UMMAGUMMA

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As creative as what came before might have been (Piper, Saucerful, More), little could have prepared the world for Ummagumma, which sees Floyd making gigantic strides in both the studio and live settings. I am not in agreement with some fans that the studio disc is less than amazingly expertimental and brilliant. Indeed, there is nothing on this album which did not presage in one way or another what Floyd would become with Atom Heart Mother, Meddle and, ultimately, Dark Side and beyond.

The live album gets four stars but to get an even better "view" of their live stuff, get the Live At Pompeii DVD as they are stunning renditions of their masterpieces of the times. But this is not to say that the version here are any less worthy.

As for the studio album, like most people, I listen to it rarely but this is Floyd at their most daring and experimental peak. Some of it is stupendous but other moments are quite irrelevant. The Wright pieces are of interest, and some parts of Gilmour's Sisyphus are excellent and Waters' Grandchester Meadows could've been on Atom Heart Mother's second side.

As a young man when I first heard "Ummagumma" I remember being totally freaked out and completely addicted to this double album. Years later it still represents one of my personal favourites from the discography of the PINK FLOYD. "Ummagumma" is a sort of fractured double album with the first album representing the studio work and 2nd taking on 4 great live tracks. I personally love the two extremes of this album (live & studio) some times prefering the live album and other times the studio. "Ummagumma" is representative of classic psychedlic-era PINK FLOYD. Atmospheres are dark and foreboding with ravishing psychedelic squawls, sonic distortion and guitar frenzies. Moods change from still quiet to heavy droned out psych. "Ummagumma" explores on both albums a wide range of tympanic beats and sounds and is truely an album of exploration. Live material on this album is simply stunning with excellent versions of FLOYD Classics... "Astronomy Domine", "Careful With That Axe... Eugene", "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" and "A Saucerful Of Secrets" (recorded in Birmingham & Mancdhester College - 1969).

A good LP...and a not so good one

A game of two halves this double LP. The first LP is a live album with 4 lengthy pieces. These are actually very good psychedelic prog rock, well structured and melodic. What may appear at first to be fairly loose jams, are in fact tightly composed and well thought out pieces. For those who came to Pink Floyd through albums such as "Dark side of the Moon" and "The wall", be aware that the music here bears little relation to the song based numbers which appear on those albums. Even slightly looser tracks such as "On the run" or "Any colour you like" are far more commercial than the spaced out sounds of these pieces originating in the Syd Barrett era (although by the time of this album, he had left the band, Dave Gilmour being well integrated into the line up).

The second LP sees each of the 4 band members being allocated half a side (about 10 minutes) each for a solo outing. This was some years before ELP did a similar thing with their "Works Volume 1" album, but the effect is broadly similar.

All the tracks on disc 2 serve to achieve is to demonstrate that with Pink Floyd, the whole is infinitely greater than the sum of the parts. The best thing on the second album is "Several species of small furry animals gathered together in a cave and grooving with a Pict" (the title that is, not the track which is a whimsical, meaningless, waste of space!).

Had this been a single LP live album, it would have been excellent, sadly it isn't.

2 words for you... INSANE. yes pink floyd can easily be compared to insanity, for just a year before this record was made they lost their key member, syd barrett, to sevre schizophenia. Also their music has always been known to rot your mind with the intense psychadelia, random sound effects such as bike bells and rubber ducks on piper, UFO's and trumpets on a saucerful of secrets, and strange spanish men and aborigini drumming techniques on more.

Ummagumma is no exception to the rule. If anything pink floyd have excelled themselves this time, for the first time i listened to this album i thought i had lost my mind. 2 discs of mindless racket. sounds good to me. There are very few lyric based tracks on the album. The album seems to follow the concept of a continous instrumental based pieces with "sysyphus" lasting over 15 minutes long. this song sounds like something out of a horror film with the mean sound effects and the melodramatic piano pieces which, if a band was to play these days would seem very over the top and embaressing. look out matt bellamy. If you listened to this in 1969 you would be freaked out by how much music has changed. if you are listening to this at any other time you are wishing it could be the 60's once again. i hope this type of music is never forgotten.

The only lyrical based song on the album, "grantchester meadows", is a solo piece by roger waters on the acoustic guitar. similar to the style of his songs such as "if" and "cirrus minor", and a prelude to songs of dark side, animals and the wall. the only "normal" song on the album. or so it would seem if there wasnt a humming bird singing throughout the song and a few minutes of a crazy man trying to swat a fly at the end. Which leads fantastically into the long and pointlessly titled "several species of small furry animals gathered in a cave and grooving with a pict". over five minutes of insane rambling and alien creature jibberish. i would advise anyone not to listen to this too much if you want to keep your sanity.

Ummagumma keeps to the psychadelia but also stretches furtur into the progressive rock with the brillilant, "the narrow ways", full of a mix of mellow plucking and thundering riffs. The album ends with "the grand visiers garden party" which is a very experimental track using different guitar effects and drum solos. this album takes a few spins to get into but once you get into it, you will never forget how good it is. Sadly Ummagumma was discarded from echoes, the best of pink floyd and this album seems to be very understated because it isnt as famous as the later work. this is real floyd at its best.

but we're not finished yet. Ummagumma marks as pink floyds first double album. A forty minute live album with 4 tracks is also included, as if the studio album wasnt already value for money, you get even more for your buck! The live album includes double length versions of "astronomy domine" (without syd on vocals for the first time) and "set the controls for the heart of the sun" which experiments with lengthy drum pieces and the famous gong bashing from roger.

The higlights on the live album are a revamped version of "a saucerful of secrets" which drops the mellow piano pieces and sound effects to make way for speedy drum pieces, insane guitar sounds and a winning harmony to finish with. The best part of the album is the very first version of rare song "careful with that axe, eugene" and this is the best version you can find. The best nine minutes you will ever hear. This song starts off with simple guitar riffage and seems like any other floyd song until the beautiful twist comes in half way where roger starts screaming like a girl in a horror movie.

listening to this feels like you've died and gone to heaven, but then they realise it wasnt your time so they sent you back home to enjoy Ummagumma once again. Whilst Dave and Rick provide their usual amazingness and excell themselves in experimental sound, Nick and Roger are the real stars on this live album with the intense screaming and gong thrashing backed up by the most speedy and energetic drumming in their carreer.

And if thats not enough for you then this album comes in a pretty little boxset with a hossing poster of the band. w00t. Ummagumma WILL scare and destroy you.

Quite the bewildering album. This was to mark the first PINK FLOYD album to be released on the Harvest label (other bands on the label included TRIUMVIRAT, ELOY, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST, QUATERMASS, SHIRLEY & DOLLY COLLINS,The BATTERED ORNAMENTS, BAKERLOO, and even DEEP PURPLE. PINK FLOYD was of course, to be the most successful band on the Harvest label, but not until "Dark Side of the Moon".

"Ummagumma" is a peculiar double album set. The first disc is live material. The band performs entirely previously released material, like "Astronomy Domine", "Careful With That Axe, Eugene", "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun", and "A Saucerful of Secrets". Without a doubt my favorite going to "Careful With That Axe, Eugene". The song starts off slow and atmospheric, then of course, Roger WATERS lets off his screams then they get in to a guitar jam before eventually fading back the way it started. All these songs are arranged differently or have things added on, making them not clones of the original. Plus they use a string organ here, rather than a Hammond organ like on the originals.

The second disc is basically to give each of the four members the big ego boost. First you have Richard WRIGHT's four piece "Sysyphus". Here he noodles around on his keyboards, such as organ, piano, and even Mellotron (yes PINK FLOYD used Mellotron, but only on this album, "A Saucerful of Secrets" and "Atom Heart Mother"). Lot of it leans to the avant garde, and with a rather sinister atmosphere. It's hard to believe that just two years before there were psychedelic bands singing about "flowers and beads" and "canyons of your mind" (common thing for Central and Southern California bands of the time). Hearing this album, you'd think the '70s already arrived. Nothing remotely resembling the themes of California "pop psychedelia" can be found here! Then next, Roger WATERS gets his time to shine. First you have the acoustic, pastoral, ambient "Grantchester Meadows". It's a song that sounds like something is missing, like maybe more accompanyment. It's a pretty sparse sounding piece. Then there's "Several Small Creatures Gathered Together and Grooving With a Pict". Here you get a bunch of strange animal sounds, then you hear a Scotsman talking in the old Pictish language (which I don't know what that could be, you know right away you can't understand what he's saying, and it's pretty safe to say it's not Scots Gaelic either).

David GILMOUR piece is "The Narrow Way", and for him, it seems like he wanted the whole band to participate. It's a three piece movement which works best. First part is all acoustic, the second piece is a space rock piece. Here you are loaded with tons of electronic effects, effectively sounding like a precursor to many Krautrock bands that tended to the space rock spectrum, or even HAWKWIND for that matter! The third and final part of the song is the vocal part, sounding like classic PINK FLOYD (it could almost fit on "The Dark Side of the Moon"). Then the last part is Nick MASON's piece. Here he simply fiddles around with his drums and percussion. It often gets boring and tedious. This album is certainly bewildering, but it showed how the band was like before they were big huge rock stars, long before "The Wall", way before planetariums and night clubs across the United States decided to hold these "Pink Floyd with laser light" shows, this was PINK FLOYD doing what they wanted to at the risk of alienating their audience. Ummagumma is not for everyone, but recommended for the more adventurous.

