I remember those...
Posted on 09/09/2014 6:47:47 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
The great electronic albums of the 1970s get plenty of kudos – but what of their predecessors?
Casual accounts of the history of electronic music tend to point back to familiar sources: Suicide’s babble’n’hum; Cluster, Klaus Schulze and the rest of the Krautrock squad; the stygian mulch-music of early Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle; and of course Kraftwerk’s meticulous robot pop. Further back? Well, that’s when things tend to get a little foggy.
Experiments with recorded electronic music actually date back to the 1940s (hell, depending on how you define “electronic music”, they date back to the 1880s). As early as the mid-1950s, predominantly electronic LPs were already being pressed, marketed and sold to the a willing (if slightly confused) public. Half a century down the line, many of these records still sound fantastic. Some are fascinating relics with plenty to say to the contemporary listener; others sound impossibly ahead of their time.
The following rundown is limited to complete artist albums, as opposed to compilations or collections of stand-alone works. As such, important names perhaps more readily associated with the realm of “art music” – Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry and the GRM sect; Edgard Varèse; Iannis Xenakis; James Tenney; Alvin Lucier; Luciano Berio and plenty more – are respectfully put to one side. Similarly, dear quibblers, “electronic” has been broadly taken to refer to albums that put new synthesizer instruments or synthesized tones at their core. By that token, some exceptional albums (Terry Riley’s organ masterpiece A Rainbow In Curved Air; Steve Reich’s Live / Electric Music) are omitted, and rock and pop LPs that flirt with electronics without going the whole hog have also been left out.
Ground rules set – and inevitably occasionally broken – here they are: 15 essentials from electronic music’s Big Bang.
(Excerpt) Read more at thevinylfactory.com ...
That would be hell on the needle. Why would he do such a thing?
I remember those...
In the mid 60s there was Thomas Dessevelt’s “Fantasy In Orbit”. I still have the vinyl.
I think it was on the same album as “Welcome to the Machine” but I’m not sure...
I don't know if this is an alternate spelling, knock off or what. Dick Hyman also had Moog albums.
Bonus trivia, Dick Hyman played a concert bill with the Velvet Underground once.
Never cared much for Walter/Wendy
Did enjoy some (feel free to spell correct) Karlheitz Stockhausen. Then of course John Cage did what might be heard as early Trance “music”... :-)
As far a using synths in a >lovely to my ears< I like the work that Michael Franks guy did on Skin Dive and Passionfruit.
On a more upbeat urban setting how about Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis? Those guys, with or without Babyface, could pour some soul out of very finely crafted patches.
Ha Ha Ha!
Dad and I to bring “Carmina Burana” and “Also Sprach Zarathustra” to Stereo stores, and crank the speakers.
That was before “2001 a Space Odyssey” so it was long ago and far away! ;-)
He also liked the soundtrack to “A Clockwork Orange”.
Hell on the diamond and they are brittle .. maybe a contract with Shure or Grado ? I dunno
It was a gimmick. But I think they planned to place a layer and not have it poke through the vinyl. The coral was pale orange.
I’m rather stunned at the lightweights that are being mentioned! Pink Floyd? Switched On Bach? Come on! I’m on my third vinyl copy of Electronic Music From Columbia Princeton. Bulent Arel is the king!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV7ll_KGsNY
Throbbing Gristle …. . . is not music. Even certain hip-hop stuff is more musical.
That I remember well Thanks.
I’m sorry, but I think the stylophone should have been nuked.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9C_ZTnymhkw
Walter Carlos.WendyCarlos demonstrated that electronic instruments are not a novelty …
Tomita’s “Snowflakes Are Dancing” used to be the theme music for Jack Horkheimer’s ten minute astronomy show, “The Star Hustler”. The Tomita Debussy album is still one of my favorites, and has what I think is the best rendition of “The Engulfed Cathedral” you could ever hear.
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