Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon DSOTM Japan + Obi 12" Vinyl LP Album

  This Japanese pressing of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" includes a beautiful 32 page booklet with black/white and colour photos of Pink Floyd, album details, history of pink floyd in both English and Japanese

‘Album cover of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon Japanese edition. Features a black background with a prism in the center, refracting a white beam of light into a rainbow. On the left, a white Japanese obi strip with bold kanji characters (狂気, meaning “Madness”) and a small image of the band members. The album details are in Japanese text on the obi strip, adding a unique cultural element to the iconic artwork.’

Pink Floyd Collector's Info: 

The Toshiba LP was released in Japan in 1973, just a few months after the original UK release. However, this version of the album had some unique features that set it apart from other releases. Firstly, it featured a different cover than the UK and US versions. The cover art was created by Japanese graphic designer, Tadanori Yokoo, who is well-known for his psychedelic and surreal artwork. The cover art features a collage of images that represent different themes explored in the album, such as time, money, and death.

The Japanese LP also featured a gatefold sleeve, which was not present in the UK and US releases. The gatefold sleeve included lyrics and liner notes in both Japanese and English. This was a significant addition as it allowed Japanese fans to fully understand and appreciate the lyrics and themes of the album.

Another notable feature of the Japanese release was the inclusion of a unique poster. The poster featured the same artwork as the cover and was folded inside the LP. The poster was not included in other releases and has since become a highly sought-after collector's item.

In addition to the unique packaging, the Japanese release also featured superior sound quality. The LP was pressed on high-quality vinyl and featured a special mastering process that was done specifically for the Japanese market. This resulted in a warmer and more dynamic sound than other releases.

The significance of the Japanese release of "Dark Side of the Moon" goes beyond just the unique packaging and sound quality. It marked a turning point in the music industry as it was one of the first albums to be marketed globally. The success of the album in Japan paved the way for other Western artists to gain popularity in the Japanese market.

Furthermore, the Japanese release of the album had a significant impact on the band itself. Pink Floyd's popularity skyrocketed in Japan after the release of the album, and they went on to become one of the most successful Western bands in the Japanese market. The band also became close with Tadanori Yokoo, who went on to create more artwork for their subsequent albums.

Music Genre:

Psychedelic Acid Progressive Rock Music

Album Cover Design

Gatefold/FOC (Fold Open Cover) Album Cover Design

Album Production: 
Produced by Pink Floyd. Recorded Abbey Road Studios London. Engineer: Alan Parsons, Peter Jones. Sleeve design: Hipgnosis, George Hardie. All lyrics by Roger Waters
  • Alan Parsons – Sound engineer, producer, musician

    Alan Parsons is my go-to “how does this record sound THAT good?” answer: the studio brain behind classic-era clarity, from Pink Floyd sessions to The Alan Parsons Project’s glossy sci-fi pop-rock.

    Alan Parsons is the guy I picture behind the glass when a record sounds ridiculously clean, wide, and expensive (in the best way). His first big “period” is the Abbey Road years, working as a tape operator and engineer across the late 1960s into the mid-1970s, right in the era when studios were basically science labs with guitars. In 1973 he engineered Pink Floyd’s "The Dark Side of the Moon", and that alone would’ve earned him a lifetime pass to the control room. Then he moved from “genius in the booth” to “name on the cover” as co-founder of The Alan Parsons Project, active from 1975 to 1990, where he blended pristine production with big melodies and concept-album vibes. From the 1990s onward he’s kept the music alive on stage with touring lineups commonly billed as The Alan Parsons Live Project, proving he’s not just a behind-the-scenes wizard but a musician who can carry the material in the real world too.

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  • Hipgnosis – British album cover art design group

    Hipgnosis is my favorite proof that a record sleeve can be a full-on mind game, not just a band photo with better lighting.

    Hipgnosis is the legendary London-based art design group that turned rock sleeves into visual myths. The core duo, Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey "Po" Powell, were childhood friends of the Pink Floyd inner circle in Cambridge—a connection that allowed them to bypass the stiff mandates of EMI’s in-house design department in 1968. Their debut, "A Saucerful of Secrets," was only the second time in EMI history (after The Beatles) that an outside firm was granted creative control. The very name "Hipgnosis" was a piece of found art; Syd Barrett, during one of his more enigmatic phases, scrawled the word in ballpoint pen on the door of the South Kensington flat he shared with the duo. Thorgerson loved the linguistic friction of it: the "Hip" for the new and groovy, and "Gnosis" for the ancient, hidden knowledge. While Peter Christopherson later joined as a third partner in 1974, that initial Barrett-endorsed moniker defined a decade of surrealist mastery for bands like Led Zeppelin, Genesis, and 10cc, before the group dissolved in 1983.