My older brother got this when it was new (i.e., just before I was born!) and described it as "the one I put on when I want people to leave me alone". "Self- indulgent" and "pretentious" are the terms most used to describe this album...come to think of it, that's how most people feel about the progressive rock genre as a whole. The common view is that PINK FLOYD should have stuck to a single disc rather than a double album- ironic, because that's how I feel about "The Wall". "Ummagumma", on the other hand, strikes me as fun, spooky, and crazy in a way that is to me the heart and soul of the PINK FLOYD ethos. I can go for years without listening to it, and then suddenly become obsessed with it all over again; I have purchased this album in vinyl, cassette, and CD form because it always seems to have been lost/ stolen/ destroyed by the time I want to hear it again (I suspect the people I've lived with, but I guess I can't blame them). Every subsequent album after this will see the band getting more refined and less adventurous (and, possibly, gradually having less and less fun). There's plenty to tempt the more casual fan; the live tracks are in each case the best versions of their respective songs, and with "Grantchester Meadows" and "The Narrow Way" are excellent representatives of the band during this period. "Sysyphus" is alternately grand and eerie, with some beautiful piano in the 2nd movement that unfortunately ends too quickly. Okay, "Several Species..." is almost unlistenable...yet I always listen, and marvel at the frame of mind they must have been in to put this together. Like it or not (it drives my dogs nuts, for one thing), what real PINK FLOYD fan doesn't immediately recogize it as the signature track from this album? I can't say that Mason's chaotic drum pieces are easy listening, but they display amazing talent and variety; more so than any of his solo work, which really strikes me as pretentious. And what about the beautiful photo of the band's equipment- I'd love to find a poster of that, even a copy of the Fillmore concert poster which used a bit of it. I am tempted to be controversial by giving this five stars, but objectively I can't in good conscience call this "essential" or say that it belongs in everyone's collection. "Ummagumma" is what it is: the most extreme, experimental album by the biggest name in progressive rock, and I guess that makes it an acquired taste.

CD 1 of Ummagumma, the live one, is what makes the album worth picking up. It features outstanding live cuts of "Astronomy Domine", "Careful With That Axe, Eugene", "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" and "A Saucerful Of Secrets". CD 2 is one of the more underrated Floyd workings. It is under appreciated due to how experimental it is, but there are some great things to be heard on it. Rick Wright's "Sysyphus" and David Gilmour's varrying piece "The Narrow Way" are the two hilights. "Sysyphus" is a chaotic instrumental which isn't particularily easy on the ears, but includes some outstanding piano work. "The Narrow Way" consists of an acoustic instrumental intro, a heavy middle and a more conventional song in part 3. The album also includes two Roger Waters songs. The first is "Grantchester Meadows", a calm acoustic song. The song's lack of progression makes it difficult to listen to the whole way through however. The second is "Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In a Cave and Grooving With a Pict", one of the oddest pieces to appear on a Floyd record. The first half of the song is just a bunch of sound effects which, if played at different speeds can reveal secret messages. The second half is a bizzare rant done by Waters with an extremely thick scottish accent. The rant is virtually impossible to understand, but amusing. Finally, there's Nick Mason's "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party", which opens and closes with some flute from his wife at the time. The lengthy middle section is a collection of sound and drum effects and is really not worth your time. The song's only real good part is a small drum solo at the end from Mason. Overall, this is a good album, but definately not for first time Floyd listeners.

Still unsure what was actually going on since Syd Barrett lost the plot and was whisked off to the funny farm the rest of the Floyd with Barrett's protege, Dave Gilmore no less somehow heeled into Pink Floyd quickly, the band took of on a college tour and this half live half studio half good half alright veering toward the bad is a result of their exploits. The live stuff is decent enough even if the recordings are poor enough. It starts off with "Astronomy Domine" which they somehow manage to pull off convincingly and the one thing I have always enjoyed about the Floyd is their ability to title songs with ludicrous but interesting names such as the zany "Careful With That Axe Eugene" and the next two tracks sound way more superior to their studio album versions with the epic "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" for me the highlight of the set and "A Saucerfull Of Secrets" which is hanging onto its coat tails. The second album in the set which contains the studio suites is plain boring enough with some splashes of inspiration yet failing to deliver a cutting edge and for me is almost verging on the pompous side of things and extremely overindulgent if nothing else. Each band member gets a writing credit on each piece and while being experimental are nothing if a little unfinished and unconvincing and the Floyd might have better advised to have released a full double live album. Even if that extra album contained some long workouts of a couple of more tracks it might have been more rewarding, as the first few live cuts are entrancing and hypnotic and by the time the studio album kicks in its just mundane boredom and seems an abrupt comedown.

Good album, the highlight being the revised version of ' Careful with that axe Eugene'. Generally though I find the solo works a tad boring preferring Rick Wright's and Gilmour's sections to the other two members.Die hards may find not having this album unthinkable for me it seldom warrants a spin.

Studio:

Don't listen while on crack, Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma" is nothing like their other albums; this one shows lot's of experimental tendencies and could be considered as an avant-garde album of sorts. Each member of the band wrote their entirely own songs here, but without having a direct song-structure to them except for on a few songs, it seems that the band wanted to do something different here. The result is, even today, very varied on opinions; some look on this one as a masterpiece, others hate it.

Looking on this one in it's musical entirely, it's mostly a mix of psychedelia and experimental music, but yet, all of the individual compositions are very varied from each other with different styles to them. Guitarist David Gilmour's contribution; "The Narrow Way" being the most accessible one, but it still has a very unusual style. The whole album has a dark and entangled feeling, it's in overall very unpredictable and extremely varied, therefore it's unfortunately also a bit uneven. Avant-garde/experimental fans will love this stuff, and PF fans who enjoy their 60's phase will most likely appreciate this, but otherwise, this one isn't something for everyone. I'll give this 3.5/5.

Live:

The live disc was performances recorded during the summer 1969. Only four tracks here, three of them taken from their first two albums. The performances are excellent, perhaps even better than the studio stuff, and it's a very promising live album overall. 4/5

The absolute craziness, the epitome of psychedelic music ever made by Pink Floyd. This album ends their first musical phase which has been characterized by very experimental psychedelic albums, fusing the tendencies of an alternative British society fed up with the commercial movement created around BEATLES. So the album is the most psychedelic (delusional, crazy) you can imagine for that time. Just imagine the impact this had in conservator British society, they were seen almost like devil itself (!). I have listen stories of parties, when somebody wanted to finish them and send people away, he just had to put Ummagumma vinyl rocking!

This is a double album, and I was referring to the second of them, which have the studio originals. The first cd has some of their best tracks from the previous records played live, in longer versions reached by longer instrumental passages. It's worth it, very worth it, good live versions. From the psychedelic second cd, the only not instrumentals are Grantchester Meadows and The Narrow Play Part III. It starts with the majestic classic intro of Sysyphus Part I, part II continues with a classical piano sonata which then turns into a psychedelic disturbing piano. Part III joins a very psychedelic mellotron with a not less psychedelic drumming and noising background sound. Pure psycho. Part IV slows a bit the tension with a calm mellotron with background bird singing but then it turns back into part one's majestic arrangements. Grantchester Meadows is a vulgar song with acoustic guitar played for the friends in the calm of the nature. Several Species Of Small Furr shows an interesting knocks rhythm. More instrumentals in The Narrow Play parts I and II, leading to the beautiful melody of Part III (a oasis in this psycho album). Classical flute appears in The Grand Vizier's Parts I and II and part III ends the album with more psychedelic stuff, which I point out particularly the haphazard drum ending.

Ummagumma ends in a good way a cycle in Pink Floyd's music and it shows a convergence to classical music that would be the next album's flag. From now on, they started to point the way in globalizing their music, universalizing the psychedelic and space ideas, even if they have to almost abandon them.

My rate: 8/10

This was one of the most difficult PINK FLOYD albums to assign a rating to, because in spite of its several difficulties, I can't help but enjoy it. The studio disk, an experiment in which each band member did his own composition without any help from the others (including lyrics and playing of all instruments) somehow manages to prove at the same time just how much each member, even in early days, was capable of on his own and just how much they needed each other in order to create that distinctive PINK FLOYD sound. The live disk, on the other hand, is for the most part positively stunning in terms of performance quality--except the recording quality leaves much to be desired.

Here is what, in my personal opinion, each solo composition reveals. The album opens with RICK WRIGHT's "Sysyphus", a very strange exploration including everything from classical piano to complete chaos, and some very eerie wordless vocals from WRIGHT (if you think THAT'S strange, try slowing down the part with all the clanking noises and high-pitched laughter to half-speed to hear what the vocals sounded like in original form!). While imperfect, "Sysyphus" more than any other piece on Ummagumma has a clearly planned structure from beginning to end; his talent for long compositions clearly had emerged early. DAVID GILMOUR's "The Narrow Way" is also a largely pleasant listen, basically an exploration of various guitar stylings. It's also GILMOUR's first lyrical outing, and while what I can hear sounds decent--his vocals are woefully undermixed, and there isn't a lyrics sheet in the liner notes of the CD. A pity, really.

ROGER WATERS' "Grantchester Meadows" is interesting in a far more simplistic fashion--idyllic lyrics and a meandering acoustic guitar and soft vocals far from the angry shrieking of "In the Flesh" are nice, but it feels rather like a demo. This song is much better in live versions. Of course, he doesn't let you get too comfortable; he makes sure to wreck the delicate moment with a rude surprise. Then comes "Several Species", the alternately amusing and annoying experiment with tape effects, one of the album's weaker spots. The weakest spot is NICK MASON's "Grand Vizier's Garden Party", which although like "Sysyphus" supposedly has a structure, it has none of the flow. Aside from a nice drum solo at one point, it's too much for me to wade through, in the end. I can't say what he'd do given the chance in 2004, but I can see that in 1969, his talents were less in composing and more in performing.

Mixing problems plague the live side as well--I have heard bootlegs from the time period that sound much better in technical terms. One cannot even distinguish the voices of the band members from each other without serious effort, and the overall sound is severely muddied. However, that said, if you can hear through all that, what lies underneath is an excellent performance, with the exception of Mr. Gilmour's vocals on "Celestial Voices", which are, as usual in earlier live performances, a bit dodgy. Overall, I feel that Ummagumma is worth the purchase for its live side, as well as for the insight into the individual FLOYD members--but don't be deceived; it's far from perfect, and should not be your first live PINK FLOYD album.

If you have absolutely no tolerance for the studio disc, the Live at Pompeii DVD may be a good alternative.

(P.S.: It doesn't hurt that Ummagumma is quite well priced for a double-album set.)

"Ummagumma" is not for the faint of heart. In fact, it is really only for the hardcore FLOYD fans out there.

As is most often the case with Live FLOYD, the Live part of the "Ummagumma" album is fantastic! The versions of 'Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun' and 'A Saucerful of Secrets' are superior to the studio takes. 'Astronomy Domine' is "PATGOD's" equal, and when you include a live 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' absolute brilliance is achieved! FLOYD at their experimental and progressive best!

The Studio album of "Ummagumma" however, leaves much to be desired. Experimental: yes. Progressive: most certainly. Enjoyable: hardly. By pursuing solo pieces (much like YES' "Fragile") the member's efforts just do not add up to quite as much as it would have had they written together. Definitely a case of where the sum would haved equalled more than the individual parts.

