31 August 2012

F.C. Judd documentary

Interesting snippets from a documentary on an early british electronic music pioneer.

Video Culture

Cabaret Voltaire, Chris & Cosey and Portion Control all released videos on VHS in the early eighties. The motives for doing so feels quite a bit away from the at the time fairly new MTV. These feel more like precedents to what people like Daniel Lopatin has been doing with Youtube in the last couple of years.

Electric Independence

Just have to give a push for the brilliant Electric Independence series over at Motherboard. Especially the episodes on Chris & Cosey and John Foxx are amazing. A well produced series that deserves all the viewers it can get. Just hopes there'll be more episodes coming soon.
Motherboard

30 August 2012

Chris & Cosey

Last year I kind of discovered Chris & Cosey proper for the first time. I mean, I had been aware of them since the late eighties, through tracks like "Exotika" and "Obssession" from various samplers. But that was in their Nettwerk-period and I must admit it didn't do much for me at the time. Fast forward to a couple of years ago, when stuff like Throbbing Gristle were fully on my radar. (Can't say it was when I first heard of C&C.) Anyway, after listening to TG a while it became quite apparent that the tracks I was most fascinated by, had one thing in common: Chris Carters arpeggios and sequences. So when his solo album from the early eighties "The Spaces Between" were re-released I jumped at it, and quickly started looking for more material. And voila: There was early Chris & Cosey.
Read full review of Heartbeat - CHRIS & COSEY on Boomkat.com © It was one of those "why the hell didn't I discover this before"-moments. It felt like I immediately found the key and origin to so much in modern electronica. I remember reading a review of The Knifes third album, claiming they were inspired by Front Line Assembly, and well, compared to that tracks like "Heartbeat" and "Walking Through Heaven" feels like the blueprint for acts like The Knife.
Read full review of Trance - CHRIS & COSEY on Boomkat.com © Anyway enough of me yapping. The three first Chris & Cosey albums is must buys for any discerning aficionado of electronic music. And if you're up for a more contemporary entry in their discography their latest album as Carter Tutti Void released by Mute this spring, is not to be missed. Few artists have managed to feel so relevant to the scene for as long as they have.
Read full review of Songs of Love & Lust - CHRIS & COSEY on Boomkat.com ©

29 August 2012

Change of tongues and lots of gear announcements

From now on this blog will be published in English mainly instead of Swedish, as it previously was. The older posts will remain in their original form. I've decided to do this because the topics I cover have a very limited audience in the small Swedish speaking world. Anyway, this has been quite an exciting week and day for people interested in synths and electronic music making. So far the following rumors and announcements has surfaced: Elektron has some new machine up their sleeve according to the French shop Modular Square. Korg have announced that they will make a "major announcement" on Tuesday the 4th of september. The net is buzzing with speculation as to what this is. A real analog synth, finally after the Monotrons and Monotribe? Novation is rumoured to be bringing out a new MiniNova soon. A smaller version of their Nova which looks very much like the MicroKorg if the leaked pictures are to be believed. Native Instruments have announced a new version of their Maschine controller. And maybe least exciting Roland is rumored to be releasing a new rack version of their Jupiter-80 workstation. More exciting is Wolfgang Palms new PPG Wavegenerator IOS app, that's been submitted to apple but not approved yet. I'm keen to know the price on this one. The app synths are getting more and more interesting.