Search - Pink Floyd :: London 1966-67

And on the first day, Syd said "let there be psychedelia".

Interstellar | a field, where barley grows | 06/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Pink Floyd in their rawest and most experimental, cerebral-cortex-melting form. If ever you doubted Pink Floyd's early status as "The Kings of British Psychedelia," you need look no further than this. No lyrics, just all out, Syd Barrett-penned, lysergic, instrumental insanity. (And more use of echo than you can shake a stick at.) While the highlight here has to be Interstellar Overdrive, Nick's Boogie is absolutely exquisite in it's own right, with it's extremely lonely sounding echoed guitar and hollow drums. On a side note, this CD contains the most breath-taking moment in music history. After 16 minutes of pure experimentation, the entire band regroups and comes back to the main theme of the song. It's at this exact moment, the essence of Pink Floyd lies. No singular moment in their entire catalog (contrary to popular belief) even comes close. Just take a listen.....you'll see."

Define Psychedelia:Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd

mixer | Spring City, USA | 07/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Talk about L S D!This CD spells it out! During "Insterstellar Overdrive," Syd's guitar work:using magnets and other odd things as slides, is pure disorientation. I love how the song goes: wicked-trippy-disorientation-trippy-wicked: purely improvised. During "Nick's Boogie," Nick Mason plays the drums like the sound of a heartbeat, then you hear swooshes and Rick Wright's organ playing, and swooshes and more of Syd's trippyness. These two instrumental pieces would just give you the feeling, that you don't know what to expect next! I would advise cranking it up full blast -the bass on the highest, turn the lights off, and just hold on. You don't know what you will get yourself into- that is, until you get this CD. You will go for a musical roller coaster of a ride. Just find out for yourself."

Beware!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Parallax | 05/15/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I purchased a used copy of "London '66-'67" through Amazon.com. According to the product description, this re-mastered release includes two audio tracks, rare video footage of Pink Floyd in concert, and extensive liner notes. I am a huge fan of the early Pink Floyd so I was really looking forward to checking out this release. When my order arrived, however, I found that all I got was an audio CD. There was no video content on it at all. That is when I realized that there are two versions of this release: An early (audio-only) version and a newly re-mastered, repackaged version with video footage and expanded liner notes.



So, I was mislead by the listing on Amazon.com. The seller should NOT have listed an audio-only CD on a page that advertised an audio/video product. BEWARE, this could happen to you too. I'm sure there are a lot of copies of the lesser version of this release floating around and they could easily end up listed for sale on Amazon.com.



Despite everything I have written above, however, it is exciting to stumble across more recorded material from the early days of Pink Floyd. The music here isn't as good as the previously released material but it is still a nice treat for people who are fans of the Syd Barrett years.



The packaging states that this release includes the "definitive version" of "Interstellar Overdrive." To be honest, though, I've heard better. This version tends to plod along with a somewhat limited range of timbres, with all the musicians generally maintaining the beat and occasionally getting louder or softer. They don't experiment as much with interesting sounds or playing styles here. Still, it is a pleasant enough listening experience. There is a nice groove going on and you can hear the roots of ideas that eventually developed into the studio version that appears on "Piper at the Gates of Dawn."



"Nick's Boogie" is a much better track. It is very similar in style to "Interstellar Overdrive" but there is a lot more variation in style and timbre. The more spaced-out drum part leaves a lot of room for the musicians to get looser and to play round the beat. You can hear a lot of interesting exploration going on in the course of this track, including Syd getting some interesting results with the slide and delay pedal and Nick Mason playing around with soft mallets to get sounds that are similar to a kettle drum.



This release is a nice little treat, even though it isn't as satisfying as the other recordings of the group from this era. The experience is kind of like hearing early demos from your favorite band: It is interesting to hear them explore ideas that eventually lead to their break-through sound. Just don't expect this stuff to be as good as "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" or "Saucerful of Secrets." And be sure to get re-mastered version of this release so you won't feel ripped off!!!!"