MORE (OST)

It's not unusual that a band is able to record an album in one week. Mostly Autumn took more or less a week to record their Lord of the Rings, Senmuth releases an album every two weeks since 2004, and studio recording sessions in one shot are a natural thing in the jazz world.

in 1969 Pink Floyd were in France. Somebody says because of "fiscal" reasons, however it's where they met the freak film director Barbet Schroeder. He has seen them years before at the UFO club and proposed them to make the soundtrack for his debut movie. In his intentions the soundtrack wasn't to be meant as background music to comment the scenes. He wanted Pink Floyd to create the music that the two main characters, addicted to heavy drugs, were used to listen to.

The result is incredible. The movie didn't have a huge success. I have never seen it but some reviews that I've read say that it's everything but a masterpiece. On the musical side, instead, we have a collection of songs that consist in an anticipation of what the Pink Floyd were about to become. The following Ummagumma will be closer to their previous efforts, in particular to Saucerful of Secrets. More gave them the possibility to be more creative, without having to sound like Syd Barrett. The songs are less experimental but this is also the first album on which all the lyrics are written by Roger Waters.

"Cirrus Minor" is a great opener. The sad acoustic guitar is counterbalanced by the ethereal keyboards while the lyrics move between quiet and stoned contemplation to a sense of death. A contrast that will be better exploited in Free Four and on the whole Dark Side of the Moon. The high reverb and the keyboard coda are remarkable.

"The Nile Song" is the heaviest track ever composed by Pink Floyd. It's a piece of hard rock, with distorted guitar and Gilmour's voice that's very raw. Growling shoudn't sound too bad here. From a structural point of view this is an ascending canon. At each turn the pitch increases of one tone, and this could potentially continue forever. Fadeout is the only possible end.

"The Crying Song" is more similar to Cirrus Minor, as it's quiet and relaxing. The bass line leads this short song.

"Up The Khyber" is made of drums and piano. A short chaotic track with a jazzy flavour. The Khyber connects Afghanistan and Pakistan. It makes sense in a movie about drugs.

Then it comes one of my favourite Pink Floyd's songs. "Green Is The Colour" is a predecessor of "Fat Old Sun". It has acoustic guitar and Gilmour's voice. It's melodic with a touch of country-rock with a very nice coda. It's followed by the album's masterpiece: "Cymbaline". Mimsy Farmer spins up a record and the first love scene starts (somebody told me so). It's a song about a nightmare (It's high time, Cymbaline, please wake me...). There's a number of live versions of this song which include longers solos by Wright. On the album Gilmour sings speachless on the coda, like he will do later on Wish You Were Here. This is the song which makes the difference between a 3-stars and a 4-stars album.

If I remember well, "Party Sequence was the closer of the A side. Just one minute of percussions and flute. Very flower power.

The B side is opened by the first psychedelic track of the album. It's an instrumental which borrows something from Saucerful of Secrets until bass and keyboards open the "Main Theme", that's also the track's title. I think the keyboard's sound reminds a bit to JM Jarre.

"Ibiza Bar" is a bit less hard than The Nile Song. It's not a Canon but it's very similar to it. The musical theme is similar to what the Pink Floyd will propose to Antonioni for Zabriskie Point. Something of this song can be found on Point me At The Sky and Crumbling Land.

"More Blues" is what its title says. A slow blues most of which played by guitar only.

"Quicksilver" is the longest track, even if just about 7 minutes long. A good psychedelic instrumental very athmospheric and very floydian. A great work from Rick Wright.

"A Spanish Piece" is a sort of joke. In addition the Tequila mentioned by the speaking drunk voice of Waters over a flamenco guitar is not Spanish.

The album is closed by "Dramatic Theme" Not very different from Main Theme.More or less the same bass line but with a different guitaristic approach. Enjoy