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Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother – Hakone Aphrodite, Japan 1971

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What does it sound like?:

This cd plus bluray set presents the original AHM album on the cd, but it’s the bluray disc that is the most interesting and is the focal point of this release. A lower grade copy of this film of the band performing the AHM suite at a Japanese festival in August of 1971, their first ever show in the country, was featured on the Early Years box set a few years ago. This footage has now been upgraded to give far better clarity thanks to a new copy of the film being found, although sadly there’s still no footage available of the remainder of the set, those five songs seeming to be lost for good. It’s a good solid performance of the piece, more notable for being of historical interest for hardcore fans than for offering anything radically new or unexpected. The package also includes a short behind the scenes documentary, an informative sixty page booklet and replicas of the original poster and ticket, along with various other bits of reproduced memorabilia. If you don’t have the film then this is the chance to get hold of it without forking out for the full box set, and although the band members have rather poured scorn on the piece in more recent years, I think it stands up well, and it’s one I still regularly dig out for a listen.

What does it all *mean*?

Looking at the footage you can only wonder at how radically the outdoor concert experience has changed over the intervening fifty odd years/

Goes well with…

Wishing there’d been a 5.1 or Atmos mix thrown in – the nearest thing currently available is the original quad mix from 1971, again to be found only on the Early Years set.

Release Date:

Dec 8th

Might suit people who like…

One for confirmed Floyd devotees only!

3

Comments

    • Saw it performed at a free Hyde Park concert in July 1970, a few months before the album was released. Accompanied by a brass band and choir. It was a little bit underwhelming, I seem to recall.
      I was, of course, very stoned.

      • Of course at Hull it was just the four of of them, which sounds a bit crap in theory, but then the PF-only version that appeared on the Early Years box set was surprisingly compelling I thought. But then I’m a big fan of the ‘Tom.

        • I was not so underwhelmed that I didn’t buy the album when it came out. I thought the album was great then and a few years ago, having not listened to it in years, I bought a new 2011 remaster copy on CD. It hasn’t held up so very well over the years IMO, but it’s still a pretty impressive piece of work.

  3. Good to see lots of love for this album on this thread. Let’s face it, it’s great, isn’t it? The side-long suite is a terrific, typical mellow Floyd jam, the three songs are brilliant, and I just don’t get what people find offensive about the laid back charm of Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast.

    I remember when I was first getting into Floyd, the standard view was that Syd Barrett was a genius and they lost their way without him, then started getting good again when they found their feet with Dark Side of the Moon. I’m really pleased to see in recent years that critical in-between period of ’68 – ’72 is getting a bit of a renaissance.

      • Well, my cultural radar (rusty as it is) is saying yes, it is definitely happening more widely. I browse Pink Floyd forums and the “youngsters” who are getting into the band these days seem to love this period.

        And I can also detect a big swing away from putting Syd Barrett on too high a pedestal – I think that’s a welcome correction. I always thought his “psychedelic voyager” / “crazy diamond” reputation was allowed to overshadow the fact his songwriting was (while intermittently brilliant) a bit hit and miss. And also to treat his mental health issues as a sign of genius rather than a serious, human issue. he was clearly instrumental to the band’s initial success, but from the start they were a band of equals, and from the point David Gilmour joined they really started getting serious about things.

        One rabbit hole I went down recently was various people’s attempts to recreate “The Man” and “The Journey” (Floyd’s two 1969 concert set-pieces that were never recorded properly) out of studio recordings. After all, the two suites were more or less made up with bits and pieces that found their way on to records (Grantchester Meadows here, Careful With That Axe Eugene there, touches of Cymbeline, etc), so by editing together lots of different songs from various sources you can actually get a pretty good interpretation of what a proper studio LP of “The Man”/ “The Journey” would sound like. A fascinating, alternative reality LP.

      • Sorry, one more comment. Much as I loved Nick Mason’s band, one thing I was slightly disappointed in is they didn’t get more into the spirit of experimentation of that period – they basically play the songs pretty straight. I’d love to see (masochist that I am) a Floyd tribute band that did things like saw bits of wood rhythmically and build a table, and then take a break for tea and a biscuit sitting at the table, on stage – one of the crazy conceptual things the guys did in those Ummagumma days.

