(This is part two of our The Endless River series, for the bawdy introduction, go here: What the fuck is your problem, Pink Floyd?)

So here it is. The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit's The Endless River review of what undoubtedly is the most anticipated record of the year.

Read

The album has four, mostly instrumental, suites, that Pink Floyd prefers to call sides. Each suite has several tracks, but these are best listened to in one piece as they form one ensemble. The 'luxe' edition has a 39 minutes extra DVD or Blu-ray with 6 videos of 1993 studio rehearsals and 3 audio tracks. The Blu-ray version is the most complete (and expensive) as it also has a stereo PCM, a 5.1 DTS and a 5.1 PCM version of the album, whatever these acronyms mean.

The front cover concept was designed by Ahmed Emad Eldin, in what could be called ersatz Hipgnosis style, probably chosen because it evokes the boatman who was present in The Division Bell artwork (and, in lesser extent, on A Momentary Lapse Of Reason). The other artwork is credited to the usual gang of graphic designers: Aubrey Powell, Stylorouge, StormStudios and, weirdly, Hipgnosis, although that company stopped in 1983. The 24-pages booklet has a maritime feel: compasses, maps, logbooks... The lettering misses a piece in most letters, to accentuate the missing keyboard player, who has been credited on 11 of the 18 tracks. Storm Thorgerson is remembered as well in the credits.

Think

The album was created out of rejected 1993 jams and demos, with Richard Wright, Nick Mason and David Gilmour, that were probably revisited to be added to a Division Bell anniversary set of one kind or another. Rejected is too strong a word because way back, twenty years ago, it had been the idea to turn the The Division Bell into a double CD-set, what was abandoned for lack of time. That second album turned into the apocryphal The Big Spliff that still sits in Gilmour's studio in an unfinished form and that was assembled by Andy Jackson. Phil Manzanera was asked, in 2012, to work on it, but refused.

I don't wanna hear. I wanna hear every single piece or scrap that was recorded, everything. Outtakes from Division Bell. Everything.

In December 2012 Manzanera puzzled dozens of unfinished pieces into a skeleton, divided into four 12 minute suites, out of 20 hours of material. According to Manzanera, Pink Floyd thanked him and immediately put the work in a box where they forgot it. Martin 'Youth' Glover however says that he was invited in June 2013 and that David Gilmour had already worked on the two different versions of the project.

Within about 40 seconds, it sounded like Floyd. It was absolutely magical. (…) Listening to unreleased Pink Floyd recordings with David, the hair was going up on the back of my arms.

Youth then created a third version and in November 2013 a meeting was held between the two remaining Pink Floyd members and the three producers: Andy Jackson, Phil Manzanera and Youth. Gilmour and Mason picked the best ideas from each version and started working on something that could have been an atrocious Frankenmix but that turned out quite coherent in the end.

Listen

Side One: ambient spaces

"Things Left Unsaid...", Gilmour, Wright
"It's What We Do", Gilmour, Wright
"Ebb and Flow", Gilmour, Wright

Things Left Unsaid (4:27): a very ambient, Cluster One atmospheric, introduction, with some voice samples of the Floyd members. Tradition wants that it only starts morphing into something of a melody after the two minutes mark. It gradually slides into It's What We Do (6:17) that thrives on a Shine On You Crazy Diamond moog synth and traces of Marooned later on. This is a typical Floydian spacey slow blues, ideal for those fans who want to chill out with a big spliff. It's lazy and slow and probably a bit boring for some, a typical trademark of the Floyd sound, and just because it is so intriguingly and deliberately slow, the first thrill of the album. It continues into Ebb and Flow (1:55), mainly an epilogue to the previous track.

Actually the first suite is pretty daring to start with in the hectic days we are living in today, this is so contradictory with contemporary music it nearly feels alienated. It's the kind of suite that will be used in nuru massage parlours around the world.

