Vibravoid – What Colour is Pink? EP (Fruits de Mer Vol. 10)
Edit: I am reliably informed by the good people at Fruits de Mer Records that this is the first review of this forthcoming Vibravoid release anywhere.
Following on from Us & Them’s splendid ‘Julia Dream’ reworking for the previous Fruits de Mer release, the record label that shouldn’t work but bloody well does, have tapped the Pink Floyd psychedelic vein once more to bring us mere mortals the deity-like splendour that is Vibravoid’s What Colour is Pink? EP.
Vibravoid, the German psychedelic rock outfit, are no strangers to the Fruits de Mer experience, having already appeared on the Krautrock Sensation EP. This time around the likes of Can and Kraftwerk are replaced solely by acid rock’s highest profile exponents, Pink Floyd.
Lifting three tracks from the Floyd’s second album, 1968′s excellent A Saucerful of Secrets, Vibravoid let rip with a blistering rendition of space-rock opus ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’, followed by fellow interstellar explorations ‘Let There Be More Light’ and ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’.
Choosing to cover anything from Pink Floyd’s early days is always going to leave a band open to fierce criticism from the handful of Barrett obsessives holed up on painfully obscure and insanely miopic forums the length and breadth of the interwebs. Even though none of the three tracks appearing on What Colour is Pink? featured lead vocals or stemmed from the pen of the Madcap himself, one can imagine virtual knives already being sharpened, ready to cut these Teutonic upstarts down to size for having the temerity to tackle the mighty Floyd.
No such reckless knifeplay here though. Vibravoid’s take on both ‘Set the Controls…’ and ‘Let There Be More Light’, are spot on interpretations of the originals, never straying far beyond the radar of the source material, but injecting enough nuances to ensure they remain relevant and interesting. ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’ manages to condense the original’s 12 minutes of interplanetary meandering into just three and a half. No easy feat, to be sure.
What Colour is Pink? may not sport the innovation of the Us & Them mash-up of ‘Julia Dream’ and ‘All the Pretty Little Horses’, last time around, but so what? When something sounds this good, it doesn’t matter.
Full marks to the Fruits de Mer team once again, and to those travellers beyond the realm of the ninth dimension, Vibravoid. Long may they keep the psychedelic flag flying.
The What Colour is Pink? EP – Limited edition pink vinyl 7″, with pink labels in a pink sleeve – goes on sale April 2010, and will be available through the Fruits de Mer Records website. Be warned, these vinyl superlatives have a habit of selling out fast!
Witness for yourself Vibravoid’s sonic-barrier splintering version of ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’:
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They did indeed make a good cover, it definitely passes the test. Would be interesting to see more of their own material, because you will only get so far by covering other artists.
Good review, anyway!
Cheers. You can find the backcatalog of original material on Vibravoid’s website.