Roger Waters' 'Grantchester Meadows' with its ambient nature sounds, footsteps, buzzing fly and meandering acoustic guitar is enjoyable but not memorable. 'The Narrow Way' (all three parts) is useful and worth taking note. Gilmour sounds confident, and I see a lot of "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" in his work on "Ummagumma". Very space-oriented, and dark with good use of acoustic, and electric sounds.

'Several Species...' is humourous in a Monty-Pythonesque kind of way (Tim The Magician anyone?) but very self-indulgent. Rick Wright's 'Sysphus' and Mason's (failed) percussion experiment entitled 'The Grand Vizier's Garden Party' are throwaways and seem to be left over from the "More" soundtrack/instrumental sessions.

The Live album is a masterpiece 4.5/5 stars. The Studio album is experimental, but highly flawed, 1.5/5 stars. Together, "Ummagumma" deserves a 3/5 star ranking. It's progressive, but not always in the best way.

In the days before 'Dark Side Of The Moon', Floyd were already a big underground hit. Nevertheless, after their first two albums, they lost their way somewhat, and produced some very average fair indeed. This was originally a double album, with the first disc being the live material, which makes up the first four tracks here. It is adequately played, and recorded, but nothing essential, the best track being 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene', always a favourite of mine. The second disc was made up of the individual member's compositions, and oh dear, oh dear, what a mixed bag we have here! By far the best is Gilmour's contribution, 'The Narrow Way' which is, whilst not memorable, at least tuneful and Floydian in texture. As for the rest - Wright's effort, 'Sisyphus', is a rambling, non melodic, quasi inferior jazzy piece that doesn't really hang together, and shows why he could never be accused of being in Wakeman's, Emerson's or Bank's league. Mason's contribution, 'The Grand Vizier' is even worse, being nothing more than a series of hesitant, obscurely meaningless tub thumping percussive pieces. Composition is not a word that could be applied here. Even Water's track, 'Furry Animals' is obscurely hideous, though it could be called a tad humorous for maybe the first couple of plays, before the truth of its meaningless reality is discovered. Floyd fans doubtless still play this and attempt to find some deep meanings behind it, but this is the equivalent of much modern art, where a couple of dabs of paint are supposed to point to undiscovered new horizons of genius! And yes, I am a big Floyd fan, but I know the difference between good and bad. It wasn't until 'Meddle' appeared that they were to show their true talent again. Three stars because of their legacy, and because the live material is quite good, but only two stars for the rest.

Ummagumma is probably the most difficult Floyd album to access. It is a voyage through the excess of psychedelia and experimental rock of the time. Divided in four parts, every member of the group get a chance to show thei talent and songwriting. Some works better than other, of course. The first part is Sysyhus, a Rick Wright mini-suite. It is a showing of his talent as a improvisator on the piano, nothing more. It has no real good moment, as it is a flowing of notes through wich we have to listen. Quite boring. It is for fans of experimental piano sets, with changing key singnatures without any goal. Wright was too self-indulgent here, and it is probably why he would stick to a more mood setting play after this album. Then comes Grantchester Meadows, a folk little song by Roger Waters, wich is a good but then he gives us the psychedelic ''Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and'', wich is mostly experimental and not really melodic and maybe non-musical. David Gilmour's the Narrow Way contains thrre part, all instrumental and showing Gilmour's talent at the acoustic and electric guitars, as well as good work on the electronic keyboards. Of course, Nick Mason's Grand Vizier's Garden Party is using all sorts of percussions in different ways, but then again it is purely experimental.

The live part is quite good, with four great songs all delivered in a great way. It shows that the band starts to hold up together, leaving behind them the great Syd Barret and going forward. The sound is quite different then on the studio versions, as all four songs are played louder and cleaner. Waters' bass is louder than ever, and holds up everything perfectly, especially on ''Careful With That Axe, Eugene''. Astronomy Domine is a great Barret classic and always good, but this version is maybe even better than the original one, as the amps are turned up and the sound has a new edge to it.

All in all, it is great to hear Pink Floyd live, but not if you can find a bootleg, go buy that one instead, as nothing is memorable, but still a good live album, maiking up for the too experimental studio album.

Liked by some, hated by many, this is the band's most experimental work, and their toughest one to listen as well. It is an obvious challenge to get into the unstable music found here, but one has to admit that this is one of the most original albums ever done, a very respectable tile of the experimental work wall. It's FLOYD at their most avant-garde and schizophrenic, and it's them at their most daring as well. It is divided in two albums: a live one with four tracks containing amazing versions of their respective studio ones and the studio one where each track is given for each member to work solely on.

The live contains the best rendition of "Celestial Voices" ever done by Dave, and the rest doesn't disapoint either. "Careful with that axe, Eugene" is being played much better here, "Set the Controls" has an amazing synth solo that is not featured on the studio version and "Astronomy Domine" has a long instrumental section at the middle which is very appealing and trippy. A live "Interstellar Overdrive" was meant to be at the album too, but ended up not being there.

The studio on the other hand is an acquired taste. The challenge can be very rewarding, though, as the dark beauty found on the four parts of "Sysyphus" may take a while to show up. Not everyone will enjoy this, though, mainly the ones who are more interested on the more mainstream oriented and easy to listen FLOYD. "Narrow Way" is another gem here and i love all its three parts, and Roger's two pieces aren't as great as Dave's and Rick's but do have some nice moments. "Grandchester Meadows" is a pleasant pastoral song a la "Cirrus Minor", and "Several species..." has probably influenced many post rock bands nowadays. The first and third movements of "Grand Vizier's..." have a neat flute playing by Nick's wife and the second part is quite bland and goes too long.

I think that this album deserves more attention and it is one of the few "grower" albums by the FLOYD. It is complicated and creative music, so give it a chance and Ummagumma may become a pleasant trip through the most insane corners of your mind.

This double album is a perfect example of the progressive rock in the early Seventies: artistic freedom featuring many drugs-inspired experimentation and virtuosic self- indulgence. On the first track you can witness David Gilmour's effort in perhaps Syd Barrett's his most compelling composition "Astronomy domine". In my opinion this is one of the few highlights on this 2-CD set because I'm not realy pleased with the live renditions of "Carefull with that axe, Eugene", "Set the controls for the heart of the sun" and "Saucerfulof secrets", I prefer the "Pink Floyd at Pompeii" renditions. And the solo pieces from the individual members in general makes me cry, what a poor artistic efforts! Sleep well!!

"Ummagumma" is a underground prog gem, it's the important bridge between psychedelic and prog and when you look back it can be considered as the most important step for Floyd to get in newer areas. The studio disc is extremely complex, very hard to listen allthrough. But when you really let you go with the music on this disc, you'll have a trip that you won't forget! It's absolutely magical and the atmosphere make this record work. The best way to listen to this record is to sit under a tree on a field on a sunny day with your discman and enjoy this experimental journey by Pink Floyd.

About the live album I mustn't say any thing more, all was said about this amazing record. You get a long live version of the great "Astronomy Domine", the culty "Careful With That Axe Eugene" and the psychedelic space-classics "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" (IMO the best Syd Barret-era track) and the atmospheric "Saucerful Of Secrets".

Finally I recommend this record to all prog fans in the world, it's one of the most important gems of the genre and is absolutely unique. It's not a masterpiece, the studio album is very experimental in widest parts, allmost unaccessible (except the chilling "Grantchester Meadows" with top-notch lyrics by Roger Waters and the awesome "The Narrow Way", which is a masterpiece IMO) and pretty forgettable.

All in all, "Ummagumma" is a very important historical document for the genre, which any progrock-fan should have in his collection, at least for the historical value. Fans who adore PF only because of "Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" or "The Wall" will for sure feel turned off by this one. It's definitely not mainstream-compatible stuff, but a hack of interestening psych/folk/avant-garde. Cheers!

Ummagumma studio album: 6/10 points = 3/5 stars Ummagumma live album: 9/10 points = 5/5 stars

album rating: 7.5/10 points = 73 % on MPV scale = 4/5 stars

point-system: 0 - 3 points = 1 star / 3.5 - 5.5 points = 2 stars / 6 - 7 points = 3 stars / 7.5 - 8.5 points = 4 stars / 9 - 10 points = 5 stars

Actually 2,5 stars for a good live performance!

Ummagumma always had a reputation of a "cult" album meant for "enlightened" Floyd aficionados but take that image off and you will find an uneasy and underdeveloped experiment for the sake of experiment. The live set is far better half of the album, with songs arguably much stronger and more confidently delivered than on their earlier studio versions. This is particularly true for "Astronomy Domine" and "Careful With That Axe, Eugene", which are still capable of sending shivers down my spine each time I listen to them. The studio set is unfortunately a redundant filler with highly unlistenable and acid- induced "playing with instruments" instead of making music, with possible exception in Waters' "Grantchester Meadows" followed by "Several Species..." where he is at least trying to create an atmosphere, using old sound effects previously heard on the Piper's "Pow R Toc H". You must be either a FLOYD collector or an enthusiastic music researcher to appreciate this album.

I found some of the solo experiments as quite pleasant music, maybe the keyboard part being nicest of them (Gilmour's part is also good). The version of "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" and "Saucerful of Secrets" are also THE versions for me of these songs, much better with real, interactive playing on them than on the sterile studio album. If being very critical, one could have tried to shrink this double LP as single LP album, and then this would have been at least a four star album.

Pink Floyd discography here in Brazil was a problem. "Atom Heart Mother" and "Meddle" were shyly realeased in 1972 and in the following year I guess due to tremendous impact of "Dark Side of the Moon" several 'oldies' were made available: "The Piper...", ASoS, "Obscured By Clouds", "More", "Relics" and "Ummagumma" - all of them alongside with the blockbuster DSotM. Can someone imagine the confusion when the work of 6 years is released almost simultaneously?

"Ummagumma" itself posed other problems: it was double and also it costed double the price! Even so I bought it - my first purchase of a double album, what an effort it was. The album obliged me to another effort: to know more about the band biography and discography and it took me several days to put things in order - remember that Google and Wikipedia weren't available then!!!

With chronology ordered I could enjoy "Ummagumma" more accurately and the result was fair. The double work contains everything that composed the early prog: psychedelism, space, experimentalism - all spiced by rock, blues, jazz and madness (Barrett's echoes perhaps).