Side Two: early days tripper

"Sum", Gilmour, Mason, Wright
"Skins", Gilmour, Mason, Wright
"Unsung", Wright
"Anisina", Gilmour

Sum (4:48), there's that Cluster One intro again with ambient effects switching towards an Astronomy Domine space trip. Then it nods to an early seventies style Floydian jam, One Of These Days, although bigger and louder, including that good old perverted VCS3 machine.

Skins (2:37) further elaborates on the A Saucerful Of Secrets tribal rhythms and this is the first time in years we hear grand vizier Nick Mason take the lead on a track, finally! We could never think we would be so happy with a fucking drum solo. Gilmour makes his guitar scream à la Barrett in Interstellar Overdrive in something that can be described as a beat bolero. The track ends with some minor guitar effects, just for the sake of the effect and glides over to Unsung (1:07), an intermezzo that is a bridge to the ending of this suite, the magical Anisina (3:17). Those who think this is Wright in a jazz lounge must be contradicted. This is 100% Gilmour and it brings shivers down the spine, even if this a known track that has been bootlegged before as a Division Bell outtake.

The second suite is the experimental one, although the experiment is limited not to scare the casual listener away. We've heard people say that this Pink Floyd record is more of the same. And it's true. But who complains when The Rolling Stones or U2 bring out their umpteenth album sounding exactly like the previous one?

Side Three: all that jazz

"The Lost Art of Conversation", Wright
"On Noodle Street", Gilmour, Wright
"Night Light", Gilmour, Wright
"Allons-Y (1)", Gilmour
"Autumn '68", Wright
"Allons-Y (2)", Gilmour
"Talkin' Hawkin'", Gilmour, Wright

The lost art of conversation (1:43) is an introductory piano piece by Wright, obviously with some guitar effects from Gilmour. It segues into On Noodle Street (1:42), that is, as the title gives away, nothing but a light jazzy noodling, featuring Guy Pratt, Wright's son-in-law. It is easy listening for Floydheads, just like the next track Night Light (1:42). The first three tracks are merely the introduction for the highlight of this side, and perhaps the album.

Allons-Y (1) (1:57), is a two-piecer and a Run Like Hell copycat, only much better (actually, we find Run Like Hell one of the worst tracks by the Floyd). It is irresistible and the moment we really started tapping our feet. The mid-piece of Allons-Y is Autumn '68 (1:35), the much discussed archival bit taken from a Wright improvisation from the Royal Albert Hall in 1968, reminding us vaguely of a movement of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, only this dates from about five years before. Allons-Y (2) (1:32) is a reprise of the first part to close the circle.

Talkin Hawkin' (3:29) starts rather like one of those slow evolving (and a bit tedious) pieces from On An Island, but is – yet again – irresistible in its meandering movements. Nobody is so immaculate in creating these lazy and slightly boring moods than Pink Floyd. With its Stephen Hawking samples this track is the obvious link to The Division Bell, but the track itself is the counterpart of Keep Talking.

The third suite is the most light-hearted one, perhaps the most commercial and catchy, and it surely is saved by, here we go, Allons-Y.

Side Four: turn off the lights

"Calling", Gilmour, Moore
"Eyes to Pearls", Gilmour
"Surfacing", Gilmour
"Louder than Words", Gilmour, Samson

Anthony Moore, who made the Broken China album with Richard Wright is responsible for Calling (3:38) and it certainly has the mood of that pretty depressed, and unfortunately underestimated, album. The atmosphere is somewhat reminiscent of David Bowie's Warszawa, it is an ambient and dark and haunting piece. It is a nice thing from Gilmour to have added this obvious nod to Rick's solo album and one of the more interesting pieces of the album.

Eyes To Pearls (1:51) breathes the air of Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks and has hidden hints of Money and One Of These Days, but one can find traces of earlier work in about all tracks on this album. Didn't Nick Mason quip once he was in the recycling business? Surfacing (2:46) acts as the intro to the final song, it seems a lesser track at first, but it has a weeping guitar that hit us right in the heart / stomach / balls. Actually most of the numbers may not be seen as individual pieces but as movements of each suite and as such they perfectly serve their roles.

