The Pleasures of Electricity

You probably want to head over to One Week//One Band. This week is all posts about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Tape loops, Delia Derbyshire, oscillators, synths, Doctor Who, etc.

Wolfgang Riechmann - Silberland (1978)

This will allow you to stream all the tracks posted to this tumblr like an 88 song mix tape.

Speaking of repeating myself, I notice I’ve mentioned Kraftwerk eleven times, but never posted a Kraftwerk track. That’s something that absolutely needed to be remedied before wrapping up. Some people were dubious when Kraftwerk released the Catalogue box set with no new or unreleased material, excluding the pre-Autobahn releases, redesigning many of the sleeves, and reverting Electric Café back to its original title, Techno-Pop. The idea that once an act releases music it becomes owned by the fans has never sat well with me. I don’t have to like everything George Lucas did to Star Wars, but it’s his life work and I fully defend his right to continue to alter and present it as he sees fit. Changes don’t magically wipe out my memories. Kraftwerk didn’t force me to destroy any previous copies of their albums I owned. I saw them in concert a few ago and it became very clear to me, with the old and new material combined, updated arrangements, and new visuals, that they’ve been continually adding to one long art project for thirty years. The project is theirs to continually re-mix, re-interpret, and re-curate. It’s art non-stop.

Trivia update: This track was mixed by Gary Langan, which goes some way towards explaining the Art of Noise similarity.

This track brought to you by the  power of Google and Discogs. I had heard about Black Devil Disco Club, but hadn’t investigated their music. Then The Strange New World of Bernard Fevre popped up on my radar. A little digging and I discovered that album consists of re-worked tracks from Fevre’s 1975 album, The Strange World of Bernard Fevre, which is a rare French library music album with tracks titles such as “Fantasm,” “Molecule Dance,” and “Pendulum.” I had been led right back to the sort of ‘70s noodly synth albums that had suddenly become fashionable on various music blogs. A bit of contemporary digital archeology. This particular track sounds like a theme for an old John Carpenter movie. 

I must be brief today, as I’m waist-deep in some riveting software requirements for an automated instant ticket distribution system. But I’d rather be in a car with Carl Craig, wearing a sharp suite, cruising the city at night, and blasting this track on the stereo. Like if Michael Mann made a movie about Detroit techno.

I remember being disappointed when this Other Two album first appeared. I don’t know what I was hoping for at the time. In retrospect, it stands apart from New Order better than the other side projects. I think you can see which faction of New Order brought the pop hooks to the table. Even if you think all the instrumental tracks are filler, it’s still worthwhile for the vocal tracks. “Selfish” is a sweet pop tune, like a little white paper bag of colorful candy. And what a delight to hear Gillian Gilbert’s easy, sweet voice.

Transpacific flight to Tokyo. I wake up in coach, neck predictably stiff. How long have I been asleep? What time is it? Does time mean anything when you’re inside an aluminum tube, sliding through the zones? It’s what passes for the middle of the night up here. The cabin is dark, still, except for a blue-grey glowing laptop screen several aisles ahead. Someone else who can’t sleep. On the surface, when you look up at planes, it’s a beautiful lie—commercial flying seems smooth, serene. Somehow, right now it is. I slide the shade halfway up and peek outside, half expecting to see Kubrick’s space station performing its cold ballet. But nothing, just black and the pulsing lights on the wing. Might as well try to fall back asleep. I’ll be grateful for the extra rest when I hit Narita, the JR Express, and finally the organized crush of Shinjuku station.

There’s so much to love about this song: The solo synth at the beginning that goes on longer than you expect, and then the payoff after that when the track explodes; the headlong pitter-patter chug of the drum machine; and the way the opening synth line organizes itself and returns, twisting and cascading around the vocals . It all reminds me of a time when the technology was fresh and exciting and musicians were inspired to make crazy joyous noises.

For today, enjoy this Lackluster track, released by the excellent deFocus label in 2000. The label was run by Clair Poulton, who had previously been associated with Clear and Rephlex. deFocus material lives at the techno/electro end of the IDM spectrum. The deFocus albums by Lackluster, CiM, and Esem are well worth tracking down.

Blancmange always struck me as bouncing between songs very much influenced by Talking Heads, and songs influenced by OMD (“Waves” definitely falls into the OMD category). Those influences fused into a more unique sound as the band progressed. I’ve always thought Blancmange were a bit undervalued. Maybe people wrote them off as just another synth duo, but I’ve always found them quirky, sometimes funny, and at least a bit charmingly absurd.

I wish I had something insightful to say about Severed Heads, but they were a deaf spot in my electronic music listening until recently picking up 2007's ComMerz compilation. I think I owned a copy of one of their Nettwerk albums twenty-some year ago, most likely because I was into Nettwerk at the time. With a name like Severed Heads I'm sure I was expecting them to sound like Skinny Puppy. Instead, what you have here is something very influenced by '70s Kraftwerk.