Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd In Concert: Delicate Sound of Thunder (CMV Video) (STAR)(STAR)

(STAR)( STAR)

After the much-heralded release and minimal returns of ''U2 Rattle and Hum,'' then Bruce Springsteen`s mediocre feature-length splice job, ''Video Anthology,'' and Michael Jackson`s bizarre ''Moonwalker,'' it seemed as if rock had yet to find its niche in the long-form video format.

That is, until now.

Pink Floyd and director Wayne Isham`s newly released 100-minute video,

''Pink Floyd In Concert: Delicate Sound of Thunder'' ($24.98), climbs above the rest in an effort to combine concert footage with in-studio effects for the smaller screens of home video.

The result is a concert movie that showcases the band, its spectacular stage show and the music`s sublime messages in a mesmerizing display of color, fire and smoke.

Filmed during the band`s five-day stay at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, the longest single stop during last year`s ''Delicate Sound of Thunder'' tour, this movie explodes with the pageant of Floyd`s giant stage show: lasers cutting through a fog, the flying pig, a dive-bombing hospital bed.

But unlike Phil Joanou`s grainy, extravagant and over-produced U2 concert footage (plagued with more aerial shots than a Superbowl broadcast), Isham has turned a microscope on the Pink Floyd concert experience. His use of slow-motion effects, intimate lighting and imaginative camera work brings the ethereal mood of a Floyd concert to life. There`s no contentious melodrama, no cheeky commentary, just beautiful photography and a glimpse inside the music`s intricate symbolism.

In a step away from the group`s 1982 semi-autobiographical ''Pink Floyd-The Wall,'' guitarist David Gilmour takes the inspirational lead in the absence of Roger Waters, adding a lighter edge to their newer music without destroying the integrity of Pink Floyd classics such as ''Time'' and ''Wish You Were Here.''

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