The Beach Boys - SMiLE (1967 MONO Mix)

 The Beach Boys - SMiLE

(soniclovenoize “1967” MONO MiX)

Side A:

1.  Our Prayer / Heroes and Villains

2.  Vege-Tables

3.  Do You like Worms

4.  Child is Father of The Man

5.  The Old Master Painter

6.  Cabin Essence

Side B:

7.  Good Vibrations

8.  Wonderful

9.  I’m In Great Shape

10.  Wind Chimes

11.  The Elements

12.  Surf’s Up

In honor of the passing of the legendary Brian Wilson, I decided to make a highly-requested reconstruction: a specific MONO MIX of my most recent “1967” SMiLE reconstruction from March 2024, which I only released in stereo.  While I personally prefer and wanted to hear a true, all-stereo SMiLE, I do recognize that Brian had intended the album to be mono–and that a great many of you agreed!  And in making this, well, I can see your point; there is something about this material that simply sounds great in mono.  So this is a dedicated mono mix of my specific previous SMiLE edit, which is (currently) my favorite.

As always, the premise of my 1967 Mix is “What would SMiLE have actually sounded like in 1967?”  Over the course of the last 50 years or so, many historical revisions and inaccurate assumptions have sort of twisted what I believe the original intent of the album actually was; this is absolutely fine, as it has been observed that SMiLE unintentionally became the world’s first listener-interactive album, in that it is up to you to finish it, using various mixes and sources.  Even the eventual Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE (BWPS) is more of Darian Sahanaja’s mix with the benefit of Brian Wilson actually fronting it!  But being the intentionalist I am, we will try to go to the source: what would this monster of an album sound like in its original incarnation?  

Well, the fact is that we will never know; SMiLE was never completed, and its author simply could not decide how it should be put together at the time of its creation.  We can, however, look at the probability of what it would have sounded like, based upon testimony of principal participants, Brian Wilson’s own rough mixes and studio documentation.  I have previously and exhaustively covered these specifics, so I am only going to very quickly gloss over them here.  But generally speaking:

1) This “authentic” SMiLE will exist “simply” as a standard twelve-song album.  The twelve individual songs (excluding “Our Prayer”, functioning as the album’s introduction) are not crossfaded or presented as a medley.  However, we are generally losing the two-second leader time between tracks, much as how Sgt Pepper was presented.  

2) The twelves specific songs are as listed on the January 1967 letter to Capitol Records from the band's own hand, although not necessarily in that specific order (see label for correct playing order).  The song order itself creates two 20-minute sides each, sandwiched by the hit singles beginning the sides and the epic songs closing the sides.  There is no overarching concept, as originally suggested by Dominic Priore in the 1980s.  

3) The construction of those twelve songs is generally dictated by Brain Wilson’s own blueprint, as heard in his own 1966/1967 rough mix assemblages.  If a rough mix assemblage does not exist for a song, we will construct it in a similar fashion as the others to create a cohesive whole, or postulate what it would sound like based upon information available.  

One new revision from my previous 1967 Mix is my intentional exclusion of post-1967-recorded material.  With a cue taken by my previous Hitsville Mix, we will use recordings dating from just after the conclusion of the SMiLE sessions (“Whispering Winds”, “Water Chant”, etc) in order to present a more complete SMiLE (particularly “The Elements”).  We will NOT, however, use any audio dating past the 1971 Surf’s Up sessions, especially NOT anything “flown” in from 2004 Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE.  Also, we will NOT be using AI-created Brian Wilson-emulated vocals to complete unsung verses; while I appreciate the technology and am not specifically against it, I chose to leave these recordings as complete as they were by 1967 (with vocal overdubs from 1968 for “Cabin Essence” and 1971 for “Surf’s Up”, obviously), for better or for worse.  This exercise is meant to see how complete a SMiLE could be using only vintage Beach Boys recordings.  

