The Orb and David Gilmour -- Metallic Spheres

From this 1993 interview together to this news:

Just announced, and coming in October, is a new collaboration between David Gilmour, and ambient wizards The Orb. You might recall that last year, David had been in the studio jamming with Martin “Youth” Glover, who was at the time working on an ambient mix of the 'Chicago' re-recording, which was released to raise awareness of the plight of Gary McKinnon.

Dr Alex Paterson (the one constant through the history of The Orb) was not involved in the sole jamming session and the only plan initially was for David to play guitar on 'Chicago'. However, the result of that jam session has now been spread across the next Orb album, Metallic Spheres, which will be released as "The Orb featuring David Gilmour".

It will be released in multiple formats worldwide in October this year, and dates will be confirmed shortly. All artist royalties will go to helping Gary McKinnon's campaign against his extradition.

In addition to the standard CD album, there will be a 'Deluxe' 2CD version: the first disc is the same as the standard, the second is a 3D60™ version, a new sound production process developed by Youth, Mike Brady (The Jam's live sound engineer) and Ian Thompson (musician and multimedia producer), which allows you to listen in three-dimensional sound. As with the earlier QSound format, you don't need special equipment, and it is said to "sound amazing on any headphones in any format".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rnkDPcnk44

Thanks to Elvis Telecom for the heads-up BTW!

"three dimensional sound"?

is this like those Welcome to the Future comps from 1993

LOLwut?

I'm cringing over this, but hey, Steve Hillage managed to pull it off.

That kind of sounds awesome.

obscured by little fluffy clouds

every album should have an "ambient bonus track"

Just watched the clip and actually I really like the dreamy pedal steel/lap steel/whatever that thing is.

From the Wikipedia "Unreleased Pink Floyd" page:

The Big Spliff - An album of ambient music recorded during the sessions for The Division Bell. The band seriously considered releasing it, but the idea was abandoned.

The Big Spliff - An album of ambient music recorded during the sessions for The Division Bell. The band seriously considered releasing it, but the idea was abandoned.

I think some of this turns up on the 20 minute sound collage that PF played before the Division Bell shows

As for the Orb/Gilmour team-up, DO WANT

David Gilmour is a very rich man.

Every now and then David Gilmore does that thing with his eyebrows that completely freaks me out.

But I'm slowly coming around to the idea of this. But I should probably listen to some Orb that's less than 20 years old before making my mind up.

Can't wait till the unreleased track from Dark Side Of The Moon turns up, it's supposedly Hawkwind-ish space rock and never got past it's working title of Rock And Roll before it was excised from the record.

You are actually making that up.

Wait and see :)

Sounds very comforting.

Needs more dub echo on it.

WAIT (wait... wait... wait... wait...) and SEE! (see... see... see... see...)

Then the bass kicks in.

the youtube sounds like the first rehearsal of a Studio tribute band

Elvis Telecom OTM though

As for the Orb/Gilmour team-up, DO WANT

Funny that Guy Pratt doesn't seem to be on this, from the blurb!

is this coming out on Kompakt?

i have serious doubt that any floyd outtakes or studio stuff from the vault will ever be released. they just don't seem interested in putting it out. it's annoying.

Gilmour has long held that there really isn't much "in the vault" to speak of. There are some developmental versions of various well-known tracks, but little in the way of unreleased stuff. Also I believe you are right in that they've never been interested in releasing even alt. takes.

Still I like the idea of this release. I was pleasantly surprised by "On an Island" and this context seems right for old Dave.

Gilmour has long held that there really isn't much "in the vault" to speak of. There are some developmental versions of various well-known tracks, but little in the way of unreleased stuff.

I've always thought that an "official bootleg" series of live releases (a la Dylan and Neil Young) would be nice but still no one outside of the band really knows how many live shows were recorded.

Yeah, since they were well known for developing their records on the road beforehand, some key dates would make for a nice series...The ones I would like are those with the Animals material in its earlier stages.

haven't heard any of those early Floyd animals shows -- they played it live during the Wish you Were Here tour, right? any you would recommend?

haven't heard any of those early Floyd animals shows -- they played it live during the Wish you Were Here tour, right? any you would recommend?

My favorites are any of the shows from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Floyd_1974_tours

The "work in progress" version of "Shine On" is tremendous

D1mead0zen has acres of good Floyd boots and a seperate torrent site called Yeeshkul! as well, tons of great stuff.

I would say that '70, '73 and '74 are my favourite years. On the 73 tours the band did When Your In, Childhood's End and Obscured By Clouds and they sounded pretty great. Cymbaline, Fat Old Sun and Green Is The Colour always sounded fantastic and the Man/Journey suite from '69 is tons of fun, with a great jammed out version of Biding My Time with Wright doing some really awful trumpet playing.

There apparently is a fair amount of stuff in the vaults, lots of works in progress, even listenable chunks of the abandoned Household Objects project.

speaking of things lingering in the vault: just heard the "interstellar overdrive" that was an outtake from ummaguma -- so monstrous.

I've got a boot from 69-73 that I haven't listened to in ages. I'll investigate and report if there's anything of interest.

this is an old boot, but has a lot of the good stuff on it: http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=561

3D60 version utterly worth the extra $$$ (and significantly better than the original mix). Comparison points are the Global Communication/Chapterhouse remix album.

Would loved to have heard this as a Pink Floyd album, especially with Wright's input.

mark prindle otm

Oh, that Mark Prindle review was really funny. One of his "greatest hits" in my opinion.

But I'm actually reviving this thread in lieu of a proper general David Gilmour discussion thread.

After hearing it once or twice when it was new and kind of glossing it over, I've been playing On an Island a lot the past few days. It just has a very content, nocturnal sound. It certainly conjures up Pink Floyd vibes (especially on the title track), but really pushes towards a quieter, folky feel on the second half. With his voice sounding surprisingly great, it makes for what is most likely the prettiest album he's ever been involved with.