While it's heavily-edited predecessor wallowed hippo-like in soft-hued slow-mo video cheese, 'Pulse' serves up a single show from Earls Court, London almost exactly as it happened (stage banter and all), with no gratuitous audience sing-along shots, needlessly crash-edited songs (with the exception, I am told, of a couple of bars of "Sorrow" and "Comfortably Numb"), sloppily composited shots of Mr. Screen, brazenly mulleted sax players, or eye-buggering cross fades on top of cross fades at any point in the proceedings. Shot entirely on videotape (as opposed to 'Thunder,' which was filmed), 'Pulse' has all the energy and "live" ambience that was so appallingly lacking the last time Pink Floyd went down this particular route.

I take it you noticed the use of the qualifier "almost" in that last paragraph? Yes, it's true -- owners of the original pay-per-view broadcast of this show will quickly note that the soundtrack of 'Pulse' was doctored with a bit (see the intro to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and the very last sung lyric of "High Hopes" for the most immediately noticeable examples), and there are dozens of shots and angles new to this version of the concert that were re-cut and re-edited from what was shown the first time around, with at least two different final cuts making it to the marketplace (one for US and one for the UK and the rest of the world, apparently).

Of course, what *really* matters here is the musical and visual end product, for which only one word is needed to sum up -- stunning. Barring a slight flicker noticeable during the beginning of the "High Hopes" film, everything shows up bright and clear on 'Pulse,' with particular attention paid to wide shots of the stage from well back in the venue (which really drives home the enormous scale of the production). While the band members are certainly looking and sounding no worse for the wear after seven ceaseless months of touring, it's the VariLites that are the true stars of this video - their shifting hues and smooth, flawless sweeps look absolutely gorgeous here (as do the lasers, which appear to have been a tad enhanced in number for this run of shows).

In terms of the music, one could argue that 'Pulse' (at least in part) represents Pink Floyd Mk III at their very peak. Clearly, the band tends to give a little extra during homecoming shows such as this, and the performances we are shown of "Sorrow," "Keep Talking," "Comfortably Numb," "Wish You Were Here," and "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" in particular are mighty fine indeed. As for the entirety of 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' ... when taken track by track, most of these songs are played no differently than from any other version one would hear from this tour (though I'll give "Money" a nod for it's refreshingly economical breakdown section). Yet, when played in this order as a set unto themselves, all of these well-known and seemingly played-to-death songs are definitely lifted to another plane and have a far more satisfying effect than the band's usual "greatest hits"-styled second half set list. Sure, you'd be in the right to assert that 'Dark Side ...' is played in a fashion that is nowhere near as edgy or agitated as in the band's Waters-led era, but it's a nice, seemingly effortless performance nonetheless - and certainly preferable to a rerun of the last 60 minutes or so of the god damned 'Delicate Sound Of Thunder.'

A small note here for anyone looking into purchasing of VCD of this title - while the image is a bit darker overall than that of the videocassette, the 'Pulse' VCD is still a thing of beauty, particularly during the long shots of the stage from the sound desk or rear of the hall. However, it must be said that image compression *does* tend to wreak havoc with the picture during instances where a lot of lights are flashing directly into our point of view (which results in some messy, pixellated images of the lights or players). If you can deal with this problem and simply have to have *something* from late-model Pink Floyd to feed your DVD player, then I'd definitely recommend this piece in the interim until the long-promised official DVD version comes out. Whenever the hell that will be.

As for what I'd personally like to see on this pending DVD release … while simply filming one show and leaving it at that was exactly what I wanted 'Pulse' to be, a part of me cannot help but think that the complete lack of "Astronomy Domine" on this recording represents a criminal act on someone's behalf (they put it on the bloody live album, didn't they? Couldn't they have least tacked it on the end of the video?). If nothing else, one hopes that this trippy old chestnut (along with "Marooned," perhaps "On The Turning Away," plenty of interview footage, and perhaps a few 1994 tour highlights and low lights) will make it on board. It's certainly the *least* these guys could do after dropping completely out of sight and stubbornly refusing to break up for eight years and counting.

'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'	'High Hopes'	'Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)'
'One of These Days'	'Brain Damage'	'Comfortably Numb'