THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

'Piper...' is a fantastic debut, within it's genre. It really is a comsic gem, but you have to get your head around it. You have to listen to it whilst continuously reminding yourself of the three words I started this review with. Otherwise, it can lose you. There is a good music/lyric balance on this record (something Dave Gimour would later strive for) as well as plenty of repetitive whimsical lyricism, LSD-style soloing, funky improvisation, and repetitive whimsical lyricism. Did I mention repetitive whimsical lyricism?

...The imagery is, like anything written by the late Syd Barrett, strange. But the songs are musically sound, and whilst some are better than others, there are no glaringly obvious weak points on the album. Wisely for their debut, the band stick to mainly jazz and pop orientated tunes, only occasionally delving into the endless possibilities of psychedelic noodling ('Pow R. Toc H.', 'Interstellar Overdrive') and the very English area of acoustic folk ('The Gnome', 'Scarecrow'). The recording is of course, dated, but well produced in mono. And the ratio of Waters' material to everyone else's is astonishingly small, which probably works in this album's favour. For fans of later Floyd it won't leave much of a mark, but theres a sense of fun on 'Piper...' that is rare for this band. If anything it seems even more significant now that it's primary contributors are dead. But remember, London, 1967, Psychedelia...

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