u/slowlyun

The Big Two...

Who wins in a discography head-to-head? In order of when each of their studio albums came out...

Let's go!

- 1. Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) vs Kobaïa (1970).

While Magma's debut is musically more sophisticated, incorporating jazz-fusion with jam-rock vibes, it's Floyd's debut which has the more memorable music and album flow.

Winner: Pink Floyd.

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- 2. A Saucerful of Secrets (1968) vs 1001° Centigrades (1971).

Arguably Floyd's weakest album still has the great Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun...but not much else going for it. Magma continue their quite unique fusion style and enhance their discography with the beguiling 20-minute piece Rïah Sahïltaahk (which they even improved on when remaking it 33 years later).

Winner: Magma.

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- 3. More (1969) vs Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh (1973).

More is very nice, an upgrade from Saucerful, but in comparison with the monumental MDK it has to make do with second-place.

Winner: Magma.

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- 4. Ummagumma (1969) vs Ẁurdah Ïtah (1974).

I'm a fan of the studio-album Ummagumma: highly-original, dark & lush, and full of vibrant adventure. Ẁurdah Ïtah is a pleasant listen, but can't compare with Ummagumma's story-telling.

Note: the live-disc of Ummagumma comes under the Live section.

Winner: Pink Floyd.

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- 5. Atom Heart Mother (1970) vs Köhntarkösz (1974).

For me personally a very tricky head-to-head as they both host two massive favourites: namely the AHM Suite and Köhntarkösz part 2. Those two just about tie, so we're left judging the fine trio of songs + Alan's jam on AHM's B-side with the rest of Köhntarkösz. On that note, Floyd eases in front.

This comparison has something of that light-vs-dark vibe that Jodorowsky had in mind when planning his failed Dune movie. Meddle vs Üdü Ẁüdü too.

Winner: Pink Floyd.

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- 6. Meddle (1971) vs Üdü Ẁüdü (1976).

Üdü Ẁüdü has the incredible De Futura, which competes with Echoes. A near-tie, but the deep stirring of De Futura's faster-and-faster jam outweighs the spacey vastness of Echoes middle-section. The rest of Üdü Ẁüdü competes well with Meddle's A-side...both have 5 tracks each but Floyd only score with One Of These Days (Fearless unfortunately cheeses out with the football chant sample).

Winner: Magma.

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- 7. Obscured by Clouds (1972) vs Attahk (1978).

An underwhelmingly-mild Floyd effort can't compete with Magma's journey into funk & soul! Absolutely Curtains is remarkable, tho'. But Maahnt even more so.

Winner: Magma.

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- 8. The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) vs Merci (1985).

Hahaha...no contest :)

Winner: Pink Floyd.

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- 9. Wish You Were Here (1975) vs K.A (2004).

Magma's comeback album is lauded by many, but it's my least-favourite of their revival-era albums, and it's not even close to the greatness that is Floyd's WYWH album.

Winner: Pink Floyd.

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- 10. Animals (1977) vs Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré (2009).

Sheep is the big highlight of Floyd's tenth album, and if all of Animals was that stirring, then it might beat Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré. Pigs & Dogs are clearly great examples of Floyd, but the entirety of Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré is unreal...it plays like one massive piece, with Magma going into a bombastic classical style now...almost Wagnerian in places (on top of the usual Orff & Stravinsky influences). One of the greatest albums of all time, it beats most of Floyd's albums and certainly defeats Animals.

Winner: Magma.

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- 11. The Wall (1979) vs Félicité Thösz (2012).

...and Félicité Thösz is arguably even better than Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré! Shorter pieces, more approachable perhaps. Hosts two of the finest 5-minute songs you'll ever hear: Tëha & Öhst. Yet this gorgeous album has the misfortune of coming up against what I regard as the undisputed number 1 greatest album of all time.

Winner: Pink Floyd.

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- 12. The Final Cut (1983) vs Rïah Sahïltaahk (2014).

