Pink Floyd
The Dark Side of the Moon 1973 Already established as a world power in the realm of music, Pink Floyd created an album of definitive quality and fresh direction which ended an era of psychedelic folk infused rock. As the album breaks itself into the room, the studio compositional poignancy makes itself apparent instantaneously. The band had clearly evolved and were willing to craft something much more solid and multi-directional. Escapades into the realms of madness and exhaustion aside, what was brought back from the edge seems to have been a gift for all of us. Recorded in Abbey Road Studio, London, the album called upon Clare Torry as a session singer to fill in the jigsaw pieces for Great Gig in The Sky. She later won co-authorship rights in court, after receiving £30 for her contribution at the time. The album also used many experimental techniques that less well known bands may have found too risky. Luckily for the Floyd, their performances and previous work had always relied on the new and outlandish elements which made them ideal candidates for producing such an experimental album. The 7 beat loop made for the intro for Money takes sampling to a level of exposure it had rarely seen before. Putting computer assisted music on an album to be heard by millions in the early 70's may have been a bit of a shock, but from those humble roots, musicians everywhere began experimenting with loops, layers, and unusual time signatures. Sound engineer, Alan Parsons, utilised several effects for many tracks, including reverb and flange which pushed the limits further on what areas the music could reach. As a band, the music and album formed an iconic stepping stone for their work, and it allowed them to grip tighter on the music market. Because it doesn't resemble the commercially made music at the time, but remains continuously playable and still sells copies today, Dark Side has set the bar high and pretty early on for what a group of people can and really ought to be doing with their band. Monumental albums full of sonic landscapes and emotional bursts of compositional credence are rare, and perhaps they are famously hard to make. Not many albums can say that they are alternative and that they can reach people in such numbers as this, the world of music was much better off from having it made, it showed that it's possible to be truly creative and original while still enthralling the masses.
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