(Columbia 2DVD) 5 stars
Remember Pink Floyd’s original `Pulse’, with its smart, twin-CD digipak and blinking red light?
That 1994 live album, recorded in London during the group’s `The Division Bell’ world tour (sadly, Australia missed out) was the first time the group had recorded its entire `Dark Side Of The Moon’ album in concert.
Fans eagerly awaited the double DVD version of `Pulse’ (the ’94 concert was filmed) and it exceeded expectations.
Producer James Guthrie and Floyd guitarist/leader David Gilmour edited video footage and digitally remastered the music into 5.1 surround sound, packing in a host of extras including alternate versions, “bootlegging the bootleggers’’ tracks from other concerts and behind-scenes documentaries.
True, on the live double CD `The Delicate Sound of Thunder’, documenting the 1987-88 world tour (the one Australia did see), the freshly-reunited group played with more vigour, but on `Pulse’ the hi-fi sound and vision more than compensate, with spectacular space–age sets and complex laser lightshows celebrating the Pink Floyd concert experience.
The highlight, of course, is `Dark Side’, along with that timeless tribute to the late Syd Barrett, `Shine On You Crazy Diamond’.
– Mike Daly