Santa Monica October 1970 (Sigma 130)
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, California, USA – October 23, 1970
Disc 1 (65:45) Introduction, Astronomy Domine, Green Is The Color, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Fat Old Sun, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Cymbaline
Disc 2 (71:48) A Saucerful Of Secrets, Roger Introduction, Atom Heart Mother (with Orchestra and choir), Interstellar Overdrive
Pink Floyd’s concert in Santa Monica in October 1970 took place at the tail end of the band’s second US tour, there would be a last concert days later in Boston, Ma. The concert was also one of just a handful to feature a brass orchestra and choir to accompany the band for the Atom Heart Mother suite, quite fitting since the album the music came from had just been released at the beginning of October. The concert is blessed with two tape sources, the recorder 1 is the first I heard and fell in love with was from the boot Sing To Me Cymbaline (Gold Standard Coliseum 00-C-039 (A/B), collectors know that there have been other versions on titles as Bovine Psychosis (HypedUp HY 1001-A/B), Santa Monica 1970 (Ayanami-247), and most recently as Creatures Of The Deep (Sigma 039). As the Sigma title showcased, there are two tape sources for this concert, Sigma’s excellent title gave us a bit of recorder 2 on the third disc but sadly it was sourced from vinyl.
Recorder 1 was taped by the legendary Dub Taylor and this new version of the tape can only be described as phenomenal! To compare it to the older releases it does not even sound like the same recording, this is bright and powerful sounding, it sounds as if a layer of rust has been removed and a bright, gleaming surface was found underneath. From doing research on the Yeeskull site it looks like this would be a digital copy made from a legitimate first generation tape of the master. When people talk of upgrades many times it seems to come down to mastering, well folks I am here to tell you that this is significant and moves this concert to being among the best to surface from 1970.
There is still a cut a bit past the 8 minute mark in Careful With That Axe, Eugene but the edit is much better handled, the cut in Atom Heart Mother is at the 22:10 mark and the editing is superb, if you did not know it was there, you would never know. It is not known how much of the song is missing but this version clocks in at over 28 minutes. The other highlight of the tape is Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, making its silver debut and it a typical 1970 mind bending journey and together with the huge sound upgrade really makes this release special. For a full run down of this concert, you must read Plomerus’ review, for me he was the definitive reviewer of Floyd material, his passion and knowledge always make for interesting reading. The second disc is epic in every way, 1970 was a pinnacle in the exploration of the outer reaches of space and time.
The packaging is simple full color inserts featuring live shots with cows imposed over them, the colors have that faded look to them and Sigma has been different fonts on many of the releases, giving a more lively feel versus some of the older releases that utilized black and white shots. The back cover also has a picture of the Santa Monica Civic Center, cool to see the older venues. The CD’s have pictures on them, it’s the new norm for the Japanese titles and there is a sticker as well. Last word? This is a stunning release and a musty have for Floyd Fanatics everywhere.
9 Comments
Just got mine this past week. All I can say is wow! Much better than bovine psychosis. Very loud and clear. Though hiss is still present during quiet moments.
I bought this just last week. As with many of you I’m sure, my previous experience of this show was ‘Sing To Me Cymbaline’ (Gold Standard Colosseum 00-C-039). I have quite enjoyed that title for the 9 years I have had it, but Sigma 130 is a huge upgrade: make no mistake. The overall clarity is so much improved one can now hear Nick Mason’s cymbal work, and the lower frequencies are no longer muddy. I should have upgraded a year or so ago.
Nice review of the release by relayer67, thanks. A particular show for favoritism, whatever happened to the guy during the beginning of CWTAE…….?
“We’re not at that part yet”
Dub Taylor was involved with the original TMOQ who released many of the original vinyl bootlegs. I am sure he made copies of his master recordings then cut the copies to feature what songs specifically they wanted for the release. They always made sure to keep their releases under a certain time so they could maximize the vinyl quality. From what I have ready, his recording for this concert was pressed onto a vinyl boot called Cymbaline TMOQ 2804, so there was a chopped up version from that and one could surmise that is what circulated and was the source for many of the other CD releases. I have no confirmation of this, it is just simple logic. If you take a listen to Dub’s Led Zep, Stones, and Floyd recordings, he was certainly a pioneer in live field recording as he captured some really nice recordings that are still relevant in today trading circles.
ok…thanks for that, & thanks as well for your emails. i’ve decided to get Sigma 130, so i really appreciate your help in making my decision a lot easier.
I did not use Sing To Me Cymbaline as a reference, I used Creatures Of The Deep from Sigma. I agree that while Creatures was better than Sing To Me, it was certainly not an upgrade to this new title. Careful, email me off list at [email protected]
ok…i’ve just sent you an email
also, anybody think that it’s somewhat strange that “Set the Controls” finally shows up after having been absent on all previous versions? anybody have any ideas or thoughts about how or why it happened? thankx for anybody’s comments about this, as i have to admit that i’m not highly knowledgeable about the whole boot recording process or procedures
many thanx very much for this review, esp. as i had been patiently waiting for it for quite a while. however, do you, or anybody else who has it, know how it specifically compares to Hypedup’s “Bovine Psychosis” & Sigma 39 (“Creatures of the Deep”)? i presume/assume you’ve heard Gold Standard’s “Sing to Me Cymbaline”, but i’m thinking that it’s quite possible that a major reason this new Sigma 130 sounds like such a huge upgrade to you is that “Sing to Me Cymbaline”, quite frankly, sucks! esp. considering that “Sing to Me Cymbaline” has so much annoying distortion, “Bovine Psychosis” sounds way better than it, but “Creatures of the Deep” was somewhat of a disappointment to me & former reviewer/contributor DLee since it didn’t sound much, if any at all, better than “Bovine Psychosis”, the edit in “Careful with that Axe, Eugene” approx. 8 minutes into it is rather awful, and it also has a number of other noticeable flaws that aren’t present in or not as obvious in “Bovine Psychosis”, such as some dropouts/fluctuations/degradations, etc.
so anybody know how this new Sigma 130 compares specifically to “Creatures of the Deep” and “Bovine Psychosis”? again, thanks
Might have to upgrade!