Side A begins with “Our Prayer” to introduce the album, primarily taken from The SMiLE Sessions but with the final vocal part from the Good Vibrations box set to salvage the reverb tail that was otherwise cut from TSS.  Following is the legendary Cantina Mix of “Heroes and Villains” which I believe would have been the actual version to appear on a completed SMiLE album, using here the more dynamic source from the Made In California box set.  The following version of “Vege-Tables” is an elaborate edit of a number of mono sections: Brian’s original, unreleased 1967 mixes of the verses and first chorus, taken from Unsurpassed Masters 17; the Barbershop Interlude taken from Brian’s 1967 mix on Smiley Smile; and the Vocal Insert, Row Row Chorus and Fade from Mark Linnet’s 1993 mix from the Good Vibrations boxset.  Note this construction closely follows Ryan Guidry’s construction from 2000, which was the very first SMiLE mix I’d ever heard, which sent me down this crazy path!  A special thanks to him, if he’s out there!   

Next is “Do You Like Worms”, which is a dedicated mono mix from my “recreated stems” of the song, using sound sources from the tracking sessions on TSS and isolated vocals from both the Smile Vocal Montage and Unsurpassed Masters 17.  Similarly, a dedicated mono mix of “Child is Father of The Man” follows, sourced from the stereo tracking sessions on TSS  and the vocal acetates from Disc 1, all edited to follow Brian’s 3-minute 1966 test edit.  Following is “The Old Master Painter”, the mono vocal mix from TSS (with the first notes taken from the tracking sessions to avoid the reverb tail of “Barnyard”), crossfaded into the “Heroes and Villains Fade Remake” from TSS, as a replacement from the “Barnshine Fade” that was used previously in “Heroes and Villains”.  Side B concludes with a dedicated mono mix from my “recreated stems” of the song, sourced from the TSS tracking sessions and Vocal Montage, as well as the extracted lead vocals from the original stereo 20/20 mix.  

Side B opens with none other than “Good Vibrations”, here sourced from the more dynamic master from Made in California, but with the Fade from TSS as I always felt the song prematurely faded out too quickly; an album mix would have theoretically had a longer fade, no?  Following is “Wonderful”, taken directly from TSS.  A mono mix of my own edit of “I’m in Great Shape” follows, which includes the tracking session synced to a time-corrected version of the vocals from the Humble Harve demo; it is hard edited into the stereo backing track of “I Wanna Be Around/Workshop” with the Workshop effects synced in, mixed to mono.  

“Wind Chimes” breezes in, a dedicated mono mix from my “reconstructed stems” of the song, using the stereo tracking sessions and Vocal Montage from TSS, with vocals extracted from Unsurpassed Masters 16; the structure follows Brian’s 1966 test edit (which was also replicated by Mark Linnet in 1993).  Following is a mono mix of my elaborate “The Elements” construction, which presumes that Earth is “Barnyard” (with the backing track synced to the time-corrected Humble Harve demo, both from TSS, and isolated backing vocals from Unsurpassed Masters 17); Wind is “Whispering Winds” (taken from Sunshine Tomorrow); Fire is “Mrs O’Leary’s Cow” (taken from TSS with the fire sound effects synced at the end); and Water is “Water Chant” (also taken from Sunshine Tomorrow).  The album closes the only way it could: the mono mix from Disc 1 of TSS.  

As a bonus, I have included an exclusive mono mix of my edit of a theoretical “Heroes and Villains Part II”, which would have been a theoretical non-LP B-side to the “Heroes and Villains” single; the stereo version of this was previously featured on my Hitsville Mix from November 2022. Using the Gee and Part 2 iterations as a base combined with excerpts from the Brian Wilson led psychedelic sounds, mock interviews and experimental raps, we are able to create a faux Vaudeville variety act!  What I am intending is that the listener can imagine The Beach Boys as a psychedelic barbershop quartet who are literally framing a series of comedy sketches, all onstage and concluding with a laughing audience and Prelude To Fade as the closing credits.  

