Floyd's half and half creme album gets deluxe LP treatment

Don't be fooled by the title, this is a great album.

Pink Floyd's fourth album Ummagumma was released in November of 1969. This album was the band's first double album and the band's first crack in the U.S. Top 100 on Billboard peaking at #74 in early 1970 and eventually went Gold in early 1974(after the success of Dark Side) and Platinum(in March, 1994). The two disc set is basically two albums in one package. The title of the album is an old Cambridgeshire slang term for a word I cannot use.

I first got this album as a Christmas present from my paternal grandmother whom unfortunately passed away on Valentine's Day 2004 on cassette(which was missing three live tracks) in 1987. Then, I acquired on CD in August, 1991 with the full album. The remaster however, is the definitive version. When I listen to it now, I think back to my grandmother whom I loved dearly and will miss(and smile instead of cry to mourn with the music on this album).

Back to Ummagumma, the first disc is a live album that the band recorded at a club called Mother's in Birmingham, England and the Manchester College of Commerce in Manchester, England in April and June of 1969 respectively.

The first track is a wonderful, extended reading of Astronomy Domine this time featuring keyboardist Rick Wright singing the lower parts Syd originally sang and guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour singing the higher harmonies. The song is a great showpiece for Dave's excellent guitar work and Rick's fantastic keyboard work. Next is Careful With That Axe Eugene(deleted from the original cassette issue) which is more sinister and longer than the hurried studio version with bassist/vocalist Roger Waters' demonic screaming and excellent drumming from drummer Nick Mason and excellent playing by Wright and Gilmour as well. Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun(deleted from the original cassette issue) follows and buries the studio version once again featuring extra keyboard work by Rick whom may be one of the best keyboardists in rock history and Roger sang this track with more passion. The first disc ends with A Saucerful of Secrets(deleted from the original cassette issue) which surpasses the studio version although I love the version from Pompeii too. The ending section of Saucerful is way different than the studio as Rick's organ is this time joined by bass guitar, drums and then guitar making it more of a jam than a funeral hymn like on the original album.

Disc two consists of a solo piece or two by the four band members and came about because of Rick's frustrations with doing just rock music.

Rick's solo piece was the four-part Sysyphus which features Rick's jazz and classical influences and his keyboard work on the mellotron and piano and organ gives me a shiver down the spine. Roger had two solo pieces. First, the folk-tinged acoustic number Grantchester Meadows which was his song about his childhood in Cambridge. Next, was the avant-garde tape effect with Scottish dialect rant laden Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict. David Gilmour for his solo piece combined his rock, blues and folk influences in the three part The Narrow Way. Although he hates the song and refused to have the lyrics to part 3 printed on the remaster, it's my favorite on the disc. The solo disc ends with Nick Mason's The Grand Vizier's Garden Party which is a Nick Mason drum solo and shows that he is a great drummer.

If you like the Floyd from 1973 forward then this isn't for you but if you are a hardcore Floyd fan like myself, I highly recommend this album.

In 2001, EMI Japan re-issued the 1995 remaster in a miniature vinyl sleeve to look like the original record. You get all of the original UK vinyl artwork and the re-mastering equals or is better than the 1995 edition!

Not to be missed.

For those used to the later Pink Floyd, this will come as a complete surprise. But after a few hearings, the musical fun will come through. And while it is Pink Floyd with all that implies, it is more of an exploration of the groups musical tastes and boundaries.

If you like rock as opposed to dance music, this is a must-have album - first in that it contains some truely classic and ground breaking music and second in that (however obscurely) the music has managed to leave its imprint on almost everything to follow.

The live tracks are grand - and deserve (though it isn't necessary) to be played loudly. For me, the introduction to "Astronome Domine" and "Saucerful of Secrets" have the power to drag the listener in with little effort. Unlike many similar pieces, the variety of sounds and dynamic range make the music unlike much you might hear outside a concert hall - in a couple of tracks the music fades to a very quiet contemplative mood only to swell quickly into a loud, noisy contrast.

The studio tracks are wildly different sounding almost completely different -much quieter (though far from always quiet) with odd vocal backgrounds (and a few surprising add ons). "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict" is a delight and completely unexpected and "Grantchester Meadows" is a quite and rich track featuring acoustic guitar, voice and birds.

If the pieces on this album were played separately, a casual listener might well conclude that they were played by entirely different people with very different musical interests, but played together, its clear that there is a strong commonality and that these four disparate musicians capable of going in very different directions are still somehow forging a sound, mood and presence that is unique and unforgettable.

Not all of the music here is a success - but even the tracks that are less strong are worth listening to and thinking about.

An album strangely and sadly underheard and underestimated.

too expensive

But the original recording is allegedly a soundtrack to Kubrick's "The Dawn of Man" segment in "2001: A Space Oddysey". Note how the song titles correspond to the film.