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A Personal History of Electronic Music |
Well, I recently started buy a lot more electronic music again. And one of the most useful things I found were personal lists of favourite bands and tracks on personal web pages. This was a great help in deciding what to try. And with modern online music shops having some rather good opportunities to listen to samples before buying, this is a lot easier than it used to be, even with relatively obscure stuff. And much of the stuff I like is not widely reviewed in the music press. I've done it as one pages, so you can read it without clicking next buttons, also you can print it if you really want to!
Personally I began to notice electronic instruments at the same time as many others, when the Moog Synthesiser started to become widely used. Although not the first electronic instrument by a long way, (the theramin, renowned for making swooping spooky noises as you waved a hand near it was used frequently for films, notably 'Forbidden Planet' long before this). I think that perhaps the first things I heard were the "Switched on Bach" pieces by Walter, (later Wendy), Carlos. But the very precise nature of Bach's work sounded rather sterile to me at the time, almost mechanical, so I largely ignored it. It was clever, but not exciting.
Keith Emerson, in Emerson Lake and Palmer was doing interesting things with keyboards, but they were still fairly conventional. I bought their stuff and enjoyed it, but it wasn't really anything you would call electronic.
For me, as I suspect for many, the big change came when John Peel started playing Tangerine Dream, and more specifically Phaedra. Even with the limitations of radio, this was clearly something rather special, unlike anything heard before. It remains widely regarded as a highlight of the genre, and rightly so. The title track occupies one whole side of the original album and its strengths are very much the strengths of the band at this period. With three synthesisers, (no drums, no guitars, no bass), the feel is almost wholly electronic. Starting with floaty shimmery noises, a deep pulsing rhythm gradually establishes itself, and forms the core of the track. Over this other strange sounds come and go, including one spectacularly beautiful but brief, powerful melodic theme. As the main rhythm line accelerates to a crash, it ends with thunderously deep slow chords, and high pitched echoey noises like distant seagulls or children. For me it evokes strong feelings of floating, falling drowning. Listen through headphones, with the lights out! There were two major problems with the album. One, it is very short. And two, the quality of the original vinyl pressings on the virgin label was awful. I got through several copies before getting it on CD.
These days much of Tangerine Dream's back catalogue has been compiled into various combinations, so if you want to get the material on this album you may well be better off with these. The tracks are: Phaedra, Movements of a Visionary, Mysterious Semblance at the strand of Nightmare, and Sequent C. They followed this up with two more stunning albums, Rubicon, (also very short), and Ricochet, (live). After this guitar and even drums became more prominent. To my taste they went off the boil, and though they made some good albums, nothing came close again.
If you do want to try their later material, the album 'Tangram' is rated very highly by those who like the mid period. 90's period is really for collectors only.
While waiting for stuff to be released after Phaedra, I explored their back catalogue, which was on expensive import release. Though the albums are sometimes a bit inconsistent, many have excellent and innovative work - but if you value your sanity avoid the first release, 'Electronic Meditation' - unless you consider someone hitting a coffee machine with a stick music! The better stuff - 'Atem' contains some of their loudest and most aggressive work, including the amazing 'Wahn', which I can only describe as the attack of the acapella cosmic space Zulu's. 'Zeit' is distant warblings over a string quartet drone, very minimal and miserable, but evocative.
It is worth noting the playing style during this period - very little was planned, and concerts were very largely improvised, though frequently drifting into recognisable pieces. This made the concerts extremely popular, and ensured a busy market in bootleg tapes. However, note that huge amounts of material from this period is available legitimately under the 'Tangerine Tree' project. Basically the band turn a blind eye, as long as no one sells anything, and its all passed on for free. These disks were also the basis for the much cleaner 'Bootleg Box, Volume 1' official release. At the time of writing the fifth set of live disks is due soon, and with typically over 20 disks in each set, there is a LOT of great material available for the fan.
Links are provided at the end of this article, but it is not really a good starting point for getting to know the band.
At this time I was hungry for more, but not much else was available.
The hugely productive Klaus Schulze was part of T. Dream at the very beginning, and I tried listening to his material. This is not as approachable as the dream stuff, but can still prove very powerful. The three best known albums from this period are Blackdance, Cyborg (a double), and Timewind. The style is consistent with hypnotic intricate much repeated sequences running for about 25 minutes. The mood is downbeat, there is not much variety within the long tracks, but it can prove strangely effective. As implied, in the intervening years Mr Schulze has produced a lot of material, with quite a variation in style, (anyone want to hand over the cash for a 50 CD boxed set?!?!), the bulk of which I have not heard, though recently I have taken to trying some of his 'Dark side of the Moog' stuff, done with Pete Namlook, and with a pleasant lighter tone.
I tried some other German experimental stuff, but found little that appealed. "Galactic Supermarket" was not very good, (it was apparently done by a producer recording stoned musicians without their knowledge, then mixing the results together!).
Kraftwerk came along, but did not appeal to me. Their minimal approach reminded me very much of the precision of the Switched on Bach, and was too mechanical for my taste.
'You' by Gong was a very pleasant surprise - previously mainly known for their extreme silliness. (and releasing a vinyl LP at 48 pence!), this work with Steve Hillage showed excellent blending of guitar, flute, and burbling warbling synthesisers. Unfortunately not very typical of their work, (apart from incessant references to flying teapots and pot head pixies), this is an absolute masterpiece.
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