Sources used:

• Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys (1993 CD box set)
• Made in California (2013 CD box set)
• The SMiLE Sessions (2011 CD box set)
• Smiley Smile (2012 CD remix/remaster)
• Sunshine Tomorrow (2017 CD)
• Unsurpassed Masters Vol 16 (1999 bootleg CD)
• Unsurpassed Masters Vol 17 (2000 bootleg CD)

 

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Jimi Hendrix - First Rays of The New Rising Sun (2025 Upgrade)

 

Jimi Hendrix & The Cry of Love – 

First Rays of the New Rising Sun

(soniclovenoize reconstruction)

April 2025 UPGRADE

Side A:

1. Dolly Dagger

2. Night Bird Flying

3. Room Full of Mirrors

4. Belly Button Window

5. Freedom

Side B:

6. Ezy Ryder

7. Astro Man

8. Drifting

9. Straight Ahead

Side C:

10. Earth Blues

11. Izabella

12. Drifter’s Escape

13. Beginnings

14. Angel

Side D:

15. Stepping Stone

16. Bleeding Heart

17. New Rising Sun (Hey Baby)

18. In From The Storm

This is a very long-overdue upgrade to one of my classic “First Generation” reconstructions:  Jimi Hendrix’s final album before he passed away, First Rays of the New Rising Sun.  Hendrix had spent the final year of his life—and especially the final months—working on what would-have-been a double-album follow-up to Electric Ladyland.  Instead of assembling the album as Hendrix had envisioned, the material was dashed together by producer Alan Douglas and released on a number of posthumous albums, including The Cry of Love, Rainbow Bridge, War Heroes, Loose Ends and Voodoo Soup.  After securing the legal rights to his catalog, a separate attempt was made by The Hendrix Estate in 1997 to re-issue a compilation meant to replicate Hendrix’s wishes for First Rays, but many fans noted that poor song selection and mastering missed the mark as well.  My reconstruction attempts to gather all of Jimi Hendrix’s own final mixes of the most completed tracks when possible (15 out of 18 songs), ignoring posthumous mixes.  Also  the sources featuring the best mastering and highest dynamics are used to correct what both Douglas and The Hendrix Estate could not, and present a more accurate representation of what Hendrix desired for his swansong and come-back album. 

The upgrades to this April 2025 edition are:

• New cover art of Monika Dannemann’s actual original painting, based on Hendrix’s own sketch before he died, replacing my own mock-up.  

• New re-mastering of “Izabella” and “Stepping Stone” to make it less brittle and aggressive sounding, to fit with the rest of the album, this time sourced from Voodoo Child rather than a rip of the original 7” single.  

• “Drifter’s Escape” is an updated source taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than South Saturn Delta. 

• “Beginnings” is the complete, unedited track, an updated source taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than a vinyl rip of Loose Ends.  

• “Bleeding Heart” is an updated source taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than a vinyl rip of War Heroes. 

• “Hey Baby” is Hendrix’s own mix from 8/22/70, taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than the posthumous Douglas mix from Rainbow Bridge. 

• “In From The Storm” is Hendrix’s own more refined mix from 8/24/70 taken from the Electric Lady Studios boxset, rather than his earlier 8/22/70 mix from West Coast Seattle Boy.  

1969 was the year of metaphorical death and rebirth for Jimi Hendrix.  After dissolving his chart-topping power trio The Jimi Hendrix Experience and its following brief incarnation Gypsy Sun and Rainbows (who backed him at Woodstock), Hendrix was under pressure by Civil Rights activists to form an all-black band.  His answer was Band of Gypsies, featuring bassist Billy Cox (who had played in Gypsy Sun and Rainbows) and drummer Buddy Miles.  The trio set out to rehearse all-new Hendrix originals to fulfill a contractual loophole in which Hendrix owed producer Ed Chalpin an album’s worth of new material; the result was the live album Band of Gypsies, released March 1970, which showcased more structured songs with a funk and R&B-influenced sound, of course infused with Hendrix’s own penchant for psychedelia and guitar wizardry.   A studio single “Stepping Stone” b/w “Izabella” was also released in April 1970, before being quickly withdrawn due to Hendrix’s dissatisfaction with the mix.  Although the band dissolved in January 1970, Hendrix had written a vast amount of new material with the trio and had secretly set aside what he deemed the best material from the live Band of Gypsies album for his fourth proper studio album, what he was now announcing to the press as First Rays of The New Rising Sun.

