jackhammer

Welcome To The Machine is the second track from WISH YOU WERE HERE fella!

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sleepy jack

I see I was told to listen to it I assumed it was an album.

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mr. goth glam

I'd say these are some of your strongest reviews yet, man.

Keep them coming and hey, maybe there's a zine out there that might want to run them for the February issue.

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Seltzer

Meddle is probably my fav Floyd album though for long tracks, I do prefer Shine On You Crazy Diamond to Echoes.

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jackhammer

UMMAGUMMA (1969)


A very strange beast in the Floyd canon but one that should not be immediately rejected to the bottom of the pile solely on it's surface credentials. One half compising of four live tracks and the other half of approx 10-12 minutes sections of each band member creating their own music. This gives credence to the fact that when Pink Floyd are on the money (live) they are millionaires, but when flying solo they can sometimes have trouble rustling up the respective quarters required.

Part one consists of: ASTRONOMY DOMINE
CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE, EUGENE
SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN
A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS

Recorded live over two gigs: Birmingham and Manchester April/May 1969, the live tracks are truly brilliant pieces of Psychedelic rock. CWTA,E is the standout track both musically and historically. It is a truly brilliant piece of work that has it's origins in some early John Peel sessions and on the 1969 tour as BEAST FROM THE CREATURES OF THE DEEP. The primordial scream of the title track's name from Roger Waters still raises the hairs on the back of your neck nearly 30 years after it was recorded. The three other tracks are equally a shining example of the Floyd's continuing talent at conjuring a stunning live atmosphere.

Part 2:

The four members of Floyd get a short amount of time to showcase their talent. Unfortunately it comes out as an interesting but supremely flawed experiment, with most of the members disliking what they had done.

Rick Wright starts proceedings with his 4 part keyboard workout. Now we know he is an accomplished pianist but he wants to dispel this theory. At times this could be a soundtrack for a surreal Italian film, it lacks focus and genuinely great passages of play.

Roger Waters begins with a lazy but alluring acoustic led piece of pure Britannica. The background has a constant (but not distracting) soundtrack of the English countryside with birds cheeping and streams nonchalantly winding their way through the land. What follows seems to be the anithesis of this. Discordant and chaotic, SEVERAL SPIECES OF SMALL FURRY ANIMALS GATHERED TOGETHER IN A CAVE AND GROOVING WITH A PICT is an assault on the ears sonically, however the recording techniques used are very innovative and ahead of their time. It's still unlistenable though!

David Gilmour gives us a three part piece with vocals dominating the middle piece. It is both the most generic of the experiments and the safest and although it features some interesting guitar sounds (reverb, echo etc) it is some of the worst work he has ever done (and that as a huge Gilmour fan is a huge admission). Gilmour himself admitted he did'nt have a clue what he was doing.

Nick Mason closes the album with the most interesting work. Musically it is still not a cohesive work, but there is a sense of genuine experimentation apparent and there are some startling effects used in the track. Funnily enough Percussion is kept to a minimum on his section and it is all the more alluring for it.

This album is still worth it for the sensational live tracks and for anyone interested in avant-Garde/ Experimental music. It did'nt always work but kudos to the Floyd for attempting something different, and in hindsight galvanised the band to become a whole songwriting unit and not a disparate bunch of ideas fighting to get noticed.

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ninaNirvana

Bravo, Mr. Jack Hammer. Ummaguma was the watershed Floyd album that, as you say perfectly, "galvanized the band to become a whole songwriting unit and not a disparate bunch of ideas fighting to get noticed" and set the stage for Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, etc..

My parents are HUGE Floyd fans I am sending them the link to all your reviews here. Well done :-) This entire thread is excellent. 5 stars! You should write professionally; you have that flow and style of a seasoned writer and it is obvious that you have a passion for music and for writing about music, and have spent an awful amount of time listening with an open mind and trained ears.

Agreed! I think every true Floyd fan needs to do Dark Side Of Oz at least once in their life!!!

I couldn't think of a another Floyd example... but
how about Mark Knophler's/Dire Straits ( Sting too ) "Money For Nothing" ...we get to install microwave ovens, custom kitchens....that's the way you do it..money for nothing and your chicks for free...

Something Mark overheard when two working-class gentlemen were pointing at a music video on the televisions on display at an electronics store...

