Category Archives: synth

INTERVIEW WITH HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS-MEMORIES OF 40 YEARS MAKING MUSIC

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Source: INTERVIEW WITH HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS-MEMORIES OF 40 YEARS MAKING MUSIC

A perfect primer to the career of one of Krautrock/Ambient Music’s most influential pioneers.

Songs of The Day: Jean Yves Labat – Orbit, and Matrix 16

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Though lesser known than his debut (recorded under the moniker M. Frog), Jean-Yves Labat’s follow up LP, Underwater Electronic Orchestra, is a far more rewarding effort to these ears. Some Prog, some Psych and a whole lotta synth. Would have perfectly on the collectable Pôle Records roster.

Song of The Day: Johan Timman – Look Out For The Killer

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

I’m well overdue for getting into the Halloween season spirit, so let me start off with this amazing, creepy, synthesizer workout from Johan Timman. This wasn’t written for a soundtrack, but appears on Timman’s sole LP, 1981’s Trip Into The Body. From the title to the fortress of synths, to the keytar and talk box, this track has got everything you could want from the era. Someone please license this, so it can take it’s rightful place in a Horror flick.
http://www.discogs.com/Johan-Timman-Trip-Into-The-Body/master/44073

A different, slightly longer version. I can’t believe there exists two video versions of this rarity.

Check out the Proto-Metal madness of Geoff Krozier’s Indian Medicine Magik Show (and, yep, it’s a magic(k) show), from 1970!

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

Awesome heavy sounds from Australian magikal madman, Geoff Krozier and band. Imagine Arthur Brown (not only flaming head, but fire eating, as well) performing Heavy Metal Magik, while a band bash away in full on Sabbath freakout mode (complete with Gibson SG and a fucking digeridoo, coz Australia, motherfuckers!). Fire, a live chicken, smoke machines, face paint, shit this show sets the stage for a generation of acts to follow, not the least of which would be the theatrics of Alice Cooper, Kiss, Motley Crue and WASP, and this is on an Australian national television performance! I can barely express how glad I am to have discovered this.

Krozier would later perform with Von Lmo’s groundbreaking No Wave act, Kongress, and record a series of synthesizer based music, some of which is to be released on Finders Keepers Records, as Krozier & The Generator.

And here’s some footage of Krozier with Kongress…


And a couple of solo Magik Art performance clips, in the first of which, he greatly resembles Lo Pan from Big Trouble In Little China, which would not be released until five years after his death. Maybe John Carpenter saw a Krozier gig ( I can dream, at least).

Check out the new Jane Weaver video, I Need A Connection

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

In my continuing posts of new Jane Weaver videos, I present the third video from her sixth LP, The Silver Globe, which recently received a deluxe issue with an extra ten track EP, The Amber Light. Technically The Silver Globe came out last year, but with this reissue, I’m not gonna let that stop me from putting it on my Top Ten new releases of the past year, a fact repeated on the singles list with Don’t Take My Soul (I admit, kinda obsessed with that one).

Jane Weaver has been turning out delicately crafted, high quality releases of Acid Folk and Psychedelic Space Pop, predominantly on her on Bird Records, since the late nineties, but The Silver Globe is, without question, her most fully realized work to date. With a production team that includes her husband, Andy Votel, and fellow obscure record hoarder David Holmes, Weaver’s psychedelic tendencies are on full display, seamlessly incorporating Pop sensibility with dreamy lysergic hallucination, and that’s the real genius of the album. It veers from the Pop to the Psych so subtly, that you don’t realize the amount of each in the other. Quite a feat, and it’s how the album can shape shift from the Krautrock of Argent, to the synth, almost New Wave (think The Cars meet Robert Calvert) of The Electric Mountain, followed by the ghostly Badalamenti vibes of Arrows, then the Kate Bush update of Don’t Take My Soul, all sequenced as though on a precious mixtape, one song meaningfully segueing into the next. It’s a classic record in that sense, best listened to from beginning to end, in order to truly grasp it’s strength.

Oh, and she just released an extended 12″ of experimental synth work in collaboration with synth pioneer, Suzanne Ciani! (search the archives here for great vintage footage of Ciani at work)

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/jane-weaver-suzanne-ciani-andy-neotantrik-globes/583979-01/
http://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/search/jane+weaver
http://thequietus.com/articles/16473-jane-weaver-the-silver-globe-review
https://janelweaver.bandcamp.com/

Prepare for the Halloween season, with Factmag’s list of the 100 greatest Horror soundtracks

Posted by Palmer Eldritch on

If capitalism and it’s necessary corollary, consumerism (or maybe, vice versa), can keep pushing the Xmas season further out, I say we do the same for Halloween. Halloween: it’s not just a night anymore. Star the holiday season off right and check out Factmag for a diverse list of scary scores to get you in the mood. While, as with any such list, you can gripe about omissions, inclusions (actually, I have no complaint with any inclusion here), placement, etc, it’s still a great list that covers a wide berth. As someone who watches alotta Horror, and has a particular fondness for the soundtracks, the Factmag list kept surprising me with some truly obscure. and fantastic, selections, and has prompted me to check out some more modern sounds in the field (not that I haven’t been enjoying many of the new composers/bands that have been arising, already).

Horror soundtracks are currently enjoying an unprecedented level of interest, with numerous labels (Waxwork, Death Waltz, One Way Static, and others) currently releasing these soundtracks, some reissued, but many legitimately pressed for the first time. Not only that, you have a whole new crew of musicians and composers/producers dedicated to playing these vintage sounds. Artists and bands like Umberto, Brian Reitzell, Zombi, Nightcrawler and Crypt Vapor are introducing this genre to a whole new legion of fans. It’s also tremendously gratifying to see that originators like Goblin, Fabio Frizzi and now John Carpenter (his first live performance EVER is at ATP in Iceland, 2016!!!) performing for excited fans of a wide age range.

Without further ado, here’s Factmag’s list

The 100 greatest horror soundtracks


And interviews with the heads of the three labels mentioned above
http://www.horrornewsnetwork.net/articles/62-horror-movies/8076-the-revenge-of-the-vinyl-horror-soundtrack
A favorite, from a composer who I absolutely love, that I was pleasantly surprised to see included, proving the broad scope of sounds that fall into this category.