1841

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Pink Floyd discography listen-through

« on: December 24, 2014, 12:44:27 PM »

Syd Barrett
The Madcap Laughs
Studio album


Recorded: May 1968 - August 1969
Released: 3 January 1970

All tracks authored by Syd Barrett, except where noted.

Side A

1. Terrapin (5:04)
2. No Good Trying (3:26)
3. Love You (2:30)
4. No Man's Land (3:03)
5. Dark Globe (2:02)
6. Here I Go (3:11)

Side B

1. Octopus (3:47)
2. Golden Hair (Barrett, James Joyce) (1:59)
3. Long Gone (2:50)
4. She Took a Long Cold Look (1:55)
5. Feel (2:17)
6. If It's In You (2:26)
7. Late Night (3:10)

Review

Following his departure from Pink Floyd in 1968, Syd Barrett displays once more his remarkable talent for writing demented pop music on this solo record, and on that front little has changed. The main piece of the sound from Piper that's noticeably absent here is Rick's Farfisa organ; at the same time, Syd himself has shifted to much more predominant use of acoustic guitar, both of which result in an album that is much less psychedelic than his work with Floyd.

These songs are often characterised by eccentric chord progressions, often with unusual timing of changes; as well as fanciful yet dark, sometimes obtuse lyrics, sung in his inimitable idiom. The first four tracks contain all of these features in moderation, Terrapin and Love You being my favourite picks, but the last couple of tracks on the side are where it gets really interesting.

Dark Globe is especially gloomy, containing the oft-quoted lyric "wouldn't you miss me at all?", usually interpreted as his last call out to his former bandmates. The music to Dark Globe actually reminds me of early David Bowie, curiously enough. Side A is then rounded off with one of my all-time favourite Barrett compositions; Here I Go would be a typical nonsense pop song, if not for Syd's idiosyncratic way with both the almost-but-not-quite standard chord progression and childish-yet-sage lyrics.

As with side A, side B gets much more interesting towards the end. I enjoy listening to it, but the first few tracks feel a bit samey; with the exception of Golden Hair, based on a James Joyce poem, which is a lot slower and more reflective than the other tunes. If It's In You brings more perverted pop music, this time with a repeating vocal motif which is particularly difficult for Syd to sing, as heard at the start where he fumbles the first take.

Finally, Late Night is a beautiful closer, featuring a return of the slide guitar from Interstellar Overdrive against a much more mellow backing track. The slide guitar here actually sounds similar to a lot of late '60s/early '70s Floyd; with both David Gilmour and Roger Waters helping to produce this album, perhaps Syd was inadvertently continuing to influence the sound that made Pink Floyd such a big hit in the '70s, even as his own career faded into obscurity.

I actually enjoyed this more than I remembered, and I remembered enjoying it quite a lot. The high points of the album (Dark Globe, Here I Go, If It's In You, Late Night) are simply magnificent, but even at his worst, Syd Barrett had an ear both for quirky pop tunes and eccentric lyrics. It's certainly more consistently good than its contemporary Pink Floyd album, Ummagumma. Highly recommended to anyone, whether you like Pink Floyd or not.

1842

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Is the UK pedo-topia?

« on: December 24, 2014, 09:52:21 AM »

It was in italics as it was a direct quote. Stop bunching your knickers.

Quotation marks are the accepted standard for indicating quotes. Furthermore, a quote is not complete unless accompanied by a reference to the source. The whole point of a quote is that it's somebody else's words, and if nobody knows who else's words they are, we can only act under the assumption that you intend to back them up yourself.

http://radtransfem.tumblr.com/post/28833944043/each-red-dot-on-this-map

Following the succession of links from here, I can see that you quoted a quote of a quote of a 404. Cool primary source, bro.

The last quote in the chain before hitting a 404 still doesn't explain exactly what is meant by "transmitting". Furthermore, it makes the claim that "The computers were identified by GUID (a unique serial number), not IP addresses", without any explanation of which piece of hardware (or software) that GUID refers to, how those GUIDs were discovered or how those GUIDs were mapped to physical locations.