It is obvious that certain parts are to be appreciated in special occasions, they are not so easy to be taken. The great track in the entire work is the haunting 'Careful with that axe, Eugene'; other songs from previous albums like 'Astronomy domine' or 'Set the controls...' are listenable as they were before; individual works like 'Sysiphus', 'Narrow way' and 'Grand Vizier's are not for beginners just like the weird 'Several species etc'. A Floyd fan that started his/her fandom after DSotM shall maybe have difficult to swallow "Ummagumma".

A work with several disputable moments but after all an obligatory record for any prog collection. Total: 4.

One half live, one half studio, Ummagumma is arguably Pink Floyd's most controversial album. The experimentation and the creativity on this album is astounding, but sometimes ideas are a little too contrived and a little too forced, in my opinion, as well as sometimes it seems that certain points of the studio side drag and are used to fill the gap of time. The live half of it, though, is a masterpiece, because at this time Pink Floyd live was an exciting thing to see, with every song getting some new tweak and some little addition that makes each listening a unique and profound experience. The idea behind the studio side of the album is that each musician in the group got 10-12 minutes of space to create and experiment with whatever they wanted, sometimes the results are astonishing and thought-provoking, and sometimes they are just a little too... how do you say... out there... regardless, though, this is a strong album mainly because of the stellar live portion.

The live half of the album opens up with Astronomy Domine, and is a bit of an homage to the old days of Floyd when Gilmour had not yet joined and Syd Barrett was the leader and the shaper of the band's sound. The extended middle section features great musicianship from Wright and Gilmour. Careful With that Axe, Eugene is an instrumental piece that got it's only truly official release on this album (as far as I know). Smooth drumming and jazzy overtones are augmented with spacious and echoey vocals, which is shortly followed by mixed noises. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun has always been a better song live than in the studio, and this version is no exception. The orchestral sounding percussion from Nick Mason is joined by a strong guitar melody and haunting organ work from Wright. A Saucerful of Secrets ends the live section of the album, and it really ends it with a bang (literally). Mason is a machine on this track and really shows that he can play the drums well when he puts his mind to it. Waters also joins him on percussion on this track, and he goes on a tangent of his own as well. Wright and Gilmour are the rhythm section on this song, and their dissonant chordal passages fit well with the sonic chaos from Mason and Waters. To sum it up, this is some of the best live stuff you can get on record from Pink Floyd.

But is it all that good? The studio, however, seems to me to have forced bits that are only there to help fill the gap of time. Sysyphus, Rick Wright's piece on the album, is a dissonant experiment on the piano and various organs. The dissonant chords seem randomly played and the improvisational nature of this track is stunning, yet it does seem to go on a bit and at points you may get tired of the insanity. Grantchester Meadows is the first of two Roger Waters tracks, and it really is a brilliant counterpoint to the insanity of Wright's work. A quiet acoustic tune accompanied by mixed wilderness noises is what you can expect here. Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict is the second Waters tune, and it really takes the experimental nature of Floyd and gives it a twist. The haunting track is a series of random noises and seemingly shocking voices being repeated for about 5 minutes. It doesn't really compare to Waters' first track on the album, though. The Narrow Way is David Gilmour's piece on the album, and it certainly is the strongest on the whole studio side. The melodies that he presents are strong, heavy, dissonant, and beautiful all at the same time. The studio portion is rounded off by Nick Mason's expected drum solo. It kind of drags and it seems that Mason was really trying to waste some time on it in my opinion.

Overall, this album is strong in the live aspects, but weaker in the studio aspects. I can respect the creativity and the experimentation that Pink Floyd were... dare I say... experimenting with on this album, but in the end I feel a bit cold about the studio side and often revert to the live portion of the album. For Pink Floyd aficionados, this album should be right up your alley, if you can stand the experimentation that is. 3.5/5.

This was the first album that I listened from Pink Floyd in 1975 or in 1976. My oldest brother bought it then. This album has one of the funniest cover designs (also one of the best) that I have seen, done by Hipgnosis.

The music in this album is psychedelic and experimental. Some parts even sound like "musical hallucinations", "mind trips". I have to say that I never have used drugs, but this album is maybe "like a LSD trip", or something like that.

The recording of this album is not very good. This is more reflected in the live tracks, being recorded in 1969. From the live tracks I prefer "Astronomy Domine" and "Careful with that Axe Eugene". "Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sound" and "A Saucerful of Secrets" also have some interesting things, but they become noisy and they even sound like "horror movie music" in some parts.

The studio tracks are more interesting, and they are more experimental, even with some humour in some parts. They were recorded individually by each composer, so every member of the band had the chance to experiment.

"Sysyphus" has good keyboards and percussion by Rick Wright. He even plays a very good piano section.

"Grantchester Meadows" and "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" are two songs by Roger Waters, with sound effects and a bit of humour.

"Narrow Way" is another experimental piece of music by David Gilmour, with guitars,drums and sound effects, plus a bit of keyboards, and some funny noises too.

"Grand Vizier's Garden Party" is a musical piece composed by Nick Mason, with his wife playing brief flute parts. In this musical piece, Mason plays drums and percussion, adds sound effects, tape effects, and even adds some funny noises too.

Maybe this album is not very easy to be listened and liked. It really deserves repeated listenings to appreciate better the best parts of it.

I have known this album for quite some time. It was one of my early introductions to Pink Floyd. A friend had this, and "Dark Side of the Moon." I took to the latter right away, and soon had my own copy. "Ummagumma" remained more of a novelty. It was just so freaky, that it seemed cool. I had no idea what the musical or creative benefits were. There wasn't much deep analysis going on then.

Years later, my college roommate had it. The live stuff was great (I still had yet to her the original versions of these songs). The studio side was selectively played. There was still no patience for detailed investigation of the longer pieces.

A few years back, I finally got my own copy. "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and "A Saucerful of Secrets" had become favorites since my college days. The live versions still enthralled, but the studio tracks continued to elude me.

I must say that I have always enjoyed the Roger Waters tracks. "Grantchester Meadows" is a lovely piece, and points the way to his later sound. "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" is a great experimentation with sound samples, and effects.

My opinion has changed on Gilmour's "The Narrow Way." I used to find it a tad boring, but now I appreciate the subtleties. The only problem is the whirring noises added to part one. It detracts from what is otherwise a quality piece.

Nick Mason's "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" leaves a lot to be desired. The winds on the "Entrance" and "Exit" are quite nice, but those parts are brief. The percussive noodle-fest that makes up part 2, while interesting, does not hold up to repeated listens.

I find Richard Wright's contributions to be nothing more than experimentation without much of a purpose.

This is an album that should be checked out. However, I would hardly call this necessary for a collection. "Careful With that Axe, Eugene" is unique to this album, and the Waters and Gilmour originals are good. If not for that, this album would only get two stars.

H.T. Riekels

I guess this is the only example in my musical addictivity that a double album will provide such mixed feelings to me. I discovered "Ummagumma" in 1973, and I was deeply impressed with the live album. I did not know those four gigantic numbers (I entered the Floyd catalogue in 1971 with Meddle). It was hard for me to believe than the same band could produce a live masterpiece and a studio crappy LP at the same time.

Each of the band member has a part on this studio album to "develop" his own music. This quite experimental effort should never have taken place. The Floyd though will repeat this later on with AHM but this is another story. The studio album starts with Wright's stuff. This "Sysyphus Part" is quite boring in general. Only part four is better structured than the rest. It is a bit reminiscent of "A Saucerful of Secrets" and is quite interesting. Actually, I did not remember that there was even one interesting song like it on this LP (besides this review, I have never listended to it for more than thirty years. I guess it will take me another thirty to do the same).

I really believe that the one who can listen till the end of "Grantchester Meadows" would deserve a nice present because it is such a crappy song than really you need a lot of patience to do so. " Several Species ..." is of the same caliber (or even worse). I would like to understand how it is possible for such a genious like Waters to come up with something like this. It will remain a mystery for ever. This is five minutes of the most boring moments you can imagine.

During this track at 4'32" precisely (you can download this part from the Floyd's web- site. According to the instructions, to hear it properly you need to play it at half speed), Gilmour says : "This is pretty avant-guarde, isn't it ? I bet you !

If this studio album deserves five stars, I wonder how many would deserve DSOTM or WYWH : ten ? fifteen ? or more ?

Gilmour parts are a bit more psychedelic and less boring than the other's ones. Part 2, is probably the more interesting (if I may use this term).

Mason's input starts and ends bizzarely with a flute short instrumental (59 and 40 seconds). It is his best contribution. The other number is equivalent to the rest : unbelievably disappointing.

I can tell you, it is quite a challenge to listen to these studio tracks in a row (boy, I would deserve a bonus !). The first time you do (like myself in 1973) you think : well, the next one will be better till you reach the last one. And then you sit and say : "Hell. I've been such a fool to have listened to this !".

To highlight how "great" the band felt about this "masterpiece", the Floyd will include TWO songs from their "marvelous" studio album : "Sysyphus" played FOUR times and "Granchester Meadows" also four times but on other occasions (I guess no audience would have deserved such a treatment to get both of them during the same show).

The live sides though should really be considered as a masterpiece. Four mythical tracks from the early Floyd repertoire. Great rendition of each composition. It starts with "Astronomy Domine" which is quite an extended and fabulous version (although for me, it will never be extended as it could / should be).

If you are interested in extended versions, there is one on the boot "Interstellar Highlights" recorded live in Stockholm in March 1970 which lasts for nine minutes and another one on "Interstellar Fillmore" that features a ten minutes version of it.

Next track "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" was never released on an album. The first (and shortest) version of the song was called "Murderistic Women". This version was first played live in John Peel's radio-show Top Gear on June 25th 1968. In December 68, it will be featured as B-side for the single "Point Me At The Sky" and will be a Floyd classic for decades (still one of my fave). One year later, it will be released as "Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up" for the film Zabriskie Point.

The incredible and oriental "Set The controls For The Heart Of The Sun" is a another marvelous live performance. Psychedelic at its best. Great version again. This LP transports you to unreachable limits of joy and admiration.