Hendrix quickly reformed a new backing band, this time featuring the winning combination of Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell and Band of Gypsies bassist Billy Cox (who were the core rhythm section of Gypsy Sun and Rainbows), called The Cry of Love (although billed as The Jimi Hendrix Experience for commercial reasons).  Recording sessions commenced at The Record Plant from January to May; while touring that spring, Hendrix compiled a list of 24 songs to be considered for the album (at that point called Straight Ahead), all in various forms of studio completion (as shown by checks or Xs) from the Record Plant sessions.  After the first leg of their American tour, the trio returned off and on to Hendrix’s own Electric Lady Studios in June and July, recording more basic tracks as well as new work on the withdrawn Band of Gypsies single, “Stepping Stone” and “Izabella”, with Mitchell literally re-recording Miles’s original drum parts.  By this point, Straight Ahead had reverted to its original title First Rays of the New Rising Sun, and had been described as an intended double-album by Hendrix’s inner circle. 

After moving into Hendrix’s personal recording studio Electric Lady in late August, Hendrix and producer Eddie Kramer added overdubs and prepared mixes of several songs for the album, although we can never be sure if they were truly the final mixes, as Hendrix tended to add subtle touches to every song right up until their final release.   August 20th produced mixes for: “In From The Storm”, “Drifting”, “Room Full of Mirrors”, “Straight Ahead”, “Dolly Dagger” and “Freedom”.  August 22nd produced mixes for: “Bolero”/”Hey Baby”, “Message To Love”, “Power of Soul”, “Come Down Hard On Me”, “Beginnings”, “Bleeding Heart”, “Drifter’s Escape”, “Earth Blues”, “Astro Man”, “Ezy Rider” and several others.  August 24th produced mixes for: “Belly Button Window”, “Dolly Dagger”, “Night Bird Flying”, “Freedom”, “In From The Storm”.  August 25th produced mixes for: “Astro Man” and “Straight Ahead”.  Of these, both “Dolly Dagger” and “Night Bird Flying” were approved as final, finished mixes and were dashed off to be mastered for a single release; the latest mixes of “Freedom”, “astro man” and “Straight Ahead” were also presumed to be their final mixes.  At this session it is believed that Hendrix began creating a tracklist for First Rays of the New Rising Sun, scrawled on the back of a 3M tapebox.  While Sides A and B seemed fairly definite, Side C had several titles scratched out or in parenthesis; Side D was left blank. 

Hendrix and The Cry of Love jaunted off for their ill-fated European Tour, beginning with the Isle of Wight Festival on August 30th.  As September rolled on, the shows were met with jeering and Hendrix’s spirits were visibly diminished.  Taking a week off in London, a paranoid Billy Cox apparently quit the group and headed home.  Spending his final days with figure skater Monika Dannemann, Hendrix created an illustration featuring his face as well as famous White, Black, Asian and Native American faces in the shape of a cross which some believe to be a cover concept for First Rays of the New Rising Sun.  Hendrix was found dead the next day. 

With new Jimi Hendrix material as a contractual obligation, Kramer and Mitchell regrouped at Electric Lady to sift through the massive amount of material recorded during this period and to add finishing touches to specific songs, in order to assemble the album Hendrix had envisioned.  After recording new drum tracks, fresh mixes of “Room Full of Mirrors” and “Angel” were made on October 14th but unused; a more refined mix of “Angel” from November 12th was deemed release-worthy.  After vibraphone overdubs onto “Drifting”, a rough mix was made on November 20th with the final mix completed December 2nd.  A more finalized mix of “In From The Storm” was completed on November 29th.  Finally, Kramer made new mixes of “Earth Blues”, “Pali Gap” and “Hey Baby” in February 1971.  The first posthumous release was The Cry Of Love in march 1971, followed by the soundtrack Rainbow Bridge in October 1971.  

