STACK November 2016 Issue 145

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74 NOVEMBER 2016
It's a rainy Saturday afternoon
in the future. An old man is in
his basement, tinkering with
something he dragged out of a
bombed-out house up the street.
"What's that Grandpa?" the little
girl asks as she creaks down
the stairs. He sits her down
in a strategically positioned
armchair, turns up the volume on
the amplifier. He lowers the needle
into the black plastic groove and
mutters something about a special
machine for listening to Pink Floyd.
As the shimmering hum of
Father's Shout rises to a fanfare of
hunting horns, he hands her the
album cover. The hyper-real photo
of a cow is a hundred times bigger
than any thumbnail she's ever
seen. She opens it like a storybook,
sinks into the ominous, grainy
pastoral vista as the sound of a
motorcycle splits the room from
one speaker to the other.
" Atom Heart Mother," she
whispers. The violins sob. The choir
rises to meet the birdsong. She's
gone, out of her tiny mind and
away. And Dave Gilmour hasn't
even played his first stinging guitar
solo yet.
She could have started pretty
much anywhere in her appreciation
of the almost-lost art of listening
– as long as it was a Pink Floyd
record. For nearly as long as
the rock album has existed as a
concept, this morphing psychedelic
institution from London has been
the ultimate immersion experience.
All of which is to say that yes,
dammit, yet another reissue
program – this time on 180-gram
vinyl, remastered by long-suffering
producer/engineer James Guthrie
and cohorts – is an essential
service to the culture and future
wellbeing of human civilisation.
From the extreme stereoscopic
head-trip of their 1967 debut with
Syd Barrett, to the consistently
mind-blowing artwork of Storm
Thorgeson and Hipgnosis, the
many phases of their epic British
legend comprise the most
intriguing marriage of sound and
vision in the history of... "Shh,
Grandpa, I'm trying to listen to
Funky Dung."
Hang on princess, l'm going
somewhere with this.
The chronology of the Pink Floyd
Records vinyl series is a little weird,
but maybe no more so than in
the random collision of avenues
on any of the early albums. The
Piper at the Gates of Dawn and
A Saucerful of Secrets are ripe for
discovery at any time, and from
moment to moment.
Barrett's psychedelic, music hall
bikes and unicorns run rings around
free-jazz, pastoral loveliness,
musique concrete experimentation
and much more; always, always in
the service of an inward journey
deep into the unknown.
The most recent series to hit
shelves is no less essential. The
early '70s trilogy of Atom Heart
Mother, Meddle and the film
soundtrack Obscured By Clouds are
portals to soccer crowd ambience,
cut with soft-shoe shuffle and slow
blues, and accompanied by howling
dog. Oh, and songs. Songs like you
won't believe, princess.
PiNK FLOYD
- the Dark Side of
the Moon, Wish You
Were Here, Animals
Out November 11 via Sony.
COLD CHISEL
- COLD CHISEL,
BREAKFAST AT
SWEETHEARTS, EAST,
CIRCUS ANIMALS,
TWENTIETH CENTURY
Out now via Universal.
CROWDED HOUSE
- Crowded
house, Woodface,
afterglow,
together alone,
temple of low men,
intriguer
Out November 4 via
Universal.
Michael Dwyer ponders Sony's reissuing of Pink
Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn ('67), A
Saucerful of Secrets ('68), Atom Heart Mother ('70),
Meddle ('71), Obscured By Clouds ('72), TheWall ('79),
and The Division Bell ('94) on vinyl. Words Michael Dwyer
"What about this one with the
brick wall? And this one with the
big tin heads in the field?"
Well, some are more of an
acquired taste. "Movies for the
ears," as producer Bob Ezrin liked
to call 'em. Maybe it's the band's
infamous ego wars that have
fast-tracked the release of Roger
Waters' magnum opus, The Wall,
and Dave Gilmour's double-LP epic
of '94, The Division Bell. PFRLP11
and PFRLP14, according to the
new serial numbers…
"Uh, Grandpa? You're getting
weird."
Sorry honey. Hey. Do you want
to hear one about Animals? (Sony)
ComingUp
PINK FLOYD