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Old 01-21-2008, 02:20 PM   #24 (permalink)
jackhammer
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MEDDLE (1971)


For many this was the beginning of the classic Floyd sound that defined them through the 70's an indeed, David Gilmour and Nick Mason both proclaiming it's amongst their very best work.

The original idea was again to work separately (á la UMMAGUMMA) but instead pooled their collective ideas to produce one song that filled up one half of an LP. Of course this was the masterful ECHOES and it happened to be the first track (barring the usual TIME/ANOTHER BRICK ETC) that really described what the Floyd were all about. Beginning with a piano note sent through a Leslie speaker, this note sets the whole tone of the song. The track contains a dirty funky bass section replete with some great guitar work from Gilmour. Elsewhere the mid section is ambient bliss with amplified whale calls which segues into some uplifting Richard Wright keyboard work. This track is easily in my top five all time Floyd tracks. It is 23 minutes of pure Floyd brilliance.

Elsewhere the album opens with the rumbling bass riff of ONE OF THESE DAYS which was primarily played by Gilmour. The riff keeps building and climaxes with Nick Mason banging the stuffing out of his drum kit. It has quite a futuristic sound and the keyboards add to this ambience.

A PILLOW OF WINDS is a beautiful ballad with great guitar work, while FEARLESS features YOU WILL NEVER WALK ALONE sung by the fans at Liverpool F.C.

The album then takes a different route and features a sun kissed jazzy acoustic number penned by Waters and SEAMUS a psuedo blues track complete with a dog howling along to the music!

This album was where the Floyd became even more interested in recording techniques and a lot of the album was recorded on 16 track. Other highlights was Nick Mason uttering the words ONE OF THESE DAYS I'M GOING TO CUT YOU INTO LITTLE PIECES with a high pitch voice which was then slowed down onto tape.

Echoes will quite rightly be remembered as the catalyst for their success and the album is worth it just for this opus.
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