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    Kiss - Konfidential & X-Treme Close Up

    Universal/Universal . R4 . COLOR . 179 mins . M15+ . PAL

      Feature
    Contract

    Influenced by the bizarre, outlandish on-stage antics of shock-rocker Alice Cooper and the notorious glam band the New York Dolls, Kiss became an American institution throughout the 1970s, capturing the imagination of their audiences with their flamboyant costumes and extravagant concert performances. Featuring live presentations which bore more semblance to an exuberant circus show than an actual concert, Kiss could never have been branded subtle: complementing the elaborate lighting, blood spitting, fire breathing, incendiaries, smoke bombs, and dry ice, was a hard-driving, anvil-pounding guitar sound.

    Although formulaic and predictable, their potent blend of power ballads and rock anthems provided the foundation for similarly-themed glam groups in the 1980s, including such acts as Poison, Motley Crue and Warrant.

    Formally of the New York-based hard rock outfit Wicked Lester, bassist Gene Simmons and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley created Kiss’ nucleus in the early 1970s. The quartet was completed when drummer Peter Criss was recruited via his advertisement in Rolling Stone magazine, and guitarist Ace Frehley responded to a classified in The Village Voice. Impressed by the band’s on-stage theatrics at their first Manhattan concert in 1973, producer Bill Aucoin negotiated a management agreement with the group; within a mere two weeks, Kiss gained a recording contract with Neil Bogart’s Casablanca label.

    Their first release was the self-titled album Kiss, which debuted in February 1974 and peaked on the U.S. Billboard charts at number 87; despite limited success, the group began to gain a reputation as a dynamic live act and, with their constant national tours, Kiss started to establish a large and fervently devoted fan base. Their fifth album, Alive! (1975), soared into the Top Ten, supported by an accompanying smash single, “Rock ‘N’ Roll All Nite,” which climbed to number 12; both of these successes launched Kiss into superstar status. However, it was their next effort, the 1976 platinum-selling Destroyer, with its Criss-penned power ballad “Beth,” that cemented their position in the public consciousness.

    Destroyer was the first album in which to feature the band in its lurid costumes and trademark makeup on its cover and sparked off an immense wave of public hysteria and frantic merchandising, cumulating in the publication of two comic books by Marvel, pinball machines, masks, cosmetics, board games, and the live-action television film Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. The 1977 Gallup poll named Kiss America’s most popular band, who rapidly gained an enigmatic persona for their never appearing in public without disguises, while the membership of the group’s official fan club, The Kiss Army, climbed into the millions; this was perhaps the most lucrative period in Kiss’ history.

    After all four members released solo albums simultaneously on the same day in October 1978, Kiss produced yet another multi-platinum effort, 1978’s Dynasty; its success, however, hid the turmoil which was to consume the band, beginning with Peter Criss’ decision to leave the lineup in 1980. Within that same year, the mediocre Unmasked was unleashed and experienced poor reviews and even poorer sales. Recorded with Criss’ temporary replacement, session drummer Anton Fig, Unmasked failed to achieve platinum, the first to do since Destroyer, and served as an ominous prelude to the band’s near decline.

    The performance of their 1981 album Music From the Elder, the first to be recorded with permanent replacement drummer Eric Carr, was nothing short of dismal; unable to reach number 75 on the U.S. charts, it did not even warrant gold status. Kiss’ misfortunes grew worse with the departure of Ace Frehley, who declared his intention to pursue a solo career, and he was subsequently replaced with guitarist Vinnie Vincent in 1982. Although more successful than its predecessor, 1982’s Creatures of the Night fell beneath all expectations, stalling at number 45 on the Billboard charts, and precipitated the group’s drastic reappraisal of itself; Kiss discarded their makeup for a more mature look with 1983’s Lick It Up.

    Their first platinum album in four years, Lick It Up revitalised the band and galvanised their renewed assault on the music charts; spearheading the attack was the 1984 studio recording Animalize. Throughout the rest of the decade, Kiss produced an onslaught of best-selling albums which, supported by dynamic and flamboyant stage shows, kept the band in public focus, climaxing in 1990 with the power ballad “Forever,” their biggest single since “Beth.” In 1990, while scheduled to collaborate on a new studio project with their former producer Bob Ezrin, Eric Carr was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and died in September 1991. His successor, Eric Singer, participated in the recording of 1992’s Revenge, which acquired gold status and became a Top Ten smash.

