UMMAGUMMA

"Ummagumma" is a two album set, one live & one studio, released by Pink Floyd in 1969. Due to the length of the songs on the live album, and the solo nature of each of the songs on the studio album, I've decided to rate & review each song individually, and then give some comments about the albums in their entirety at the end. Keep in mind that the song ratings are only partially related to the overall album ratings. There are some real gems on this double album. How they work together, however, is a different story. Anyway, here goes.

Live Album:

"Astonomy Domine" (4/5): This is quite good--doing justice to the original studio version by Syd Barrett. Those who have only heard the version on "Piper..." may be shocked to hear how good it is without the original singer, but it must be noted that Gilmour needed to play this song live most of the time due to Barrett's inability to perform with his rapidly deteriorating mental state. It's a bit long in the tooth at the 5:30 mark, but it comes back nicely.

"Careful With That Axe...Eugene" (5/5): As far as I know, this is the only version of the song on an album until Relics was released in 1971. It was very well done, with Water's screams about as primal as they can be. Each of the movements has theme and directionality, and so, carries the listener to another place. This is the best track on the live album.

"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (4/5): It contains a great instrumental/drum roll intro that was better than the studio version released in 1968. The lyrics are too soft, just barely audible. The instrumental section blows away the studio version. There is an interlude of sound effects for those who appreciate them. But the song fades out at end with no audience feedback. I Wonder what that's about. Maybe the particular version they liked happens to go on for another twenty minutes, so they cut it back.

"Saucerful of Secrets(4/5)": I don't think I truly appreciated the studio version until I heard this live version. It's very spacey. As with the studio version there are three distinct parts of this song: free-form space, drums & space, and finally, a requiem. The first and second parts are excellent and due justice to the studio version. However, I believe the vocal portion of the requiem is a little better on the studio album than live. But I should mention that it is a bit longer live, and it's somewhat more satisfying in that regard.

Studio Album:

"Sysyphus, Pt.1" (4/5): This is a great start to the album, which totally sets the dark mood for what is to follow. It sounds like the beginning of some science fiction movie, with banging orchestral drums, eerie keyboards. Unfortunately, it moves, without a break, right into Part 2, a less than satisfying instrumental.

"Sysyphus, Pt.2" (3/5): The beginning of this part marked by light Piano work which sounds like it could be taken from any great piano concerto. About a minute and a half into the composition, it degenerates into extreme atonality. Luckily,that portion of the composition only lasts for about 2 minutes. Three stars may be too generous for this ultimately unsatisfying, piece, but it is original and experimentative.

"Sysyphus, Pt.3" (2/5): This piece is a combo of piano, drum cymbals, and some sound effects, many of which will be used later in Waters' "Several Species..." song. The inital sound is reminicent of the soundtrack for "Planet of the Apes". But it becomes rather cacaphonous and atonal from about the midway mark until the end. It's pretty redundant in relation to Part 2.

"Sysyphus, Pt.4" (4/5): Here we have very spacey sound effects with some organ tapping out some light and somewhat atonal movements. In the middle comes the orchestral drums again, then it moves back into the spacey sound effects/organ. There is a crecendo of atonality before it moves back into the orinal theme developed in Part 1. Here at least, the experiment in atonality has some direction. It's better than parts 2 & 3.

"Grantchester Meadows" (4/5): This is the first of the two lyrical pieces on the studio album. It provides light acoustic guitar accompanyment to a very pastoral, folksy kind of song (birds are chirping in the background). The lyrics are extremely image laden, and are sung very well with a rhythm that seems to break at the end of each line of the chorus. It's similar to a Simon & Garfunkel acoustical rhythm & melody, but with better lyrics. This could have been a 5/5 song if only there was guitar accompanyment from an accomplished guitarist, especially during the musical interlude between the 2nd and 3rd verses.

"Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict" (4/5): It begins with sound effects reminicent of those on Sysyphus, Pt. 3, but developed further to mimmick the pittering of tiny feet. Towards the end, Waters starts speaking like an angry pict (Roman era Scotsman), who seems to be talking with the small furry animals. There is experimentative and original use of tape effects, and is quite novel and amusing, but I'm not sure you can call this music. I AM sure the stoners will enjoy it.