Louder Than Words (6:37) was gravely discussed when it came out, it has been called Floyd by numbers and Polly Samson's lyrics are of syrupy soap series quality but in this context and as the coda of the album it just works great. Just listen to that piano intro by Wright, the last we'll probably hear, that irresistible refrain, the perfect ending solo, also the last we'll probably hear... This is Gilmour at his best and for once he doesn't stretches it too long, what was his problem on the previous Diet Floyd records where he had the habit of putting six minute guitar solos in three minute songs. Gilmour's playing on this album is to the point and you never get the feeling he is showing off like on, for instance, On An Island, although it is clear he bought a new set of pedals.

Communicate

This is a great album, a classic in the making, although perhaps only for the die-hard fans, and is far much better than we had ever hoped for.

(A third article, with a more critical approach to the album can be found at: Chin Chin.)

More reviews at A Fleeting Glimpse and Brain Damage. Illustrations (except the Rick Wright picture) taken from The Endless River and The Division Bell..
♥ Iggy ♥ Libby ♥

Sources (other than the above internet links):
Bonner, Michael: Coming back to life, Uncut, November 2014, p. 35 – 41.

Our love for Pink Floyd will be eternal and is not limited to one of the roughly six or seven different incarnations, although we can be happy they didn't have as many personnel changes as, for instance, Yes, dog beware. We unconditionally love proto Floyd, vintage Floyd, classic Floyd, acidic Floyd and diet Floyd that transformed slowly into newborn Floyd. They all had their pros and cons, so to speak, their highs and lows and we have never understood the fan-wars that automatically start when Pink Floyd announce a new album. Just go and have a look at the two main fora: A Fleeting Glimpse, from Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band negationist Col T, and their eternal enemies, the deaf, dumb and blind Neptune Pink Floyd copycats. The good thing is that the announcement of a new Floyd album had the two fora starting internal wars for a change, instead of constantly pissing each other off.

Not that the Church and its Reverend are any better, au contraire. Amongst Sydiots it is the general rule to bitch and to fight, to diss each other on sight, that's the things we do...

While Pink Floyd have made the most heavenly music in the world, and we repeat: in all their incarnations, we have some difficulties with Pink Floyd, the business mogul and their foul-mouthed representatives who will not blink once when, for hard cash, they lie and deceive, to quote one of the minor poets.

Grab that cash

Wolfpack, at the Late Night forum, recently came up with a 2011 discussion, from Neptune Pink Floyd, of a fraudulent 1994 Saucerful Of Secrets reissue (it was also discussed at Steve Hoffman's place).

Not wanting to sound too anoraky but apparently the 1994 European EMI CD release, pretending to have a 1992 Doug Sax remaster, did not use that particular tape, but an old, sloppy one from somewhere in the eighties.

Let us rephrase that again to let it quietly sip in.

In 1994 EMI (Europe) was advertising and selling remastered Pink Floyd CDs, only what was baked on the disk was not a remaster at all but a murky old version (EMI modulated the volume here and there to cover up for their cheating). This can be clearly heard on the A Saucerful Of Secrets track that has a distinct 'snap' around the 2 minutes and 30 seconds mark, with a 5dB volume drop for about 5 seconds, a problem that was partially solved by Doug Sax on his 1992 remaster. The EMI fraud, we can't think of any other name to define what they deliberately did and that may have literally run into the millions, was not only limited to the second Pink Floyd album but perhaps on seven so-called remasters: A Saucerful Of Secrets, Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall and A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. A detailed overview, with links and soundbytes, can be found at the bottom of this article.

Yes, these are the people saying that home-taping is killing music. By the way, not a single Pink Floyd, or ex-Pink Floyd, -member objected apparently. But of course this was twenty years ago and surely the geriatric Floyd have gotten softer by now. Well... apparently it has only gotten worse...