Not only does my point stand, but you have raised even more questions in your attempt to address it. Please, spare us all the trouble and pick a real source next time.

1843

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Is the UK pedo-topia?

« on: December 24, 2014, 09:42:00 AM »

Each red dot on this map is the approximate location of a computer or cluster of computers that are transmitting images of child abuse – aka child pornography…

Depending on how literally you mean "transmitting", this might just be a map of routers on the Internet. Since no detailed source has been provided for the claim, I'm going to assume that's the case and declare your post irrelevant.

Also, "child abuse" and "child pornography" are not the same thing. It is possible to abuse children in a non-sexual way, and depending on whom you ask, it might also be possible to have sex with children in a non-abusive way.

1844

Technology & Information / Re: My SSD failed

« on: December 21, 2014, 04:54:31 PM »

Cat6?
Why such a high level and pain in the ass to crimp, cable?

(yes I know, you got the precrimped stuff)

I don't care. I'll plug it in, it will work. Hardware is annoying, so if it works, that's good enough.

Also, I've paid extra for express shipping so I get it before Christmas. I don't want to wait for the post office to reopen after Christmas before getting a new SSD. Using a HDD again is horrible.

1845

Technology & Information / Re: My SSD failed

« on: December 21, 2014, 04:07:52 PM »

I decided to go with the 1 TB, and also to get some other stuff while I'm putting the order in. I've just placed an order for:

Samsung 850 Pro Series 1 TB SSD
LaCie PetiteKey 8 GB USB flash drive
Zowie EC1 Evo mouse
Cat6 Network Cable 10 m
Phobya SATA3 Cable (x3)

Aside from the SSD, I'm quite looking forward to getting the PetiteKey. I plan to set it up to dual-boot Debian and OpenBSD rescue environments, with a shared ext2 data partition, so that I always have a rescue system ready to boot from my keyring in an emergency.

The mouse is a long-awaited upgrade from my overly tiny Logitech, and the cables are just for general maintenance needs, so they aren't as interesting.

1846

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Pink Floyd discography listen-through

« on: December 21, 2014, 12:29:39 PM »

Part II: The Solo Albums

It struck me, while reviewing Floyd's catalogue, that I was making occasional references to band members' solo projects that I haven't heard in a long while (or, for a few of them, ever). I therefore intend to review all five members' solo projects in chronological order, beginning with Syd's The Madcap Laughs in 1970, and (almost) finishing with Metallic Spheres, a 2010 album by The Orb featuring David Gilmour.

My final review will relate to a special event which isn't strictly a solo project, but that only one of the members of Pink Floyd was involved in. No prizes for guessing what it is if you're familiar with Pink Floyd's ancillary catalogue.

1847

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Pink Floyd discography listen-through

« on: December 21, 2014, 12:21:28 PM »

The Endless River
Studio CD


Recorded: 1969, 1993, 2013-2014
Released: 10 November 2014

Band lineup

David Gilmour (guitar, keyboards, bass)
Nick Mason (drums)
Richard Wright* (keyboards)

Also featuring numerous other session musicians.

* Richard Wright passed away in 2008, but as most of this material was recorded prior to that, he appears on this album posthumously.

Track listing

1. Things Left Unsaid (Gilmour, Wright) (4:27)
2. It's What We Do (Gilmour, Wright) (6:18)
3. Ebb and Flow (Gilmour, Wright) (1:56)
4. Sum (Gilmour, Wright, Mason) (4:49)
5. Skins (Gilmour, Wright, Mason) (2:38)
6. Unsung (Wright) (1:08)
7. Anisina (Gilmour) (3:17)
8. The Lost Art of Conversation (Wright) (1:43)
9. On Noodle Street (Gilmour, Wright) (1:43)
10. Night Light (Gilmour, Wright) (1:43)
11. Allons-y (1) (Gilmour) (1:58)
12. Autumn '68 (Wright) (1:36)
13. Allons-y (2) (Gilmour) (1:33)
14. Talkin' Hawkin' (Gilmour, Wright) (3:30)
15. Calling (Gilmour, Anthony Moore) (3:38)
16. Eyes to Pearls (Gilmour) (1:52)
17. Surfacing (Gilmour) (2:47)
18. Louder Than Words (Gilmour, Polly Samson) (6:37)

Review

I'll put it bluntly: This is the best album Pink Floyd has released in 40 years. It's not without its share of faults, but with the guise of pretentious concept album stripped away, the band is able to get on with making good music like they did in the days of Meddle. The main negative point is that it's too long; there's some material here which just doesn't add anything of value, and seems like a reworking of older material.

