Sound Quality: A-
Performance: A
Overall: 4/5
This is a great bootleg, there are a couple of sources from the same show at play here which is why the second half sounds more muffled that the first half but it is still pretty good. I was moving back and forth between 'A-' and 'B+' and it just seemed better than the later.
There performances are excellent, it starts off a little rough and ready, as it were, but they soon get into the swing of things and really start laying it out. The highlights for me were 'Fat Old Sun' which was long and superb and ASOS it was really great, excellent all round, lots of energy and great wailing from Dave.
Track breakdown…
Domine: Roger says good morning when it is actually 2.30pm, I guess that is morning for music folks. Nice long build up, its a bit ragged, I think the name of the bootleg may have been apt. Spacy middle section.
Fat Old Sun: This is fantastic! It is 13 and a half minutes (run time on the track is longer but includes tune ups at the end.)
Cymbaline: Another good one, effects are clear. just after the effects something happens, maybe a rogue firework? Dave laughs then the there is fuzz on the recording for a minute or two. There is about 2 and a half minutes of tune ups at the end of the track then about 30 seconds before the end of the track Roger introduced Atom Heart Mother and says after that they will take a break.
Atom Heart Mother: Not sure why but there are two starts to the track, you get the sound effects and the first riff and then another round of effects before the song gets going. This a rowdy version, I liked it but not as much as some of the other versions I have heard.
The Embryo: Nice version, volume seemed to more muffled, sounds the source changed
Green Is The Colour: good
Careful With That Axe, Eugene: Great, Rogers screams are so awesome on this version. He is not a morning person!
Set The Controls Of The Heart Of The Sun: Vocals are pretty low, really nice version again, great drumming work by Nick, another chunk of tuning at the end and Roger annoucing A Saucerful Of Secrets
A Saucerful Of Secrets: Loved this version.
Interstellar Overdrive: Great version, lots of great improv.
Get this bootleg, you will not be disappointed.
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Original Info…
PINK FLOYD
The Montreux 40th Anniversary Series
Too Early For A Gig (HRV CDR 037)
Montreux Casino, 22Nov70
Remastering by MOB
Quality Control and artwork by RonToon
Produced by Harvested Records
Disc One
1. Astronomy Domine
2. Fat Old Sun
3. Cymbaline
4. Atom Heart Mother
5. Embryo
Disc Two
1. Green Is The Colour
2. Careful With That Axe, Eugene
3. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
4. A Saucerful Of Secrets
5. Interstellar Overdrive
Sources:
CD1 tracks 1-4: "Smoking Blues" bootleg (FBR 001/002)
CD1 track 5 and CD2 tracks 1-4: "Reeling On Pink Floyd - Tape 24": Master Reel > 1st gen reel copy > cassette copy > DAT@48khz > WAV@48khz > SHN@48khz
CD2 track 5: Victor's 2009 transfer: 2 x Sennheiser MD-421 > Uher 4200 reel recorded at 19 ips > Audio CD > EAC > FLAC
This is the second of the two 1970 concerts at Montreux Casino. The first one (from 21Nov70) was released in November 2010 under the title "Too Late For Mind Expanding" (HRV CDR 036). This second performance, hastily added for the 22Nov70 afternoon at 2.30pm, is entitled "Too Early For A Gig" (HRV CDR 037).
While "Too Late For Mind Expanding" was mainly based on Victor's raw transfer from (some of) his mastertapes shared in November 2009, for this second date we only had Interstellar Overdrive from that transfer. Hopefully, four other tracks recorded by Victor on 22Nov70 surfaced in 1995 on the "Smoking Blues" bootleg, with superb sound quality despite the fact that this bootleg is probably sourced from a 1st or 2nd gen tape. For the rest of the show, we used an alternate source, from a different recorder: "Reeling On Pink Floyd - Tape 24".
The first four songs of the show were remastered from "Smoking Blues". Speed was corrected, slight EQ was applied and channel balance was adjusted. The main problem with "Smoking Blues" is the presence of annoying distorsion during the loud parts, mainly in the right channel, probably due to saturation during the dubbing process of Victor's tape for the copy used by the bootleggers. All RoIOs using "Smoking Blues" or its tape source (like "Before The Fire") have that analog saturation problem during the loud parts (this is not a digital saturation that could be corrected by clip restoration). On "Good Morning Folks" RoIO (from Inner Circle Production 1998), the distorsion was partly attenuated, but is still noticeable and the sound quality was altered in the process. For the present Harvested release, the distorsion has been manually attenuated with no impact on the clarity of the recording and we are very proud of the result, since this is the first time that you can enjoy the loud parts of Atom Heart Mother or Fat Old Sun without this saturation.
In order to have the most complete version of that concert, tunings and announcements that were cut on "Smoking Blues", were restored using the "Reeling Tape 24" source. A missing portion of Cymbaline, edited on "Smoking Blues" (probably to hide a tape flip) was restored for this release, again from the "Reeling Tape 24" source (from 04'10" to 04'55").
The five next songs, from Embryo to A Saucerful Of Secrets, were remastered from the "Reeling Tape 24" recording. Speed was corrected, and EQ was applied in order to bring more presence. The balance between channels needed some attention, especially for Embryo, where the left channel was suffering from severe fluctuations. It became better with Green Is the Colour, but the left channel remained the most problematic one, with more dropouts and tape flaws than the right channel. All these flaws were carefully corrected or attenuated. The tracks sourced from "Reeling Tape 24" are more hissy than the ones from "Smoking Blues", but the hiss could not be reduced without altering the clarity of the recording, so it was decided to leave it as it is.
The last song, Interstellar Overdrive, was remastered from Victor's 2009 raw transfer, except the last 5 minutes that were missing on Victor's tape and were restored from "Reeling Tape 24". Even if "Reeling Tape 24" has a more complete version of Interstellar overdrive, the very last chords are missing. These were restored by taking another audience recording from that era for the very end of the song and the last applauses.
Enjoy !
MOB (March 11, 2012)
Harvested Records
