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A Personal History of Electronic Music |
After this very little caught my attention in the electronic music field for a long time. I would occasionally buy another T. Dream CD, only to feel disappointed. Hawkwind would occasionally produce a stunning electronic keyboard based piece, but were mainly (and very effectively), guitar driven.
Pink Floyd Hardly a synthesiser band, but their innovative use of found sounds and treated sounds tend to make the a favourite of those who like electronic music. They can get the sounds right without using the usual instruments to get there. And some tracks like 'On the run' from 'Dark side of the Moon' or 'One of these days' from 'Meddle' are paradigms of what E.M. should sound like.
Eno? Brian Eno is widely credited as the inventor of Ambient music, and some of his work seems very close to the electronic genres. Not least his willingness to use all sorts of unexpected sources for music - even making a good track using the Portsmouth Synfonia! (For those not in the know, this 'orchestra' was best known for letting anyone join who felt like it, regardless of ability. The results were generally a complete mess). 'Another Green World' is dominated by beautiful instrumental pieces, (I sometimes think that every track has been used as the theme to a BBC2 program at some point!). Apollo Atmospheres is absolutely beautiful, though it gains its space atmosphere, (if you will forgive the oxymoron), mainly through echoed guitars.
Jean Michael Jarre. Well, he's OK I suppose, but frankly one 'best of' collection by him does me just fine. If anyone asked me during this period if I liked electronic music, I would have definitely said 'yes'. The problem was there was not much good stuff around, and even less good new stuff. Perhaps my mistake was not to investigate the 'dance' section of the shop...
The Orb. About 1990 I heard 'The Orb' for the first time. And in particular, 'Little Fluffy Clouds', from U. F .Orb. I've seen it referred to in reviews of orb concerts as 'The one with the tune', and it really is rather exceptional. Starting with what sounds like a BBC radio announcer commenting on the sounds of summer, within seconds the synths are pulsing away and samples of Ricky Lee Jones wittering on about little fluffy clouds in the desert are coming in. Apparently she tried to sue them for making her sound stupid, but its hard to blame them for that... While the rest of the album was not as catchy, it had enough good material to fill its two CD's. But after a couple of good releases the quality control went offline, and their stuff was no longer worth getting.
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