Demdike Stare

Something for Halloween. Demdike Stare live at the Boiler Room.

Will Gregory and Adrian Utley

Will Gregory of Goldfrapp and Adrian Utley of Portishead talks studio favorites. A lot of talk about delays and SEM's. Apparently Gregory and Utley have a 2 voice each that was originally part of the same 4 voice. And Utley wishes he had more synths that sounded rubbish. Unmissable stuff, really.

Eliane Radigue

Fascinating short documentary on french electronic music pioneer Eliane Radigue. She talks extensively about her approach to composing on her Arp 2500 synthesizer. (There's some really good shots of the machine in there as well.)

Vintage Swedish EBM

My last post sent some shivers of nostalgia down my spine, so here's some other early acts of Swedish EBM. First out is Inside Treatment. I remember buying their cassette debut "An Introduction To A Mystery" in 1989, and their "Anaesthetic Age" 12" in 1991, but after that I didn't really keep up with their progress. Like so many other acts of this time they released their debut on Front Music Productions and then went on to Energy Rekords, after that label was formed by merging FMP with Electronic Beat Association and Energy. Here's a track from a live show in Köping in Sweden in 1990.



Another band that I was quite infatuated with at the time was Scapa Flow from Uppsala. I ran into one of the members at a party at a common acquaintance a couple of years ago. I remember him telling me about their total naivety to what they were doing and how to use their equipment. Since there wasn't really any Swedish scene when they started out, they were quite free to do what they felt like. Anyway, I bought their debut mini-LP "The Guide" when it came out in 1989 and remember running around in a  Scapa Flow t-shirt in the eighth grade, thinking it was the hippest thing to wear the name of a group nobody else at my school had heard about, like the annoying proto-hipster I was. I never got to see them live though, but here's a clip from a concert in Köping in 1990. (Filmed at the same occasion as the Inside Treatment gig above?)



And then there was Cat Rapes Dog. When I first heard that name, sometime in 1988 when I was thirteen, I remember thinking: Oh, shit, that has to be the coolest band name ever, and quickly ordered their cassette "Property Produces Bodily Injury", released the year before. I was gobsmacked when I listened to the tape and read the lyric sheet. Could you get much radical and cooler! I mean, a synth band that sang about perverted cowboys and acid rain ... When I saw them live just before Christmas in 1989 (I think, it was ..) it was a show that impressed me greatly, though I think that probably had more to do with fact that I was just starting to go to concerts properly and was pretty easily stunned.

At the time I thought very highly of Cat Rapes Dogs' releases and did follow them quite thoroughly, but in retrospect it's probably one of the acts that have aged less well. Except maybe for the tracks on their debut 12" "Columna Vertebralis". The following clip is supposed to be from a live show in 1990. It's pretty crap technically, but the earliest a quick trawl on Youtube turned up.



Another act that are worth a mention is Sepulchre Inc. who only ever released the great 7" "Celebration". I can't find any videos on Youtube, but Celebration is available to stream. And then there are Pouppe Fabrikk of course, from my last post. Probably the one of the bunch who has aged best.

Anyway, That's a brief snippet of the Swedish EBM scene of the late 80's and early 90's, a scene steeped in influences from the 80's industrial and EBM-scene with DAF, Nitzer Ebb, Skinny Puppy, Front 242, The Klinik, à;GRUMH... etc. The Swedish scene would evolve into something a bit more sophisticated a couple of years on, with Covenant at the forefront. A scene that produced music that was much more technically skilled, but not quite as much fun. At least, that's the way I like to remember it.

Pouppee Fabrikk live 1990

A classic Swedish EBM act performing a track from their second album in Stockholm in 1990. My personal favorite is otherwise the debut single "Die Jugend", that I still have lying around on vinyl somewhere along with the first album "Rage". Compared to a lot other Swedish electronic acts (there was quite a dark wave scene emerging in the late eighties) of the day, their early material has aged quite well.

Vatican Shadow at Fylkingen

A couple of weeks ago Dominick Fernow's Vatican Shadow headlined an event arranged by Ideal recordings and Konspirationen at the legendary electronic music venue Fylkingen in Stockholm. The VS gig was part of Fernow's current European and American tour. The other acts playing was Joachim Nordwall, Diskrepant and Dungeon Acid. I was supposed to spend the evening dressed in black tie at my father in laws rather fancy gentlemen's club, but that got cancelled in the last minute and I was able to head of to Fylkingen instead.

The first act out was Ideal owner Joachim Nordwall with a twenty minute barrage of analogue drones. The venue was pitch dark, only intermittently lit by a strobe set at a the lowest possible speed. Then Diskrepant presented a drone set of about the same length. While Nordwall seems to use synthesizers as the main sound source, Diskrepant works with contact microphones and effect boxes as his source material. The result is somewhat less confrontational, leaning more towards the meditative side of drone and dark ambient. Both sets were good, immersing affairs, making you feel slightly dazed afterwards.

The next act out was Jean-Louis Huhta's Dungeon Acid. I've seen DA live once before, at a similar event at Fylkingen in 2010. That was a good one, but this was even better. DA's music could be described as acid techno that blends industrial electronics with classic Detroit vibes. The set played this evening stretched for an hour of non stop beats, but never got boring. Huhta produces some of the most interesting stuff in this genre today. I picked up his latest cassette release "Bliss" at the show. Although a bit calmer and laidback than the music produced live it's well worth checking out.