The last track is an absolute must own - must listen. I have described my vision in lenght in the review of their second effort 'A Saucerful of Secret". The only thing I can add is that the closing sections "Storm Signal" and "Celestial Voices" surpassed the studio ones. It is probably one of the best live version of this song ("If you can call this a song" - I quote Waters). Originally this live album would have featured "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Embryo" but space was lacking. They should have been better inspired to cut the studio album than the live one. I guess it is thanks to this two live sides that the album reached Nr. 5 in the UK chart (Nr. 74 in the US).

I would have liked Ummagumma to be a single (or double) live album. It would have deserved a five stars rating. But since it comes with the burden of the studio sides, I can only rate it three stars. Grab some boots of the era if you can like : "BBC Archives" (featuring "Embryo") or "Interstellar Highlights") to discover how great this band was on stage in those ancient times.

An appropriately schizophrenic album comprised of two contrasting discs. The first is a near masterpiece of late 60s psych, possibly a pinnacle of psych music. This is the 'live' disc, though you are barely aware of any audience presence, even during the quieter sections. Arguably, this disc contains the definitive versions of its four tracks, each of which is a Floyd and psych classic. For lovers of the genre, this disc is an essential purchase.

The snag is it comes complete with a lacklustre studio affair in which each group member contributed half an LP side of material. Wright's effort is technically the most accomplished, but not very interesting, and only Waters delivers anything worthy of the group name. The languid, summer-hazy Grantchester Meadows is a wonderful restful acoustic number complete with swans and fly-swatting before setting off onto the nutty found-sounds of Several Species .... Overall a very mixed bag indeed. You probably don't need this album unless your preferences lean heavily toward psych.

The vestige power music of Pink Floyd, by the entire psychedelic serenity and the outbreaks of "popular" force and "common" shingle, restricts Ummagumma to be the album of dastard dexterity, grand aphasia and soft creation, all three in a mix which comprises several main dynamics, about two main stresses of the usual obscure quality and one of the fighting contradiction (I'll resume later telling which are them, or details will simply allude one after another), and a lot of music which to correspond to ideals and "current" symbols, changes and new aspirations, differences and varied impressions over how the stretch comes at. Therefore Ummagumma is entitled with a kaleidoscopic effort, a craft with extra bonus on chosen nuisance and original counterpoints, and with great prejudices.

Perhaps the entire period would go marked by these prejudices, expanding to ideas having the both the out form and the out rave. Negatively said, all of Pink Floyd's mental challenge psych phase has the prejudice of full intuitions: the debut being too acclaimed for its superficial round, the saucerful special deep album being instead the one with no grand art, the soundtracks of More and Zabriskie clouting too much typical madness or adverted light numbness, Ummagumma having the confusing aura of something in a strange motion or a complete exaggeration and Atom Heart Mother sinking the boat with the pathetism of several new dimensions. Rather contrarily though, Pink Floyd psychedelic would (should) stay like so: Piper as an exhausting simple bang, the mark of a "blow-up" in music scythe, Saucerful as magisterial and profound, the soundtracks as pieces of clotting visionary ambition and Atom as a living desire of organic changes and melodramatic numb chances. While Ummagumma is an album of experimental uniqueness, with no such better time to explore the huff, the rock, the diagram obsession, the bucolic expressions or the killing foams of sound and bitter topiary. So what isn't full of prejudices in the early strong art of Pink Floyd? And what isn't outlined as a panoramic special or septic suggestion, equivocally, in a loud-touch creation by Floyd? Ummagumma is barely different from a point where the creativity and the strange outlooks of the band "collapsed" into an impressive choice of an album, a project, a vision, a caricature.

Ummagumma has two essential parts, of fully different kinds and reunited Floyd spirit. The Live cut of the album is considered royal, essentially, comfortably excessive, while the studio greets some low vibrations of appreciation and some entire asperities of being liked, understood or resembled in any of the fondled Floyd great moves. To my opinion and the objective quality desponded from Ummagumma, the studio cover is by nothing strange or distant from the stating live experience, making a two-headed beast of music concept, Floyd psych contractions and, more or less, influential inspirations. One on the side of everlasting correlations, the other one on the never so better improved untitled marks of novelty and conspiracy.

Ummagumma Live is a four grand epic pieces splendid dark show, with an impressionable orientation towards improvisation, towards massive psych respect and infusive deep sinking gravity, despite the luxurious fact of a repertoire that stands, generally, out of the Floyd box into the grand recognition of their music accurate styling and great illusory inlay. It's a short of live of full expressions and illustrious senses, perhaps biased by a too macadamized emotion and subtle familiar design, yet full of un-glowing dispersions and of the rehearsal of thousand clashes, inside the more logistic or frenzy psychedelia, inside the unknown taps of free-sound, inside the render of a trounce corrals by the band's impeccable numb trademark, dark roasting and assembling smoke sonic magic. Other concerts like Pompeii do a large and exemplary spread of concert raot and spree passion, so I guess the live from Ummagumma is carefully a great listening, a deep trend and a passionate way of memorizing the standard static parallels of movement over concision, of experiment over the mass gray matter, of scolding over the normal emotions. A full complex performance, with normal leans, but some good relaxed sizzles of rock, psych and galore as well.

Ummagumma Studio is a living phenomenon of abstract, experiment and ubiquitous composition, along the side effects of various tomes, incisive music special language and a deep, impersonal, claustrophobic attention toward the minimal, the render, the scythe and the convincing attitude. A fully-essence album and persistence of strange concept above the relaxed infusion of power, a clear-obscure noise above the great party of smokes, and hovering streaks of unknown sound-forms over the great and massive means of psychedelic triumph. Mostly a great creation, though minimal and hidden-within an implosion of exaggerated movements and deeply-learned extracts. The only departing thought of it should not be why the studio's nonconformist pleasure sounds so various and so untruthful to the regular liaison of Floyd, but only why the album is a mixture of music made by the Floyd artists, separately. Something, though, not to think of greatly, since the idea(l) comes up decisive and sufficiently good, by an eclectic tone from one artist to another. Richard Wright is quite sensitive with Sysyphus , though there is a gross of experimentalism, a subtle panic of noise, respectively a good share of high rises and deep tonalities. Psyche in opposition, almost. Waters' Grandchester Meadows is a gem of some sorts, though the imperative tone is among the least abstract of the overall performance. Dark sounds, cameral melodies and rhizomes of an inner release ritual are made into a piece of open sources and black tones. There is then the Several Species. multi-animal collage, made astonishingly brandish (the popularity shares its ruin, naturally), but also in a good impulse of the abstract promoting the locomotive expression. David Gilmour uses a lot of deranged symphony and absurd streaks into his special composition, The Narrow Way, something very atypical and classy for his "solo" kind, yet absolutely masterful in touch of a sensible shock and a distant dream recall. Music of deep marks and trenches, but mostly something of a pitch atmosphere. Last is Mason with a work of massive elutriation, but also very amoral, kinetic and sophisticated experimental minimalism. In a short presence of vibrations greeting the entire wheeze of psychedelia, but also the multi-forced instrumentality of a visionary kind. The studio impression is simply blossoming and captivating, no wonder the time spend on it is equal to the level of perception. And no wonder that the errors strike the pretentious manners and the havoc of composition, each and every time.

As a judging new side of full-blow experimentalism and psych-tabooing emphasis, Ummagumma is half the live perfection of extremely known essential studies, and the personal study deep in the layers of sound, rock, rag and psych-umbra. The sense tells that this is the least affordable Pink Floyd early phase album; then again, the great dedication and addiction to nonconformism and the hard listen of the studio-clench can't sound better under the augmentations of natural music and common cluster. By my personal pleasure, this album is worth astounding, once in a while.

"Aye an' a bit of Mackeral settler rack and ruin ran it doon by the haim, 'ma place. Well slapped me and I slapped it doon in the side and I cried, cried, cried..."

Don't tell me you don't enjoy 'Several species of small furry animals' (off UMMAGUMMA) - it's tremendous fun! Back in the dark days of the mid-seventies, when HiFi systems were comparatively rare, and many of us played psychedelic albums on portable record-players (in Dutch we called them pick-ups), my friends and I loved the Floyd for their far-out sounds. On THE PIPER you had that guy who went "Boo-hoom, shh shh!"; on ATOMHEART MOTHER you got their notorious bacon-frying; and UMMAGUMMA was famous for the guy who noisily descended a flight of stairs and swatted a fly. Ah, wond'rous days! UMMAGUMMA's hallucinatory fake animal noises still enchant me, and 'Grantchester Meadows', which precedes it, is one of Roger Waters' most delightful pastoral songs. (Grantchester Meadows is an area of lush greenery along the River Cam, between Cambridge and the picturesque village of Grantchester.)

A pity the remainder of UMMAGUMMA's studio album is so uninspired. The solo contributions by Gilmour, Mason and Wright are all eminently forgettable. Wright's dire 'Sisiphus' is notable only for one all too brief moment when the composer (ahem!) plays a little piano. Nick Mason's 'Garden Party' must be the greatest waste of vinyl in EMI's distinguished history.

Undeniably, UMMAGUMMA's live album has proved far more important, particularly the dreamlike, organ-dominated middle sections of songs like 'Astronomy Domine' and 'Set the controls for the heart of the sun', when the drums are silent (or virtually silent). If I'm not mistaken, such moments had a tremendous influence on Krautrock, and also on the first five years of activity on the ECM label: Norwegian guitarist Terje Rypdal's gorgeous first albums (from 1972 and 1973 respectively) and American bass player Barre Phillips' masterpiece MOUNTAINSCAPES (1976) were obviously inspired by the Floyd's trance-like soundscapes.

Pink Floyd took a cue from Cream when they put together Ummagumma. Like Wheels of Fire, it features one disc of new studio material and one of live intensity. Unlike Wheels of Fire, the studio material isn't very good. The first part is the live section, which rocks. Astronomy Dominé is longer, louder, and better than the original. Careful With That Axe, Eugene is a fun little instrumental that makes it's only official appearance here. Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun and A Saucerful of Secrets both sound great, with extended sections that give mainly Wright and Gilmourt the spotlight.

The studio half is, sadly, vastly inferior to the live side. Small Furry Animals and is one of the last whmsical Floyd tunes (they started getting deep and usually depressing soon after this). It's no classic, but it's a fun ditty to come back to from time to time. The rest of the album is devoted to individual compostions, which foreshadows tracks on Yes' Fragile and ELP's awful Works. Of these, only Wright's Sysyphus is worth listening to, as it demonstrates his considerable skill which was largely wasted at the hands of Roger Waters. Waters' acoustic "Grantchester Meadows" is decent but completely forgettable, while Gilmour's use of symphony on Narrow Way comes close to being a good track, but it still fails to excite. Mason's Grand Vizier's Garden Party is by far the worst of the individual compositions; it is uninspired, dull, and the only even decent parts are the winds at the start and finish.

