HARVESTED

...proudly presents for your weeding and listening pleasure, "Dawn Of The Piper."
 

Here's a little bit of info about this release.

DotP is a collection of material from the Syd/Floyd years. For decades, there have been numerous sources for this material, on vinyl and CD RoIOs, and I can still remember the 1st one I bought...."Unforgotten Hero" (which was released as a picture disc on VINYL). It was through that LP that I heard Scream Thy Last Scream and Vegetable Man for the first time (this was in the late 70's), as well as some of the early Top Gear performances. Some of this material was re-released on my Total Eclipse box set for Great Dane (anyone heard of this?) and they were my best sources at the time (this was about 5 years ago).

Better sources have turned up over the past few years on such RoIOs as Rhamadan, A Saucerful Of Outtakes, and Tales From The Psychedelic Dungeon, just to name a few. I wanted to take the best from all these new sources and compile them onto one CD to represent this time period.

I DID NOT want this release to be an ALL INCLUSIVE effort! This means that I didn't want to include all 3 versions of VegMan or other titles which had different stereo and mono versions. I did not want this to be a reference disc or a CD encyclopedia....I wanted this to be an enjoyable "LISTENING" experience...something that you could put into your CD player and listen to all the way through. Besides, there is already a huge project underway (14 CDs!) that will be the all-inclusive project. I also did not want to include any of Syd's solo stuff (maybe a future release) or interviews (such as Hans Keller's classic one from Look Of The Week) or small tidbits (like the Carlisle radio snippet). Sure, there are a few things absent (like the Flaming single version), but one can only fit so much material onto a CD, and decisions had to be made as to what would be included.

There were SO MANY people that helped out on this one, and I wish I could thank them all, but some have requested to remain anonymous. In just the last month or so, I have received startling upgrades, some that my cynical mind doubted would be! So, here is a rundown of all the tracks and the sources from whence they came........

1)Lucy Leave
2)King Bee

These 2 tracks have appeared on numerous releases; from Fish Out Of Water to A Saucerful Of Outtakes (my previous choice for the best quality). I have recently received a source from a VERY low tape gen that is better than anything I have previously heard (which does not come from a RoIO source). The only problem was that the 1st note of Lucy was missing, but HARVESTED has fixed that minor glitch. The fuller dynamics of these tracks put them ahead of the pack.

3)Interstellar Overdrive

Taken from the film San Francisco 1968. I have a master video source professionally transferred from the original film. Our engineer took this source a step further by enhancing the sound and cleaning up a bit of noise from the film's optical soundtrack.

4)Arnold Layne

Ya know, there are so many different ALs to choose from and I definitely wanted to include one of them. There are the pristine stereo releases (Relics) and the mono version (The Singles from the Shine On box), but I took Mr. Fitch's suggestion (which I think is BRILLIANT), of using the ORIGINAL SINGLE! This version is taken from the original 45 and was recorded directly onto my hard drive. This way, you won't hear a remixed perfect stereo version (like Relics) or the mono version that was later released. What you WILL hear should be pretty much the same thing as if you'd bought the single when it came out in 1967 played it at home for the 1st time (but probably with better stereo equipment : )

5)Candy and a Current Bun

This alternate lyric version was sourced from the Rhamadam RoIO.

6)Pow R Toc H
7)Astronomy Domine

These tracks are from the Look Of The Week BBC TV show. Our source was a PAL master from a more recent broadcast.....can't get too much better than this!

8)See Emily Play

Sourced from a low gen tape. The fade out of this song is a bit longer (approx 5 seconds) and you might just hear a few things that you've never heard before : )

9)Sunshine

This was also sourced from a low gen tape and starts off with a curious little sound effect. Better than the Rhamadam RoIO.

10)Flaming
11)Apples And Oranges
12)Scarecorw
13)Mathilda Mother
14)The Gnome

All of these tracks are from an early BBC session. Thanks to a fellow Echoesian, I was given a copy of the tape that was supplied to the BBC for a rebroadcast, because the BBC did not have a copy at the time. All other releases of this material pretty much stem from this tape, most likely with many generations added. The BBC supposedly did not rebroadcast A&O, maybe because of a slight technical whistle which can be heard during the song.

We've also "cleaned up" these tracks as best we could, balancing levels, a bit EQ'ing, and cleverly replacing missing notes at the start of some songs (Scarecrow). One thing HARVESTED never does is to "blanket" a track with noise reduction (like No Noise). There are subtle ways to remove a bit of hiss, but I'd rather hear hiss rather than lose some significant sound. Determining the noise reduction (which is often rejected) is usually our longest process.

15)Scream Thy Last Scream
16)Vegetable Man

These tracks were also sourced from a low gen tape. Hands down best quality of these stereo versions. STLS even includes the countdown and post-song gibberish.

17)Reaction In G

I wanted to include at least one "live" performance track, and this one was an early staple. This source is from a very low gen tape. The instrumental tracks from this show fair MUCH better than the ones with vocals (which are quite distant), so I chose this cool jam session to be included.

18)Pow R Toc H
19)Scream Thy Last Scream
20)Vegetable Man
21)Jugband Blues

A low gen tape source was used for the Floyd's final BBC session with Syd. Though a bit on the "hissy" side (especially during the quiet parts), the sound is still better than anything I've heard. I really didn't like the fact that I was ending this incredible compilation with the tracks that were the poorest sound quality of the lot (I'd grade them a VG+) but we refused to blanket the sound with noise reduction. It's a bit disturbing to hear the wall of hiss emerge during the end coda of JB, but when Syd chimes in with "And the sea isn't green..." it still sends shivers up my spine. A perfect way to end the CD.

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