"The Narrow Way, Pt. 1" (4/5): Tape effects lead into a light acoustical song. It's very soothing after "Several Species...", and very nice to listen to. Spacey effects build up later in the song and lead in to the heavier sound of part 2.

"The Narrow Way, Pt. 2" (4/5): This track provides a heavy, gloomy electric guitar with bongo style drumming and tape effects accompanyment. Effects become more prominent as the song progresses, but always that gloomy guitar line, albeit at a much lower volume.

"The Narrow Way, Pt. 3" (4/5): The spacey guitar picks up the effects from previous part and moves into a lyrical piece that's pretty good. It has a certain Beatle's feel to it, similar to "She's So Heavy" off "Abbey Road", but much better, and without the repetitive riff. As with "Grantchester Meadows", parts 2 & 3 of this composition could have been a 5/5 song with proper accompanyment--in this case, the drums.

"The Grand Vizier's Garden Party, Pt. 1" (3/5): This is a short, pleasant flute piece that gives way to a drum roll.

"The Grand Vizier's Garden Party, Pt. 2" (2/5): The tape effects and drums sound like 1970's spooky background TV music. It's spacey and experimental, finally moving into a conventional but short drum solo. One gets the feeling that this composition wants to go somewhere--build towards something magnificent, but ultimately falls flat. It's fine for stoners, but doesn't really seem to go anywhere for the rest of us.

"The Grand Vizier's Garden Party, Pt. 3" (2/5)= Here's the same flute piece from Part 2, but without the drum roll. It's repetitive and unnecessary.

Summary:

There's not much to say about the live album other than it is very enjoyable. The music is great and very satisfying, but the sound quality leaves much to be desired. I give it a solid 4 stars. The fact that "Interstellar Overdrive" could have been included and wasn't, the barely audible vocals on "Set the Controls...", and the poor audio quality in the rest of the pieces prevent the live album from getting a rating of 4.5 or better.

The studio album requires a bit more explanation. The primary concept of this album was to give each band member a chance to demonstrate their skills, each with about half an album side to pursue a solo project. It's kind of like each member saying, I've got a right to be in this very progressive/experimental rock band, and here's why. In that regard, the studio album is moderately successful.

This album is brimming with potential, but it is hampered by the solo member concept that it was wedded to. I can't help feeling that this album could have been much better if this concept was ditched after the songs were written, but prior to recording. The two lyrcal songs ("Grantchester Meadows" & "The Narrow Way") could have been better if they had some collaboration, or at least accompanyment, by other members of the band more practiced in their respective crafts (guitar & drums). Furthermore, a change in song position on the album alone could have produced a better flow, rather than resting on the flawed and unimaginative concept of segregating each member to their walled portion of the album. And some of the pieces could be dropped completely without any loss to the album, and perhaps much gain. "Sysypus Pt. 3" is redundant and directionless and should have been dropped. And "Grand Vizier's Garden Party, Pt.2" is so poorly developed, it should have been dropped or at a minimum, re-worked. There are some real gems here, but the album could have been much better with more professional accompanyment, collaboration, better song position & some song drops. So, I give the studio album 3 stars.

Even with all its flaws, "Ummagumma" (as with many early Floyd albums) becomes more listenable, the more one listens to it. Four stars for the live album, and three for the studio. So, overall I give "UmmaGumma" 3.5 stars. So, there it is. What could have been a 4 or 5 star effort is reduced to an official 3 stars.

And here is a special note to all casual Floyd fans, BEWARE! This is not "Dark Side of the Moon", nor is it "Wish you were Here". This is Pink Floyd in their most experimental phase. Atonality is incorporated into several of the pieces. Tape effects are used on nearly every studio track, lyrical and instrumental alike, and the studio album is comprised almost entirely of the latter. It's very progressive, but is obviously not for everyone. If all you know is "Dark Side..." or "The Wall", then I would suggest that "Meddle" or "Obscrued By Clouds" are better albums on which to cut your teeth.