Ummagumma's live half is a great snapshot of the band at the tail end of their psychedelic pre-prog days, but the studio material (funnily enough the band's first concrete transition into full prog) is incredibly flawed and even its best moments are easily forgotten. Things would start improving vastly for Floyd, but this remains an album only for established fans, and even then you'll probably only want it for the live stuff.

Grade: D

Ummagumma was originally released as a two-LP set back in 1969. Two words come to my mind every time I listen to this: insane and genius. Ummagumma is clearly the most experimental work released under the Pink Floyd name. What is so interesting about this is that the studio LP was basically divided up into four, with each group member composing their quarter of the disc. What also catches my attention is how skilled each of them were in composing "solo" material for this project. Every song on the studio LP is remarkably done with an eerie weirdness to each piece. The effects employed on Several Small Species... is just mind-blowing.

The other LP is made up of live material and the selection is superb, including Astronomy Domine, Careful with that Axe Eugene, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun and Saucerful of Secrets. This is the perfect material for what was considered a psychedelic jam band at the time allowing them much room for aural explorations. These live performances are simply stunning. Unfortunately, they will be the only live material the band would release until 1988's Delicate Sound of Thunder.

Some listeners may find this album difficult to get through due to its experimental leanings, but nonetheless, I'm one that enjoys stuff like this and have considered this a masterpiece since my first listen many eons ago. It's not like a Selling England by the Pound or a Close to the Edge. It is a very different kind of masterpiece. You might want to avoid if you don't have a liking for the experimental (try Wish You Were Here instead if this is so). Otherwise, five stars and another piece of the foundation for future experimental explorations.

This is the best musical collection offered by the band at their most adventurous and progressive moments. "Ummagumma" contains all Pink Floyd classics from their first era. No need to search more about the band, the rest of the discography is terribly conventional if not commercial. You can also give a listen to "A saucerful of Secrets" & "Live at Pompeii" but seriously it stops here concerning albums with constant quality (from start to the end). "Ummaguma" is exclusively reserved to intense, highly emotional and shimmering psychedelic jams. I only regret the sung parts which bring nothing to the "trip". Compositions as the cloudy, dreamy spaced out "Careful with that Axe Eugene" and the experimental psych epic "A Saucerful of Secrets" simply represent the best pieces written by the band. Closed to a few instrumental jamming sessions of kraut classics from Agitation Free, Gila (their two first), early TD ("Ultima Thule" & "Electronic Meditation"), Amon Duul II ("Tanz der Lemminge", particularly for the "Marilyn Monroe Memorial Church"). "Set the controls for the heart of the sun" is an other talented psych composition, including really stoned, floating harmonies, rolling drums and a nice "exotic" flavour. "The great Vizir's garden party" (part II) alsor delivers impressive, gorgeously "hallucinatory" sequences within a brilliant enigmatic, atmospheric, experimental soundscape. A classic so recommended!

Music that's about has hard to injest as the name would suggest. (and hey, that rhymes).

Following up on previous freakouts it would seem natural that an album like this would mozy along. This is the result of each band member wirtting their own songs as part of a larger canvas, the result is interesting as it seems that only Waters and perhaps Gilmour were really capable of doing this at the time. The songs are split into different tracks, but really, it's the songs that count, so I'll review them as such. SYSYPHUS is the Write penned track, and it's a fantastic piano journey of all out freakyness that's all in all a little inaccessable to the listener with lack of lyrics, and sometimes all around direction, but still a great piano track in the end. GRANDCHESTER MEADOWS is perhaps the most solid song on the album, written by Waters, this is a laid back track that's quite enjoyable and very typically Pink Floyd. SEVERAL SPECIES... is a bit bizzare and follows on the heels of Pow R. Toc H. from their debut, but the next songs are definately worth the wait. Gilmour penned THE NARROW WAY is a great lost Pink Floyd gem that stands out above the rest here with great instumentalism and overall structure all around. THE GRAND VIZIER'S GARDEN PARTY is a strange song written by Mason that acts as an all around good outro.

While this studio LP most definatly has it's high points it's certainly not Pink FLoyd's best and is at best a 2 star effort, it's the next LP that makes this album worth while.

The live side of this album is fantastic, with several Floyd classics contained within the grooves. Each of the songs presented within were great as a studi track, but with the live energy put into them seem to have gotten better, it's even tempting to say that this live LP is better than any other live release by Pink Floyd. But while the old studio tracks do shine here the likely standout is the original CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE, EUGENE (which would later be release as a studio track on Relics, but not nearly as good) which features some great zoney-outy playing by the band until (I think it's) Gilmour kicks in with his death scream of death that still, to this day, gets down into your very soul. A fantastic disc by any accounts, unmissable, even.

So, for it's combination of two albums, the interestingly acquired taste studio side (2 stars) and it's fantastic live side (4 stars) I'd have to give this labum an overall rating of 3 stars. Good, but not essential as a package, although, if you can ind it at a good price, definately buy it.

You can probably guess the age of any Pink Floyd aficionado by his regard for this 1969 double album. To older fans it encapsulates everything that made the original band so different and dangerous, but newcomers will likely hear only a junkyard collection of post-psychedelic flotsam.

I suppose it all depends on which side of the 1960s you're standing. Either way, the album remains an invaluable (if not always successful) artifact, and unique in the way it confounds the Prog Archives rating guidelines: yes, it's an excellent 4-star addition to any Prog music collection, but at the same time it's strictly a 2-star treasure for collectors and fans only.

For anyone (like myself) too young to recall the turbulent end of that decade, the album provides a vivid snapshot of the young Pink Floyd struggling with its identity at the dead end of the avant-garde cul-de-sac. It was an uncertain time for the band, back when Rick Wright was always playing oriental arabesques on that weedy Farfisa organ; when Nick Mason was embellishing his floor toms with enough echo to fill the Grand Canyon; and when newcomer Dave Gilmour was overworking his slide guitar in a transparent imitation of Syd Barrett's more cosmic digressions.

The live disc is still the best concert album the group ever released, with superior (better yet: essential) adaptations of four early Space Rock classics: "Astronomy Domine", "Careful With That Axe Eugene" (dig that hair-raising Halloween scream by Roger Waters), "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun", and a truly awesome "Saucerful of Secrets". The studio disc, divided between the solo conceits of each player, is understandably more of a mixed bag, and in retrospect one I'm sure they would rather have left on the curb for the trash collector.

My own assessment is a little less harsh. It's true that Rick Wright's four-part "Sysyphus" can be an aptly titled exercise in ersatz film score frustration, like its mythological namesake putting a lot of effort into getting nowhere. But Roger Waters actually revealed something like a sense of humor in his two songs, in ironic contrast to the mirthless dirges of his later album concepts. David Gilmour meanwhile all but announced in his three-part "The Narrow Way" his willingness to lead the band by example: Part Three in particular was an obvious signpost to the future, sounding not unlike a premature demo of "Comfortably Numb".

And the less said about Nick Mason's late '60s time capsule percussion doodles the happier we'll all be, including the composer himself.

Dissecting it like this leaves a lingering sense of four rather desperate artists beating the air for any musical idea to replace the inspiration lost along with Syd Barrett. But if nothing else their individual efforts showed a group that even then was greater than the sum of its parts.

Keep in mind too this would be the Floyd's last truly underground album, released the same year Neil Armstrong left his footprint on the Sea of Tranquility. It would take the band a little longer to likewise reach the "Dark Side of the Moon", but in many ways the failed experiments on disc two of this set were at least one small step in the right direction.to be followed by the giant leap of "Atom Heart Mother" in 1970.

A double album, 'Ummagumma' consists of one half 'live' recordings (though heavily overdubbed), one half studio recordings. This record confirms that in the empty post-BARRETT late 60s PINK FLOYD did not have a single useful musical idea.

The rehash of four of their more experimental psychedelic tracks is poignant to say the least. Apparently these tracks were reproduced here in order for the band to feel able to retire them: in other words, they were already stale. Further, the selection of these tracks without the leavening influence of the shorter, melodic BARRETT tracks exposes their lack of compositional merit. The fact that they managed to leave off 'Interstellar Overdrive' is inexcusable. Finally, it signals their intention to become a group of vast soundscapes. Fortunately, this is a direction they soon dropped in favour of - well, vast soundscapes coupled with exemplary songwriting.

That said, this live album is well worth listening to. Each track has become the definitive version, replacing the studio version in the PINK FLOYD canon.

As for the studio album, it is wholly execrable.

Look, there's 'experimental' and there's - er, awful. It's often a blurred line for a reviewer when drawn far from his/her comfort zone. I get no pleasure from tuneless music, but I do enjoy much ambient and atonal work which has a well thought through overall shape and creates an atmosphere within which my mind is encouraged to roam. This has none of those things. As an experiment it must have failed, as these sounds were abandoned for their next record. I'm forced to plump for 'awful'. I much prefer silence to these sounds.

If we ever needed confirmation that none of these gentlemen would shake the world with their solo recordings, it is to be had here. The second disc of 'Ummagumma' is a collection of tracks written and (largely) played by the individual members of the band, and without exception they are ill-conceived, tedious and bereft of musical inspiration. The highlight is WATERS' 'Grantchester Meadows' only because it is not offensive to the ears. The rest of this dross was forced upon the band members because they had no success in writing anything together. It's as though someone passed an Ideas Removal Magnet over the compositions and forced the band to record what remained.

Special dishonourable mentions must go to WRIGHT's 'Sysyphus', in which he out-pointlessnessess even KEITH EMERSON, and to NICK MASON, yet another drummer who can make the better part of ten minutes pass in agony. Has anyone listened to this more than once for pleasure? WATERS offers us the best song title of the late 60s but unfortunately doesn't back it up with anything but childish tape effects.

Some of GILMOUR's stuff isn't actually unlistenable, but in the context of this, perhaps the worst single disc of music ever issued, it barely rates a mention. So, dutifully, I barely mention it.

