ZEE FEATURING RICHARD WRIGHT AND DAVE HARRIS

Identity GONZO

STICKS TWO FINGERS UP AT MEGALOMANIAC CONCEPTUALISING.

Floyd’s “Quiet one” and his noisy 1984 synth-pop excursion.

When Pink Floyd first materialised, it was Rick Wright’s Farfisa organ providing space age edge before he became the band’s key sonic architect after Syd’s departure. Known as “the quiet one”, Wright’s sublime contributions were pivotal as Floyd ascended to global domination, but when Roger Waters was building The Wall he felt sidelined, exacerbated by family concerns and encroaching depression. Wright left during recording, playing its tour as a hired hand before departing until Waters had left.

Driven by anger at his shoddy treatment, Wright created a polar opposite to Floyd’s rock-wired bombast by recording Identity as Zee with singer-guitarist Dave Harris from New Romantics Fashion. Wright had acquired the hugely-expensive Fairlight synthesiser and it often sounds like he’s trying out his new toy’s arsenal of pre-recorded orchestral bites, framing Harris’ moody lyrics with big dustbin-lid drums, synthetic riffs and flutey melodies; no bad thing if taken in the spirit that its delights were then coating most mainstream music (including Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love). Sticking two fingers up at Waters’ megalomaniac conceptualising, Wright obviously relished exploring this brave new world, even if he later disparaged Identity as “an experimental mistake”.

Its eight tracks were well sequenced, starting with jumpy single Confusion (a 12-inch mix and racy B-side Eyes Of A Gypsy providing reissue extras). Wafting on dense electronic static, Voices is a lush ballad garnished with jazz fusion motifs and unmistakable Floydian resonance. The stuttering electro groove of Private Person could’ve sat proudly on NYC’s black music radio, while Strange Rhythm invokes Bowie-like vocals, Afrocentric chants and pulsing marimba-grooves. Side two’s Cuts Like A Diamond is the most Floydian offering, placing electronic woodwind tones and soaring guitar over stately plod. By Touching maintains the slow tempo, vocals struggling over crashing drums. After marimba-topped jazz-funk romp How Do You Do It, Wright reasserts his role as slow-burn master on soft-focus ballad Seems We Were Dreaming, resurrecting his Hammond organ over the cavernous beats.

Recent years have seen Wright’s colossal contributions to Floyd acknowledged, including by the band on 2014’s The Endless River and Nick Mason’s recent tour. This era-defining romp is now a cult classic and perhaps the oddest, most “nonFloyd” work in their catalogue – an intriguing snapshot of the undervalued master having a blast of his own in the shiny modern world, using its finest tools.