  • Record Label & Catalognr:

    Toshiba-EMI EMS-80324 Mfd by Toshiba

    Media Format:

    12" Vinyl LP Gramophone

    Year and Country:

    1973 Made in Japan
    Band Members and Musicians on: Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon DSOTM Japan + Obi
      Pink Floyd Band: members/musicians
    • Roger Waters - bass, vocals
    • Roger Waters – Bass, vocals, songwriter

      Roger Waters is the guy I blame (politely) when a Pink Floyd song stops being “spacey vibes” and starts staring straight through you with lyrics that feel like a courtroom cross-examination.

      Roger Waters is, to my ears, Pink Floyd’s razor-edged storyteller: bassist, singer, and the main lyric engine who pushed the band from psychedelic drift into big, human-scale themes. His key band period is Pink Floyd (1965–1985), where he became the dominant writer through the 1970s and early 1980s, before leaving and launching a long solo career (1984–present). After years of public tension, he briefly reunited with Pink Floyd for a one-off performance at Live 8 in London on 2 July 2005—basically the musical equivalent of spotting a comet: rare, bright, and gone again. Since the late 1990s he’s toured extensively under his own name, staging huge concept-driven shows that revisit Floyd classics like "The Dark Side of the Moon" (notably on the 2006–2008 tour) and "The Wall" (2010–2013), because apparently subtlety is not the point when you’ve got something to say.

    • Nick Mason - percusssion
    • Nick Mason – Drums, percussion

      Nick Mason is the steady heartbeat I always come back to in Pink Floyd: the only constant member since the band formed in 1965, quietly holding the whole weird universe together while the rest of the planet argues about everything else.

      Nick Mason is Pink Floyd’s drummer, co-founder, and the one guy who never clocked out: his main performing period with Pink Floyd runs from 1965 to the present, and he’s the only member to appear across every Pink Floyd album. Outside the mothership, he’s had a very “I’m not done yet” second act: in 2018 he formed Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets (2018–present) to bring the band’s early psychedelic years back to the stage. He’s also stepped out under his own name with projects like the solo album "Nick Mason’s Fictitious Sports" (released 1981), which is basically him taking a left turn into jazz-rock just to prove he can. And yes, he was part of that blink-and-you-miss-it full-band moment at Live 8 in London in 2005, when the classic lineup briefly reunited and reminded everyone why this band still haunts people.

    • Dave Gilmour - Guitar, vocals
    • David Gilmour – Guitar, vocals

      David Gilmour is the voice-and-fingers combo I hear whenever Pink Floyd turns from “spacey” into straight-up cinematic: he joined in 1967 and basically helped define what “guitar tone with emotions” even means.

      David Gilmour is, for me, the calm center of Pink Floyd’s storm: an English guitarist, singer, and songwriter whose playing can feel gentle and devastating in the same bar. His earliest band period worth name-dropping is Jokers Wild (1964–1967), before he stepped into Pink Floyd in 1967 as Syd Barrett’s situation unraveled. From there his main performing era is Pink Floyd (1967–1995), including the post-Roger Waters years where the band continued under his leadership and released "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" (1987) and "The Division Bell" (1994), with a later studio coda in "The Endless River" (2014). Outside Floyd, he’s had a long solo run (1978–present) with albums ranging from "David Gilmour" (1978) to "Luck and Strange" (2024), and he even did a sharp side-quest in 1985 with Pete Townshend’s short-lived supergroup Deep End. And for one historic night, the classic lineup reunited at Live 8 in Hyde Park, London on 2 July 2005—one of those “you had to be there (or at least press play)” moments.

    • Richard Wright - keyboards, vocals
    • Richard Wright – Keyboards, vocals

      Richard Wright is the secret atmosphere machine in Pink Floyd: the guy who can make one chord feel like a whole weather system, and then casually add a vocal harmony that makes it hit even harder.

      Richard Wright (born Richard William Wright) is, for me, the understated genius of Pink Floyd: co-founder, keyboardist, and occasional lead vocalist whose textures are basically baked into the band’s DNA. His main performing period with Pink Floyd runs from 1965 to 1981 (including the early albums through the massive arena years), then he returned as a full member again from 1987 to 1994 for the later era tours and albums. In between those chapters, he didn’t just vanish into a fog machine: he released a solo album, "Wet Dream" (1978), and later "Broken China" (1996), and he also had a proper side-project moment with Zee (1983–1984), which produced the album "Identity" (1984). He passed away in 2008, but his playing still feels like the part of Pink Floyd that makes the air shimmer.

