THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

This is the first review I post so I will try to make it as expressive and eloquent as I can. First of all, I will remark on music in general, so as to explain the passion, the utter worship, that I harbor for this particular album. Music is an intrical part of my life; I have been editor and writer for a few aficionado magazines since highschool, I play a mean percussion, some guitar and violin, and have recently taken up bagpipe. My experience with progressive rock is relatively recent, having only discovered its full scope in my late teens, but I have been a Pink Floyd fan, literally, since before I was born (my father used to play his copy of "The Wall" at full blast several times a day during my mother's pregnancy of me). One of the life-lessons that I cherish most dearly about my dad is that he was the one who once told me that "Dark Side of the Moon" was the greatest composition ever made in the history of western music, even eclypsing Beethoven's Ninth or Bach's chamber pieces. I rather agree with him. Track by track, octave by octave, note by note, it is absolutely flawless. As a whole, it has the modulation of a grand symphony the likes of those by the earlier romantic composers, the ones that keep the beginning of each movement full of a tingling anticipation, and the climax of each movement with a burst of audible euphoria. One article in one of the magazines I've been part of even suggested that the entire album obeys the mathematical order of fractals, each chord being the basic block of construction for the next module, and each song being at the same time a super- module and a building block for the entire work. I regret to say that I did not come up with this theory but when I read it I was enthralled with the awe of it's logic, and, of course with the recognition of the beautiful logic in the album itself. Several of the songs have lyrics that could very well become the anthems of the generation to which the band belongs. Take "Time", for example; it describes perfectly the experience of having your perspective of life changed entirely by the mere power of ageing. Or "Money", an inspired critique on the hipocrisy of an entire generation that proclaimded the evils of money while at the same time being totally preoccupied by the pleasures that only money can surely supply. Musically, this superb work of art has something to offer to every listener. The fast- paced experimentation on behalf of Roger Waters with the Moog synthesizer in "On the Run", its second track, has a valuable example to give to any DJ or electronic musician of today, as does the sampling and mixing of thunder, clocks and bells in the beginning of "Time", or the cash registers and bill-counting machines in "Money". The saxophone in "Any Colour You Like" and "Brain Damage" would curl the back-hairs of any fan of Charlie Parker. Gilmour's guitar is at its best, with chilling harmonies and not-incredible but indeed masterful riffs throughout the album. It is a grand masterpiece if there ever was one. To fully appreciate the entire experience that this album was for the band, I suggest that the listener also look up the live bootleg "Live in Hokkaido", from their Japanese tour of 1972, and also from that year, may be found on dvd or videocassette, the film entitled "Live at Pompeii", which shows Floyd recording a number of tracks, including some that later influenced the ones present in "Dark Side of the Moon", with the help of the accoustic engineering of Roman architects in the ruins of an amphitheatre in the city of Pompeii, southern Italy. No audience, no modern sound-isolation materials, just the instruments, the guys, and microphones at the top of the seats. To answer the question of whether this album deserves the rating of "Essential for a prog collection", I have to reply "more than that, it needs to be called a masterpiece of human achievement, essential to the collection of any person who appreciates true art and cherishes the genius inherent in the capabilities of mankind."