P.U.L.S.E.' 06/06/1995
You may also DOWNLOAD it in MP3
Also available on CD & cassette in a long box
on Columbia (67063) and in a 4x8 cassette long box on Columbia (67065).
Pink Floyd: David Gilmour (vocals, guitars); Richard Wright (vocals,
keyboards); Nick Mason (drums).
Additional personnel: Tim Renwick (vocals, guitar); Jon Carin (vocals,
keyboards); Guy Pratt (vocals, bass); Dick Parry (saxophone); Gary Wallis
(percussion); Sam Brown, Claudia Fontaine, Durga McBroom (background vocals).
Recorded live in Europe and The United Kingdom in 1994.
It has never mattered which of Pink Floyd's leaders (Barrett, Waters, Gilmour)
is at the controls, the band has always been about grandeur. The epic scale of
their psychedelic explorations, the life-altering themes of their recordings,
the ground-breaking, conceptual stagings, all have helped in the construction of
the group's mythology. And more than any other rock band's, Pink Floyd myths
have lived on and prospered even as the band and its fan-base have evolved with
time. A live, double-album, PULSE works not only as a great extended postcard of
1994's biggest tour, but as Pink Floyd's myth re-charger. Consider the facts:
the release was celebrated with a laser-light show atop the Empire State
Building, and the spine of the CD package features a perpetually blinking light.
But, as is always the case with Pink Floyd, there is reason to their madness.
The blinking light harkens back to the heartbeat that is the unifying theme of
their classic DARK SIDE OF THE MOON album, which is performed in its entirety on
disc two. Disc one is an approximation of the band's first set, featuring a
powerful run through Syd Barrett's "Astronomy Domine" (the definition
of late '60s British psychedelia), as well as a host of songs from 1987's
MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON and '94's DIVISION BELL. But the second set is the
true keeper of the two. Having made its tour debut on the 25th anniversary of
the Apollo moon landing (how's that for a myth?), DARK SIDE loses none of its
glow when transferred to a live setting. David Gilmour ably handles Roger
Waters' vocal parts, but escapes comparisons by throwing the focus on
instrumental interludes that further the imagination--"On The Run,"
for instance, sounds like a true precursor to The Orb's ambient noodlings.
Still, the radio hits ("Money," "Us And Them," "Brain
Damage") are all re-interpreted enough to sound novel, but familiar enough
to feel like ours. In this way, Pink Floyd are our own Homer, our own Jason
& The Argonauts: their stories have been with us forever, but we never mind
hearing them again.