Posted on: December 11, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Pink Floyd – Piper At The Gates of Dawn / 2007 Capitol / 11 Tracks / http://www.capitolrecords.com /

Any Pink Floyd fan knows that “Piper At The Gates of Dawn” was the first album created by Pink Floyd. Casual fans that just know Pink Floyd from “The Wall” and “Pulse”-era recordings will struggle to find commonality between those albums and “Piper”. 2007 marks the 40th anniversary of the original release of the album, so what Capitol does here is create a remastered version of the album that showcases some of the arrangements and compositions that may have gained a little dust in the transformation from reel to reel to album, and from cassette to CD. The results are stunning, and what results with this version of “Piper At The Gates of Dawn” is something that will give Pink Floyd fans a whole new light into the motivations and desires of the band at this point of their careers.

There are two different versions of “Piper At The Gates of Dawn” that fans can purchase. The two-CD set is the introductory level, and provides individuals with two mixes (stereo and mono) of the album. For individuals that want to spend a little bit more in the way of money, the three-CD set includes some extras. The third disc provides individuals with some singles that for whatever reason, were not included on the album. This means that individuals can find the alternate version of “Matilda Mother”, a French EP version of “Interstellar Overdrive”, and songs like “Candy and a Currant Bun” and “See Emily Play”. It is my opinion that both casual and diehard fans of Floyd should opt for the three CD set, just to hear the different interpretations of the songs between the mixes, and the completely different versions of “Interstellar Overdrive” that are present.

The production value of the original version of “Piper At The Gates of Dawn” was completely solid in its own right. However, the masterful re-production and cleaning up of the disc’s sound makes everything that much more impressive about Pink Floyd’s inaugural outing. Again, fans of the “newer” Pink Floyd may find it a little hard to get into the works of “Piper At The Gates of Dawn”, but at least they cannot complain that the recording style or production values were drastically different than anything that they are intimately familiar with. Splurge, buy the extended edition of “Piper At The Gates of Dawn”, and be shock and awed at how Pink Floyd sounded when they first started.

Top Tracks: Flaming, Pow R. Toc. H

Rating: 7.0/10

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