You really don't need this. It's like listening to four ten-minute versions of the single-musician pieces from YES' 'Fragile'. No, it's more like listening to the sound of someone hitting their head against a wall at the end of the cul-de-sac of the 60s. Repeatedly.

I'm an enthusiastic PINK FLOYD fan, but I'm not blind to their deficiencies. This album is a showcase of them all, a testament to what happens to a band without direction or a way of harnessing their talent. Fortunately that harness was very much in evidence within a year of the issuing of this record.

This is one of the most difficult albums i have had to rate.The trouble of course is that it's a new studio record combined with a live album,two very different animals.The live album is incredible while the studio recording is PINK FLOYD at their most experimental and adventerous.It's kind of cool that each of the four members had the freedom to pretty much create anything they wanted to for the studio album.I actually like each of their compositions except for some of Mason's contribution. The live record was recorded in 1969 and opens with "Astronomy Domine".I like the way it builds and especially the amazing sound after 3 minutes.The guitar is great.A long quiet interlude ends 6 minutes in. "Careful With That Axe Eugene" might be my favourite on here.It opens with light drums and organ that eventually builds as some excellent guitar comes in.This is great!They're just jamming now.The song calms down to a whisper 7 1/2 minutes in to end the song. "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" has those almost whispered vocals with drums and synths.The drumming dominates from the 3-5 minute marks.A spacey calm follows.Vocals return 8 minutes in. "A Saucerful Of Secrets" is the longest song at almost 13 minutes.It gets chaotic 3 minutes in before the drums take over.Spacey sounds end up competing with the drums for the spotlight until the drums stop and organ replaces them.This is an amazing passage.Drums return and then guitar.I really like the vocal melodies 11 minutes in to end the song. The studio album begins with Wright's 4 part composition called "Sysyphus".It opens sounding quite epic with slow,heavy drums.There is mellotron on 3 of the 4 sections.Part two features piano melodies that get dissonant 3 minutes in.Part three has percussion and some strange sounds on it,while part four opens with some wonderful mellotron.Flute comes in before an explosion of organ 3 1/2 minutes in.Dramatic synth and organ sounds 5 minutes in. Waters composed two tracks.The first "Grantchester Meadows" features birds chirping,reserved vocals and acoustic guitar.I like it.Then some experimentation as we can hear a fly buzzing around and someone getting a fly swatter and flattening it.His second song is called "Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict".It sounds at the beginning like we are in a jungle.A spoken line is repeated over and over.The Scottish sounding words 4 minutes in are hilarious. Gilmour's contribution might be my favourite.It's a three part song called "The Narrow Way".The first part is pastoral and the acoustic guitar reminds me of LED ZEPPELIN.Part two is heavy with some loud spacey sounds coming in.Part three has vocals on it and would not have been out of place on the "Meddle" record.It also reminds me a little of THE BEATLES.The final composition is Masons'.It's called "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" and is divided into three parts.Some guest flute on the first and third parts are good,but the second part has some really annoying sounds on it Barely 4 stars is my rating after a lot of thought and debate.I can see why some would rate it three stars because of the studio album.I like the studio disc for the most part, although i'm sure it would help to be really stoned.3.5 for the studio album,4.5 stars for the live record.

With their first two albums, Pink Floyd shaped and refurbished the emerging trend of psychedelic rock that was taking place in the British underground rock circles in the second half of the 70s. "Ummagumma" is the official manifestation of the band's intentions to keep moving on artistically from the challenging standard that they had set for themselves; it is also the album that reinforces the role of then newcoming guitarist Dave Gilmour. The first volume is a live set that finds the band maturing the vision previously accomplished in "A Saucerful of Secrets" and stating a solid sound beyond the urgent naivety of their debut release. 'Astronomy Domine', arguably the epitome of Syd Barrett's vision, starts the live set with a robust combination of strength and eeriness, in no small degree due to the relevant organ layers and expansions by Wright. The beginning of the live set is really climatic, perfectly coherent with the increasingly sinister kind of sound that the band was particularly interested in the 1968-70 era. 'Careful With that Axe, Eugene' preserves the overall mood turning more closely toward the languid side of psychedelic prog. This sense of mystery is properly fed by the track's ever-expanding flow. The ambitious live rendition of 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' sets a proper reelaboration of the two preceding tracks' mood, with the advantage implied in the enhancement of the original idea's exotic vibe and dynamic rhythmic structure. And of course, there is the archetypical rendition of the second album's title track: the rough muscle and raw bizarreness possible in this live environment are the result of a shared inspiration in the momentum. Of course, we can find lots of faster and/or louder renditions in other bootlegs, but this live rendition has its mixture of magic and sonic power as a relevant asset. The ethereal intro, the second section's neurotic tribalism and the soft third section inevitably lead to the electrifying ending, a real showcase for Wright's essential input for the Floydian thing. Volume 2 is a studio effort in which the band decides to make room for individual exploration. Wright's 'Sysyphus' is a majestic 4-part opus. It starts with a sequence of ceremonious mellotron and pompous tympani, followed by a piano sequence that flows from classicist reflectiveness to creepy tension. Next comes a portion based on avant-garde chamber (something like Varese-meets-Cage), followed by an eerie section dominated by mellotron and organ, distant yet captivating. The final section is the most sinister, with a horrific emergence of distorted organ segued into the initial theme's reprise. Great!! Waters penned 'Grantchester Meadows' and the long-titled next track: the former is a pastoral ballad that sets the pace for other acoustic pieces to appear in following albums; the latter is an experimentation on processed voices and noises that create rhythms, cadences and atmospheres, plus a touch of humor, too. Gilmour's 'The Narrow Way' is the other highlight in this studio item: with a first part that explores a candid mixture of country and acoustic blues ornamented by weird slide guitar intrusions, and a second part focused on Western- flavored psychedelic hard rock, the main section consists of a melancholic rock ballad with heavily bluesy undertones. Mason's 'Grand Vizier's Garden Party' is a demonstration of multiple percussions and a drum solo developed in crescendo, refashioned through studio processes: its entrance and finale are mellow flute solos. A very interesting ending for a very interesting experiment: the traces of this double album's endeavor will be fairly noticed all the way to the "Meddle" album, so the most important value (not the only one) of "Ummagumma" is its way of reshaping PF's vision in its avant-rock context.

[I dedicate this review to the memory of the recently departed Richard Wright].

Oh... so much strange album by Pink Floyd. Half-live and half-studio double album by Pink Floyd. What about the first part of the album - The first disc of Ummagumma proves Pink Floyd to be one of a few bands with better live abilities even than their studio recordings. It's a magnificent live disc. I would like to comment the second disc - the studio one - more! It's extremely experimental album with some unlistenable parts for the majority of the people, but not for me at all! Each of the musicians had made a composition of himself divided into parts. There are songs,but there are sounds,too! I think all of the songs are brilliant works of art. It's very hard for me to define the sounds; they are just sounds, maybe without a sense! They are hard for listening, and because of that I consider this album not as studio one at all, but as experimental session of the sound. Probably this experimental session helps the musicians to develop their own style of playing. Who knows? I thought over giving 4 stars, but because of that experimental session disposition of the album with so much sounds without sense, I have to define it: good,but non-essential!!!

Uneven. Experimental. Interesting but ultimately cold.

"Ummagumma", as all PINK FLOYD albums, has been reviewed so many times than my describing the album here wouldn't be really useful. I can give reasons for the rating I'm giving it, though.

The first disc, the live album, leaves me completely cold and unmoved. I don't enjoy "Astronomy Domine" that much (even though this version is better than the one in "Piper at the Gates at Dawn") and, in general, live recordings don't do it for me. The sound is weak, the performances are uneven, and the music, in this case, while not terrible is nothing extraordinaire. It sounds like a glorified jamming session between four accomplished musicians who have no idea what direction their band should ultimately take.

The studio album, on the other hand, while not brilliant is actually interesting. All four members of the real PINK FLOYD (that is, Waters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason) get a chance to have their ideas played in the disc. The first one, by Wright, is very unique and quite advanced for its time as a track on a rock album. It gets lost after the brilliant beginning, but the keyboard work is good. Waters' hadn't yet acquired the songwriting talents he would later on, and that's proven by his weak contributions, which sound more like the ravings of a maniac than actual songs. Gilmour's turn to shine is actually far more pleasing, and even if at times the piece also gets lost in a sea of noise and experimentation-for-experimentation's sake, when the voice arrives it actually makes for the best moment in all the album. Finally, Mason proves us he knows how to tune drums. He proves us that he knows how to play drums. Sadly, he proves us he doesn't have the same skills to compose interesting music.

The first disc gets a 1.5-star rating from me; the second gets 3.5. The average of 2.5 demands me to give this album a rating of 3 stars, as sadly I don't have any option to put it between the better "Atom Heart Mother" and the inferior "Piper at the Gates at Dawn", which have 3 and 2 stars respectively in my review catalogue.

It's an important musical document, though, and it's historic value it's still a reason to warrant a recommendation.

Dedicated to Rick, gentle man, wonderful musician

Overview: A common misconception perpetuated over the years is that the live half of this album is essential while the studio portion is rubbish. That is absolutely wrong in my view. It is the studio half of Ummagumma that is important for its wild experimentations that would make it one of the most important, influential and liberating releases to many bands in the 1970s. Tangerine Dream and Cluster cited the album as a direct influence. It is the studio album that marked the progress of this band at this point in time. It was also successful to the hard core Floyd fans of the day and sold very well for a record company that had no idea what to make of it. One writer doing a positive review for WYWH called it their best work since Ummagumma, meaning Umma was being placed higher than everything between it and Wish. I'm not going that far as I find Atom Heart more successfully captured a spirit of experimentation with melodies that are more pleasurable for repeat listening, as did Dark Side. But make no mistake: the true Pink Floyd fan who considers him/herself a "progressive" rock fan needs to hear this important link in the growth of one of music's finest recording units. I will discuss the studio album at some length but the live album, while entertaining, should really be considered a bonus disc. It is a snapshot of the Floyd covering material they were genuinely bored with playing by this time, including a terribly mistaken attempt at a Syd track that does not work (and how could it, really?) Still it's certainly a nice disc to have despite the sound problems and my assertion that the studio album is the bang here.

