Early Datec

As massive and hefty as a cinder block, Pink Floyd's The Early Years 1965-1972 is no conventional box set. It is an archive in miniature, offering 28 discs - 11 CDs with the remaining discs being DVDs and Blu-Rays that offer duplicates of the same audio/visual material - alongside replicas of original poster art, fliers, press releases, 7" singles and ticket stubs, all here to offer a deep, multi-tiered portrait of the years when Pink Floyd were fumbling around trying to find their voice. This isn't precisely uncovered territory - during the eight years covered on this box set, Floyd released eight studio albums, and their early singles have been compiled on several collections, including 1971's Relics - but what's available on this box is almost entirely rare, with much of it being unheard and unbootleged. This isn't limited to the audio tracks, either…

The box-set traces the history of Archiv from 1947, when the first recordings were made (Helmut Walcha playing Bach organ works), to a bonus CD featuring selections from the new 2013 albums mentioned above. A complete overview is appended. In between comes a sequence of albums several of which are new to CD from the great names of the label, from Walcha, Wenzinger and Safford Cape, through Karl Richter, Nikolas Harnoncourt and Sir Charles Mackerras…