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 ...
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Wht about the original “Doctor Who” theme music? Peformed by the BBC Radiophonic workshop, it is an early example of analog synthesized music.
CC
Isao Tomita put out a couple of albums of electronic music in the early ‘70s.
Literally wore out my copy of Switched On Bach, I listened so many times.
I had Tomita’s Debussy album “Snowflakes Are Dancing.” Very good synthesizer music to listen to under the big bulky Koss headphones.
Pink Floyd had some electronic cuts (like the main theme to More) but the album contained a lot of less “electronic” cuts as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz9EjhTfc2A
I'll see if I can find an album (late 60s early 70s) that included a cover of the Dr Who theme along with other electronic songs (the Dr Who cut almost goes reggae dub at a point).
I’m sorry, I should have given a time frame. Doctor who first came out in 1963.
CC
ELP was THE Techno-Rock.
The first song that I recall using a Moog Synthesizer was The Beatles’ “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”
I LOVED “Switched On Bach”! There was also a Christmas Album which was terrific.
Dad and I listened to these on HUMONGOUS Altec-Lansing Voice-Of-The-Theater Speakers. (Each the size of a washing machine).
He also issued an album in which ground up coral from the Bahamas was put in between the top and bottom layers of vinyl. You could here the bits of coral as the diamond needle knocked them loose. I only played the album once.
OK, it was just the first things that came to mind. another thing that comes to mind is one of Walter/Wendy Carlo’s compositions. It was a riff on Elgars “pomp and circumstance marches” entitled “pompous circumstances” reimagining the basic melody through other classical artists styles. I recorded it off of CBC 1 radio when I was a teenager.
CC
Yes...I had that Pink Floyd album with the Dr. Who music.
>>Isao Tomita put out a couple of albums of electronic music in the early ‘70s.<<
He did “The Planets.”
We used to listen to that all night at the dorm.
I know Floyd briefly referenced the Dr Who theme on “One of These Days”.
Supposedly they dabble with it on Meddle and more so in the live versions
Thinking the future of music!
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