People often use the latter day Floyd members disowning of this period as a reason to reject it which is another common mistake. While the old men of PF may consider themselves too distinguished for such excursions these days you have to ignore their revisionism and look back and read the quotes from their press clippings at the time. The fact is that the Floyd were excited about this material, about the chance to create their own piece and about having material to try live that was less structured than past albums would be. As Rick said in early 1969 "we are getting into a live rut..we're going to force ourselves to do new things." Did they ever!! Though I'm not sure much of this album made the live set, the band was off into AHM mode shortly after the release of Ummagumma. While they may have soured on these heady days in later life there is no reason their fans need to. If anything the early albums represent PF at their most exciting and most interesting. They would later claim the album could have been better had they taken more time and worked more together than separate. This is possibly true although given that Ummagumma represents their experimental peak why regret that it was made differently? It seems fitting and gives the pieces unique character.

Press: Patrick, The Pink Floyd Fandom website: "At their peak of their most psychedelic musical experimentation comes my favorite Pink Floyd album: Ummagumma. The studio album shows what each artist was capable of as an individual during the maturing of the group as a whole. I believe that it gives a great portrait of each member as a soloing artist. It is this individual soloing which then allowed the band to create long masterpieces (Atom Heart Mother etc.) where playing together and understanding each other musically is so important. Ummagumma is definitely an important piece of the puzzle of Pink Floyd, both as a building block and as a work of art everyone can enjoy."

UK's Record Mirror, Nov 1969: ".a truly great progressive album. They mix psychedelic and classical patterns, and explore sounds, music, and gimmicks to their fullest extent. The recordings are beautiful."

International Times, Oct 1969: ".an essential purchase for anyone who has ever got into the Floyd..these two albums are a really magnificent package. The first disc comprises four pieces from their live repertoire beautifully played and well produced."

The Music: The most interesting thing about Ummagumma is that it is Wright and Mason who really excel here. Their two sections are the best while Water's stuff is the weakest. That is a trend that would not continue but it is a reminder that PF remained very much a "group" until after Dark Side and that Wright was a potent force at this moment. It reminds that prior to the Waters led heyday of 1973-1983 the other members of the band often had good ideas too and led rather than simply taking orders.

Richard Wright: Wright more than any of them embraced the spirit of Ummagumma and the results show it. He had been telling the others that he was ready to make some "real music" as he'd been the only one with formal training, albeit brief. His 4-part concerto is called "Sysyphus" - the title of which was taken from a Greek myth about a soul condemned to hell. The music is quite dramatic as you'd imagine beginning with murky Gothic flavored dirge announcing doom and gloom. In part 2 things lighten considerably as we move to some gorgeous piano playing, among Wright's nicest moments in the band's cannon. The emotion of his solo piano is palpable to me, fresh, alive, buoyant. I imagine the piece to be about the passive reflections of a young man looking at the life and death process, the section starts with peace and sunny vibes and slowly escalates into chaos, perhaps signaling madness and death. The 3rd part shifts gears as Wright borrows some of Mason's pots and pans and Waters' small furry animals for some general mischief-making. In the last part Wright stretches out with what I believe is mellotron over bird sounds creating some relaxing moments once again before the mood crashes again with heavy organ and percussion, eventually leading us back to the doomy march of the first part. While he later felt the work was "pretentious" there was no reason for shame: "Sysyphus" remains one of the hard core Floyd fan's many truly wonderful gems and was no doubt a great experience for the undervalued hero of the band.

Roger Waters: Roger's "Granchester Meadows" is an ultra-pastoral ode to a special place in his past employing mainly acoustic guitar and double-tracked voice. Sound effects of nature are also used throughout to create the bucolic mood of the lyrics. Along with "If" on the next album these pieces are not convincing and have to qualify as among Water's most underwhelming work. It's no wonder he doesn't like Ummagumma, his material is the weakest on the album. The problem with Granchester is that it just lays there. It doesn't really pack the beauty needed to convey the feeling of the place in his mind and the singing is so whispered as to be nearly inaudible unless one can get to the volume to crank it up. He follows this with the all time gimmick track "Several Species" which every teen thrills to two times in their life: the first time they hear it, and the second time when they play it for their best friend. While an impressive exercise in the construction of those effects the track is one you will likely skip when you play this album. Water's used his voice and drumming away on his own body as the origins of the sounds and then altered tape speed and used echo to create the piece. The coolest part of the track is the way he seems to create conversations between the creatures and you can imagine the dialogue as they scuttle about alarmed with some unseen threat. He would comment that "The Final Cut" meant a hell of a lot more to him that "Ummagumma" and that's fine, but not every album has to have heavy conceptual, literal overtones. Occasionally people like to let their imaginations roam with abstract sound- or at least they used to.

David Gilmour: The 3-part "The Narrow Way" was Dave's contribution to the studio side of Ummagumma and like Waters, Dave has claimed it is basically bits and pieces of fooling around that he hadn't listened to in years. He recalled being so mortified with the idea of writing his lyrics for this piece that he phoned Roger and asked for help; Roger of course told him NO and to get on with it himself. As with the Waters tracks I find some feelings of contrivance with portions of Dave's contribution, for whatever reason Wright and Mason's works just seems so much more natural and successful. But "The Narrow Way" does have fine moments too. Part 1 finds Dave easing in slowly with his back-porch acoustic ramblings accented by some oddly Syd-sounding slide flourishes (think the "Remember a Day" scrapings) Part 2 is really cool in the way the mood taps into what Wright was doing on the sinister gothic parts of Sysyphus. Dave comes up with a doomy riff that almost sounds like a bit of Sabbath and gives the album a feel of recurring themes that add some depth. Part 3 is the payoff for most Floyd fans though with a drop-dead gorgeous, smooth Gilmour vocal played off of some delicate piano. It's the one moment of Ummagumma that provides some melodic oasis to the mainstream Floyd fan wondering what the hell they just got themselves into here. As Sinkadotentree says it could fit in effortlessly among the tracks on Meddle.

Nick Mason: "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" is a fitting title for such a grand little piece which begins and ends with some lovely baroque flute sections performed by Mason's wife Libby. The beefier mid section called "Entertainment" is a truly insane collage piece constructed with percussion and tape effects and perhaps influenced by Stockhausen. Of note here is the over the top stereo-separation which surely blew the mind of many a stoned music fanatic playing this album in the dark after sparking up. Mason's piece is truly quite erratic and disruptive to one's expectations of what Pink Floyd *should* sound like and hearing it for the first time can be difficult. It needs to be approached without expectations of the typical drum solo. Like the others Mason is a bit dismissive of his work these days which is unfortunate, in his mind apparently polishing fancy cars is a more important endeavor than experimentations in sound. But I love the little percussion call and answer he does with these little rolls around the 5 minute mark. Sure it's not the highlight of progressive rock but then Mason will admit he was never the world's great drummer. I give him much credit for going with the spirit of the album rather than playing it safe.

Conclusion: The funny thing about Ummagumma is that it's the ace in the hole of the long time Floyd fan. Once you have heard Dark Side and Animals and Meddle to death for decades and have every note imprinted to memory, Ummagumma serves as a choice reservoir for some vintage moments of Pink Floyd that sound strangely fresh the older and more patient one becomes. Who would have guessed that fresh on the heels of Wright's tragic early death it would be this album, written off by many as irrelevant, that would provide me with some real "lump in the throat" tribute listening for Rick and for a time when the Floyd were a real band: Rick's majestic piano clashing with the doomy organ in one of his most poignant and unrestrained moments in Pink Floyd. Dave's peaceful "pillow of wind" voice floating you away as gorgeous as any vocal he ever did. Nick's ode to Stockhausen sandwiched between wife Libby's beautiful flute parts providing a wild ride on the stereo-separation roller coaster. It's a treasure chest of little moments that are the very essence of what "progressive music" fans claim to be about-opening their minds and accepting that which isn't always an easy hum. Ummagumma falls well short of a masterpiece but remains a crucial step in the evolution of a musical force. The band would improve on the next album by incorporating more accessibility into what was still sound experiment. They would then move away from this phase of splendid curiosities and into the realm of the '70s music machine which would have its own set of peaks and valleys. But any progger who purports to be a Floyd fan must eventually come to terms with Ummagumma and see the pearls that hide there. And I'm not talking about the live disc, which again, should really just be considered a bonus disc on this release. In a time when many of the most popular "progressive" bands are slick, predictable and little more than elaborate pop music with syrupy vocals/sentiments, it is somewhat refreshing to revisit a time and place when something like Ummagumma could actually be released by a major label. When a band could be both popular and on the edge. 7/10

Ummmagumma is the fourth full-length studio( live) album by UK psychadelic/ progressive rock act Pink Floyd. The original release was a double LP. The first LP contained 4 songs recorded live and the second LP featured original studio compositions by the band. Or more correctly each band member contributed with their own songs. The 1995 CD re-release is a double CD set with extented versions of some of the studio tracks.

The 4 songs on the live part of Ummmagumma is definitely worth the purchase IMO which can´t always be said about the studio counterpart. Of the studio songs I only find Roger Waters´s Grantchester Meadows and the three part David Gilmour penned suite Narrow Way to be acceptable contributions while the rest is more or less expendable to my ears. The live versions of Astronomy Domine, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun and the two ultimate psychadelic trips Careful With That Axe, Eugene and Saucerful of Secrets are all of high quality. Great sound and excellent trippy playing. I have to be in the mood but when I am it´s such a great live recording.

I´m a bit biased when it comes to Ummmagumma. It´s definitely not my favorite Pink Floyd album but those live songs really save the day so I guess a 3 star rating is deserved.

Although this basically is a live album, it's an essential Pink Floyd release. It showcases their ability to make their somewhat obscure and indulgent studio work come alive on stage. All tracks easily take twice the length of their studio counterparts but they do that without any dull moment.

Astronomy Domine is here in its ultimate version. Infinitely better and more developed then the studio version of only 2 years earlier, Careful with that Axe is one of my Pink Floyd favourites, especially in this frenzied and spaced-out version. Heart of the Sun and Saucerful of Secrets have completely outgrown their amateurish studio versions and feature a Nick Mason who must have had the time of his life! Also Gilmour and Wright shine with their bewildering noisy climaxes.

Oh yes, I almost forgot, there's an additional studio CD you have to indulge when buying Umma Gumma. Apart from Water's and Gilmour's contributions it's utterly forgettable (not to say annoying). But the rating is entirely deserved by the live album alone and a true testimony what a extraordinary band Pink Floyd was in these days. Their only essential 60's release.