Call it kismet, destiny or just plain old irony. The timing of the release of Pink Floyd’s Pulse digipak is, at the very least, thought provoking.
Pulse documents the band’s Division Bell tour in 1994, when the band consisted of David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright (departed founding member Roger Waters having lost his court fight to the right to use the band’s name.)
The two-DVD set was released on July 11, 2006 -- the same day it was learned that Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett had died. Pulse opens with “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” the opus with which the 1975 Wish You Were Here album – dedicated to Barrett – begins and ends. Pulse ends with the song “Wish You Were Here” from that album, with Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) joining in at the band's 1996 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Pulse contains the first ever filmed performance of Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album. It was released just three days before Roger Waters’ (with Nick Mason) performance of Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety at a concert in France.
It isn’t as if the release date had been established for a long time. In fact, when it was originally announced, Pulse was scheduled for release last January. That these various cosmic coincidences converged seems wholly in keeping with Pink Floyd’s storied history.
On Its Own
Courtesy Electric Artists
Pulse stands up well on its own merits, extraneous factors aside. Digital remastering of the audio and video makes the 1995 VHS tape version seem like a fuzzy bootleg by comparison. The VHS version was an interesting documentation of a concert. The DVD version is an utterly captivating sensory experience. It’s the closest you can get to being at a Pink Floyd performance without actually being there.
Although Pulse doesn’t capture the look and feel of the early Pink Floyd, it clearly shows the complexity and uniqueness of the band’s music. Much of the music performed here is from the band’s most recent (1994) album, but the inclusion of Dark Side and Wish You Were Here in the mix provides good historical perspective. The performances validate that it was the music, not the individual musicians, which set Pink Floyd apart and puts them in the top three or four classic rock bands on everybody’s lists.
The bonus “extras” help make the DVD set well worth the price of admission. They include backstage and other behind-the-scenes footage, screen films used in the band’s ‘70s live concert performances, and a “Bootlegging the Bootleggers” feature that showcases some “classic” bootleg videos of Floyd performances.
Clear Your Calendar
It goes without saying that lserious Floyd fans will want to add this to the collection. It’s a completely different animal than the videotape version. For those who are relatively new to the band, Pulse offers a good education in what made this iconic band iconic.
The two DVDs in the set contain four hours of material. Clear your calendar. You won’t be able to do something else while you’re watching it, and you will want to watch it all once you get started.
