Classic Minus One album : "Meddle" by Pink Floyd
The second Classic Minus One starts with Pink Floyd’s 1973 mega-album Dark Side of the Moon. Their previous album-album was 1971’s Meddle. Why album-album? Well in 1972 they recorded a soundtrack for the movie Obscured by Clouds. So I mean non-soundtrack-album.
The thing for me with Meddle is the one track. In fact back when albums had sides, this one song took up all of Side Two. It’s their masterpiece Echoes.
All I can say is just have a listen to it, preferably through headphones or in a good audio environment. It’s some 23 minutes long and goes through a number of phases, including:
- Dreamy and wistful, sweet vocals
- A heavier rock/guitar/funk,
- A fascinating, experimental soundscape (see below)
- More dreamy vocals
- A final heavier flourish, then dreamy fade
The soundscape section is very interesting. It’s not ‘music’ in the traditional instrument, chords, melody, rhythm way. It sounds like early synthesisers, but used in a subtle, almost gentle way. There’s a swirling, whooshing sort of sound set in the bottom layer. In the distance we hear what sounds like birds. In fact that’s what it all sounds like to me: we’re on an alien planet, shrouded in a dense fog. Lonely, bird like creatures are swooping in and out of hearing range. They are occasionally calling out to each other through the cold fog.
No, I’m not kidding. That’s the image these amazing sounds create when I hear them. I guess that itself is a tribute to the creative team behind this wonderful work of aural art.
