(((O))) Review: Various Artists – Household Objects (And Sundry Massed Gadgets)

Household Objects (And Sundry Massed Gadgets) – A 50th Anniversary Tribute to Pink Floyd’s Most Mysterious Abandoned Work

According to Nick Mason on this album’s liner notes “Pink Floyd’s Household Objects project was a rather desperate attempt to come up with some ideas to follow up on the extraordinary success of Dark Side of the Moon…With…unlimited studio time and a rough idea of what we didn’t want to do…We managed to soak up innumerable hours of abortive ideas of which ‘Household Objects’ was one…The one acoustic element that really looked as though it might provide some interesting sounds was the stroked wine glasses which could be tuned according to the amount of water in the glass…this became the one element worthy of making it on to Wish You Were Here…” (Nick Mason 2025).

William Hayter takes up the story. “Inspired by the originally intended follow up album to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, I arranged a meeting with Barry Lamb to see how he would feel about teaming up to create a 50th anniversary homage to and reimagining of Household Objects that was partially recorded and then abandoned by the band in 1974…I felt that this would be right up Barry’s street and so it turned out to be…My original idea for this project was to imagine what Pink Floyd might have produced had they attempted to record such an album in today’s studio environment. Instead of trying to create this album single handedly it was decided to invite a range of musicians, sonic adventurers and sound manipulators to take on this challenge and give their interpretations of what Pink Floyd may have produced had this album been recorded in 2024 instead of 1974…The imposed limitation of no conventional musical instruments allowed in the recording process made the challenge all the more compelling… Whichever methods have been employed the interesting and creative re-imaginings fifty years on of all who have contributed to this project have been stunning and makes for a very immersive listen.” (William Hayter 2025).

Co-collaborator Barry Lamb adds “As a teenager in the mid to late 1970s, during the heady early days of cassette culture, I first experimented with sound in a way that now seems strangely prescient. We had no real instruments—save for a descant recorder, a battered antique mandolin, and an upright piano—so we made do with whatever we had. Biscuit tins became drums, radiators hummed with resonance, and rubber bands stretched across cardboard boxes provided rudimentary bass tones. It was an exploration born of necessity, but it was also an act of discovery, an introduction to the boundless potential of sound. It was around this time that I stumbled upon the world of musique concrète. Pierre Henry’s work was an early revelation, and my gateway into experimental music was further widened by Pink Floyd’s ‘Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast’. The seemingly mundane sounds of frying eggs and boiling kettles, seamlessly woven into a musical composition, had a profound effect on me. This, in turn, led me deeper into the worlds of Harry Partch, Edgar Varèse, and other pioneers who broke away from traditional instrumentation. This fascination with found sounds shaped my cassette culture recordings throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s…Many years later, I came across an article detailing Pink Floyd’s abandoned project, Household Objects. Like many, I was aware of the wine glasses on Wish You Were Here, but I had no idea that they had once envisioned an entire album crafted from non-traditional instruments. The idea of such a record— where the boundaries of what is considered a musical instrument are completely reimagined— fascinated me, and it left me wondering…Fast-forward to 2024. When William mentioned the idea of curating a compilation inspired by Household Objects, we both immediately saw the potential. The challenge was set. Could we make a compelling, listenable album under the same constraints as the original concept? No conventional musical instruments—only household objects…What followed was a fascinating journey of sonic discovery…This album is not just a tribute to Pink Floyd’s lost experiment; it is a celebration of sound in its purest, most unfiltered form. It invites the listener to hear music in the ordinary, to find rhythm in the routine, and to embrace the endless possibilities that exist within the world around them. Household Objects may never have been fully realised by Pink Floyd, but in some small way, this project allows the idea to live on” (Barry Lamb 2025).

I don’t remember it being an idea that was greeted with universal enthusiasm but I once took a Nic Endo album to play at work, either She Satellites or Cold Metal Perfection. One of the unforeseen aspects of listening to it in a warehouse was that the sounds of the work environment bled into the music; a breakdown of, a blurring of, the boundaries between the industrial and the recorded. The flow of sound was two way, the album supplemented the sound of a busy warehouse but intriguing the warehouse also supplemented the sounds of the album, augmenting and altering it and producing a new, temporary and unique hybrid sound scape/sonic sculpture.

It would be an interesting experiment to somehow put Household Objects on low and repeat and to allow its sonic creations to inform one’s experience of the mundane and for the mundane sounds of a domestic environment to blend with the sonic experience of the album (similar, in some ways, to ambient music as initially envisaged by Eno).

Including tracks by such luminaries as The Residents, Yumi Hara and Geoff Leigh this two CD release is an intriguing, inventive and creative collection of sonic art pieces that remind the listener that although our modern techno society tends to prioritise the image and the visual we equally live in an aural world, full of fascinating silence and sound.

The album comes complete with thumb nail sketches of the ideas and methods behind each track, a little like the explanatory text in an art exhibition. In fact that comparison may give a way to approach this compilation, each piece as an individual avant-garde art work, thematically linked and creating an overall experience. Your initial appreciation of pieces will vary as will your longer term appreciation.

Nick Mason again,”I have to say that 50 years later the resurrection of this idea seems much more manageable, and the work produced on this album is in my opinion, far more interesting than anything we created. I salute all the contributors to this work and if we have encouraged, or in some ways inspired these recordings, then maybe it wasn’t such a wasted effort!”

All quotes from liner notes of Household Objects (And Sundry Massed Gadgets).

 Album available from ReR Megacorp web site and Bandcamp page.