Debateable whether to include the 2014 remake of Rïah Sahïltaahk but so many decades have passed since the 1971 recording, and it's different enough to warrant its own place in the discography (this is why I didn't include the archival alternative version of MDK from 1989). It's also pretty amazing: Magma going full-on avant-garde jazz-classical. But it doesn't quite beat the sparse beauty of the final Floyd album with Roger Waters.

Winner: Pink Floyd.

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- 13. A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) vs Šlaǧ Tanƶ (2015).

I tried, but I can't get on with Gilmour-led Floyd. It superficially sounds like them, but there's an edge missing. Drama is missing. Mystery is missing. This album also sounds quite dated production-wise (far more than The Wall or Final Cut). Šlaǧ Tanƶ is so short you'd struggle to call it an album at all, but it's arguably the most brutally-astonishing 20 minutes you might ever hear. It's a career highlight, and quite a surprise that such an old band can come up with something so fresh and heavy.

Winner: Magma.

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- 14. The Division Bell (1994) vs Zëss (2019).

Gilmour Floyd improve here, much better production and more memorable songs....but still sound like a tribute band who've decided to write their own material. Magma just keep getting better...it's insane, really. Zëss is a single piece of almost 40-minutes, with cinematic-sounding support from the Prague Orchestra. Incredibly-original music, there's nothing else like it. The hypnotic invocation of "Jesus Christus" almost makes me a believer! Its climax is just astounding....goosebumps galore.

Not that Magma are a Christian band, far from it. They're their own religion. I think they just invoked the name for dramatic effect...certainly works!

Winner: Magma.

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- 15. The Endless River (2014) vs Kãrtëhl (2022).

Magma's phenomenal run between 2009-2019 comes to an end with the inconsistent Kãrtëhl. This lacks the cohesion and drama of earlier albums, but still has a couple of nice songs. What to say about Endless River? Pleasant enough noodlings, but not enough there to even compete with a weaker Magma album.

Winner: Magma.

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...and quite neatly, turns out both bands each have 15 studio albums. What's the score?

- Pink Floyd 7 - 8 Magma.

Oh my...Magma's late resurgence was too strong for a Waterless Floyd.

Can Floyd equalise with the live efforts?

- Ummagumma Live Disc / The Dark Side of the Moon Live at Wembley 1974 /

- Is There Anybody Out There? 1980–81 /

- Delicate Sound of Thunder / Live at Knebworth 1990 / Pulse

vs

- Live 1975 / Inédits / Retrospektïẁ I, II, III / Bobino 1981 / Trilogie Theusz Hamtaahk at Trianon 2000 / Mythes et Légendes Epok 1-5 (2004-2018).

There's a lot more official live Magma recordings but they've already won the Live round. The 40-minute Theusz Hamtaahk movement is one of their finest works but is only available on Live recordings (two definitive versions: either Retrospektïẁ or Trianon) , as is the fantastic Retrovision (20-minute disco number!) - some messy versions about, the definitive one is the video-release from the 1981 Bobino concert.

Winner: Magma.

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- Floyd however manage a consolation goal with comparing outtakes, b-sides, demos and generally songs that didn't make any studio album. Magma's efforts here are fine but not on par with the great stuff we get on Relics & Works.

Winner: Pink Floyd.

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- Final Score: Pink Floyd 8 - 9 Magma.

Shocker!

Agree? Disagree?

The Frame flopping (lots of poor user reviews, and even worse availability). The Meta VR Glasses with a single-spec discounting itself for PCVR (that 70° FoV). Samsung's Galaxy XR being a buggy unsupported mess. Apple not even bothering with PCVR-gaming. Pimax remaining cabled. Vive...no one talks about Vive anymore.

The VR community is hungry for a wireless OLED high-res PCVR headset. What's left? Only the SpacePro can save us now!