Charade you are

The thing is that Pink Floyd, and any other popular and self-respecting band, consists of two parts, what is not always fully understood by the fans. There is a cultural or artistic pillar with the performers exclaiming their angst, fear, hope, friendship and love in their songs. There is also an economic or capitalistic division where these same performers, represented by their agents, publishing and record companies, try to sell you as much junk as is humanly possible. Only... they don't call it junk but Immersion sets, compilations, remasters, even if these remasters aren't remasters at all.

While fans were eagerly awaiting The Endless River, the Floyd's latest album, the band and its record company were trying to create a buzz, which has pretty much succeeded. To the outside world at least. Hardcore Pink Floyd fans, those crusty old dinosaurs with big wallets, felt a bit neglected.

We won't repeat everything we wrote in The loathful Mr. Loasby and other stories... but Floyd acolytes have been insulting, intimidating and legally threatening the Fleeting Glimpse webmaster because he dared to publish the news of a new album after Polly Samson and Durga McBroom had already done so. For the last six months, their legal division has deleted lots of archive material from YouTube, which they are of course entitled to (leading to much speculation about an immense 2017 Piper / Saucerful Immersion set). Floyd gave the Harvested organisation a one day warning to stop their illegal activities, namely archiving and restoring Floyd concerts and weeding these to the fans, for free. Basically Harvested did what they expected Harvest to do, but the Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band tape that was bought and immediately buried by EMI and/or Pink Floyd shows that they had no intent releasing it. The Gyllene Cirkeln tape, same story. When the Floyd buy a tape, it is not to praise, but to bury it.

Draconian measurements, so it seems, and sometimes taking innocent victims with them, like censoring a video from the Men On The Border band, because it happened to cover a Syd Barrett song.

Update 2016: The Gyllene Cirkeln gig has been officially released now, as part of The Early Years box-set. See: Supererog/Ation: skimming The Early Years.

The odd couple

In their interviews Gilmour and Mason look nothing like rock stars, they are amiably chatting about their latest release, and they could easily be mistaken for elderly countrymen, retired landlords discussing the sweet life of rural Great-Britain. While they are quipping how sweet their friendship was with Rick Wright and how this record is a tribute to him, their copyright gamekeepers are shooting at the poachers. Did Roger Waters knew he was predicting the future when he turned Pink into a crypto-fascist on The Wall album?

Sometimes the Floyd's hammering attempts are bluntly pathetic.

On the 9th of October one track of the album, Louder Than Words, was premiered on BBC radio (and later repeated on a few other stations), but unlike the seventies, people were not holding a cassette player with a microphone in front of a transistor radio. In the twenty-first century radio stations can be captured on the internet and songs can be sent to the world wide web with a simple right-click. Copies were almost uploaded immediately and put on Soundcloud, YouTube and other places.

A day later A Fleeting Glimpse, who are again big buddies with Floyd's management, warned their forum members that Warner would be hitting hard on those fans seeding the track and most copies disappeared after a few hours, except the one on the BBC website.

The Church is aware of at least four Pink Floyd fans who listened to advanced copies of the album, but who were explicitly told to not to express their opinion about it on Pink Floyd forums. This happened less than five days before the official launch and after all great music magazines, Q, Mojo, Uncut, Rolling Stone had already published their reviews.

All this secrecy and bullying can only mean one thing. That the album is a big bummer and that the record company does not want the fans to realize that before they buy the album. And if it's not, there remains only one question:

What the fuck is your problem, Pink Floyd?

Well, there is only one way to find out...

(This is part one of our The Endless River article, part two or the actual review can be found here: While my guitar gently weeps...)

(The above article is entirely based upon facts, some situations may have been enlarged for satirical purposes.)

Many thanks to Danielcaux, Rocco Moliterno, Wolfpack and countless people on the NPF and Fleeting Glimpse forums.
♥ Iggy ♥ Libby ♥

The Anchor is the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit's satirical division, intended for people with a good heart, but a rather bad character.
More info: The Anchor.
Read our legal stuff: Legal Stuff.

