is an incredible piece. The housing is dramatic, and the artwork obviously a huge part of the appeal, featuring panoramic two-sided posters, reproductions of the bands litho from the first reunion show in April 2010 at the showbox, art prints of the band members, and individually colored heavy triple LP of the 24 tracks, a booklet featuring rare photos alongside Kim Thayil's entertaining liner notes completes the added goodies. This will surely become a collectors piece in the ensuing years. The highlights are really the band's first ever DVD, which gathers all the music videos along with some rare live performance, 20 videos in all, 13 previously unreleased . Highlights include uncensored versions of BLOW UP THE OUTSIDE WORLD, the rarely seen overseas version of PRETTY NOOSE along side the classic videos for OUTSHINED, RUSTY CAGE and BLACK HOLE SUN. The audio has been remastered and a significant improvement over the previous hits collection A-SIDES, and features 5 previously unreleased tracks, including the spectacular live performance of PRETTY NOOSE from SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE and a rarely seen performance from MTV Live N Loud of BLOW UP THE OUTSIDE WORLD in addition to the new single BLACK RAIN a resuscitated gem from the fan favorite BADMOTORFINGER sessions.

SUPER COOL FAN ALERT - not noted in the packaging, the band tossed in a colored 7" of BLACK RAIN and a previously unreleased live version of BEYOND THE WHEEL from the show box show!

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Knights of the Soundtable Ride Again., September 28, 2010

By 

Iris Artechi - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Telephantasm: [2 CD/1 DVD] (Audio CD)

Many bands tend to put together a Greatest Hits album and in order to properly convey the band's sound they must include more than just the hits...but the strongest of the band's catalog. A-Sides was a single disk and did include many great songs but it left off many songs that defined the band's early sound. There weren't many songs from Ultramega Ok and none from the band's EP's. Soundgarden's Telephantasm includes all of tracks from A-Sides (just switching some of the tracks for live versions) and then some. Included is the epic "Beyond the Wheel" , a version of "Flower" that might just have been what it would have sounded like unmarred by SST's bad production, and the original version of "Room a Thousand Years Wide". "Fopp" is an awesome cover of an Ohio Player's song in which the band makes a 70's soul/funk song their own, and "Hunted Down" shows the band was able to write a good song even that early in the game. There's also a DVD of extras. Although i am dissapointed that some of the better B-sides (like "Into the Void (Sealth)" and "Blind Dogs") weren't included. I'm hoping on a new studio album sometime in the future...