As much Pink Floyd as I write about on this site, most of what I talk about (maybe all of it? I’ll have to look) are the classic albums from the original lineup. Basically, that’s a way of saying “the Roger Waters years”, or as most of us would call them, “the best years”. “New” Pink Floyd isn’t without its share of great material, though. Honestly, I think Dogs of War is the only song from the Gilmour-Era albums that I ever skip. It’s really great stuff that holds a special place in my heart, but for me, it never reached the same level of quality without Roger. Without him, it’s a totally different band. Taken entirely on its own merits though, it’s still one of the best bands ever to exist.
Anyhow, today I’m taking a look at a very recent release called “Omni” by VideoTrippa Records. As you might recall, it wasn’t too long ago that I reviewed their David Gilmour release called TAM, which was really outstanding. Spoiler alert… this one is also very nice. I started that last article off with the latest Gilmour news of the day, which at the time, was the announcement of the “Luck and Strange” tour. Since then, I have arranged tickets for myself to two of the upcoming shows at the Hollywood Bowl, so I’m hoping it turns out to be a great album and worth the trip to LA.
I can’t help but mention that this week, David Gilmour announced the release of a limited-edition vinyl box set for the new album. It comes with 2 LP’s, an ATMOS Blu-ray, and a 68-page book with photos taken by Polly Samson. Pricing in at a staggering $249.98 USD (before taxes and shipping!), this release is being almost universally trashed by fans on Reddit, Facebook and other platforms for being a blatant and extreme cash grab. David might not be willing to sing Roger’s words to “Money” anymore, but he certainly lives by them. Why David still to this day seems to be more popular with fans than Roger is, I will never understand.
The good news for people reading this article is that you can now consider yourselves informed about “Omni”, which is a far better deal than the “Luck and Strange” box set… even without the sweet, sweet Polly Samson photo book. The sales information I read, as well as the obi-style sash on the jacket refer to “Omni” as a “Immersion Box Set”, but it comes in a standard gatefold sleeve rather than a box. This is not a problem, but you should be aware there is no actual box. This is a double LP on black vinyl, limited to 100 sets, and features a performance that was originally intended for a commercial release that never happened. The audio here is not a full show, but is taken from performances over three different days from the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Not only are you getting some great music on double LP, but there’s a lot of other cool stuff in this package. First, you get a Blu-ray that has the full Atlanta concert plus audience footage from 2 different shows that combine together to create a high-quality recreation of the full experience of a live concert. You also get a DVD which contains the documentary Pink Floyd: Still First in Space, which was apparently created by the crew during the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. It includes the building of the stage, soundchecks and rehearsals from Japan, New Zealand and Australia. This is not the best documentary ever made about Pink Floyd, but parts of it are interesting. If you are a fan, it’s worth watching and it’s nice to have it included with this set. Both the Blu-ray and DVD and disc-R, but they work great and the printing and production on them looks nice as well. Unlike many of the Blu-rays in official Pink Floyd products, these ones don’t have disc rot and they actually work.
In addition to the vinyl, Blu-ray and DVD, the set also comes some recreations of memorabilia from these shows. There is a ticket, a laminated sign, and some type of small, foldable piece of paper with the band members’ photos on it. Honestly, I’m not sure what this thing is, but I imagine it’s also a recreation of some official bit of advertising. It should also be mentioned that the actual gatefold jacket looks amazing, as you can see in the photos. Sadly, somewhere on its way to me, both sides of mine got seam-splits. It’s a shame because otherwise, this is a really nice-looking piece of artwork. If you decide to purchase a copy of Omni for yourself, it might be a good idea to ask the seller to remove the discs from the jacket for shipping to avoid this problem. I have thought about looking into possibly getting a replacement jacket, but I just haven’t had much time to reach out to anyone about it.
So, how does the pressing sound? Well, like all the other VideoTrippa releases I have gotten, the audio is excellent, and the pressing is top notch. Just by looking at so many records so often, it seems to me like many labels in Europe use the same few pressing plants. Sometimes this is good, but more often than not, it’s bad. For the VideoTrippa pressings, they seem to be coming from a plant that other labels don’t use, or that I haven’t seen before at least. The discs aren’t particularly heavy, but the quality is very high. I think any fan would be very pleased to open this one up.
For most readers out there, the set-list for this concert needs no introduction, but here it is anyway:
Live Recording – Omni Coliseum, Atlanta, GA, USA on the 3, 4 and 5th of November, 1987
A1 Shine On You Crazy Diamond
A2 Sign Of Life
A3 Learning To Fly
A4 Yet Another Movie
A5 Round And Around
B1 A New Machine Pt.1
B2 Terminal Frost
B3 A New Machine Pt.2
B4 Sorrow
B5 Dogs Of War
C1 On The Turning Away
C2 One Of These Days
C3 Time
C4 On The Run
C5 Wish You Were Here
D1 Us And Them
D2 Comfortably Numb
D3 One Slip
D4 Run Like Hell
This was a very good choice for a show to publish, and as far as I know, this is the first time it’s been released on vinyl. According to the back of the jacket, the audio was cleaned up a bit. Some clicks have been removed, and a couple of audio dropouts were fixed, but there was no hard limiting, or noise removal of any kind used. This is another reason why VideoTrippa ranks higher than most of their competition. Rather than just downloading files from the internet and pressing them on vinyl, they took the time to make sure the audio was cleaned up and everything sounded good before they put this set out.
So, would I recommend you scour the web and find a copy of the Omni Immersion Set before all 100 copies run out? Yes, I think anyone who is a fan of this particular Pink Floyd era would love this. It really is a complete experience, sort of like a time capsule from this era. As far as a rating goes, this is all around an easy 9/10. If my copy had come without the seam splits, I think a 9.5 to perfect 10 would be a fair rating. I would recommend you take your time with this one and enjoy all the different features the set has to offer. Another thing to consider here is the overall value. I paid about 125.00 USD for my set, and that included shipping. I think that for what you get here, that’s really an excellent deal. This is another example of how very often fan projects can equal or even be better than officially released products. I imagine that this is because fans have a love for the band and the music that the record companies just don’t have. It really shows in releases like this.
If you don’t want to drop the cash on the full set, there are also some other options to consider with this release. Along with the 100 numbered Immersion sets, there are also 100 numbered black vinyl sets, 20 spotted vinyl sets (I haven’t seen one of these, but would love to), 20 unnumbered black vinyl sets, 10 promo sets complete with an obi, and 5 test pressings of disc 2 only. So, in total, there are really only 250 complete copies of Omni in existence. Considering how many Pink Floyd collectors are completists, that’s really not very many to go around. If you want a copy, which I imagine you do if you have read this far, you should be able to find one fairly easily. Only a Google search away. Good luck!