The first three tracks are a great example of that. They're an enjoyable listen, but they come across as an instrumental rendition of Shine On You Crazy Diamond with some minor tweaks, so for the first 12 minutes, I was fully expecting this album to be as much of a disappointment as The Division Bell.

Then Sum comes in, and everything changes. There isn't a single bad track between Sum and Talkin' Hawkin', which is partly down to this section also being entirely instrumental, save for more sampling of Stephen Hawking's voice in Talkin' Hawkin'. My favourites would have to be Skins and the Allons-y/Autumn '68/Allons-y piece (which includes a 1969 recording of Rick playing the Royal Albert Hall pipe organ, seamlessly edited into the new material). But the variety here is what really strikes me; it's not exceptionally varied material, but considering the monotony we've come to expect from Pink Floyd over the past few decades, this really stands out.

It's also their first album since The Dark Side of the Moon to work so well together as a piece. Listening to these tracks, they don't feel like distinct tracks, but rather a single coherent piece of music (broken up in three places according to the album sides used on the double LP release).

The album takes a turn for the worse again as we head into the last four tracks. Calling, Eyes to Pearls and Surfacing are merely a reversion to The Division Bell levels of dullness, but it's Louder Than Words that really puts a damper on what could have been a fantastic album. It's the only track on the album to feature lyrics, again written by Polly Samson, and these may well be the worst lyrics ever released on any Pink Floyd album. I'll go as far as to say they're worse than The Dogs of War, and The Dogs of War has really awful lyrics.

If it were up to me, I'd get rid of the first three and last four tracks and have sides B and C switch places, so that the album begins with The Lost Art of Conversation, Talkin' Hawkin' is followed by Sum, and Anisina is the beautiful finale. Even so, this album is well worth a listen as it is, but mainly for the middle section (from Sum to Talkin' Hawkin'). I stand by my claim that, even with the insubstantial opening and closing passages, this is the best album Pink Floyd has released since The Dark Side of the Moon. Not outstanding, but better than Floyd has been in a long, long time.

1848

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Pink Floyd discography listen-through

« on: December 20, 2014, 11:33:43 PM »

Live 8
Televised benefit concert

Recorded: 2 July 2005, Hyde Park, London

Band lineup

Roger Waters (bass, acoustic guitar on "Wish You Were Here")
David Gilmour (guitar)
Richard Wright (keyboards)
Nick Mason (drums)

Set list

Speak to Me (Mason)
Breathe (Waters, Gilmour, Wright)
  * Includes the Breathe reprise.
Money (Waters)
Wish You Were Here (Waters, Gilmour)
Comfortably Numb (Waters, Gilmour)

Review

This is the classic '70s Pink Floyd lineup performing together for the first time in 24 years, and Pink Floyd at its best in even longer than that. The main detractor from this show is the limited set list; with the return of Roger as the band's frontman, it's sad to see them run through only a handful of songs. There's also the fact that the cameras seem to be intent on focusing on Roger and David and neglecting the other members -- even some of the supporting musicians get more screen time than Rick -- but that doesn't detract from the music.

The opening Speak to Me/Breathe feels like a demonstration of what Pulse could have been. Speak to Me is fairly short here by comparison with that release; no repetitions of the same loops dragging on for two minutes, this is a short and sweet concert intro. Breathe here also seems to have caught its breath; without the extravagant assortment of session musicians that has accompanied this band at every show in the past two decades, the music is a lot less cluttered, sounding a lot more like the original release on Dark Side, and a lot better.

