The History of Synthesizers

Roger Waters' The Wall, Live In Berlin marks the second in a series of Pink Floyd related reviews I will be writing to commemorate the long awaited release of the band's Pulse DVD, which I reviewed last month. During the end of the 80's, after Roger Waters had left Pink Floyd, he began making plans to perform The Wall as a huge event, originally considering such grand places as the Sahara Desert, Monument Valley, The Grand Canyon, and Wall Street. Around this time, plans were also underway for the reunification of Germany, and the Berlin wall eventually fell in November of 1989.

U.S. Christmas (USX) now approaches a decade of playing, recording, and evolving, and continues to blur the boundaries of heavy music with earsplitting rock that is by turns jangly, crushing, and dark. The band has often been associated with space rock, and German Rolling Stone even included the band in an article/compilation CD on the history of that genre. However, USX are not simply continuing the space rock tradition (although USX, Minsk, and Harvestman recently recorded a tribute to the British space-searchers Hawkwind ), but are rather a group of musicians who pay attention to a wide variety of music from all eras and origins…