It helped introduce the MTV generation a little more to the world back in the late 80s. I can rememeber the video even though I was only about 5 years old at the time as it had animation graphics and I liked that very much.

Maybe I missed another post in here; but lately I have been listening to a lot of Barrett's work on The Madcap Laughs. "Terrapin" and "Dark Globe" are true gems. I think Pete Jenner (manager?) went on to produce Syd Barret after Glimour replaced him in the band. I don't think it is as much an "album" as it is a collection of Barrett songs since he was extremely hard to work with as his descent into LSD-perma-madness was exponentially increasing at that point in his life. Sad story about Syd...I tend to put Syd in the same category as Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and Ian Curtis of Joy Division.

jackhammer

ATOM HEART MOTHER (1970)


Before any analysis of the music is commented on, kudos to the Floyd and creative consultant Storm Thorgesen/Hipgnosis for creating a simple yet iconic album cover. Talk about distancing yourselves from the music....curiously it was'nt just the cover art that provided this. ATOM HEART MOTHER is one of the most ambitious, yet undeniable failures in Pink Floyd's back catalogue.

The attempt to marry orchestral/choral work to the Floyd's undenieably ambitious musical leanings was a deeply flawed undertaking. The title track is a 20 minute plus extended piece that includes a few snippets of classic Floyd but nevertheless falls short of the sound that both the Floyd and co-writer (a rare credit for an external writer) Ron Geesin were searching for. The rythmn section (Bass and Guitars) were recorded in one take due to the protracted nature of the Orchestral recordings and a terrible lapse in tempo is evident early on in the track. Even listening back after a long hiatus, it is difficult to find any significant points to recommend this track.

The latter half is more tolerable with contributions from both Wright (SUMMER 68) and Gilmour (FAT OLD SUN). however it is Roger Waters' IF that provides a tiny glimpse into the Floyd that was to come. This acoustic/folk tinged track was an indication both musically and lyrically to what Waters was striving for within Pink Floyd.

ALAN'S PSYCHEDELIC BREAKFAST end's the album is to be truthful an awful track, and one of my least favourite Floyd tracks. Featuring many interludes of engineer Alan Parsons providing a running commentary on his breakfast running over a fairly standard piece of rock/physcedelia that was so prevalent in the late 60'/early 70's.

In summation. A missed opportunity for the Floyd but it still somehow pushed an undisputed masterpiece kicking and screaming from it's tired and flabby body....

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Wayfarer

The title track is awesome.

snagglepuss

Nice to see this thread getting a lotta love! I am a super huge Floyd fan, my favorite period being '68-'72. Right after Syd;Right before Dark Side.

However I must disagree with the review of Atom Heart Mother. This entire album is a masterpiece! Especially the title track. Even Stanley Kubrick thought so. He wanted to use it as the theme to A Clockwork Orange, but since he wanted to cut it up and only use pieces of it, Roger Waters said No.
Not sure if that was good thing though, cuz it might have given the Floyd better exposure but then we wouldn't have Wendy Carlos' haunting electronica, now would we?

The guitar solo in Fat Old Sun is just a harbinger of what was to come from David Gilmour. He hadn't really broken out the epic solos until this one.

Summer '68 is Ricks finest achievement, aside from the "ping" that we all know became "Echoes".

If is another foreshadowing of the lyricist that Roger Waters was becoming. More introspective than previous songs

As for Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast, what a beautiful pastoral feeling to this song, especially the first two parts. I dare you to listen to this song and not get the feeling that it's a lazy Sunday morning, newspaper out, bacon sizzling, coffee, toast, eggs, Marmalade(i like marmalade). It's a very relaxing song.

Atom Heart Mother happens to be my favorite PF album. It took a few listens to grow on me. It was the last Floyd album I got into. I can see why people aren't as psyched about AHM as they are about DSOTM.

AHM and Ummagumma are kind of "Rites of Passage" with Floyd nuts cuz I guess if you really like and can get into these albums then you really are a true Floyd fan!

Definitley NOT a "missed opportunity" for the Floyd, nor a "failure" as our reviewer put it. More like a springboard for Darkside.

jackhammer

Each to their own I guess. The Floyd certainly have little love for it and the production is muddy to me. I applaud the sincerity of the project but the end result is probably my least listened to Floyd album (outside of The Wall that is). The second half is much better but I generally like to hear floyd albums in full so I rarely make it to the second half.

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