Money gets a similar treatment, right from the very start, with Roger playing the downbeat at the same place over the cash register loop as the original (as opposed to every other bass player attempting this song, who inevitably starts two beats early). The "wooh-ooh" interjections between David's vocal lines have also been mercifully stripped away, leaving us with what is once again a much simpler and better rendition than either Delicate Sound of Thunder or Pulse. On the down side, we don't get the extended midsection jam that appears on those releases, but David does at least engage in some improv during the last 12 bars of his solo rather than playing the usual notes right off the album.

Roger shows us the frontman this band has been missing since the '80s at the start of Wish You Were Here, announcing that "we're doing this for everyone who's not here, but especially of course for Syd". Actually stepping up and talking to the audience (other than the occasional "thank you") is something David never quite got around to, and now it feels like the band is whole again. Unusually, Roger takes the vocals in the second verse of Wish You Were Here, not quite managing to hit all the right notes, but nevertheless giving a moving performance.

The band finishes off (in a very permanent sense) with Comfortably Numb, and this might well be my all-time favourite version of this song. The band seems to be really into it, playing as if it were 1974 and they'd never been apart more than a few days. Roger is back into his role as the doctor, and David really works out on guitar like only a 60-year-old rock star can. But as I said, this set list is way too short, and all too soon this veteran ensemble puts down their instruments for the last time.

As the other three band members are getting ready to walk off stage, Roger assertively gathers them together, arms around each other, to face the audience in one last farewell. It's really great to see them on such good terms, after all the bad blood between them for so many years. This could have been a great show, if only they'd had time for a wider variety of material. But it is what it is, and it's a pretty good performance as it stands.




The band in their final farewell on stage together; from left to right: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright.

1849

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Pink Floyd discography listen-through

« on: December 20, 2014, 05:28:21 PM »

Pulse
Live double CD


Recorded: 17 August - 29 October 1994, various locations in Europe
Released: 29 May 1995

Band lineup

David Gilmour (guitar)
Nick Mason (drums)
Richard Wright (keyboards)

Tim Renwick (guitar)
Jon Carin (keyboards)
Dick Parry (saxophone)
Guy Pratt (bass)
Gary Wallis (percussion)

Sam Brown (vocals)
Claudia Fontaine (vocals)
Durga McBroom (vocals)

CD 1

1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts I-VII) (Waters, Gilmour, Wright) (13:35)
2. Astronomy Domine (Barrett) (4:20)
3. What Do You Want From Me? (Gilmour, Wright, Polly Samson) (4:10)
4. Learning to Fly (Gilmour, Anthony Moore, Bob Ezrin, Jon Carin) (5:16)
5. Keep Talking (Gilmour, Wright, Samson) (6:52)
6. Coming Back to Life (Gilmour) (6:56)
7. Hey You (Waters) (4:40)
8. A Great Day for Freedom (Gilmour, Samson) (4:30)
9. Sorrow (Gilmour) (10:49)
10. High Hopes (Gilmour, Samson) (7:52)
11. Another Brick in the Wall (part II) (Waters) (7:08)
 * Includes fragments of:
    - Another Brick in the Wall (part I) (Waters)
    - The Happiest Days of Our Lives (Waters)
    - Another Brick in the Wall (part III) (Waters)
    - Dogs (Waters, Gilmour)

CD 2

1. Speak to Me (Mason) (2:30)
2. Breathe (Waters, Gilmour, Wright) (2:33)
3. On the Run (Waters, Gilmour) (3:48)
4. Time (Waters, Gilmour, Wright, Mason) (6:47)
  * Includes a reprise of "Breathe".
5. The Great Gig in the Sky (Wright, Clare Torry) (5:52)
6. Money (Waters) (8:54)
7. Us and Them (Waters, Wright) (6:58)
8. Any Colour You Like (Gilmour, Wright, Mason) (3:21)
9. Brain Damage (Waters) (3:46)
10. Eclipse (Waters) (2:38)
11. Wish You Were Here (Waters, Gilmour) (6:35)
12. Comfortably Numb (Waters, Gilmour) (9:29)
13. Run Like Hell (Waters, Gilmour) (8:36)

Review

Listening to this hot on the heels of the Pulse film got to be a bit much, particularly towards the end, as the encore material isn't very interesting. Much of the material here is taken from different concerts than the film, but even so, it sounds very much the same in most places, so I'll only review the bits that were noticeably different.

