UMMAGUMMA

The album that will probably take most Pink Floyd fans the longest to appreciate, unless you were hoping their previous three albums to be even more experimental. Wright's "Sysyphus" is one of the most daring compositions in their catalogue, "Part Three" taking the acid-washed soundscapes of "Quicksilver" to the next dimension, and "Part Four" being possibly the best example of his ability to make the Farfisa organ, an instrument that was mainly used in pop music at the time, sound absolutely creepy. Waters' "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In a Cave and Grooving With a Pict" is even more daring, using accelerated tape loops to make some very atmoshperic and humorous musique concrete. Mason uses the same approach for his piece, "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party", coming up with a very complex, sonically treated and artistically panned drum pattern. There are a couple relatively "normal" songs on the second disc, Waters' grandly lulling "Grantchester Meadows", with some well played and recorded acoustic guitar and harmonies that always make me regret the song coming to a close. Gilmour's "The Narrow Way", in "Part Three", at least, sounds very foreshadowing of the Meddle through Dark Side of the Moon period, with an ominous chord progression, a semi-swing drum beat, and delicate, gorgeous harmonies. The live disc is very different, but just as strong, including memorably confident performances of 4 of their extended classics, and while I prefer the studio version of "Astronomy Domine", this more relaxed version does fit the ambience of the whole disc perfectly, and I do like the ending section of "Saucerful of Secrets" better here. The album is presented in a way that shows exactly what the band were made of in 1969, seperating the live and studio material into two seperate discs, making it an essential document of their early period.