| The Genuine Pig's "Ultra Rare Trax" series offers
a fair sample of Pink Floyd's BBC sessions and unreleased
material. For "Ultra Rare Trax vol2", The inclusion of
Oneone/Fingal's Cave is the most noteworthy, as the other
material can easily be found someplace else.
Tracks 1 and 2 are indentical to the 'Libest Spacement
Monitor' recording, but they may have been taken from a
different radio broadcast. They sound note for note the
same, but the sound qualities are somewhat different than
'Libest..'
The sound quality ranges from excellent to tolerable until
the last two tracks, which sound like they were recorded from
inside a tin can. I highly doubt that "Crumbling Land" is a
live performance, as it sounds exactly like the Zabriske
Point soundtrack version, except that the city noises at the
end go on much longer.
All in all, I wouldn't call this a must-have recording, but
it's not a real stinker either.
If you can get it cheap, grab it. - SVID
The sound quality on all three of these disks is excellent.
On the first two volumes there is a short DJ commentary
about the BBC broadcasts before several of the songs. It
does not hurt the CD overall in any way. It sounds like it
is taken from a recent broadcast by BBC intended to be an
anthology of early Pink Floyd songs. Anybody have any more
info on this?
Obviously since most of the songs are from BBC broadcasts,
there are numerous x-refs. However, these disks make for a
very nice compilation of some of PF's best songs of that
time, including some relatively rare tracks. My personal
favorite is Vol.2. "Green is the Colour" is very
beautifully done, as well as the rare tracks such as
"Labyrinth" and Oneone/Fingal's Cave. -ANON
Second volume of the "Ultra Rare Trax" trilogy. Excellent
sound. The sources given on the back of the CD are often
wrong (the correct sources are those listed above).
"Green Is The Colour" and "Careful With That Axe, Eugene"
are not from July 1969, but from the well known "Peel
Sunday Concert" broadcast, recorded on July 16, 1970, at
the BBC Paris Theatre in London. Sound is excellent stereo,
but these tracks were mastered from a vinyl source.
There are many X-refs with better sound. The good point
here is that the lost of one channel during "Careful With
That Axe, Eugene" (from 4:11 to 4:19 on the Swinging Pig's
CD) that appears on a lot of X-refs, doesn't appear here.
Sound quality for these two tracks: Ex+
"Labyrinth" is an extract from "The Man And The Journey"
show played in Amsterdam, on September 17, 1969. The
complete title for this instrumental piece of music is "The
Labyrinths Of Auximenes". This track was played during
"The Journey" set, between "The Pink Jungle" (alias "Pow R.
Toc H.") and "Behold The Temple Of Light". Curiously, on
many RoIOs, this track was misplaced and appears just
before "The Beginning" (alias "Green Is The Colour").
Sound quality is not better than on "The Man & The Journey"
RoIO, and there's no stereo separation. VG
Tracks 4, 5 and 8 come from the December 1968 "Top Gear"
session (the source for track 8 is wrong on the back cover,
and should be the same as for tracks 4 and 5). Tracks 4 and
5 seem to be taken from the same BBC re-broadcast as on
"Ultra Rare Trax Vol.1" (they are introduced by the same DJ).
The sound is much clearer than on many X-refs (Ex+).
Track 8 isn't introduced by the DJ, so I guess this track
doesn't come from the re-broadcast. This can explain why
the sound quality is not so good (VG-), and why the source
given on the back cover is different. In fact, "Baby Blue
Shuffle In D Major" is a very early version of "The Narrow
Way (Part 1)", released the next year on "Ummagumma".
BTW, Pink Floyd played four songs during this "Top Gear"
session. The fourth was "Interstellar Overdrive" and is
missing here.
Tracks 6 and 7 are in fact three outtakes from the Zabriskie
Point sessions, and are in stereo. "One One" is a very quiet
instrumental piece, with strange sound effects by Gilmour
and Wright. "Fingal's Cave" is a short, strong instrumental
that usually comes right after "One One". This is probably
why they were merged on track 6. "Crumbling Land" is very
close to the regular soundtrack version. The main difference
is that the end part ("noisy cars and busses") is uncut.
These outtakes are very rare, and the sound quality is
good (VG+).
This CD is interesting for the Zabriskie Point outtakes,
and also for the excellent sound quality of "Point Me At
The Sky" and "Embryo". Combining "Ultra Rare Trax Vol.1"
and "Ultra Rare Trax Vol.2" will provide the four common
Zabriskie Point outtakes, and 6 exceptional sounding
versions from the 1968 "Top Gear" sessions. -MARC-OLIVIER.
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