Out-of-print and hard to find 1961 album of recordings made of a concert of some pioneers of electronic music. From Wikipedia:
“Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center was an album of electronic music released in 1961. It was the recording of a concert performed at the McMillin Theatre (today called the Miller Theatre) at Columbia University on May 9 and 10, 1961. (…)
The Arel composition is completely electronic, with articulated signals over a continuous background texture. El-Dabh’s composition, an “electronic drama,” has a text drawn from the epic of Layla and Majnun, and consists primarily of tape manipulated instrumental and vocal sounds. Ussachevsky’s work has lyrics derived from the Enuma Elish creation myth, with chorus and electronic accompaniment. Babbitt’s piece is composed entirely on the RCA Synthesizer. Davidovsky created a work manipulating sine wave, square wave, and white noise generators. Luening’s composition combines solo violin with RCA Synthesizer sound followed by tape manipulation.“
I was pretty damn pleased to find a very good copy of this at my local Goodwill for only 99 cents. Here’s my rip, at 320kbps.
Track list: 1. Bülent Arel: Stereo Electronic Music No. 1 2. Halim El-Dabh: Leiyla and the Poet 3. Vladimir Ussachevsky: Creation—Prologue 4. Milton Babbitt: Composition for Synthesizer 5. Mario Davidovsky: Electronic Study No. 1 6. Otto Luening: Gargoyles
If I get a chance, I may get a friend who has a spiffy, large-format scanner to scan both sides of the cover. The above image is one I found on the ‘net.
Bob Moog would have been 75 today.
One of my first ever virtual fan letters I ever sent someone when I first got onto the web was to Bob Moog. I received a reply a week later that I am pretty certain was from him and not from an assistant, webmaster, etc. (I like to think so anyway).
Bob’s innovations transformed music forever. He was also a humble man who made it clear that he was just one in a long line of inventors and researchers.
The documentary on him, Moog is fascinating and I highly recommend it.
You can also visit The Bob Moog Foundation’s blog here.
I ran across the wonderful Sacred Dub website over a year ago, when preparing for a big Bill Laswell marathon radio show.
Its discography on Laswell’s music was indispensable in my research into the murky waters of his work. At the time, I realized that they were podcasting, but was under the impression that they were either only sporadically ‘casting or had just begun.
Well, they are now at 50-plus shows. Each show runs the gamut of Laswell-related artists. Considering the length and breadth of his work, it’s more a question of who’s not involved.
‘ve been putting the finishing touches on my show, which will go on tomorrow evening, from 9PM to Midnight (Pacific).
It’s my hope that those even fairly familiar with Laibach will find some surprises and new sounds and that those unfamiliar will become illuminated.
I was fortunate enough to not only secure a long enough slot to go into the length and breadth of the Laibach/NSK phenomenon, but was also able to get Laibach founding member and spokesman Ivan Novak on the phone for an interview on the eve of the Portland show. That was exciting for me, as I am a huge fan.
I don’t want to go into too much detail as to what’s going to happen, but I do hope you tune in, if you can.
Blurb below:
A Three Hour Laibach Special
Join us for a three hour marathon of music from Laibach and NSK (Neue Slovenische Kunst).
For over twenty years, Laibach has been twisting insipid pop songs into sinister anthems, turning the art world upside down with menacing imagery and film, utilizing political propaganda systems as readymades in an unrelenting assault on dogmatic beliefs while revealing the ‘hidden reverse’ inherent in Western culture.
We’ll explore the world of Laibach’s music, their cryptic and often purposely contradictory ideology, hear from compatriot Slavoj Žižek, as well as music by side projects 300,000 V.K., Germania and an interview with founding Laibach member and spokesman Ivan Novak, recorded on the eve of their Portland show.
Laibach is currently on tour in the US and their latest album Volk turns anthems from around the world – both ancient and modern – into lovely pop songs.
That’s on KBOO Community Radio at 90.7 FM in Portland, 100.7 FM in
Corvallis & Albany, and 91.9 in The Gorge and streaming worldwide at kboo.fm/listen
Here’s a spontaneous radio stew that was brewed up at a moment’s notice on last night’s Outside World, with ingredients selected by Yaney, Mssrs Dodge and Phillip and mixed by yours truly.
We played this at about 2AM, seemingly only to some nice lady who wandered in off the streets and was tripping out to it in the back studio lounge.
Play
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This is the follow-up to my personal nostalgic romp from February. As tag-team partner to Mr. B., the other half of the so-called Octave Doctors, Equinox would take over the board at 3:30 AM or so and would play a mix of space-rock, ambient and prog-rock until the sun came up. His mostly-instrumental mix made a great soundtrack for my all-night drawing binges. It made it easier for me to visualize some of the bizarre, otherwordly stuff I’d dream up in the trance-like state that type of music was capable of. It was also the first time I was aware of the power of mixing music together to form a new composition. Eno would blend into Van Der Graaf Generator, which would morph into Peter Gabriel. Whoever the mysterious Equinox was, he certainly knew how to warp space and time with his musical selections.
Here’s an iTunes mix that I’ve been listening to for a while that is very evocative of the kind of music he would play. For the complete effect, I like to listen to this immediately after the previous STF mix when I’m desk-bound in long projects (now you know why part one ends with an intermission bit).
Playlist:
Kraftwerk – Nachrichten
Gong – Magick Mother Invocation
Steve Hillage -Activation Meditation/The Glorious OM Riff
Arthur Brown – 2024
Kraftwerk – It’s More Fun To Compute
Brian Eno – Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch/Baby’s on Fire
A departure of sorts for British industrial band Test Dept. Gone is the found object metal percussion and strident political agitprop that made them so famous and controversial – this being a largely instrumental electronica affair. Nice, hip-hoppish, aggro beats throughout. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve suspected the help of Jack Dangers, as the beats are bass-heavy and somewhat edgy. This is also the last proper Test Dept. album (save for a live outing recorded in 1990 that came out in 2002). Although not typical of their total output, this is one of my favorites.
Tactics for Evolution (1997)
1. Enigma of Doctor Dee
2. Unforgiven
3. Voyager
4. Atlantis
5. 2 Ghettos
6. Dark Light
7. Motivation
8. Miotica
9. Vena Cava (Life Blood)
10. Rat
Easy Listening for Difficult Fuckheads
Underground Inc.
A mixed bag from the multi-star-spangled juggernaut that Martin Atkins (PiL, Killing Joke) calls Pigface.
I don’t know what to make of an album that tells me to “fuck conformity, fuck the mainstream” but then contains some of the most ready for Clearchannel Nu-Rock spuzz (Blow You Away, Bitch, King of Negativity) and formulaic quirky Goth-girl pop (Sweetmeat) imaginable. It does feature a cool version of Delta 5’s Mind Your Own Business, a weird turn by Ex-KMFDM’s En Esch and a dreamy track from My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult’s Groovie Mann (Closer to Heaven- which also features ex-PiL member Keith Levene, making it a reunion of sorts), which is heads above anything Thrill Kill’s done in a long time. Chris Connely makes an appearance on Miss Sway Action, a floating, Berlin period-Bowie-esque tune. There’s certainly a wide array of styles and genres represented here, so you’re a little less likely to be completely disappointed. Add to that a calculated faux rant piece by Penn Jillette as the closer that is sure to only shock/annoy/entertain those who didn’t hear it coming.