With the floodgates opened, more posthumous releases were planned as the barrel’s bottom was scraped, including War Heroes in 1973 and Loose Ends in 1974.  Producer Alan Douglas attempted to recreate a First Rays-like reconstruction in 1995 as Voodoo Soup, which blasphemously featured contemporary overdubs!  After gaining control of his catalog, The Hendrix Estate issued their own reconstruction of First Rays in 1997, perhaps the closest yet, but still missing a few key components.  Here we will try to set the record straight (ahead).

Luckily, our work is cut out for us as Hendrix himself had already decided on a track order for disc 1, as per his list scrawled on the back of a 3M tape box (included with this reconstruction); our work is half done!  Although it is contested amongst the Hendrix fandom if this tapebox was authentic, I personally believe it is–or at least was written by an authoritative source and dictated by the man himself.  I also believe it creates a very strong Disc 1, consisting of all the specific tracks that Hendrix himself mixed in August 1970, sequenced in a fashion that seems fairly representative of the sound Henrdix was creating during this period.  This reconstruction attempts to present that first disc, coupled with a second disc constructed from the remaining finished key recordings from this era, in a way that compliments that first disc.  

Opening Side A is Hendrix's 8/24/70 mix of “Dolly Dagger” from the amazing 2014 remaster of Rainbow Bridge.  Following is the 8/24 mix of “Night Bird Flying” from the equally amazing 2014 remaster of Cry of Love.  While this title also was scrawled in as opening side C, it is written in boldface as the second track on side B, suggesting it was a later and more definite revision, and is thus used here.  The 8/20 mix of “Room Full of Mirrors”, again from Rainbow Bridge is next, followed by the 8/24 mix of Hendrix’s solo demo of “Belly Button Window” from Cry of Love. While many don’t believe this drastic dynamic shift would have been on the album, I think it’s a rather welcomed change in the side’s flow, and we’ll stick to Jimi’s wishes.  The side closes with the presumably final 8/24 mix of “Freedom” from Cry of Love.  

Side B opens with the 8/22 mix of “Ezy Rider”, followed by the presumably final 8/25 mix “Astro Man”, followed by the posthumous 12/2 mix of “Drifting” from Cry of Love; while I considered using Hendrix’s own stripped-down 8/20 mix, I felt the more refined mix featuring the vibraphones and backwards guitar fit better in this reconstruction.  Next is the presumably final 8/25 mix of “Straight Ahead”, also taken from Cry of Love.  Many fans question Jimi’s tracklist here, as side B is much shorter than A, running four songs at 16 minutes compared to five songs at 19 minutes.  While that may be true, I will stand by Jimi’s choice here as what he intended, and furthermore I feel that despite its length, it sounds like a fairly complete side.  This is apparently what Hendrix wanted for First Rays: a concise album, no sprawling instrumental experiments, just all killer/no filler. 

With disc 1 complete, we are left to create the second disc Jimi never got around to.  The method for my disc two reconstruction is simple: use the remaining complete (or mostly complete) tracks to make a second disc that is as comparable as possible to the first: straight-forward funk/R&B, running nine songs at 35 minutes with the fourth side shorter than the third.  We will drop some songs that are too skeletal (“Cherokee Mist”), others that do not feature the funky R&B sound of disc one (“Come Down Hard On Me”) as well as instrumentals that would not have made the cut anyways (“Pali Gap”).  We are certainly excluding “My Friends”, as it doesn’t even date from this time period!  

Side C opens with an upbeat soul-rocker, as side A did: with “Earth Blues”, using what is believed as Jimi’s own 8/22 mix found on the Purple Box, as opposed to the posthumous mix on Rainbow Bridge.  Next is “Izabella”, portraying the equivalent of “Night Bird Flying”, using Hendrix’s own original vintage mix found on the Band of Gypsies 7” (a rare mix that is exclusive only to that release), as heard on the compilation Voodoo Child; here I have done some extra EQing so this 7” mix matches the fidelity and tonal characteristics of the rest of the reconstruction.  Following is the more aggressive rocker, the part played by “Drifter’s Escape”, again using what is presumed as Hendrix’s own 8/22 mix found on the Electric Lady Studios box.  The idiosyncratic dynamic shift is next with “Beginnings” using the unedited mix found on the Electric Lady Studios box; although we are avoiding instrumentals, it is included because not only does it fit the sound of the album, but it was written in as a contender for side C by Hendrix.  The side also closes as per his wishes, with “Angel” taken from The Cry of Love; like “Drifting” I chose to use the posthumous 12/2 mix instead of Henrix’s own rough 8/20 mix, as it sounded more refined as fit better with the tone of the reconstruction as a whole.  