    In 1996, Kiss’ original lineup - Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss - announced plans for an ambitious world tour and, in what many considered to be a cynical attempt at merchandising, donned their infamous makeup and costumes. Featuring their typical theatrical flair and dazzling pyrotechnics, the 1996 tour was one of the most profitable of that year. To capitalise on their new-found popularity, the reformed quartet released the album Psycho Circus in 1998, which generated mostly unfavourable reviews with many critics regarding it to be reminiscent of 1980’s Unmasked: ill-conceived, ill-focused, and underscored with predictable rock riffs and banal lyrics.

    Despite the rumours that their 1998 Psycho Circus tour was their swan song, Kiss embarked on another world tour in the spring of 2000, indicating that this would, indeed, herald their farewell in the United States. In a contentious dispute over his salaries, Criss abruptly left the group on the eve of their Japanese and Australian tour; he was promptly replaced by Singer, who, in a controversial move, assumed not only Criss' position, but also his predecessor’s cat-like makeup.

    "I can honestly say in the last ten years, Gene Simmons was not on this planet, not on this Kiss planet. I was physically there... I mean, I did all the tours, but mentally wasn’t there. I mean, for years, I looked like a drag queen. I looked like Phyllis Diller’s cousin or something, wearing Joan Crawford’s Mommie Dearest clothing... I looked like something I f**ked the night before... "

    Kiss: Konfidential & X-treme Close Up is comprised of not one, but two, individual features, which were originally released by Polygram Video International in 1993 and 1992, respectively. Konfidential is primarily a concert presentation, interspersed with behind-the-scenes footage, and featuring the band in its more “serious” phase, minus the makeup; however, its real value is derived from its four never-before-seen live clips. On the other hand, X-treme Close Up is an insightful documentary, detailing the band’s rise to prominence and its near destruction, and contains candid conversations with band members Simmons, Stanley, drummer Eric Singer, and guitarist Bruce Kulick. In addition, X-treme Close Up also includes vintage live footage and promo clips.

    Konfidential Track Listing / Running Time (1:27:34)

    1. Creatures of the Night
    2. Deuce
    3. I Just Wanna
    4. Unholy
    5. Heaven’s on Fire
    6. 100,000 Years (Filmed in Detroit 1976)
    7. Nothin’ to Lose (Filmed in San Francisco 1975)
    8. Hotter Than Hell (Filmed in Detroit 1976)
    9. Let Me Go Rock ‘n’ Roll (Filmed in Japan 1977)
    10. Domino
    11. Lick It Up
    12. Forever
    13. Take It Off
    14. I Love It Loud
    15. God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll to You II
    16. Star Spangled Banner
    X-treme Close Up Track Listing / Running Time (1:29:20)

    1. Unholy (Video, 1992)
    2. Sure Know Something (Video excerpt, 1976)
    3. Watching You (Live excerpt, filmed at Winterland, 1975)
    4. Black Diamond (Live excerpt, filmed at Cobo Hall, 1975)
    5. Gold Gin (Live excerpt, filmed at the Capital Centre, 1975)
    6. Deuce (Live excerpt, filmed at Cobo Hall, 1975)
    7. 100,000 Years (Live excerpt, filmed at the Cobo Hall, 1975)
    8. Let Me Go Rock ‘N’ Roll (Live excerpt, filmed at Anaheim, 1976)
    9. Beth (Live excerpt, filmed at Madison Square Garden, 1977)
    10. God of Thunder (Live excerpt, filmed in Japan, 1978)
    11. Black Diamond (Live excerpt, filmed in Japan, 1977)
    12. Love ‘Em & Leave ‘Em (Video, 1976)
    13. Hard Luck Woman (Video, 1976)
    14. I Stole Your Love (Live excerpt, 1977)
    15. I Was Made For Lovin’ You (Video excerpt, 1979)
    16. World Without Heroes (Video excerpt, 1981)
    17. Calling Dr. Love (Live excerpt, filmed in Brazil, 1982)
    18. War Machine (Live excerpt, filmed in Brazil, 1982)
    19. Lick It Up (Video excerpt, 1983)
    20. Let’s Put the X in Sex (Video excerpt, 1988)
    21. Rise to It (Video, 1989)
    22. Hide Your Heart (Video, 1989)
    23. Forever (Video, 1989)
    24. I Just Wanna (Video, 1992)

      Video
    Contract

    Kiss: Konfidential & X-treme Close Up is presented in a screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is not anamorphic.

