A Soniclovenoize reconstruction
Side A:
1. Heart Beat, Pig Meat
2. Country Song
3. Fingal's Cave
4. Crumbling Land
5. Alan's Blues
Side B:
6. Oenone
7. Rain In The Country
8. Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up
While doing research for my trilogy of Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd re-imagined albums, I stumbled upon an album I was unfamiliar with and some have called The Great Lost Pink Floyd Album. While I can't say that it's truly "great" per se, it is indeed an album that never was and I grew particularly interested in reconstructing it, as others have done before me. And so here it is, a reconstruction of the proposed and subsequently withdrawn 1970 Pink Floyd album Soundtrack To The Film Zabriskie Point.
Aside from some previously unheard bonus tracks on the official Zabriskie Point Rhino reissue in 1997, a great leap forward was taken by Magna Qualitas Records for their anthology A Total Zabriskie Point of View and their own album reconstruction 370 Roman Yards. Allegedly, they were able to obtain copies of tape-box notation showing the tentative tracklist for Pink Floyd's proposed Zabriskie Point album, as well as firsthand accounts of the sessions, and their reconstruction attempted to follow as closely as possible to that. While MQR has done a great job researching the material, I disagree to the methodology of construction for their Zabriskie Point; they often chose historical accuracy over simple sonic clarity (overuse of EQ to inferior source tapes). As the use of release-worthy source material is my primary concern, my construction was a bit different, although I followed MQRís blueprint from their fantastic research.
My reconstruction of Zabriskie Point begins with Heart Beat, Pig Meat and is then followed by Country Song, both taken from the Rhino reissue of the official album. For the sake of audio clarity, I avoided using the familiar version of Fingal's Cave because there is simply no quality source material to my standards. Instead, I used the track with the working title Take Off (version II) from disc 1 of TZPV because it shares extremely similar musical characteristics and motifs as Fingal's Cave (short heavy psychedelic track in the key of E major), not to mention that both pieces were meant for the same scene! With this information in mind, it's obvious to me that Take Off (version II) is simply an alternate Fingal's Cave and the two should be considered interchangeable. My choice of Fingal's Cave is hard edited into Crumbling Land from the Rhino reissue, as intended by Pink Floyd and featured in the film. Side A concludes with an unedited version of Alan's Blues (previously known as Love Scene 6) from the Rhino reissue. Although MQR went to great lengths to digitally remove reverb and create presumed edit points to match a specific runtime, I felt the full seven and a half minute track sounded good enough for me!
The shorter side B begins with Oenone and it was a tedious task to find an appropriate take for my reconstruction. I eventually chose the "full mix" of ìLove Scene 2î from disc 2 of TZPV since it featured the longest length and the most sonic elements. The track was faded out after the orgasmic climax six minutes in, effectively removing the inappropriate post-coital laughter and one-liners from the band. My reconstruction ends with Rain in the Country (known as Unknown Song) followed by Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up, both from the Rhino reissue. The final touch is my original cover art, made to resemble its sister album, Soundtrack To The Film More.
Sources Used:
Various Artists - Zabriskie Point (1997 Rhino reissue)
Pink Floyd - Total Zabriskie Point of View (bootleg, 2011 Magna Qualitas Records)
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https://mega.co.nz/#!aJwHSLaL!KHtKAC0TbwQDBPoCnRCk0jm7jCDBb4Y7yS_x4CiX5bw
https://mega.co.nz/#!CcwjBR5Z!uy_xx_s5vFyzJhmeCWRXcEKdhua3-58Zb99iU4PLRUs
https://mega.co.nz/#!uYhT2aIb!8LzKySR9jy5UlxMn_t7igrzr-Rup-NkiyV0PzPZypYw