Side D opens much like B, with the dense, heavy guitar fury of “Stepping Stone”, again using the extremely rare vintage Hendrix mix found on the Band of Gypsies 7” (again sourced from Voodoo Child) as opposed to the posthumous mix on War Heroes.  The side's bouncy rocker follows with what is presumably Hendrix’s own 8/22 mix of “Bleeding Heart”, taken from the Electric Lady Studios box, and then the mid-tempo epic “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)”, this being Hendrix’s own rough mix from 8/22 taken from the Electric Lady Studios box.  Much like the previous disc, the album ends with a mid-tempo groove-rocker “In From The Storm”, here using Hendrix’s own 8/24 mix from the Electric Lady Studios box, as opposed to the posthumous mix found on The Cry of Love.  In the end, we have a second nine-song, 36-minute disc that matches the first.  

The final touch is the most revealing, recent (re)-discovery: Monika Dannemann’s actual painting depicting the sketch Hendrix made the day before his death (included with this reconstruction), possibly his actual cover art idea: Hendrix’s own face in the center of a cross; with Martin Luther King Jr and an African queen on the left arm (representing blacks); John F Kennedy and Adolph Hitler on the right arm (representing whites); Buddha and Genghis Khan in the top arm (representing Asians); Cochise, Crazy Horse and Geronimo on the bottom arm (representing Native Americans).  If Dannemann is to be believed, this would have been the cover for First Rays of The New Rising Sun, rather than any of the posthumous slop produced after Hendrix’s death.  This, coupled with the two discs of this set, seem to be the first rays of what could have been Jimi’s last rising sun. 

Sources used:

Electric Lady Studios - a Jimi Hendrix Vision (2024 CD boxset)

The Cry of Love (2014 Experience Hendrix CD remaster)

Rainbow Bridge (2014 Experience Hendrix CD remaster)

Voodoo Child (2001 CD pressing)

flac --> wav --> editing in Audacity and Goldwave --> flac encoding via TLH lv8

* md5 files, track notes and artwork included

 

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Pink Floyd - Household Objects

  

Pink Floyd - Household Objects

(soniclovenoize reconstruction) 

Side A:

1.  Side A

 Side B:

2.  Side B

 

Household Objects is one of the most intriguing and experimental projects by Pink Floyd, though it was never officially released. The album was conceived in the mid-1970s as a follow-up to their highly successful The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). It's often referred to as a "lost album" or "unreleased album," and its story is a fascinating example of the band's creative process.

The concept behind Household Objects was a radical departure from their earlier sound. The band aimed to create music using everyday objects, rather than traditional rock instruments like guitars, bass, and drums. The idea was to incorporate things like cans, bottles, radios, and other common items to create unique, experimental sounds. This was part of Pink Floyd's ongoing exploration of sonic experimentation and their desire to push the boundaries of music production.

The sessions for Household Objects began in 1974, with the band experimenting with various objects to create sounds. Some of the ideas included using the resonance of a cardboard box, the clinking of glasses, and even the sound of a vacuum cleaner. The idea was to manipulate these sounds in ways that would form musical textures, beats, and atmospheres. While some of the material recorded during these sessions was quite promising, the project faced multiple challenges.

One of the key issues was that the band's vision for the album was not fully realized. The soundscapes created by household objects, while innovative, were not always easy to arrange into cohesive songs. Additionally, there were technical difficulties in capturing and processing these sounds in a way that would make them musically satisfying.

The Household Objects project was eventually abandoned around 1975. Much of the material was shelved in favor of more traditional studio work, and Pink Floyd turned their attention to the recording of Wish You Were Here (1975), which became another classic in their catalog.