Info so far (correct me or add to this if you have more):

- microOLED display.
- pancake lenses.
- 4k-per-eye resolution.
- estimated 100° FoV (not yet clear if this is horizontal or diagonal).
- binocular overlap estimated less than Pico 4, but more than Quest 3.
- wireless.
- no pricing estimates, but certainly more than the Frame. Perhaps close to Galaxy XR's msrp.
- no news as to availability or release date.
- more official info by December.

SpacePro is the one I'm pinning my hopes on. I alternate between Quest 3 & Pico 4 Ultra and am very happy with both: but an OLED high-res upgrade would be fantastic (i watch a lot of movies as well as PCVR - many 3D-converted 4K-UHD Blurays - in my headsets).

How many of yous are looking forward to more info and release? Any expectations or thoughts?

I've never been inside a high-end headset but am 'high-end-curious'. Looking at Pimax, Galaxy XR, Meganex, Somnium etc and wondering which can make the Quest 3 look like yesterday's news.

I've been inside all the Quests, Rift S, Index, Vive Pro, Pimax 8KX, Pico 4 Ultra, PSVR2 and for sheer consistent clear clarity the Quest 3 is king. Tho' Index the nicest colour, Pico for 3D and 8KX for FoV. For blacks I preferred the Quest 1 over the Vive Pro or PSVR2 due to lack of dirty-window effect (mura).

Which headset out there has WOW'd you with its image-quality? And can it compete with the world-class lenses of the Quest 3?

The Index in 2026 may seem outdated: no pancakes, massive glare, low-res. Yet once inside a VR world I feel immersed. The low-res is nicely disguised somehow, the sensation of depth is well-realised, FoV feels generous, glare becomes less of an issue once immersed, colours & contrast are good, textures feel real.

My main issue is it's cabled, but otherwise I still like it. Class-leading audio still too. Controllers also unmatched.

Anyone else or is the Index history for you?

Has to fit in a cohesive theoritical band, where you could imagine what a full-album work might sound like:

- PJ Harvey (female vocals).

- Thom Yorke (male vocals).

- David Gilmour (lead guitar).

- James Hetfield (rhythm guitar).

- Philippe Bussonnet (bass).

- Iva Bittova (violin).

- Miles Davis (trumpet).

- Klaus Schulze (keys).

- Christian Vander (drums, co-composer, co-leader).

- Steve Reich (co-composer, conductor, co-leader).

10-head 'orchestra' - alternating between hypnotic heavy phrasings and languid modal breaks. With some avant-garde weirdness in-between. Envisaging a long multi-part composition. Genre: progressive fusion.

What would yours be? R.I.P also allowed. Imagine each member in what you consider their prime.

I'm enjoying going through three different fantastic-fiction movie series at the same time, having never seen any of them. Watch order:

- Men in Black 1.

- Transformers 1 (2007).

- Underworld 1.

- Men in Black 2.

- Transformers 2.

- Underworld 2.

Best so far is Transformers 1, while Underworld has been consistently good (Transformers 2 merely ok). Men in Black 1 was decent, but MIB2 the worst of this marathon so far.

Next stop, parts 3 in that order. Kinda fun doing this rotating thing.

Once i'm done with these, I'll start another trio of movie-series in this kind of rotating fashion. For popcorn action fluff, this has been enjoyable so far. The changes in tone is neat.

Any recs? Maybe from lesser-known things? Underworld I'd never even heard of before, surprisingly entertaining. I've already seen the Big Names like Star Wars, Star Trek, Tolkien, Matrix, Marvel/DC/X-Men.

Let's stick to the fantastic (so no thrillers like MI or Bond or Bourne etc).

Good news. I use a 4080S and have no intention of a sidegrade to 5080.

While DLSS-5 can look sloppy and can cut performance in half, I expect for some VR experiences it will be a net gain.

