Widely regarded as Waters masterwork, a view reinforced by the later big screen version, The Wall in 1979 wraps up all the Floyds prevailing themes and presents them storybook-style. From the cruelties of war and childhood to alienation, manipulation and the chasm between band and audience, its all here in one big Gerald Scarfe-illustrated metaphor. With Waters calling the shots, it’s Gilmour who delivers the most Floydian cut, Comfortably Numb. But with a tie-in global No. 1 single, Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2, and outside producer Bob Ezrin supervising the orchestrations, this radical departure won a new generation of admirers. Masons early drum sessions were performed in an open space on the top floor of Britannia Row Studios. The 16-track recordings from these sessions were mixed down and copied onto a 24-track master, as guide tracks for the rest of the band to play to. This gave the engineers greater flexibility, but also improved the audio quality of the final mix as the original 16-track drum recordings were finally synced to the 24-track master, and the duplicated guide tracks removed. Ezrin later related the bands alarm at this method of working - they apparently viewed the erasure of material from the 24-track master as witchcraft.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 17:00:01 +0000