First, Shine On You Crazy Diamond cross-fades into the distorted voices that are familiar from the opening to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn so many years ago. Yes, this band has whipped out Astronomy Domine for the first time in 25 years, and while this piece has lost some of its psychedelic edge as the band has shifted focus and acquired young musicians from a new generation, it's still one of the highlights of disc 1. The arrangement here is much closer to the original studio version than the extended jams of the late '60s, and whoever's on guitar -- I suspect it's Tim, because it doesn't sound like David -- does a smashing impression of Syd's original guitar style on this track.

Then, cruelly yanking this juicy morsel away from us after a few short minutes, the band launches into a perfect rendition of What Do You Want From Me?, managing to convey the same intense dullness released on The Division Bell. The remainder of disc 1 is mainly identical to the DVD, except for the inclusion of Hey You and A Great Day for Freedom and the exclusion of Take It Back (no loss there) and One of These Days.

Hey You is nice to hear again, although this performance feels lacking in comparison to both the studio and live versions of The Wall, where this was a rare highlight of an otherwise very mundane rock opera. Jon Carin takes Roger's vocal part, a passage which must have strained Roger's voice at the best of times, and does a very good job with it up until the highest few notes (in the lyric "don't tell me there's no hope at all"), when his voice begins to crack. Thankfully for him, the backing vocalists step in to provide some additional oomph in the word "all", although I don't know why David didn't just have the band play this one in a lower key.

The Dark Side of the Moon segment isn't as much of an improvement over the DVD as I had hoped. Time and Money are better here, though I think I still prefer the Delicate Sound of Thunder versions of both, and otherwise these songs are all the same versions as found on the DVD (Breathe, On the Run, Great Gig, Us and Them) or not noticeably different (Speak to Me, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Eclipse). Finally, the encore set rounds things off with the same routine from the video, and we're done.

This is a pretty good album, but it's not really worth getting this and the DVD; they're similar enough that you might as well get the film version. Unfortunately, two of the highlights only appear on one release each; Astronomy Domine on the CD and One of These Days on the DVD. So, if you really want to hear it all, you'll want to get both and just listen to the additional tracks on this release.


Incidentally, Any Colour You Like on this CD is the last officially released recording of any Pink Floyd tour, being from the 23 October show at Earls Court. This review therefore represents the end of Pink Floyd's touring career, though not the end of the line altogether; there are still two more reviews to go.

1850

Technology & Information / Re: My SSD failed

« on: December 18, 2014, 05:21:26 PM »

I'm pretty much set on a Samsung 850 Pro at this point. They seem to be the best SATA SSD on the market, and while the Phoenix Blade looks nice, I probably wouldn't notice the difference for a four-fold increase in price and a twenty-fold increase in idle power consumption.

The only thing I'm not sure of is which capacity to get. The price per GB goes down consistently as the capacity goes up, so in theory, the 1 TB is best value if I will use more than 512 GB of it. But I've been making do with 120 GB for the past two years, albeit having to shuffle some files onto my hard drive, so I'm not entirely sure if I would.

I'll sleep on it and make a decision on the weekend.

1851

Technology & Information / Re: My SSD failed

« on: December 18, 2014, 02:19:10 PM »

I've never had a problem with an SSD. Not in my desktop at home for more than 2 years, not in my new laptop (now at home and being used to post this), not on any of the 3 mac minis I have appropriated from work, not on the iMac on my desk at work (which runs Windows, muhahahahaha). I have had lots of problems with HDDs in the past. I've lost may a system to those.

Nothing is perfect, but I think Parsifal has just been very unlucky.

I've been very unlucky because you happen to not have run into any problems?