Though Household Objects was never officially released, some of the ideas and experiments from this project can be heard in fragments throughout the band's later work, especially in the more experimental passages of Wish You Were Here and Animals (1977). There are also rumors that some of the recorded material exists in bootleg form, though it's not widely circulated.

In the years since, the concept of Household Objects has become a fascinating "what if?" story in the Pink Floyd legend, a testament to the band's willingness to experiment and take risks during their creative peak. While it wasn't completed, it remains a notable part of Pink Floyd's legacy as a pioneering force in progressive and experimental rock music.

The sound of Pink Floyd's Household Objects is one of the most elusive and experimental in the band's history, as the album was never officially completed or released. However, we can get an idea of what it might have sounded like based on various descriptions and the experimental direction the band was exploring at the time.

The idea behind Household Objects was to create music using everyday objects instead of traditional musical instruments. This meant that the sound would have been characterized by non-traditional, often organic, and unusual sound sources. Here are some key elements of what the music might have sounded like:

1. Experimental Soundscapes

The album would have been rich in unconventional soundscapes, with a heavy emphasis on textures. Pink Floyd was keen on experimenting with the sonic possibilities of objects like bottles, cans, pieces of wood, and metal. These objects would have been struck, rubbed, or manipulated to produce percussive sounds or resonant tones. The result would likely have been ambient, eerie, and atmospheric, with a focus on creating mood rather than melody or traditional song structures.

2. Industrial and Mechanical Noises

The concept of using household items meant that the sound palette would include everyday mechanical noises — like the hum of a vacuum cleaner, the clink of glass or metal, or the whirr of machines. These sounds would be distorted, looped, and layered, giving the album an industrial, avant-garde vibe. Given that Pink Floyd was already exploring deep, atmospheric sound on The Dark Side of the Moon, Household Objects would have pushed that even further with an almost otherworldly, alien quality to the music.

3. Minimalist and Experimental Instrumentation

Some of the music from Household Objects has been described as being minimalist, with long stretches of time where subtle sound textures and tones take precedence over melodic or rhythmic development. The use of household items likely resulted in strange, mechanical rhythms that were far more abstract compared to the more traditional rock drumming or keyboard patterns heard on albums like The Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here. There were also reports of the band experimenting with things like a "cardboard box drum kit," which would have made the sound even more unconventional.

4. Atmospheric and Spacey

Given that Pink Floyd was at the height of their exploration into spacey, psychedelic atmospheres during this time, Household Objects would have likely had a dreamlike, floaty quality to it. The experimental use of everyday objects would have created a surreal sound environment, with drones and ambient noises filling the space between what might have been sparse, abstract compositions. Some of the sounds would probably have felt very organic and organic, as though the objects themselves were the instruments.

5. Fragmentary and Incomplete

Since the project was never fully completed, the recorded material from Household Objects might have lacked the cohesive structure found in Pink Floyd's more finished works. The idea of creating music with found objects would have resulted in a fragmented sound, one that could be viewed more as an exploration of sound rather than a fully realized album.

6. Hints of Experimental Rock

Even though the album was meant to avoid traditional instruments, some of the material recorded during the Household Objects sessions reportedly included fragments of more conventional rock instrumentation, possibly hinting at the direction that the band would take on later albums like Wish You Were Here and Animals. There are mentions of tracks that utilized more familiar elements like synthesizers or guitars but mixed them with the unusual sounds created from the household objects.

Overall Vibe

The music would have been abstract, experimental, and deeply atmospheric. It might have been unsettling at times, almost like the sonic equivalent of an avant-garde film, with elements of surrealism, industrial noise, and ambient sound blending into a unique listening experience. The absence of traditional structure or melody would have made it feel far more exploratory and avant-garde compared to Pink Floyd's more polished albums, focusing on creating mood and texture over conventional songcraft.

While it’s impossible to know for sure what Household Objects would have sounded like, it’s clear that it was an ambitious project that would have explored new boundaries in music production, sound design, and experimentation.

 

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