pink floyd

...ah the original mono mix of pipers, the holy grail of available wax from the original floydian cats, syd and his architect friends, the true floyd (overtaken by circumstance has left everyone who cares wondering what might have happened if syd had been allowed to progress organically in his drugged mystical musical trip, not have the pressures of pop and hangers on giving him overdose proportions of the 'dreaded' LSD taking him so far into the void there was no way back to this world, another plain of existence had opened and syd seemed trapped forever in someone elses creation) delivered this mix by themselves mostly, with minimal guidance from the producer...syd worked on the mix in a painting style, putting slight emphasises where they were needed, moving around with the faders digging the moment, listening to the patterns unfold and refold into themselves before breaking free...as is a known actuality the mono joint is more punchy, a post freakbeat sound with an amphetamine coating, much more acceptable to pilled up mods/new hippies as the metallic speed freak noise cuts exploding into the nervous system...the amerikkkan version of pipers is different once more, plus a small deviation in the track line up...the difference here is more down to pressing than intentional alteration, tower records, the imprint that imparted this albion psych slab on the colonials was a low budget exploitation outlet for capitol records, such was the faith of the bean counters in this new sound from across the pond...hours of fun for all layabouts with the right accessories...(these are taken from original vinyl so a few scuffs will reveal themselves, hopefully causing no alarm)...

...MONO alert MONO alert...a couple of years back pipers had once more been issued with 'better' sound and this time as part of a present giving package with the mono given pride of place and well it might be...back in the day every cat would be wanting the newly fandangled stereo groover and not the old dansette mono, that was yesterday and that was a far away place in underground circles...times were moving in various directions and so were the walls in hippy hangouts like the UFO in old london towne where floydian noise and lights mix with substances from the garden of universal id...it was natural to want the disk to sound all encompassing and the way to do it was through two channels to meet a cats dual lobes, to be surrounded by hep sound from the beings of NOW...the mono paints a different picture all together, not only instruments appearing that had been left out/faded from the stereo shenanigans, but there is much more attack, approaching a 'clean' version of the live happening and some jazzy bit in track 5 gives off vibes toward left coast experimental heads spirit, hense spanning the ocean reaching out with their own brand of NEW MUSIC...its much easier to get inside the tunes and hear a band that's got some roots in mid 1960's dance club R'n'B and is progressing without being in full knowledge of their accomplishments so the whole thing is in transgression from one style to another in a fluid sense, it goes where it goes because it does, not because it's been thought out in advance, this is avant garde for the POP generation...this mono disk is like living that flower power floydian summer for the first time, a time to be cherished when hope was in abundance waiting to be channelled into a brave new world......these two disks make up a real nice compilation of floydness when syd was happening, when he 'enjoyed' the reputation as numero uno hep cat around the more turned on environs of london town and all points spaceways...two gigs are featured, one from copenhagen (09.13.67), the other, two months later in rotterdam, both of which have been booted many times but even duplicate live syd is worth the effort to get to the heart of the matter...the two gigs show the floyd off to good stead, the numbers are noisy and funky, chaos is barely reigned in as the tunes go ever outward into the ether taking their place in the cosmos...
enormous blasts of electric mayhem shower the onlookers at both shows, decibel heavy gloopy LSD madness envelopes the audience as they go into frenzied freakout mode, each participant living in their own space, yet feeling at ease with the unfamiliarity of the new psychedelic sound, connected by the need to be set free from the stricture and structure of their respective societies...theres other groovy stuff in the form of a great interview with the floydian cats for CBC radio which is a great listen and lasts for a good ten minutes, the track prior is 'interstellar' with a voice over courtesy of granada television, again a great trip back to 67...'emily' acetate, 'roll another one' rehearsal, a couple of 'vegetable man' go throughs plus a few other bits and pieces which all add up to a goodly time visiting syd before it all went askew, plummeting into freeform nightmare, ?downhill? forever...

...5 versions of interstellar overdrive is the main thrust of this boot and it ain't any too many as what's happening here is the demo of this tune (recorded in some cats living room on two mono machines) from 31/10/66 with next up two versions from the flick 'tonight lets all make love in london' (the soundtrack mix and the one in the movie itself)...an edited version that appeared on a french E.P, plus one recorded for a TV documentary at the UFO club on 20/01/67...in between are other tunes in various states, acetates/'stereo enhancements'/more teevee docs and it's a real nice peep at the early floyd when they mutate from R&B hounds into proto acid voyagers from the outlying planet psychOdelia...the tracks recorded at UFO are particularly fine even though there's talk over the top as anything from that club is like a pathway to another dimension, a dimension of light and sound away from the squares, away from the uptight yesterday men...dig these cambridge cats when it was all new, no rules to follow just jamming in the surreal moment...

...nice second release in this 22 disk blow out of syd and floyd gubbings, a real monumental piece of work containing cd & dvd disks...this one has the usual tunes for the year in question (arnold/emily/vegetable/scream/controls etc.) all in different states of being (acetates/stereo mixes/BBCsessions) which makes for a hep listening time, like hearing them on a juke-box from the twilight zone where everything is slightly off kilter and wobbly, at first look it's familiar, then certain parts become different until it then becomes maddening getting an ear for things that ain't no longer there, very trippy as well it should be...having all this gear together in chronological order is a real buzz and compliments the mountain of boots that litter most layabouts shelves...clean out the bong and set the controls for the journey back to the summer of swinging london town...

