Highlighting in album tracklistings denotes 'contains Mellotron'. On 'multi-part' tracks I've tried to indicate which parts contain 'Tron, although this isn't always possible.

Ratings:
The * rating (½-5) is my personal, entirely subjective and completely partisan rating of the music.
The 'T' ('Tron, of course...) rating (0-5) is an only slightly more objective indicator of an album's Mellotronness.

	A Saucerful of Secrets  (1968)  ****/TT Let There Be More Light Remember a Day Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun Corporal Clegg A Saucerful of Secrets See-Saw Jugband Blues
	7"  (1968)  ****/TTT It Would Be So Nice Julia Dream

	Ummagumma  (1969)  ***½/TT
	Astronomy Domine Careful With That Axe, Eugene Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun A Saucerful of Secrets Sysyphus   Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4 Grantchester Meadows	Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a   Cave and Grooving With a Pict The Narrow Way   Part 1   Part 2   Part 3 The Grand Vizier's Garden Party   Entrance   Entertainment   Exit

	Atom Heart Mother  (1970)  ***/T½
	Atom Heart Mother   Father's Shout   Breast Milky   Mother Fore   Funky Dung   Mind Your Throats Please   Remergence If Summer '68	Fat Old Sun Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast   Rise and Shine   Sunny Side Up   Morning Glory

	Masters of Rock  (1970)  ****/TT
	Chapter 24 Mathilda Mother Arnold Layne Candy and a Currant Bun The Scarecrow Apples and Oranges It Would Be So Nice Paintbox	Julia Dream See Emily Play

		Relics  (1971,  51.00)  ****½/T
		Arnold Layne Interstellar Overdrive See Emily Play Remember a Day Paintbox Julia Dream Careful With That Axe, Eugene Cirrus Minor	The Nile Song Biding My Time Bike

	Works  (1983)  ****/T
	One of These Days Arnold Layne Fearless Brain Damage Eclipse Set the Controls for the Heart   of the Sun See Emily Play	Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered   Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict Free Four Embryo

V/A - Picnic: a Breath of Fresh Air  (1970)  ***½/T [Pink Floyd contribute] Embryo

Current availability:

• Saucerful/Ummagumma/Atom Heart/Relics: EMI
• It Would Be So Nice: on Shine On box set: EMI
• Masters of Rock/Picnic: Not on CD
• Works: Capitol (US)

Mellotrons used:

• All titles: band's own black'n'gold MkII

Pink Floyd aren't normally thought of as being Mellotron users, but in the late '60s they owned one of the six black MkIIs, along with the machine once owned by Princess Margaret (!). They never took it out on the road, but they used it in the studio for a few years, before putting it into storage, where it ended up fairly badly damaged before being rescued, repaired, and sold to an Israeli musician, who has used it on albums by Rockfour and Atmosphera, amongst others.

A Saucerful of Secrets was recorded just as Syd Barrett was gently being eased out of the band as he slipped into full-on Acid Casualty mode. It has little of the quirkiness of their much-vaunted debut, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, although one Syd song, Jugband Blues, squeezes its way onto the end of side two. The Floyd were already moving into 'proto-ambient' territory even at this stage, with the title track and Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun being particularly effective in this area. The lengthy A Saucerful Of Secrets itself and See-Saw are the two 'Tron tracks here. Saucerful opens with an extended organ drone, then moves into an intensely rhythmic section with avant-garde piano and some fairly 'freakout' guitar from new boy Dave (sorry, David) Gilmour, possibly followed by a quick 'Tron flute pitchbend. Eventually, the song moves into a quiet organ section, with backing vocals (not that there's any lead) and 'Tron strings fading in after the riff cycles a few times, and, er, that's it, really. See-Saw is a considerably lesser song, but has a far better Mellotron strings part, with some nice pitchbend work, and some quiet brass near the beginning.

A single, It Would Be So Nice (a Rick Wright song) b/w Julia Dream, released a few months later, featured their 'Tron on both sides. The a-side gives you a chance to hear the rarely-aired Mellotron piano sound, for some odd reason, but Julia Dream's flutes are quite sublime, enhancing an already wonderful example of British psych circa '68.

Ummagumma is a double album, split into one live LP and one of four 'solo' quarters, so there's no genuine new group compositions. The live material is stupendous, showing off the best of the band's 'space' sound of the time, the highlight being Careful With That Axe, Eugene, originally only a b-side. The solo pieces are, well, diverse might be the best description. Roger Waters' acoustic whimsy Grantchester Meadows (an area just outside Cambridge), finishes with an excellent 'experiment in stereo', before suddenly switching to the multi-overdubbed Waters voices of the unfeasibly-lengthily titled Several Species.... Both Gilmour's The Narrow Way and Nick Mason's The Grand Vizier's Garden Party have their moments, but Wright's Sysyphus is one of the album's highlights, with some killer discordant Mellotron on three of the piece's four parts. Recommended.

The Floyd's follow-up, Atom Heart Mother, with its infamous 'cows' sleeve, uses the 'Tron to similar effect, but only on one part of the underrated side-long title track, probably Mind Your Throats Please, though it's a little hard to tell. The piece overall is much better than it's usually given credit for, but it's not for those who only like the fairly mainstream approach of their blockbuster albums later in the decade. I know Roger Waters has a soft spot for If on side two, but I don't personally find the rest of the album very exciting. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast is more an experiment in sound effects than a song, which was even performed live on some occasions, complete with roadie Alan frying food onstage...

A song recorded around this time that's never had a fully authorised release is Embryo, an (apparently) unfinished demo that Harvest stuck onto their Picnic multi-artist compilation in 1970, although the song sounds fairly complete to me. The band were furious at its inclusion, although it has since crept out on a 1983 Floyd comp called Works. Oddly enough, the band played the song live many times over the period when it was recorded, but it still awaits an easily-available release, along with several other tracks from around then. Both sides of the It Would Be So Nice/Julia Dream single have appeared on compilations, although once again, Floyd's volume in the Masters of Rock series has never been officially available in the UK although Relics, a budget compilation of oddities, is easy to find.

So... difficult to say, really. A Saucerful of Secrets is a good album, though less eclectic than their debut; Ummagumma's definitely a bit odd, though repeated playing pays dividends; Atom Heart Mother is probably less of the same, but Relics is an excellent starting point for the early Floyd virgin. Embryo's a good track, if you can find it, and It Would Be So Nice is a rather lesser effort than its more easily available b-side. In all honesty, none of the Floyd's Mellotron work is utterly essential, but much of it is of interest.

Official site

See: Syd Barrett