I followed up a cultured biblical epic (which doesn't seem to interest anyone here):

https://www.reddit.com/r/iwatchedanoldmovie/comments/1w5k15d/the_biblein_the_beginning_1966/

with a popcorn mega-blockbuster. While 1986's animated Transformers movie is a personal favourite, I dismissed Michael Bay's Transformers back in 2007 as a hectic unwatchable mess: missing the distinct faces of the Transformers, missing the space action & cosmic mysteries, and missing my favourite voice actor from the 1986 effort: Frank Welker's Megatron. I watched maybe half hour of it and declared myself 'not a fan of these modern Transformers movies' and never watched any more.

Well hell...almost 20 years later I'm eating my words. It's actually really good!

Background to deciding to rewatch: I've been enjoying the DVD series of the 80's G1 cartoons with my young son. We're building up to the 1986 Movie, near the end of Season 2 now so coming up soon.

I've also become a 3D fan, enjoying the deep visual spectacle of even mid movies in the Quest 3 or Pico 4 headset. So bought the official 3D-Blurays of Transformers 3, 4 & 5.

I guess I kinda have to start at 1 & 2, which have no official 3D....so kept putting it off. Since the beginning of the year, Ai-conversion software has gotten so good it can convert 2D movies into 3D...close to official quality. This seriously elevated the Star Wars Prequels trilogy, for example.

So now, converted Transformers 1 to 3D....and WOW! It is absolutely made for 3D. Looks STUNNING. The CGI is very impressive, looks superior to many 2020s blockbusters. The action this time round was easier to follow as I had a massive virtual screen. The humour often landed, human characters were fine...no one is deep or memorable, they just serve their purpose.

Best of all: now that I'm armed with fresh watches of the G1 series with my boy, I could appreciate this movie not being set in space. It's actually quite faithful to many G1 episodes: set on Earth with Decepticons causing havoc at military/energy bases and Autobots stepping in to defend the humans. That's a staple.

I still missed Frank Welker, and also missed Starscream's distinctive screech. And I still squint at the faces of the Transformers, and some of the action is still a bit too hectic...but also a few really grand epic slow-mo action scenes. Quite spectacular, especially in 3D. The transforming FX is brilliant, great audio too.

The ending is a bit deus ex machina, and the final fight between Prime & Megatron somewhat underwhelming.

Overall, a very enjoyable 8/10.

The 1986 movie is a super-rare 10/10 thanks to how much it packs in its shorter runtime, and how rewatchable it is (and the voice acting, the soundtrack, scene composition, the ideas etc).

I wonder if the 2007 movie was already the peak of these modern Transformers flicks...hopefully not. I'm in the mood now. Next stop: Transformers 2, converted in 3D.

EPIC.  So many memorable moments.  The almighty-trolling god character is I'm sure the same being as the devilish serpent.

The Binding of Isaac scene is tense AF.  The angel of death harshly judging Sodom is some dark stuff.  The wailing of the dammed outside the Ark as the waters rise is horrific.

Yet moments of humour too, mostly involving Noah.  The short night-time battle scene with Abraham is filmed very dynamically: i wonder if more modern war movies have tried that kind of style.

Interesting soundtrack.   Solid performances.  Dialogue very thy/thoust ploddingly-slow Bible speak.

The best thing about it is it's an atheist's literal faithful filming of Genesis.  It's pretty much exactly as the Old Testament says...the artistic atheist touch (Huston) means it never feels preachy or overly sentimental.  Just accurate to what that book is trying to say.

9/10.

My next experience will be one of these. Not played any before. Love and have done all the Half-Life in VR. Enjoy good sci-fi narratives, a bit of horror is a cool bonus.

I can handle some jank. This comparison is focussed on three points, if you have experience let me know which title is superior, cheers!

My hardware: 4080S/5800x3D/48GB RAM + Quest 3/Pico4Ultra via Virtual Desktop 6e router.

- lack of jank in the setup and playing: able to smoothly play in VR without too much of a hitch or awkwardness. Also in terms of not needing the D-Pad/keyboard constantly, so able to smoothly play with Quest 3 controllers.

