THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

This album was recorded almost at the same time that The Beatles were recording their "Sgt. Pepper" album at the same studios (EMI) in 1967. A very psychedelic album that with the passing of time shows some of the imperfections of its recording and mixing, and a band still developing a sound and a style, still sounding very "new" for the recording enviroment, and with a tendency for inprovisation. Maybe Syd Barrett was the pioneer in the definition of the sound of the band, but when he left in 1968, they became a better band, in my opinion, with David Gilmour. Barret was a very good lyricist and singer, but he really sounds in this album as not being a very dedicated guitarist as he sounds like really playing without much care. So, maybe his main contribution for the band was to define a sound and a musical style in the psychedelic fad that was in their best period of time particularly during 1967. The songs are good but some of them sound now dated. The recording and the mxing of the album are not very good despite having the now late Norman Smith as producer, who also was the recording engineer for The Beatles from 1962 to 1965, and he later became a producer for other bands like Pink Floyd and also a solo artist during the seventies. So the album as a whole sounds with some lack of "polish" as other albums from the same period sound better in comparison. Some of the lyrics of the songs really sound "childish", like narrations for children, which maybe was an innovation in 1967. Other songs sound like "mind trips" aided a bit by the use of some substances. Anyway, for me the best songs in this album are "Astronomy Domine", "Lucifer Sam", "Interstellar Overdrive" and particularly "Bike", which in my opinion is the best song in this album, with very good psychedelic arrangements and sound effects particularly at the end of the song. It seems that the members of the band and The Beatles were introduced to each other once during a brief visit during the recording sessions at EMI Studios for the "Sgt. Pepper" album,as Mark Lewisohn wrote in his book "The Beatles: Recording Sessions", sharing "half-hearted hellos" only between them. Apparently, Norman Smith had some problems trying to understand the musical ideas that Pink Floyd presented to him. Anyway, he continued working with them as producer until 1969, having better results on later albums.