    • Guest performers:
    • Dick Parry
    • Dick Parry – Saxophone, session musician

      Dick Parry is the reason “Money” and “Us and Them” don’t just groove… they glow. He’s that classy, human burst of sax that turns Pink Floyd’s big cosmic machine into something that breathes.

      Dick Parry (real name: Richard Parry) is an English saxophonist and lifelong “secret weapon” in the Pink Floyd universe. His main performing timeline starts with his early career in the Cambridge scene (he began with The Soul Committee in the mid-1960s), and then the famous chapter: Pink Floyd brought him in for landmark studio moments, including the sax parts on "Money" and "Us and Them" on "The Dark Side of the Moon" (1973), plus "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" on "Wish You Were Here" (1975). Live-wise, he wasn’t a one-night cameo either: he played in Pink Floyd’s live shows between 1973 and 1977, returned for the 1994 world tour, and even added keyboards on parts of the 1977 "In the Flesh" tour. Outside Floyd-land, he also toured as part of The Who’s brass section on their 1979–1980 tours, because apparently he collects legendary bands the way I collect pressings.

    • Doris Troy
    • Leslie Duncan
    • Liza Strike
    • Barry St John
    • Clare Torry
    Complete Track Listing of: Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon DSOTM Japan + Obi
      Side One:
    1. Speak To Me
    2. Breathe
    3. On the Run
    4. Time
    5. The Great Gig in the Sky
      Side Two:
    1. Money
    2. US and Them
    3. Any Colour You Like
    4. Brain Damage
    5. Eclipse
    Photo of Front Cover 

    ‘Album cover of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon Japanese edition. Features a black background with a prism in the center, refracting a white beam of light into a rainbow. On the left, a white Japanese obi strip with bold kanji characters (狂気, meaning “Madness”) and a small image of the band members. The album details are in Japanese text on the obi strip, adding a unique cultural element to the iconic artwork.’

    This album cover is the Japanese edition of Pink Floyd’s iconic The Dark Side of the Moon. The cover art features the instantly recognizable prism design by Hipgnosis and George Hardie. A beam of white light enters the prism, splitting into a spectrum of colors against a black background, symbolizing the album’s themes of light and darkness, life’s complexity, and emotional spectrum.

    On the left side of the cover, a white obi strip in Japanese provides album details. Bold kanji characters appear, giving the title as 狂気 (which translates to ‘Madness’), the Japanese title for The Dark Side of the Moon. Below, in smaller text, it includes information about the album, the artists, and the label, as well as a small image of the band members. This specific cover design reflects the Japanese market’s unique packaging style, blending the album’s iconic visual with cultural elements specific to Japanese releases.

     

    High Resolution Photo #2 PINK FLOYD Dark Side Moon Japan  

    Photo of Album's Cover  and one of the pages of the booklet
    High Resolution Photo #3 PINK FLOYD Dark Side Moon Japan  
    Photo of Record Label 
    ‘Record label of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon Japanese edition. Features an orange and red background with an EMI logo and catalog number EMS-80324 at the top. The label displays essential details, including “33⅓ r.p.m.” and the “JASRAC” logo. Credits for Roger Waters and Pink Floyd appear, along with copyright and licensing information. The label includes “A Harvest Recording” and the Harvest logo, and the edge text notes “Mfd. by TOSHIBA-EMI LTD. in Japan,” indicating Japanese manufacturing.’

    This is the record label for the Japanese edition of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, released under the EMI label with the catalog number EMS-80324. The label design is predominantly orange and red, with a stylized “EMI” logo and “Stereo” printed at the top.

    The label includes essential details such as ‘33⅓ r.p.m.’ and displays the “JASRAC” logo, indicating the Japanese rights management association. The text layout is clear and structured, with production credits attributed to Roger Waters and Pink Floyd, along with copyright and licensing information at the bottom. The phrase ‘A Harvest Recording’ and the circular “Harvest” logo are also printed, marking the association with EMI’s progressive rock-focused sub-label. The edge of the label has text in red, giving manufacturing details as ‘Mfd. by TOSHIBA-EMI LTD. in Japan,’ further emphasizing its Japanese origin.

     Note: The images on this page are photos of the actual album. Slight differences in color may exist due to the use of the camera's flash. Images can be zoomed in/out ( eg pinch with your fingers on a tablet or smartphone ).

    PINK FLOYD - Dark Side of the Moon (Index Page)

    PINK FLOYD - Dark Side of the Moon France 12" LP

    Thumbnail of PINK FLOYD Dark Side of the Moon France album front cover

    EMI 2C 068-05.249   , 1973 , Made in France

    The French release LP of Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' is unique for its distinct artwork featuring a prism and the inclusion of an additional track, "Eclipse." It had a significant impact on music culture, cementing Pink Floyd's reputation as an innovative and experimental band.

