Pink Floyd-The Dark Side of the Moon (Classic Albums) (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Booklet Interviews-Cast & Crew-Bonus interview material
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	49:01 (Case: 84)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Matthew Longfellow
Studio Distributor	Sony Music	Starring	Roger Waters David Gilmour Nick Mason Rick Wright Alan Parsons
Case	6 Clip and Ring
RPI	$26.95	Music	Pink Floyd

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	German Spanish Italian Dutch French Portuguese	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    "Dark Side Of The Moon was an expression of political, philosophical, humanitarian empathy that was desperate to get out....
It is driven by emotion; there is nothing plastic or contrived about it, and I think that's one of the things that has given it its longevity."
- Roger Waters

"There is no dark side of the moon, really - matter of fact, it's all dark.... The only thing that makes it look light is the sun."
- Gerry O'Driscoll (the Irish doorman at Abbey Road studios, interviewed for the "Dark Side Of The Moon" sessions)

    What is it about this album that makes it a "classic" rock album, and beyond the scope of just rock music, one of the most important artistic statements of modern times? Why has this album endured so well over the last 30+ years and why does it continue to endure? Why did it and why does it continue to speak to music audiences across generations and geographies? Why is it both the most successful charting record of all time in the US - a fact - and also, when looked at objectively and irrespective of your own personal rock music tastes, the most logical nomination for the accolade of "the most successful/influential rock music album of all time"?........ But above all, what is the album actually saying? What is "The Dark Side Of The Moon" a metaphor for? and what is the concept and the individual songs themselves all about? Further, how do musicians and critics analyse both the music and its impact?..... Well, this documentary from the TV series Classic Albums, as screened on SBS TV, aims to answer all of these important questions. It sheds much light on what went into and what is behind "The Dark Side Of The Moon".

    ... From the moment that the "Classic Albums" TV series concept was first conceived, there could be little doubt in anyone's mind that this particular rock album, of all of rock's "classic" albums, would have to demand being featured in this series. The resultant documentary and background material as presented here in full on this DVD should be enough to make any rock music fan - let alone just Pink Floyd fans - lick their lips with anticipation; a chance to explain and put into context "The Dark Side Of The Moon".

    "Dark Side" was recorded in Abbey Road Studios London in sessions between June 1972 and January 1973. To put this particular time and place into context, at the time the finishing touches were being put to the mixes in January 1973, Paul McCartney and Wings were bunkered in the very next studio at Abbey Road recording their next album - and so would unwittingly find themselves contributing in small part to this classic rock album, and director Adrien Maben was quietly and prophetically filming the Floyd as they went about their work recording and mixing - not because Adrien Maben knew or even suspected that what he was capturing on film was rock music history in the making - he didn't, he was simply (and in hindsight, this was just an amazing but thankful coincidence) filming extra footage to fill in his 1971/72 concert film Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii.

    And what a magical period in Floyd's history this winter of 1972/73 would turn out to be. It captured a period when all four band members were finally coming to the grips with taking the reigns on a new musical direction following the sad departure of front man Syd Barrett; a period when Roger Waters would confidently step forward to fill the songwriting void and spearhead the band's artistic direction (a transition from writing pop songs to writing material with "something to say"). Yet it wasn't just Roger's heartfelt and extremely direct emotional sentiments that made this album the classic album it became (although this was a large part of it), for this winter of 1972/73 was also a period when the relationship between the four band members was at its most harmonious and the creative juices from all sides were flowing, so that the vehicle to carry Roger's compelling humanitarian sentiments would be the music created by the collective and unified input from all four equals in the band.  This was a period when all four band members were working towards their common goal, harmoniously unified in their artistic expression. That common goal was simply, as Roger wryly puts it, "to become rich and successful". And they would succeed once the fruits of this winter's work was released. "Dark Side" would become the magnum opus that would forever change the lives of the band members and propel them into a completely new world of fame, recognition and accomplishment. This change would of course go on to influence both the relationships and the subject matter of all the material to follow. And in a wider context, it would also forever change the history of rock music in so many ways, birthing the modern "concept album", showcasing a new era of instrumental and studio experimentation in rock music albums, and previewing rather complex and tediously manual techniques that would later become automated by machines and recognised as "music sampling".

