| Review by DeSelby February 19, 2005 (1 of 10 found this review helpful)
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Sonics:  |
| stereo sonics: should be a bit more brilliant and airy
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| Review by lenw July 16, 2005 (4 of 5 found this review helpful)
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Take your pick of the glorius reviews of this album at telarc.com - IMHO they're spot on! Michael Bishop is one great recording engineer demonstrated by the excellent resolution and imaging of instruments and the wide and deep soundstage. This album all but transports you to a live venue.
Kung-Fu World Champion (track 1) and Keytalk (track 7) both have far too much synthesized sound IMO, but track 1 is an excellent demonstration set. Tracks 2 - 4 are all great sets, but I particularly liked Brain (track 4) and Legend of the Purple Valley which are well structured rhythmic sets based on story telling. Hiromi says track 4 "is about the fighting between reasons and emotions" - it is a very dramatic and beautiful piece that changes tempo several times and highlights her considerable piano skills. Track 8 was based on an ancient Japanese story and it's another beautiful and dramatic highlight of this album. The album maintains a great deal of energy throughout and is a truly rewarding listening experience.
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| Review by Marpow November 6, 2014 (2 of 3 found this review helpful)
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Hiromi: Brain Hybrid SACD Stereo/Multichannel 2004
My second Hiromi disc, her second also. Recorded end of 2003 and released in 2004. For me this performance and multi channel was a little less than her first, Another Mind.
Performance: was a bit subdued, she did not go after the big piano bass sound that was in the previous. There where also more synth keyboard work which was good. The bass guitar and drumming is fantastic, Tony Grey and Anthony Jackson, splitting the tracks on bass and Martin Valihora on all tracks, drums.
Multi Channel Sonics: I felt a tiny bit lopsided to the right front and was wanting a little bit more in left rear. The balance was good and tended to be a little bit too much, front loaded. Would have liked to hear all the speakers working more. But outside of that a great mix, done well.
Stereo Sonics: It's really hard to be objective after listening to the multi channel, but the stereo was very well balanced with good interplay between the two speakers. I also listened to in my car, you wont get the DSD but you do get a good disc that is great while driving.
Packaging: Plastic jewel case with square corners. Good liner notes by Hiromi and as always fantastic Telarc recording notes.
Just this weekend Hiromi played 4 nights, 2 shows a night at Yoshi's in Oakland with Journey drummer Steve Smith and I just could not get there, very dissapointed.
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| Review by mlgrado January 6, 2015 (1 of 4 found this review helpful)
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As to why one reviewer thought the treble should be more 'brilliant and airy'...
this is a Michael Bishop production. Mr. Bishop believes in conversion of DSD to analog for mixing then re-digitizing as DSD. Therefore, there are multiple, and many would argue, unneeded conversions during production. I am personally not convinced that the conversion to analog and back to digital is better for audio fidelity than conversion to DXD or DSD-wide for mixing.
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Sonics: 
