Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
Greetings, my friends. I welcome you back to my blog. Today, I will be reviewing Pink Floyd's third album and first without founding member, Syd Barrett, Ummagumma. For those wondering what the name means, it's supposedly Cambridge slang for s3x, most commonly used by a friend of Pink Floyd, Iain Moore. That's odd, given the contents of the album. Let's see what those contents are...
Now, the first 4 tracks of the record are live performances, 3 of which being songs from the previous two albums, as such I will not be discussing them. However, the other track is a new one, that would only be heard during live concerts. Careful With That Axe Eugene has a slow, calming start, that is broken around the three minute mark, by some almost demonic sounding screeches, combined with a great guitar solo. This energetic motif would go one until around the six minute mark, where the calmer melody returns, and would continue until the rest of the song. A great track overall.
Next, we have Sysphus, divided into 4 parts. Part 1 is a very dramatic horn melody, accompanied by some pounding drums. Part 2 would bring in a soothing piano melody, that would be completely ruined around the middle, where it would turn into just some random key slamming. Part 3 would be mainly percussion driven, mixed with some very odd sound effects. Part 4 would start off with a flute melody, then be broken by some drums and cymbals, and the rest of the track would be just random nonsense and SFX. The first 2 parts sounded promising, but it just wasn't anything great.
Grantchester Meadows was a slow, calming song. Just some soft vocals, soothing guitar playing and bird chirps. This was a nice track.
Now we have the infamous, Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With Pict, which is often considered the worst Pink Floyd song... and I 100% agree with that. It just nonsensical rodent sounds.
The Narrow Way Part 1 starts off with a guitar melody, mixed with some loud rising SFX. Part 2 started with a more rock feel to it, however it slowly descended into pure chaos and noise. Part 3 was a calm rock song, with some, almost whispered vocals... yeah, neither did this bundle of songs do it for me.
And finally, The Grand Vizier's Garden Party. Entrance was a short flute melody. Entertainment was a bunch of random drums, SFX, glitch-like noises, and was overall just a big mess. However, towards the end, a comprehensible drum beat would emerge. And Exit was similiar to Entrance. Just a short flute melody.
So, yeah. This album is just an absolute mess.
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