Music

"Flaming Side of the Moon" - Flaming Lips (Pink Floyd Companion Album) [SoundCloud & Spotify Stream]

Brad Bershad

by Brad Bershad

Published March 31, 2014
Flaming Side of the Moon by The Flaming Lips on SoundCloud:

Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd on Spotify:

The Flaming Lips continue their love, appreciation, and interpretation of Pink Floyd's 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon. Earlier today, the Lips released SoundCloud audio that's meant to be played simultaneously with the Floyd album. You can play both above. The best technique to sync the two recordings is:

1. Start playing the SoundCloud stream.
2. Pause it at 5 seconds.
3. Play the Spotify stream. (Instead of Spotify, you can use iTunes or a CD)
4. When Spotify gets to the 5 second mark, hit play on SoundCloud.

The album is also meant to be synced with the movie The Wizard of Oz, which has been synced with Dark Side of the Moon for many years. The combination of the film with the album has been called Dark Side of the Rainbow and Dark Side of Oz.

Flaming Side of the Moon is a cool concept, but it's plagued by issues with timing. Having listened once, I can't say that I would ever do it again. If the timing is off just slightly, it can be the difference between the concept sounding like beautiful music, or just sounding like a bunch of noise as the two pieces of music are clashing against each other - which I'm finding they often are. One of the biggest problems I'm having with Flaming Side of the Moon is the percussive elements that are out of sync with my recording of Dark Side of the Moon. When it comes to music, percussive hits that are off by less than a tenth of a second can completely ruin the groove. This may not have been a big problem if The Flaming Lips had made their companion album using only textural elements like synths and feedback drenched guitars, but they've included prominent drum tracks that sound annoying if they aren't synced perfectly.

The ideal music player for this type of thing would really be a CD player or a digital computer file that can be imported to a software program like Pro Tools or Logic, where it can be played simultaneously with the original Pink Floyd album. At the time of this publication, Flaming Side of the Moon is not available on iTunes or Amazon. SoundCloud works well, and pairing it with Spotify is convenient. However, the brief pauses between tracks on Spotify will add to the issues of timing.

Syncing Dark Side of the Moon with Flaming Side of the Moon on vinyl is especially not ideal because there is no exact timestamp on an analog record. Making matters even more complicated is the fact that Dark Side of the Moon has a soft opening beginning with silence that gives way to a pulsing rhythm. However, The Flaming Lips are set to release Flaming Side of the Moon on vinyl just for friends and family. They've announced that there will be 100 copies available on the analog disc format.

There are cool moments here, especially during the psychedelic instrumental pieces "On The Run" and "Any Colour You Like" but tightly arranged and layered songs like "Time" and "Money" are difficult to listen to, as it seems like the Flaming Lips are just making a big sloppy mess on top of a perfectly good track.

Stereogum has printed the press release for the album:

March, 31st 2014 - (Burbank, CA.) - THE FLAMING LIPS continue to explore the rich world of PINK FLOYD with their new digital release, FLAMING SIDE OF THE MOON.

Designed as an immersive companion piece to the original 1973 album, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, listeners are encouraged to listen to the new LIPS album while listening to DARK SIDE at the same time. FLAMING SIDE OF THE MOON was also carefully crafted to sync up perfectly with the 1939 film, THE WIZARD OF OZ. For ideal listening conditions, fans are encouraged to seek out the original Alan Parsons’ engineered quadraphonic LP mix of DARK SIDE, but it will work with the album on any format. Available now through all participating digital outlets.

A limited edition 100 vinyl copies will be distributed to friends and family of THE FLAMING LIPS.

flaming-side-of-the-moon-soundcloud-cover-art

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artists
Pink Floyd The Flaming Lips
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Classic Rock Electro Rock Pop Rock Psychedelic Rock
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