Also...a bit niche this...ability to NaLo smoothly (Steamapp: Natural Locomotion: Vive Trackers on ankles to enable physical walking/running in-game....works great for HL1/HL2 SteamVR mods. I own all these on Steam (Crysis original, Halo 1 MC-collection and Doom 3 BFG) - to enable NaLo, the title must be on Steam so this may discount Halo classic. I'd still consider Halo Classic if it beats the other two otherwise.

- epic narrative experience which is especially heightened in VR. Sense of scale, sound design, feeling immersed in the story etc.

- will create an itch to play more of the series. While VR mods for later sequels aren't as ready yet, they appear to be in the works...

What are your thoughts on these three?

Talking specifically about the single-player experiences for which Valve became famous and righly lauded.

The infamous abandoning of the Half-Life 2 Episode 2 cliffhanger, not bothering with any other games after Portal 2 way back in 2011 (15 years ago!). A one-off VR (the superb Half-Life: Alyx) that teased a continuation of HL2E2 yet seems like they wrote themselves in a corner again...

They make mega-money with Steam, they release new PC/VR hardware ...and yet still no serious news of a new game. All that's known is Deadlock, which looks to be another multi-player-weighted thing like Dota and honestly doesn't excite many HL, Portal, Left4Dead fans.

Obscure HLX datamines have dried up, strongly suggesting that was a big nothingburger.

I feel gaming-culture is on balance poorer for Valve not creating any new titles these last 15 years...imagine if after Portal 2's release someone would say there would be no more games from Valve? What even is Source 2 for?

Thoughts?

I happily own over 2000 DVD/Bluray, 2000 vinyl, 3000 CD, 1000 games (various consoles). Next to no doubles: other than doubling up on CD/Vinyl for some favourite albums, or a few Bluray upgrades over DVD. Otherwise all unique individual pieces of culture from all over the world. Don't think I've quite reached 10k unique physical media...but not far off.

Been collecting since 2010-ish, so on average every day since then more than one piece of physical media joins the collection. Vast majority used from the big resellers, way cheaper than new-price. Still....must be at least €30k total spend....yikes. Divided by 15 years: makes a couple of grand a year. Still excessive, but manageable hobby.

I'll probably never get round to play even 10% of the games, and I guess around 60-70% of the music/films remain not-yet-experienced. Should probably consider starting an online store, but for the time being I enjoy the collection, and the ability to just choose something from a shelf at any time.

Defects are very rare. Maybe around 10-20 instances in total of a film disc not playing, CD skipping or game not loading. A little more issues with vinyl like skips and pops, to be expected. Otherwise, despite used condition, vast majority of discs are fine.

I don't subscribe to any streaming services...I guess 15 years of Spotify/Apple/Youtube-Premium/Netflix/Disney/Amazon/Playstation/Xbox/Nintendo subs would cost close to ten grand? And those don't have the unique pleasure of vinyl sound...nor do they offer many of the obscure cultures treasures I hunted down on physical media.

Anyone with comparable physical media lust?

Hiya.

I'm acid-experienced, and have done a few 1T's. Not had 1S before. Couple years ago wrote this trip report:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LSD/comments/1er5vk5/1tlsd_trip_report/

I was interested in mixing two different Prodrugs in an attempt to prolong the peak. I heard 1S needed longer to come up so figured that would arrive just as the quick-to-come 1T-peak would begin to wane.

I think it worked as intended. I took both at the same time. Around midnight last week Friday night.

Come-up very quick (30min), as per 1T usual. Played some synths and after an hour began to feel very tired. This may be the 1S arriving. Had no focus to play keyboard anymore or even watch something, so I just relaxed with some Klaus Schulze music and marvelled at strong colourful red/green bands/strings/tube visuals. It was everywhere: in the air, on the walls. Usual geometric fractal swirling breathing pulsing forms & rhythms. Real Objects & patterns danced and jittered agreeably. At dawn (around 5am) the church about 1km off in the distance outside my balcony looked like a cheeky little dwarf (the twin clocks were his eyes) who kept teasing "i'm gonna run off! shall i run off? it'd be so funny!"