  4. I’ve banged on about this period of the Floyd since the early days of filesharing when I finally got to hear recordings from 1969-72. It even brought me into bother with Guy Pratt who, unbeknown to me, was following a thread on the subject on Facebook. I said it was their best work, he responded with: “Pfft. Are you sure?”; then five years later he joined Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets. Just saying. Hopefully he’s not lurking here, too. Honest Guy, I’m a big fan.

    Other things to listen out for from this period are the rare occasions when they did Obscured By Clouds and Childhood’s End. There’s a version of OBC where they’re having technical problems, and go into a lengthy jam, sections of which introduce the riff that would later surface on In the Flesh. There’s also the Christmas show in Sheffield where they play Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast for the one and only time. Re The Man/The Journey, a Floyd podcaster told me he was told to take his recording of it down because there was an official release in the offing (that was five years ago, mind). I also like listening to the development of Careful With That Axe, Eugene, which was played right up to their 1977 US stadium dates. And I’ve never known why the recorded versions of The Embryo and Fat Old Sun are so weedy in comparison to the live renditions for his period.

    As for the young people getting into this era, I distinctly remember some of the 1970 bootlegs (probably the Paris Theatre BBC recordings) being played as background music before the Verve’s 1998 Brixton Academy show. It made sense, too; exactly the fluid heaviosity that the Drugs Don’t Work hitmakers had once aimed for.

    • I’ve only recently started seriously dipping my toes into this stuff. That 1969 rehearsal footage I posted above has been around for a while I gather, but it’s the first I’ve seen it.

      I think the audio quality of the surviving live recordings is what puts me off. It always sends me scurrying back to the safety of the pleasing studio quality of Ummagumma and the very album being discussed here. But it gets better once your ears adjust to it. I’ll need to have a look for. those particular shows you mention here! Any links you have are most welcome (it’s a bit of a minefield online, and I tend to end up with a load of badly worded files that get lost in my folders).

    • Once upon a time I’d have just directed you to the excellent Brain Damage podcast which posted a show a month. But it’s recently had its activites curtailed by the band’s management. It survives, but can only play previously released items, I believe. But give me a day or two and I’m sure I can find the relevant shows on YouTube. Audio quality is variable. If that’s a factor, maybe start with the ones recorded for radio and TV, ie the Paris Theatre, KQUED and San Tropez recordings.

        • Here’s the Sheffield City Hall 1970 show with Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast

          Taft Auditorium, Cincinatti 1971 has a heroically extended Embryo that contains elements of Breathe/Any Colour You Like

          Brussels, 1972 features a rare performance of Childhood’s End, the one that to my ears starts riffing on what would become In the Flesh.

          And finally the very last appearance of Careful With That Axe, in front of a doubtless quite perplexed stadium audience in Oakland, California, 1977.

          As you can tell I bloody live for this stuff, so if anyone else has any other curios, please do share.

  5. When people were banging on about ” Guilty Pleasures” in music (and usually meant MOR), I thought of AHM: it’s preposterous, pretentious, but a lot of rousing fun. I think it works better with a smaller ensemble and chorus than full brass section.

    BTW, here is a Japanese cover band’s recent version for your entertainment.

    • Thanks, enjoyed that. I’m coming round to the idea that AHM was a more accomplished work than I’ve often thought. I’m sure many people view that post-Syd pre-Meddle period as a time when the Floyd were coasting, safe in the knowledge that their albums were selling sufficient quantities and they were in no danger of being dropped. But overall, they were underachieving. This thread has made me reassess, up to a point, Lord Copper.

  7. Always been a fan of AHM – especially the epic title track – proper prog albeit with a rather eerie almost Wicker Man pagan ambience. The eccentric but musically brilliant Ron Geesin was responsible for the choral and brass arrangements. I recall him supporting Floyd at the DSOTM gig that I went to and he was most odd – I vividly recall him turning wild eyed to the audience and saying ‘some people say I’m mad, I’m not I’m madder’ and carried on thrashing his piano. Marvellous.

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