1852

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Pink Floyd discography listen-through

« on: December 17, 2014, 10:24:53 AM »

Pulse
Concert film (directed by David Mallet)

Recorded: 20 October 1994, Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London
Released: June 1995

Band lineup

David Gilmour (guitar)
Nick Mason (drums)
Richard Wright (keyboards)

Tim Renwick (guitar)
Jon Carin (keyboards)
Dick Parry (saxophone)
Guy Pratt (bass)
Gary Wallis (percussion)

Sam Brown (vocals)
Claudia Fontaine (vocals)
Durga McBroom (vocals)

DVD 1

Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts I-VII) (Waters, Gilmour, Wright)
Learning to Fly (Gilmour, Bob Ezrin, Anthony Moore, Jon Carin)
High Hopes (Gilmour, Polly Samson)
Take It Back (Gilmour, Samson, Ezrin, Nick Laird-Clowes)
Coming Back to Life (Gilmour)
Sorrow (Gilmour)
Keep Talking (Gilmour, Wright, Samson)
Another Brick in the Wall (part II) (Waters)
  * Includes fragments of:
    - Another Brick in the Wall (part I) (Waters)
    - The Happiest Days of Our Lives (Waters)
    - Another Brick in the Wall (part III) (Waters)
    - Dogs (Waters, Gilmour)
One of These Days (Waters, Gilmour, Wright, Mason)

DVD 2

Speak to Me (Mason)
Breathe (Waters, Gilmour, Wright)
On the Run (Waters, Gilmour)
Time (Waters, Gilmour, Wright, Mason)
  * Includes a reprise of "Breathe".
The Great Gig in the Sky (Wright, Clare Torry)
Money (Waters)
Us and Them (Waters, Wright)
Any Colour You Like (Gilmour, Wright, Mason)
Brain Damage (Waters)
Eclipse (Waters)
Wish You Were Here (Waters, Gilmour)
Comfortably Numb (Waters, Gilmour)
Run Like Hell (Waters, Gilmour)

Review

This film is made up of footage from one night on the Division Bell tour of 1994. On that tour, they would play the usual set of new songs with cherry-picks from the back catalogue for the first set, but would then come back and perform The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety for the second. As such, this album contains a complete live performance of that album, which is by far the highlight.

The first set isn't bad, either; with the exception of Take It Back and Keep Talking, which never fail to bore me to death, the other new material seems much more lively here than on previous releases. I particularly enjoy these versions of High Hopes and Sorrow, and Tim Renwick's guitar playing helps to liven up Learning to Fly.

Then there's the throwback material; this version of Shine On You Crazy Diamond is noteworthy for being the most complete you'll ever find in a live release, containing most of the first half intact, and continuing into the third verse after the saxophone solo. Parts VIII and IX are missing, but there are no live releases which include those. The quality of the performance hasn't varied much since Wish You Were Here; it's still mildly interesting, but drags on with far too much of the same.

The first set closes with Another Brick in the Wall part II (which, aside from decent guitar solos from David and Tim, is entirely skippable) and One of These Days. I had forgotten how amazing this version of One of These Days is; it's easily the best performance on disc 1, and it's even better than the one on Delicate Sound of Thunder, with a longer and more interesting bass solo, and a much tighter performance all around. The first down beat after the "one of these days" vocal is extremely powerful, and David's ensuing lap steel solo seems to surround the listener in a way that the studio version doesn't quite capture. An incredible finale to the opening set.

While the second set is enjoyable, it has its high and low points relative to the album. Speak to Me is a high point, with an extended heartbeat intro that starts as people are milling into the venue and taking their seats, leading up to the climactic opening to Breathe. The first few tracks are okay, with a strong point being a return of the video footage in On the Run that we saw in Delicate Sound of Thunder.

The Great Gig in the Sky is easily the high point of this set for me, with Sam Brown, Durga McBroom and Claudia Fontaine doing their best to fill Clare Torry's shoes. I find that Sam captures the raw intensity of Clare's original performance far better than Rachel did on Delicate Sound of Thunder; she was putting so much into her performance at one point that I was convinced her head was going to explode. Durga and Claudia don't let her take all of the glory, either; this is one fantastic Great Gig all around.