...any live floyd with syd has got to be considered as grail for any heads who dig the psychedelic groove and not just floyd heads, this is for all cats who entered the alternate state and never left, this is the 24 hour dream that's lasted for four decades...2 gigs represented here, the first 6 tracks from the star club (copenhagen 9.13.67), the rest from the hippy happy fair (rotterdam11.13.67) and while the sound quality is as expected (so so) the outer body experience is topsville...both gigs supply wobbly transformations to the beyond-limits of the marvellous, this is tripping in dazed confusion, the R&B that originally informed the combos work is well and truely dispelled, heading off into freejazz outer spaceways bubbles...waves of sound wash from the speakers into marshmellow pillows of hazy groovyness, syd and his architectural friends are building new sonics into the musical landscape, a place that hasn't got a name yet, it's still part of pop, it hasn't been usurped and codified into identifiable consumer product...we can hear vaguely by the audience response that most don't know what to make of this new groove that's been placed before them, it's beyond entertainment for most, reaching into the void, the future maybe leaking through...one thing is for certain and that's these floyd cats weren't no air-fairy teatime sike, they were delivering aural colour patterns of wig lifting heavy crunch, slabs of electric-stoned-buzz setting the controls for tomorrow...dig the last two tracks (10/11), its like if the yardbirds (jeff/jimmy version as in 'blow up') had taken more acid they could have got to this state of being and there be no real need for zepp and hence no downer heavy '70s rock...

...buried under a storm of tape hiss lies a great listen to the floyd as they noodle their way through some space jams that by this time (03.27.69) they were exceeding in like no other acid rock combo...the sound once located under said hiss is a booming rumble in a cardboard box with inaudible mumbling vocals making this a top illicit earful just like the TMOQ cats used to put out back in the day, most likely on a pink wax as was their fancy...there's no deviating away from the idea that the heavy blasting disturbance of air here is like some kind of neanderthal krautrock wastage and not some polite pastoral prog (a cat might want to get thinking about amon duul, if they could really play their axes, getting down with this kind of basement spillage of prime slop)...they were recording the soundtrack to 'more' at the time and this sure is the antidote to that downer folk biscuit, this is more like 'rocket from the tombs' kicking out the jams on a wet thursday night just as the bad acid began to peak...if this had escaped instead of ummagumma the course of rock'n'roll proggy stuff would have been changed, instead of putting out DSOTM they'd be touring with the stooges and grand funk be opening the show with extra special guests stack waddy, the whole thing be like a homage to bad drugs and the wasted hippy-trash life...hotcha...

...there a few different versions of this gig (9th national UK jazz festival held at plumpton race course in '69 after many years at windsor and before it moved permanently to reading) and this one seems pretty complete, including interstellar encore which has been missing from some...it all kicks off with 'set the controls..' then moves into 'cymbaline' from the newly completed 'more' soundtrack...the centre piece is from the 'journey' which they had been taking around the country which luckily turns into some funky avant jam full of stoned doom vibes which is enhanced by the sometimes murky sound (no real tape hiss just a murk)...the 'man&journey' concept was later dumped as they got into doing the 'amazin pudding' (AHM) as their next project...the evening was brought to an end with some groovy space jamming on 'interstellar' where the floydian wander-lust meanders around in fine choogle...not as trance-noodle as some shows but some real nice white light moments appear nonetheless...

...considering the circumstances in which this was recorded, in the open air on a cassette some way from the stage it's not a bad sound and of obvious value as the gigs put on in hyde park london at the back end of the 60s (for free) ain't coming back any time soon...as the title may indicate this was an afternoon of combos affiliated to blackhill management (roy harper/edgar broughton/kevin ayres etc.) who all helped make the sunny day a groovy experience with myriad heads and the 'plain curious all digging the sounds of the underground...floyd do their usual space journeys(controls/eugene) and they also did AHM which does not seem to have survived as that is surely missing from every boot of this gig but the rest is here and it's a great reminder of long ago tymes, tripping in the sunshine with nary a care...as with all these type audience recordings we get to hear the heads chatting and this adds to the listening vibe more than takes away, it puts the listener right there in the sun...very nice addition to vintage floydian grooves...

...hi-fi snobs are really going to freak with this boot from their 'favourite' combo as this ain't the sort of sound they go for AT ALL: rough cut edits/a couple of different sources/tape hiss/audience coughing and all the things that make listening to illicit gubbings the funnest of fun...there's plenty of ace sounding board boots where the band are as lethargic and tedious as the studio versions in the later days but this, from december/22/70/sheffield U.K is prime-post-syd groovage where the sound quality must be of secondary consideration...great spaceways funky jams like embryo/controls/eugene/saucer all make for an excellent 2&1/2hours of floydian wobble...the gig finished up with a 30 minute A.H.M adding just the right amount of topping to a fine slice of vintage floydian pie...