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04/14/2021 | ||||||
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Eagle Vision presents "Dark Side of the Moon was an expression of political, philosophical, humanitarian empathy, which was desperate to get out."
DVD ReviewDark Side of the Moon is one of the most successful albums of all time. This very listenable documentary features interviews with all the members of Pink Floyd about the making of the album. Always a very misterioso band, the members of Pink Floyd reveal a very important thing in the documentary: they worked very hard to create the sound but did not hesitate to rely on luck. Perhaps the group will never re-unite again, but they do here to talk about their greatest success.The story picks up with Pink Floyd struggling as a band to define themselves after their leader and inspiration force, Syd Barret, went insane. Pink Floyd added guitarist David Gilmour, and these kings of the progressive space-rock genre, exemplified by the album Meddle with its 20-minute Side B romp through Echoes, looked to create a more commercial sound that still capitalized on their special quality of "way out there". As Waters says, the band was united in their desire to make it big. Using material that had been honed on the road as Eclipse in this pre-bootleg era, Pink Floyd entered Abbey Road Studios with engineer/producer Alan Parsons to make a new album. The editing of the documentary is marvelous as the interviews are blended between thoughts, musical clips, photos, vintage footage, demo recordings, and other material to provide a seamless picture of the development of the album. The tracking of the documentary mirrors the tracking of the album. An excellent job has been done in making the film a good listen in its own right. At one point, I thought it would have been cool if you could turn to listening to the entire track that was being discussed. Multi-track tapes are explored by Gilmour and Parsons to show how the sounds were blended to make the songs. Waters gives intriguing glimpses into the process that led to the writing of the lyrics. Piano player Richard Wright tells some interesting stories of the genesis of one of the songs, born from work on Michaelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point soundtrack. The one editor on hand from Rolling Stone, who he refers to the band as "The Floyd," is a little pretentious. Otherwise, the commentary and quotes are quite enlightening. Also, there are several bits of trivia about Dark Side of the Moon that are great fun, such as the source of the voices, who the female singers are, and some of the ways they made the sounds in that pre-digital time. This is a must-have for fans of "The Floyd" and fans of their seminal album. Rating for Style: A- Rating for Substance: B+ Image Transfer
Image Transfer Review: The video transfer is completely solid and crisp. The original source looks to be high quality and the transfer follows suit. These guys should give lessons to the multitude of grainy, slipshod documentary makers out there. The technical work here is a tribute to the material. Image Transfer Grade: A Audio Transfer
Audio Transfer Review: Once again, the technical quality is excellent. The stereo transfer makes for a very listenable DVD. The importance of how an album sounds just can't be over emphasized, and here, there is just not a fault to be found. Bravo. Audio Transfer Grade: A Disc ExtrasStatic menu with musicScene Access with 11 cues and remote access Packaging: Amaray Picture Disc 1 Disc 1-Sided disc(s) Layers: single Extra Extras:
Brain Damage Money Us and Them Waters' World View Breathe Time Waters on Rock 'n' Roll Chris Thomas Gilmour's Guitars: Breathe Gilmour's Guitars: The Great Gig in the Sky Gilmour's Guitars: Us and Them Gerry Has the Last Word Extras Grade: B+ Final CommentsOne of the most successful albums of all time, Dark Side of the Moon, is examined and discussed by the members of Pink Floyd in this fascinating documentary. |
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