The second half of the set is somewhat more disappointing. Money is similar to the Delicate Sound of Thunder arrangement, but seems to be a fairly loose jam moreso than alternating solos, and overall I think this version is less interesting. Us and Them is played as always, leading up to what should rightfully be the high point of the set; but Any Colour You Like is a huge letdown here. Rick's keyboard solo might as well not even have been attempted, and David's guitar isn't too interesting either.

All things considered, I was grateful by the time the segue into Brain Damage came around, with Brain Damage and Eclipse being their usual dramatic ending to the set, but not in any way more noteworthy than their studio counterparts. Encore material consists of Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb and Run Like Hell performances that are almost identical to those on Delicate Sound of Thunder; the main difference of note here is that Guy Pratt pulls off a much better rendition of Roger's lines in Run Like Hell.

I would have to say that, after watching it again, I think this is a better representation of live Floyd than Delicate Sound of Thunder. The new material has a certain energy to it that is lacking on the older release, and the old material is done better or just as well here (with the exception of Money). This also captures a concert from the last ever Pink Floyd tour, so there is some historical value to it as well. Definitely worth watching for any Floyd fan.


P.S.: Unlike with Delicate Sound of Thunder, there are significant differences between the film and album versions of Pulse. Notably, some tracks are taken from different concerts, so Any Colour You Like might be more interesting there; also, the album version has the return of a classic Syd Barrett song that hadn't been performed since the late '60s. Therefore, I will be reviewing the album version as well in a few days.

1853

Technology & Information / Re: My SSD failed

« on: December 16, 2014, 02:55:21 PM »

This thread is now about buying a replacement SSD.

I like the look of the G.Skill Phoenix Blade. If I end up deciding I want something less insanely priced, I'm looking at the Samsung 850 Pro. Thoughts?

1854

Technology & Information / Re: My SSD failed

« on: December 16, 2014, 02:11:03 PM »

And we're done. First post from my newly recovered system, running off a HDD.

Now all I need to do is buy a new SSD and move my files onto that, but at least my computer is usable again.

1855

Technology & Information / Re: My SSD failed

« on: December 16, 2014, 01:38:22 PM »

After a bit of wrangling (the rescue system I used initially had a kernel too old to mount my backup filesystem), I am now copying my most recent backup (less than 24 hours old) onto a new filesystem. Backups rule.

1856

Technology & Information / Re: My SSD failed

« on: December 16, 2014, 04:40:48 AM »

I like SSDs as a low-latency medium, but they suck for reliability. I don't keep any critical data on an SSD that I don't have a backup of on rotational media.

1857

Technology & Information / My SSD failed

« on: December 16, 2014, 04:08:35 AM »

I began observing strange hangs and high load averages today. After a while spent trying to troubleshoot, I rebooted and my BIOS couldn't find a bootloader. It kept trying to boot from what is now the first hard drive, a 4 TB drive with only data.

I'm going to download a rescue image onto a USB stick and restore my OS from backups onto my hard drive. Thank fuck for rotating disks, huh?

1858

Status Notices / Re: Scheduled maintenance, 2014-12-13

« on: December 14, 2014, 10:05:16 AM »

To keep it short and simple: keeping the server up to date reduces our chances of a security breach. As Parsifal said, the only way you'd notice something related to that is if something went very, very wrong.

Tuning the database management system can make things ever so slightly faster, but the main goal is making sure that as our traffic increases, things don't slow down.

Pretty much. Both of these will be particularly important post-reunification, as we'll have the combined traffic of two forums.

Personally, I've noticed things speeding up slightly, but the maintenance coincided with me travelling to another country, so part of what I'm seeing could be due to me changing ISPs for the time being.

The placebo effect can also be very powerful.