    This documentary is very well put together. It features newly recorded interviews with all four band members, plus engineer Alan Parsons and mixing supervisor Chris Thomas. As with the previous episodes of this "Classic Album" series, this documentary also gives a detailed analysis of  individual songs on the album, the recording process and, most fascinating, the opportunity to hear reconstructions from the master 24-track recordings. It also explains in simple language what the "Dark Side" concept is saying and offers an analysis from rock journalists as to how/why the songs gel so well together to tell the concept story. It also explains aspects such as what the album cover is about and how it came to pass, and other fascinating trivia surrounding the album's recording.

Video

    The aspect ratio is 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, as originally shot and presented on TV.

    The image quality of the newly recorded interview footage - the majority of the documentary - is quite sharp. The footage consists of simple locked-camera shoots in various recording studios (the band members' in-home studios?), and is all appropriately lit and recorded on what would appear to be modern DV-cam, so it is pretty hard to go wrong with image quality here. Shadow detail - what little of it is required - is sufficient and there is no low level noise. This interview footage is interspersed with various pieces of archival footage, including original 1973 footage of the band recording "Dark Side" in Abbey Road (taken from Live At Pompeii), some live concert footage of the Floyd dating back to 1968, several photographs of the band over these years, and some fascinating excerpts from promotional music videos for several of the "Dark Side" tracks. The quality of this archival footage is of course of lower standard than the newly recorded interview material, with the old promotional video clips in particular quite grainy, but all of it is still eminently acceptable and watchable given their rarity value and insight.    

    Colour cannot be faulted, with nice saturation, accurate skin tones and solid black levels.

    MPEG artefacts are restricted to some minor pixelization noted in some backgrounds. Film-to-video artefacts are restricted to some minor aliasing in the fine lines of some photos and the old Abbey Roads studio footage, but it is quite infrequent. There are no film/source artefacts noted in the main interview material - they exist, of course, in the archival footage.

    Several subtitle languages are provided, however, surprisingly, English isn't one of them.

    The disc is single-sided and single-layered.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The only audio track provided is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack (at 224 Kb/s).    

    Dialogue quality is very clear and distinct throughout, with no audio sync problems.

    The audio transfer also delivers with the music, which is of course predominantly the music from "Dark Side" itself, along with some other Floyd recordings. All music has been taken from cleaned, re-mastered sources and delivered with amazing clarity, as if it had been recorded only yesterday. Audio transfer quality is high across the music range, delivering from faithful bass to clean midrange to tight percussion.

    The audio track includes some surround information for the music, and this works well to draw out the soundstage during these sections. For the rest of the feature, when interviewees are talking, the rears fall silent as would be expected.

    There is nothing for the subwoofer to do for the majority of the documentary, when interviewees are talking, but it does assist with the music, and most effectively for the "Dark Side" heart-beat.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Bonus Material (total 35:52)

    A great extra, with the same high quality video and audio as per the main feature.

Booklet

    I was always confused as to what constitutes a "booklet", exactly. How many pages does it have to be to be a "booklet", rather than a "leaflet" or "fold-out page". Does only a 4-page fold-out sheet of paper count as a "booklet"?... Well, probably so here, and in any event deserves mention for its colourful pictures and useful purpose in showing all the "Dark Side" album artwork - both the original 1973 artwork and the artwork to adorn subsequent album/CD pressings. Plus this booklet also contains all the original album production credits, which is quite handy if you want to refer to them during the documentary to refresh your memory of who contributed in what capacity to the production of this musical masterpiece.

     This documentary is a must have in the DVD collection for anyone with a serious appreciation of rock music, and should appeal to a wider audience of anyone who has ever been touched by this important musical and artistic achievement. Video and audio quality are first rate, as expected, and the extras provide further in-depth understanding over and above the feature alone.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall