Sunday, March 25, 2012

'Interstellar Zappadrive' - 25th October 1969 - Amougies, Belgium

Sound Quality: B+
Performance: B+
Overall: 3/5 Storage

Good sound quality overall but a couple of issues which knock it down to a B+, the sound is a little muffled and not as clear as some other ROIO I have reviewed from this time period. Some other issues noted on the track breakdown too.

The performance is historic, the legendary Frank Zappa joins the boys on Interstellar Overdrive and what a feast for the senses it turns out to be. Overall though most of the songs didn't really pop for me, pretty ordinary and again there are some better choices out there. ('Since We were Teenagers' still still my ROIO of choice at this point)

Track Breakdown...

Astronomy Domine: This made me hopeful of the quality, it is better than the rest and this is a good version.

Green Is The Colour: Both the vocals and acoustic guitars are low volume which is the focal part of this song. Shame.

Care With That Axe, Eugene: The recording quality seems to tone down the transition section in the song and leaves this version flat and pretty lifeless.

Tune Ups: Frank takes the stage and tunes up, nothing much goes on though can be skipped.

Interstellar Overdrive: 20 minute version of this classic track, loved it and Frank does a good job joining in. Great version, historic moment. Definite highlight of the disk.

Tuning: skip it, nothing happens

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun: There are some chunks where you hear talking, which is shame because the song is pretty good. One is about 15 seconds, the other is just a couple but is pretty distracting and ruins a pretty good version of this song.

Then we have some bonus tracks which are a soundboard recording but still the quality is not that great

Green Is The Colour: Again the vocals are pretty low volume and a little muffled.

Careful With That Axe, Eugene: A little muffled but nice intensity, so this highlights the problem with the audience recording.

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun: Better with out the talking but still nothing spectacular.

All round a disappointment, but should be heard for the version of 'Interstellar Overdrive' with Frank.

------------------
Original Info…


Pink Floyd feat. Frank Zappa: Interstellar Zappadrive. (Harvested Records :: HRV CDR031)
Recorded Live at Mont de L'Enclus, Amougies, Belgium - October 25, 1969.

Disc 1
01. Astronomy Domine
02. Green Is The Colour
03. Careful With That Axe Eugene
04. Tuning Up With Zappa
05. Interstellar Overdrive
06. Tuning Up
07. Set The Controls
08. A Saucerful Of Secrets
Disc 2
01. Green Is The Colour (SBD)
02. Careful With That Axe Eugene (SBD)
03. Set The Controls (SBD)

Total Time: 01:43:07 hour/s.
Personnel: David Gilmour :: Nick Mason :: Roger Waters :: Richard Wright.

Special Guest: Frank Zappa.

Notes: Also speedcorrected and pitch corrected version of the original seed of the audience recording, slightly at diff speed than "Let's Be Frank..." though. The disc comes with bonus material from the supposed radio broadcast (soundboard source), but is not mentioned as a D2 on the artwork. -Furry_Animal

The mono audience recording that surfaced early 2006 was running too slow. A 96.5% speed correction was performed in order to have the correct speed (taking the live Ummagumma CD as the pitch reference). Some flaws of the original recording were corrected also (some very short "holes" in the recording were manually corrected, and some level fluctuations were adjusted for listening pleasure). A slight EQ was performed in order to have a more balanced frequency spectrum, and finally a manual deglitching was performed. Talking about the slight difference of speed when comparing to "Let's Be Frank", this is probably due to the pitch reference that was used. When comparing Let's Be Frank with the official tracks on the Ummagumma live CD, Let's Be Frank seems slightly too slow (but it's less noticeable than on the original recording, which was about one half-step too slow). -MOB

No comments:

Post a Comment