Different Saucerful versions (back to article)

The different versions are discussed, in detail, on the Neptune Pink Floyd forum: "Saucerful" on CD - defective??. Danielcaux compared the different A Saucerful Of Secrets CD versions and posted some clips on Soundcloud (about 34 seconds each).

EMI 1994 'fraudulent' remaster (with the obnoxious glitch, probably dating from the sixties) : https://soundcloud.com/o0d/stcfthots-1994-emi-asos-cd
Doug Sax 1992 remaster (repairing the glitch, more or less): https://soundcloud.com/o0d/stcfthots-shine-on-doug-sax
Echoes (Best Of, 2001 remaster, another attempt to repair the mistake): https://soundcloud.com/o0d/stcfthots-echoes-best-of
James Guthrie 2011 Discovery remaster (almost identical to the Doug Sax version): https://soundcloud.com/o0d/stcfthots-2011-discovery-cd

and how it should really sound:

Works CD version, 1983 (the only version that hasn't got the glitch): https://soundcloud.com/o0d/stcfthots-works

The new Diet Pink Floyd album The Endless River is conquering the world, perhaps to the absence of any real competition. We don't think Susan Boyle's cover version of Wish You Were Here will pose a real threat, does it? In Holland the album, currently at number one, sells five times as much as the number two.

The Endless River is a slow evolving, ambient piece of work with obvious nods to the Floyd's glorious past... one hears traces of A Saucerful Of Secrets (Syncopated Pandemonium), Astronomy Domine, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Cluster One, Interstellar Overdrive, Keep Talking, Marooned, Money, One Of These Days (I'm Going To Cut You Into Little Pieces), Run Like Hell, Shine On You Crazy Diamond and probably half a dozen more we've already forgotten.

The familiarity of it all has created raving enthusiasm for some and 'mainly yesterday's reheated lunch' for others and this also seems to be the opinion of the press. Mark Blake (in Mojo) politely describes the album as 'big on atmosphere, light on songs', Mikael Wood (in the Los Angeles Times) states that Pink Floyd drifts towards nothingness with aimless and excruciatingly dull fragments.

While the 1987 A Momentary Lapse Of Reason album was a David Gilmour solo effort, recorded with 18 session musicians and with the Pink Floyd name on the cover to sell a few million copies more, The Endless River originally grew out of jams between Gilmour, Mason & Wright.

Actually these were rejected jams, not good enough to include on The Division Bell, but over the years they seem to have ripened like good old wine. Well that's the PR story but in reality Andy Jackson, Phil Manzanera and Martin 'Youth' Glover had to copy bits and pieces from twenty hours of tape and toy around with every single good sounding second in Pro Tools to obtain something relatively close to Floydian eargasm. Phil Manzanera in Uncut:

I would take a guitar solo from another track, change the key of it, stick it on an outtake from another track. 'Oh that bit there, it reminds me of Live At Pompeii, but let's put a beat underneath it.' So then I take a bit of Nick warming up in the studio at Olympia, say, take a bit of a fill here and a bit of fill there. Join it together, make a loop out of it.

This doesn't really sound like an organic created piece of music, does it? The result is a genetically modified fat-free sounding record and while this is the most ambient experiment of Pink Floyd it will never get extreme, despite Martin Glover's presence whose only ambient house additions seem to be the On The Run VCS3 effect that comes whooshing in several times. Youth isn't that young and reckless any more so don't expect anything close to the KLF's Madrugada Eterna, Jimmy 'Space' Cauty's Mars or the Orb's A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules from the Centre of the Ultraworld, unfortunately.

Update April 2017: One and a half year after the record has been released the involvement of Nick Mason can be finally discussed as well. Pink Floyd know-all Ron Toon at Steve Hoffmann:

Nick had nothing to do with this project except to play a few new drum tracks basically being brought in as a session drummer. Of course he was / is a member of Pink Floyd but his involvement in this project was minimal at best. The vision was David's and the other producers and Andy [Jackson] did most of the work. Source: Pink Floyd - The Early Years 1965-1972 Box Set.

