Pink Floyd - In The Beechwoods (The 2nd Syd Album Reconstructed) [A Prof Stoned Comp]

Side 1
01. Apples & Oranges (1967 mix)
02. Scream Thy Last Scream (1974 Mix)
03. Paint Box (1967 mix)
04. Vegetable Man (1974 Mix)
05. In The Beechwoods (2010 mix)

Side 2
06. Reaction in G [Edit] (Stockholm 1967)
07. Remember A Day (1968 mix)
08. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (1968 mix)
09. Jugband Blues (1968 mix)

Bonus:
10. The Scarecrow (BBC 9-1967)
11. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (BBC 9-1967)
12. Reaction in G (BBC 9-1967)
13. Flaming (BBC 9-1967)
14. Music For John Latham's 'Speak' [Re-Imagined by Prof Stoned] (2010 mix)
15. Scream Thy Last Scream (2010 mix)
16. Vegetable Man (2010 mix)
17. Jugband Blues (2010 mix)

Total time: 1h07m17s
All tracks are Stereo except Tr. 10-13 are Mono

Research for this comp: Prof Stoned/Hallucalation
Mastering: Tr. 01: Andy Jackson; Tr. 03,07-09: Doug Sax
Everything else (re)mastered by Prof Stoned [Jackson did original masterings of Tr. 05,06,14-17]
Artwork by andrewskyDE

v1.0: 23-09-2021

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Note:

What if Pink Floyd had decided to hang it up in January 1968 and compiled a farewell album from the new material that they had recorded over the last six months?

The answer: We would have gotten a much better second PF record but we would also have been deprived of a lot of great music (without knowing it, of course). "In The Beechwoods" is a could-have-been project for my own entertainment. Obviously, it is not 100% authentic. The live version of 'Reaction in G' would never have been used, since it is a fan-made recording that didn't come into the band's possession until the 2010s. But it is the only complete version with excellent sound known to circulate. I have taken the liberty to edit out 2 minutes because I felt it improved the quality of the performance. 'Vegetable Man' & 'Scream Thy Last Scream' were never mixed down properly in 1967/1968, so these rough mixes from 1974 -made for a nixed archive project- are the next best thing. 'In the Beechwoods' was never finished but even as an instrumental it is quite a strong track.

For the bonus section, we have a part of the first "Top Gear" session the band did for the BBC. It appears in the best quality so far here, mastered straight from the original MP3 source brought into circulation about 12 years ago. This MP3 was sourced from a 90m cassette that the show's late original producer made for a friend from his master of the complete aircheck. The other two tracks that were aired on the show 'Matilda Mother' & 'The Gnome' thus also exist in this quality but do not circulate. The voiceovers are from Pete Drummond & the late John Peel. Only 'Flaming' was used for the official boxset and with lesser soundquality; the other tracks, amazingly, were mastered from an off-air source.

'John Latham' was an experimental piece recorded in one take with Floyd playing along to a short film called 'Speak' (which by 2020 standards looks like little more than a looped animation with a stroboscopic effect). I have edited this 30min recording down to an 11-minute composite. The edit is not linear; it starts out with music from the 3rd, 4th & 5th parts before heading back to section 1 & 2, and then finally from section 6 to 9. Purists should stay away. But having said that, the result is probably closer to an actual free-jazz composition. It holds more tension as a whole, whereas the original too often gets bogged down in moments of confusion and aimlessness.

'Vegetable Man' & 'Scream Thy Last Scream' are the first band-sanctioned mixes of these historically important songs. To my ears, the remixes are far superior to the 1974 ones or the 1987 mixes by Malcolm Jones, especially in this newly re-balanced form. However, they probably stick out a bit too much next to the vintage mixes, so I've put them in the back along with the enjoyable (if not quite essential) remix of 'Jugband Blues'.

I have mastered all tracks except those that already sounded fine to me. I have redone the stuff from the box for the same reason I re-did Pompeii a year ago; it is mastered much too bright for me to enjoy. I suspect much of the criticism towards the 2010 mixes comes at least in part from the mastering. Funny enough, 'Apples & Oranges' which I borrowed from "An Introduction To Syd Barrett" sounds great to my ears (this was done a few years earlier by the same guy).

Enjoy!

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Sources:

- The Early Years 1965-1972 ‎(Box, Comp, CD + DVD-V, Blu) Pink Floyd Records, Columbia 0190295950255, PFREYB1 Europe 2016
- A Saucerful Of Secrets ‎(CD, Album, RE, RM) Capitol Records CDP 0777 7 46383 2 6 US 1994
- Relics ‎(CD, Comp, RM) EMI United Kingdom 7234 6 35603 25 UK & Europe 1995
- An Introduction To Syd Barrett ‎(CD, Comp) Harvest 50999 9 07736 2 4 UK & Europe 2010
- MP3 (192 kbps) of Bernie Andrews' tape of first Top Gear broadcast
- digital transfer of master cassette with Peter Jenner 1974 mixes



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