What we have here is a wonderful disc that compiles three different performance tapes presents a span of early Gilmour-Floyd via stereo soundboard, professionally mixed broadcast tapes.
It begins with the Paradiso show from Amsterdam on August 9th, 1969 (not to be confused with the infamous Concertgebouw tapes from Amsterdam about 5 weeks later "The Man &The Journey show). This stereo soundboard fragment making it's bootleg debut as the liner notes of the insert support so it is quite the treat right off the bat. It is a full but spacious sounding recording which, considering the venue, seems a little surprising. That "airy-ness" really displays itself during a tentative sounding performance of "Set The Controls...", it just lacks a little punch but nonetheless hypnotizing. Per the liner notes again, this was "recorded by Hilversum 3 radio but never broadcast due to technical difficulties". Apparently the microphones failed to function which forced the band to perform these 4 tracks as instrumentals, thus a unique presentation unveiled to us all these years later. A stellar recording but it gets better as we graduate to the other tapes.
While the next 2 recordings have been around a long time and are well-documented on commercial boot CD (The Swingin' Pigs' The Embryo and World Productions Loose Connection - Best Of Live 1968-1969 to name a couple of early CD-era titles), again they suffered from overproduction or that ridiculous NoNoise from TSP. These latter two tapes do sound like they are from the BBC master tapes as the notes proclaim and are a welcome upgrade as it's really been a long time. Next up is the May 12th, 1969 Paris Cinema BBC Night Ride tape that has never sounded better and showcases the band during the tail end of their core progressive period that would spawn the Ummagumma LP. In fact, some very familiar tunes are presented here before they took full shape and identity such as "The Beginning" which is the precursor to "Green Is The Colour" and "Beset By Creatures Of The Deep" which became "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" - just several weeks later and was really taking shape for a long time. An important time in the best quality.
The crown jewel of the disc is the last segment, and is the earliest. The Top Gear taping from BBC Studios on June 25th, 1968 provides a really short ode to Syd Barrett capsule that is highlighted by the back-to-back performances of "Let There Be More Light" and "Julia Dream", great stuff and I'm not shrugging of the really early version of "Eugene", presented here as "The Murderotic Woman". The tape is superb and pristine and contains the Top Gear intro and outro from John Peel for a brief but effective closing to Celestial Voices and the production here is dedicated to Peel and Bernard White.
A really nice compilation assembled by the label and utilizes very nice photography to compliment the accompanying disc. The Rover and company really came up with the solid goods on this one. PLAY LOUD! indeed...we have a debut and undeniable upgraded tapes. A 2007 Top 10 contender in my opinion.