But the music isn't the only thing that seems to be embellished. Last week long-time Echoes mailing list member Christopher, also known as 10past10, went on holidays, taking with him the new Pink Floyd CD and, as reading material, Nick Mason's Inside Out book. Then something happened which unleashed the power of his imagination (read Christopher's original mail).

The mid-book picture of The Endless River shows the Astoria studio with Rick Wright, David Gilmour and Nick Mason jamming in 1993, taken by Jill Furmanovsky. This picture has been stitched out of several shots, the borders don't match (deliberately) and Nick Mason (or at least his arms) can be seen twice.

But Christopher was in for another surprise when he looked at the fourth picture gallery in Nick Mason's Inside Out soft-cover (or on page 313 if you have the coffee-table edition). It shows another picture of the same session, with Rick Wright, David Gilmour and Bob Ezrin.

Now look at the man in the middle, the one who doesn't like to be called Dave. Christopher:

If you look closely at every piece of David's clothing, his hair, the way he is holding his guitar, the chords, the lot. It all matches exactly ... too much not be a match.

Not only does The Endless River centrefold superimposes Nick Mason twice, but they have glued in David Gilmour from another shot (and removed Bob Ezrin).

And still, that is not all.

Look very closely to Gilmour's face in the 1993 picture (left) and to his face on the 2014 release (right). Christopher explains:

The difference is in the original shot.
David has a double chin.
In The Endless River shot it has been dealt with.

There will be no fat on The Endless River, not on the music and certainly not on Air-Brush Dave.

(This is The Anchor's satirical review of The Endless River, or part three if you like. For the Reverend's opinion, check: While my guitar gently weeps...)

(The above article is entirely based upon facts, some situations may have been enlarged for satirical purposes.)

Many thanks to Christopher (10past10), Ron Toon. Pictures courtesy of Jill Furmanovsky.
♥ Iggy ♥ Libby ♥

Sources (other than the above internet links):
10past10 (Christopher), Alcog Dave no more, mail, 2014 11 14.
Bonner, Michael: Coming back to life, Uncut, November 2014, p. 39.
Echoes mailing list: to join just click on the appropriate link on their sexy echoes subscription and format information webpage.

The Anchor is the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit's satirical division, intended for people with a good heart, but a rather bad character.
More info: The Anchor.
Read our legal stuff: Legal Stuff.

Christopher's original posting to Echoes: (Back to article)

Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 18:00:32 +1000
From: 10past10
Subject: Alcog Dave no more ...
To: echoes@meddle.org

Hi Ho All,

I do believe there is photographic trickery afoot!

Exhibit A: The centrefold picture in The Endless River depicting Richard, David and Nick in the studio.

Exhibit B: Inside Out; the fourth lot of pics in the paperback or p313 in hardback (1st ed), depicting Richard, David and Bob Ezrin.

Obviously it is a different pic of Richard and Bob/Nick. But I reckon the picture of David is the same one; except for one difference.

So, I reckon, to get the wider shot for the TER CD centrefold (I don't know how it may or may not appear in the other versions as I haven't seen them yet), they have made a composite photo using the shot of David rom the one Nick originally published and shots of Richard and Nick from one or two different pictures.

If you look closely at every piece of David's clothing, his hair, the way he is holding his guitar, the chords, the lot. It all matches exactly ... too much not be a match.

Does this matter? Of course not. Why not do that to get what you need. Obviously Nick himself is double exposed when you look at his arms.

Is it worth pointing out? Yes (but just because you can, not because it will change the world). Why? Because of the one difference.

The difference is in the original shot David has a double chin. In The Endless River shot it has been dealt with.

Some time ago I was castigated for calling David, Fat Dave. So I changed that to Alcog Dave. He is that no more. In my more whimsical moods I shall hence forth refer to him as "Air-Brush Dave".

I like Pink Floyd.

Rock On
Christopher

i am remotely morty

(Back to article)