The six discs of the Immersion Box Set are tidily organized. Heartbeats, sprinkled dialogue, ringing bells, the clinking of coins, the layers of VCS3 synthesizer lines and roaring guitars add up to a hypnotic barrage of sounds that vie for the listener's attention. The band-produced album, with lyrics by bassist/vocalist Roger Waters and music by Waters, vocalist/guitarist David Gilmour, percussionist Nick Mason and keyboardist/vocalist Richard Wright, remains as singular an entity as it was upon its initial release. For a generation waiting to discover it, comparatively simple one- and two-disc Discovery and Experience Editions are also available. This set, by its very nature, is designed for those who already know and love the album itself. One offers replicas of a concert ticket to February 18's Rainbow Theatre performance, another contains four "anti-cigarette cards" from a set of 57, and the third offers a print of the handwritten "Questions for Assorted Lunatics." For those keeping score, I haven't even yet mentioned the ostensible raison d'être for this collection of odds and ends: six discs, each illuminating a different aspect of the complete Dark Side mythos. The 29 cm box (which sets it apart from the traditional LP-sized Super Deluxe packages of late) also includes a set of nine coasters, two more books (one of tour photographs and another of credits) and three simple black envelopes of assorted shapes and sizes. It's emblazoned on the glass marbles, housed in a compact pouch on the Roy Lichtenstein-styled art print on a lyric booklet and on a natty black scarf! That's not all.
It's not hard to imagine many Floyd devotees finding themselves over the rainbow with this package, and of course that famous rainbow is everywhere in this box set. It's hard not to wonder, sifting through the treasure chest - or toy chest, perhaps - that's the Immersion Box Set of Pink Floyd's landmark 1973 rock opus The Dark Side of the Moon (EMI 50999 029431 2, 2011). At what point in a super deluxe - or Immersion - box set does the music itself become, if not irrelevant, an afterthought?
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