    DSOTM French Release Details

    PINK FLOYD - Dark Side of the Moon First Release 12" LP

    Thumbnail of PINK FLOYD Dark Side of the Moon First Release album front cover

    EMI Harvest 1C 062-05 249 , 1973 , Made in Germany

    This German 1st release LP of Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" is a significant piece of music history. The album's success in Germany helped solidify Pink Floyd's status as one of the most influential bands of all time.

    DSOTM 1st German Release Details

    PINK FLOYD - The Dark Side Of The Moon Quadraphonic 12" LP

    EMI 1C 062-05 249 Q Quadrophonie , 1973 , Germany

    The quadrophonic LP album of Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" was released in Germany in 1973, showcasing the potential for new listening experiences and Pink Floyd's experimentation with sound. Its unique mix and quadraphonic sound technology make it a valuable collector's item.

    DSOTM Quadrophonic Release Details

    PINK FLOYD - Dark Side Of The Moon White Vinyl 12" LP

    Thumbnail of PINK FLOYD - Dark Side Of The Moon White Vinyl album front cover

    EMI Harvest 1C 064-05 249 , 1977 , Germany

    The white vinyl LP German release of "The Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd is a valuable and sought-after collector's item. The white vinyl LP added a unique aesthetic to the iconic album, and its rarity has made it a valuable addition to any Pink Floyd collection.

    DSOTM White Vinyl LP Release Details

    PINK FLOYD - Dark Side Of The Moon Italy 12" LP

    Thumbnail of PINK FLOYD - Dark Side Of The Moon Italy album front cover

    Harvest 3c 064-05249  , 1973 , Made in Italy

    The Italian LP release of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" in 1973 featured a unique cover art, label design. The value of the Italian LP release varies depending on its condition and rarity. Mint condition copies can sell for several hundred dollars

    DSOTM Italian Release Details

    Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon Japan 12" LP

    Thumbnail of Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon Japan album front cover

    Toshiba-EMI EMS-80324 , 1973 , Japan

    The Japanese release of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" on the Toshiba LP is a unique and significant release in the history of the album. It featured a different cover, gatefold sleeve, lyrics and liner notes in both Japanese and English, a unique poster, and superior sound quality.

    DSOTM Japanese Release Details

    PINK FLOYD - Dark Side of the Moon MFSL Japan 12" LP

    Thumbnail of PINK FLOYD - Dark Side of the Moon MFSL Japan 
 album front cover

    MFSL 1-1017 , 1973 , Made in Japan

    The MFSL Japan LP edition of "The Dark Side of the Moon" is highly valued by collectors and audiophiles. The LP was pressed on high-quality virgin vinyl and features a unique mastering process that enhances the sound quality of the original recording. The LP also comes with a custom-designed sleeve and a fold-out poster of the album's iconic cover art.

    DSOTM Japanese MFSL Release Details

    PINK FLOYD - Dark Side Of The Moon Swiss Limited Edition 12" LP

    Thumbnail of PINK FLOYD - Dark Side Of The Moon Swiss Limited Edition album front cover

    EMI F 667 332 , 1973 , Switzerland

    The Swiss limited edition LP release of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" is a unique version of the classic album, featuring a bonus track and special features. Its innovative production and timeless themes have made it a cultural phenomenon and classic work of art.

    DSOTM Swiss Limited Edition Release Details

    PINK FLOYD - Dark Side Of The Moon USA 12" LP

    Thumbnail of PINK FLOYD - Dark Side Of The Moon USA album front cover

    Harvest SMAS-11163 The Gramophone Company Ltd , 1973 , USA

    Pink Floyd's 1973 USA release of "Dark Side of the Moon" is an iconic album that has left an indelible mark on the history of music. The album has been recognized as one of the greatest albums of all time, selling over 15 million copies in the United States alone.

    DSOTM USA Release Details

    PINK FLOYD - Dark Side of the Moon MFSL GOLD Ultradisc II

    Thumbnail of PINK FLOYD . Dark Side of the Moon MFSL GOLD Ultradisc II album front cover

    UDCD 517 , - , USA

      This is the enhanced USA version of DSOTM, produced with the Ultradisc II process (not the Japanese Ultradisc). The MFSL GOLD Ultradisc II edition of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" is a highly sought-after version among audiophiles and music enthusiasts. Its gold disc and Ultradisc II pressing process result in a clean and accurate sound reproduction.

    DSOTM MFSL Gold Ultradisc Release Details
    PINK FLOYD Main Index