1859

Arts & Entertainment / Re: The Pink Floyd discography listen-through

« on: December 14, 2014, 09:37:48 AM »

La Carrera Panamericana
Film (directed by Ian McArthur)

Released: 2 June 1992

Band lineup

David Gilmour (guitar)
Nick Mason (drums)
Richard Wright (keyboards)

Tim Renwick (guitar)
Jon Carin (keyboards)
Guy Pratt (bass)
Gary Wallis (percussion)

Songs included (in order of appearance)

Run Like Hell (Waters, Gilmour)
  * Originally released on Delicate Sound of Thunder.
Pan Am Shuffle (Gilmour, Wright, Mason)
Yet Another Movie (Gilmour, Patrick Leonard)
  * Originally released on A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
Sorrow (Gilmour)
  * Originally released on A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
Signs of Life (Gilmour, Bob Ezrin)
  * Originally released on A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
Country Theme (Gilmour)
Mexico '78 (Gilmour)
Big Theme (Gilmour)
Run Like Hell (reprise) (Waters, Gilmour)
  * Originally released on Delicate Sound of Thunder.
One Slip (Gilmour, Phil Manzanera)
  * Originally released on A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
Small Theme (Gilmour)
Pan Am Shuffle (reprise) (Gilmour, Wright, Mason)

Review

This is a film consisting of video footage of the 1991 six-day Carrera Panamericana motor race across Mexico (in which David Gilmour and Nick Mason took part), with a soundtrack composed and performed by Pink Floyd. This review is somewhat out of sequence, due to the fact that I was unable to obtain a copy of this film until after I had reviewed The Division Bell.

The film itself is somewhat interesting, showing various aspects of the race rather than simply non-stop footage of cars driving around (as I had expected). There are interviews with various participants, as well as footage of casual conversations, some parts showing cars being repaired, other parts displaying the reaction of locals (usually very positive; one town had a full-on marching band to welcome the racing cars).

There is also some footage of the original race in the 1950s, some of which is almost unbelievable. In the 1991 race, the organisers arranged it in various sections so that roads were closed by authorities for the high-speed portions, while cars were limited to around 50 km/h passing through towns. The 1950s footage, however, shows cars racing straight through towns without any sign of slowing down, sometimes crashing into things at race speeds, as well as numerous fatal accidents. It's little wonder they had to cancel the race after 1954.

The '91 race wasn't entirely devoid of its share of problems. Many of the cars had mechanical problems; early on, one of them had its rear axle snap in half, which seemed to be quite a job to repair. Later on, David Gilmour (with Steve O'Rourke, Pink Floyd's manager, reading the map as a passenger) went into a corner too fast and rolled down a cliff. Incredibly, the only serious injury sustained was Steve O'Rourke's broken leg.

As for the music, this is significantly better than the albums Pink Floyd were producing during this period. In fact, I'll go as far as to say it's my favourite release since Wish You Were Here. The songs from Momentary Lapse are often edited down, bypassing the poor lyrics and fitting very nicely into the film soundtrack. While the original material is evidently intended to be secondary to the film, this ultimately has the effect of making it work much better than Floyd's contemporary songs; without the pretense of trying to create a marketable product, the band is liberated to simply play the music they like.

The results are varied, but inevitably enjoyable; Small Theme is probably my least favourite, consisting of little other than a series of sustained synth chords, but even that fits in well with the race ending. On the other end of the scale, Pan Am Shuffle is a bluesy improvisation over a fairly simple shuffle vamp, with David on guitar and Rick doing organ and one of his classic Moog solos. I found this to be a highly enjoyable listen, and is the first track to be credited to all three remaining band members since Any Colour You Like. The rest of the songs are instrumentals penned by David, and all work really well in their context in the film.

I hadn't seen this film before, and I went in expecting it to be more of the same stuff we got on A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised; this is some of the most organic, unpretentious music Floyd has made in two decades, largely thanks to the musicians getting to stretch their legs on instrumental pieces instead of confining themselves to making conventional albums. Pass right by the post-Roger studio albums and get this film instead.

1860

Status Notices / Re: Scheduled maintenance, 2014-12-13

« on: December 13, 2014, 01:48:47 PM »

Thanks for improving things I don't understand. I'm sure they'll help me in ways I don't realise and I have no suspicion at all that these scheduled stops aren't a hoax to make it look like we are getting all kinds of improvements that I'll never notice.

As long as people keep not noticing anything, I'm satisfied that things are running as smoothly as planned. When people start to notice problems, that's when I worry.