SDE attends Pink Floyd playback event in London

Battersea Power Station – now completely redeveloped into a shopping centre and residential/office block complex – made for an appropriate venue for a playback, last night, of the new Dolby Atmos Mix of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album, Animals.

SDE was there, with selected guests and media, to hear the new immersive mix in the Cinema in Turbine Hall B, in the company of Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell of Hipgnosis and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason.

Originally comprising two coal-fired power stations (‘A’ was completed in 1935, while a delayed ‘B’ wasn’t operational until 1955) the building was eventually decommissioned in the late 1970s and made a Grade II listed building in 1980. It then spent three-and-a-half decades in a state of disrepair with various plans to redevelop, never coming to fruition.

Po Powell in his talk with Daryl Easlea, before the playback, said: “When I came here with Roger Waters [late in 1976] it was pretty shocking. The building was out of use, although they had one turbine that was still functioning a bit, but around the building was a phenomenal mess. Detritus was everywhere: it was old rolling stock; slag heaps of coal; barbed wire, with bits of plastic stuck to it – it was just a mess. And I think Roger and I were shocked at the state of it. But what was very interesting was that knocking on the only available door of this huge edifice, somebody answered! And this bloke with a cloth cap and overalls said “What do you want?” and we said “We want to fly a pig between the chimneys”. He said “How much?”. “£200?”. He said “Done!”. No word of a lie, it was that simple. Health and Safety didn’t exist. A week later, there we were: Pink Floyd, me and a pig.

After the Atmos playback Nick Mason took to the stage to talk to Daryl. He admitted that he hadn’t listened to the whole album “in 40 years” but found it really interesting listen with “so many elements of it that I’d completely forgotten about, like Rick’s playing”. He also added that “the melodic structure is far more sophisticated than I remember”. Nick also commented on “how dark the record is, lyrically and musically”.

Animals was the first album that Pink Floyd recorded in their own studio, Britannia Row, in Islington, London. “We devised it to be something we could absolutely operate on our own, either as individuals or as a band” said Nick, although he admitted that the album is “probably the least accurate, in terms of not having that Abbey Road facility, with all that back-up. It was more or less [just] us, the tech guy who looked after the equipment and Brian Humphries, who was the engineer”.

The Atmos Mix of Animals (a full review will follow) is released on Friday on blu-ray audio and streaming. If you have pre-ordered from the the SDE shop, the home of blu-ray audio, shipping has already started. If you haven’t placed your order yet and would like to support SDE you can do so using this link or the button below.

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Pink Floyd

Animals blu-ray with atmos mix

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Tracklisting

Animals Pink Floyd / Blu-ray audio with Atmos Mix

• • Blu-Ray Audio Mixes

    Dolby Atmos Mix

    5.1 Mix (96/24)

    2018 stereo mix (192/24)

    1977 stereo mix (192/24)

    1. Pigs On The Wing (Part One)
    2. Dogs
    3. Pigs (Three Different Ones)
    4. Sheep
    5. Pigs On The Wing (Part Two)