    Evidently shot and distributed for the video market in 1992 and 1993, both features’ transfers are problematic, exhibiting frequent fluctuations of brightness and contrast levels in the interview content, which tend to affect black levels. Quite often, blacks alternate between being solid and rather smoky. Due to the inclusion of archival live footage and promo clips, video quality varies somewhat. During the interviews, detail is quite sharp, but not remarkable; elsewhere, it can perhaps be best described as well-defined. There are some cases of oversaturation and bleeding, most notably in Konfidential’s live presentation and X-treme Close Up’s archival material. None of it proved too detrimental.

    Although film artefacts and film-to-video artefacts seem to be at a minimum, there is an abundance of compression artefacts, consisting mostly of mild to moderate instances of pixelation, and minor macro-blocking. Though noticeable, most of it is not too distracting. However, there is a particularly shocking moment at 12 minutes and 34 seconds, where Paul Stanley’s face is obscured by a mass of pixelated blocks; in addition, there is a horrific display of slow-down. Lasting for a moment or two, it has a severe impact on the viewing experience, but this anomaly is fortunately not present in the transfer’s remainder.

    There are no real issues relating to aliasing or moiré. Nonetheless, there is significant edge enhancement and is most prominent during Konfidential, where it can be seen to affect guitars, microphone stands, and Eric Singer’s drum kit. Depending on your personal persuasion, you can either accept and ignore these incidents with consideration to the nature of the source material, or it can be interpreted as a major catastrophe. Either way, its effect is less than desirable, and poses a major threat to the enjoyment of the feature itself.

    Although it is a dual-layered, single-sided disc, there is no layer transition on Kiss: Konfidential & Close Up, as each feature is located on separate sides.

      Audio
    Contract

    There are two audio selections available: the PCM 48k/16b and the Dolby Digital 2.0 sound track. Without question, the PCM is far superior to the Dolby Digital 2.0 presentation, exhibiting greater clarity and expanding the soundfield considerably with regards to vocals, instrumentation and bass; this is most evident in Konfidential’s live performances. In comparison, the Dolby Digital 2.0 appears to be muted and compressed. Viewed via the Dolby Pro-Logic decoder, there is general, but not earth-shattering, support from the rear surrounds; the subwoofer is, of course, inactive.

    Due to the archival nature of the live footage and promo clips, sound quality is variable. While most of it is acceptable, there are moments where sound levels are horribly compressed, with the main offenders being X-treme Close Up’s concert presentations of “Gold Gin,” “Deuce,” and “100,000 Years.” In particular, “Gold Gin” is so bad that Gene Simmons’ vocals exhibit heavy distortion and are quite shrill, while the accompanying instrumentation is weak to the point of being almost inaudible. Although dialogue in Konfidential's and X-treme Close Up’s interview content is always clear and easy to understand, there seem to be periods of brief and subtle fluctuation in sound levels.

    However, these problems can be attributed to the audio limitations in the original source material and, therefore, are not indicative of the actual transfer.

      Extras
    Contract

    Unless one is willing to classify either Konfidential or X-treme Close Up as additional material, there are no extras.

      Overall  
    Contract

    Kiss: Konfidential & X-treme Close Up is an entertaining glimpse into the formation and near decline of one of the most prestigious supergroups of the 1970s, filled with intriguing and ironic anecdotes from its founding members, Simmons and Stanley. While Stanley seems to veer between being introspective and egotistical, Simmons is a true revelation here: much more than just a demonic fire-breathing, blood-spitting cartoon character, Simmons proves that he is an articulate, thoughtful and a hysterically funny individual with a great flair for fantastical stories. Also included are irreverent tales of what it is to be a rock ‘n’ roll star, its benefits, and its trappings. And then there are the groupies...

    The ideal companion piece to Kiss: The Second Coming, Kiss: Konfidential & Close Up has numerous flaws, but if one can overlook them, they will discover that it is a worthy addition to the collection of any Kiss fan.


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      And I quote...
    "The ideal companion piece to Kiss: The Second Coming... if one can forgive its flaws... "
    - Shaun Bennett
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Panasonic SC-HT80
    • TV:
          Panasonic TX-43P15 109cm Rear Projection
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
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