Sadly, he didn't run off.

Still, all very pleasant and clean sensation. This time i kept thinking about the concept of pursuing the centre of a never-ending spiral fractal (like those Mandelbrot Set zooms). Music loops especially would invoke this sensation. Instead of endlessly zooming in: i had a sensation of zooming in and out of it. As if right on the edge of beautiful revelation but never quite getting there as I kept zooming back out. Certain music pulses would feel like a summons to this pursuit, as if the music was telling me "yeah i know! i'm trying to get there too!".

I watched the Pink Floyd Pompeii documentary and bits of Fantasia, Samsara and other stuff. Didn't quite connect with any of it. Samsara especially clashing as there's a section with messy ugly damaged rooms and I just didn't want to see that (maybe it gets better). My previous trip's highlight - a 225mcg 1T - was watching the 4k color remaster of 1927's Metropolis with New Pollutants score and later listening to Dark Side Of The Moon. So a little disappointed I didn't match that.

However, still peaking as morning develops, i listened back to the recordings of my keyboard plays and it was pretty far-out stuff. Some light, some very dark (i enjoy both vibes). Droney keyboard twirls type thing. The dark piece especially sounded like a literal summoning of this fractal-centre pursuit...this weird abstract sensation interpreted in the form of synthesizer drone, slow regular breathing pulse (simulating the breathing visuals) with minimalist piano-teasing designed to coax the fractal-centre out of its hole, which it finally did by way of witnessing the opening of the filter, which created a beastly wall of sound and summoned the most vivid internal hallucination of a fractal abstract dragon from the psychedelic realm, standing up as if to say "right, now you woke me up what do you want!" while bursting out a flash of electric fire, before grumpily laying back down to his hole (as the filter closes the sound again). While it might sound dark it actually acted as a soothing antidote to this mental-looping-thought of the fractal centre. At the time of playing I was too fried to realise what I was playing. Listening back - while still feeling looped by this abstract sensation - kinda helped me make peace with it, as it was gradually becoming a little too dominant.

Pretty sure only acid-experiencers can relate to some of this haha! So the secret is a dragon...Merlin had a point (Excalibur 1981 reference).

If anyone reading is planning a solo-trip at home and is thinking of activities, playing a keyboard is deffo up there. There's potential for stimulation and revelation. Don't worry about objective musical value, it's for the self.

Around midday (12 hours after taking 300mcg) i went to shops and other than struggling to talk clearly, I felt pretty good. For the rest of the day I even cleaned & tidied the flat while enjoyably listening to Staruha Mha and 90's Goa Trance. Had good energy levels and felt in a good mood. Probably my cleanest come-down ever, to be honest. Food & drink went down nicely.

At night finally felt ready to watch a film: went for Disclosure Day as that recently went on stream. Enjoyable tropey hokum! Fell asleep probably around 2am...26 hours after intake. Decent 7-hour sleep, and sober when I woke. Shortly after that (Sunday afternoon) wife & kids came back from their weekend trip away, and I was back in my usual world without a hitch.

Conclusion: hard to measure the 1S-effect. Maybe it was all 1T? Tho' that phase of fatigue after the synthplay was stronger than usual, and visuals seemed clearer/bolder too. No outright fabricated external-object hallucinations. Absolute-peak did seem to hold longer than usual. Music as always sounds fantastic. No heavy mental stuff, tho' I don't get that anyway (other than my very first acid trip a quarter of a century ago..which was mentally positively life-changing).

No other drugs involved, just a whiskey during Disclosure Day.

Next trip: will do 3x150mcg 1S. I'll be able to judge just the 1S properly then. That'll translate to around 300mcg actual LSD. No stranger to such dosages with classic acid.

Any comments welcome, especially if you've also mixed two types in one go, or also like to play your own sounds while peaking, or if you have thoughts on the pursuit of the fractal-centre (i.e. 'The Dragon') or generally about the phenomenon of abstract mental-loops when tripping.