Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Now THIS is a box set!


Been digging through the Pink Floyd The Early Years 1965-1972 box set. Yup, I plunked down an ungodly sum of money for it. But it's also one of those rare box sets that actually, exhaustively digs through the audio and visual archives to reveal stuff that's must-have for fans. A bunch of the music has been available on bootleg form since forever but it is so lovely to hear cleaned up, original versions instead of 36th generation multi-cassette dubs.

And it came at just the right time. Prior to last Tuesday I was submerged in 2016 releases as I was starting to piece together my best of 2016 music list, but since last Wednesday I've found I've really just needed to submerge myself in sounds that reassure and are familiar. This set mixes the known with the thrill of discovery so it's been a nice salve. The video components are also pretty mind-blowing. I'm only on the first Bluray disc and already I'm seeing stuff I never saw. It's also a trip to see the band when they are so young. Roger Waters, in interviews, is already so Roger Waters, and seeing Syd Barrett moving around and talking gives a tiny glimpse that leads to a deeper understanding of just how oddly charismatic he really was.

Anyway, if you're a fan, and have the cash, this is really worth it (even the additional collateral is super cool).

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