Then it was finally time for Vatican Shadow. Visually Fernow presented a rather toned down affair, the only thing representing the religious war theme of the project was the American desert style military jacket he put on for the show. At the beginning of the gig Fernow looked much like the other acts, a man crouched over a table full of electronics, but as the music progressed and got more aggressive, so did his movements culminating in spasmatic convulsions, marching and shadow boxing, producing a spray of sweat a couple of meters around him.

The music presented at the 40 minute set brought Vatican Shadow releases such as "September Cell", "Operation Neptune Sword" and the Modern Love album "Ornamented Walls" (that includes ONS) to mind. In other words more distorted and aggressive than some other releases from the project, even though there were quieter parts of the show as well. When the gig finished I ran stunned to the underground to catch a train. Vatican Shadow is surely one of the most interesting projects in the dark techno post-industrial scene right now.

New from Depeche Mode

At a press conference today Depeche Mode announced the first leg of their coming tour following on from the release of their new album in the spring. The event was introduced by a video of a new DM track from the album along with a nice in studio video showing of Martin Gores (at least I presume the majority is his) vast synth collection. Apart from huge modulars (dot com/moog? and eurorack) a Synthi A is seen. And a bunch load of other stuff.

Great vid, ok song, but the disappointing part is that their only gig in Sweden will be at the Peace & Love festival in Borlänge. Not the appropriate setting for a Black Celebration in any sense of the word.

James Bond's screen debut

Well, the Bond fever seems to be on anticipating the Skyfall premiere this week. There's been a lot of specials in magazines and newspapers, cataloguing 007's many guises over the years. Not a few of them tend to ignore the very first screen appearance of the agent, though. In 1954 Barry Nelson starred as Bond in an american television production of Casino Royale. Quite a bit different than both the book and the later movie, this piece of 50's tv drama does introduce one feature of the franchise: the villain, here played by one of the greatest villain interpreters of all time, Peter Lorre. If you can see past the fact that they've made Bond american and calls him Jimmy, it's not a bad piece considering it was aired live, like most tv drama of it's day. Here's a snippet that can be found on Youtube:

Pye Corner Audio

Martin Jenkins' Pye Corner Audio is the latest artist to join the ever fascinating Ghost Box label. I first became aware of PCA after his collaboration with The Advisory Circle in the Ghost Box study series about a year ago, and I must say Jenkins manages to bring something new to the GB brand while still producing music that fits right in with their esthetics.

"Sleep Games", although PCA's debut on Ghost Box, should probably be considered his fourth album, after The Black Mill Tapes vol. 1-3, that Jenkins released as downloads on bandcamp and in various cassette issues. Vol. 1-2 was also released on vinyl earlier this year by Type.


Read full review of Sleep Games - Pye Corner Audio on Boomkat.com ©

The music of PCA contains the same blend of nostalgic retro-futurism that Belbury Poly and The Advisory Circle has made a name from. But PCA brings something else to the genre. Sonically it is a bit more murky sounding, like it really was recorded in some undefined past of a better future. Sometimes I'm almost reminded of the underwater quality of some of Wolfgang Voighs GAS output, especially when it comes to the bass drum. Musically there's a strain of techno and dance music that isn't as apparent with the other Ghost Box artists. Quite often PCA also feels a bit bleaker than the stable mates. All in all it makes for a fresh approach to a sound I've been heavily infatuated with for the last couple of years. If you have the least bit of interest in this type of music, be sure to check out "Sleep Games". And while you're at it stop by Jenkins bandcamp page and pick up volume 3 of the Black Mill Tapes as well.

And after you've given those two a couple of listens and still feel you need more, there's also this one:


Read full review of The Black Mill Tapes Volumes 1&2 - Pye Corner Audio on Boomkat.com ©

eMMplekz

This week Nick Edwards (aka Ekoplekz) and Ian Hicks (aka Mordant Music/Baron Mordant) released their first collaborative effort. The album "Izod Days" under the name eMMplekz was released on white vinyl and as download and contains 14 tracks of wonderfully murky industrial pop. Edwards has provided the music and Hicks contributes vocals and additional effects.

For anybody familiar with the previous output of the two the result isn't altogether unexpected, but pretty damn good nonetheless. The musical references is (as often with Ekoplekz) early industrial, especially Cabaret Voltaire, ca "The Voice of America". "Izod Days" at least shares the general mood with that record, even if there's no found tape voices here, but Hicks voice is sometimes treated as such. Some tracks also remind me of early Portion Control (not surprising considering Hicks history with that band)  and could almost be something left off from their "Progress Report" box set. The quirky pop presented here also brings to mind Conrad Schnitzlers early 80's output.

A particular highlight is "Bocanet". An exquisite piece of murky industrial pop, that manages to be both catchy and uplifting, without ever losing the albums general sense of bleakness and dread. "Izod Days" is very interesting and impressing album and a welcome return of Hicks voice. (That also makes me long for a new full length Mordant Music album proper.)


Read full review of IZOD Days - eMMplekz on Boomkat.com ©

Pauline Oliveros

Pauline Oliveros is one of the true pioneers of electronic music. Still going strong at 80 she have produced quite a massive catalogue during the years. Especially interesting is her work with electronics and tape music in the 60's and 70's. If you want to dip your toes and check out her output the Sub Rosa collection "Four Electronic Pieces 1959-1966" (for those so inclined it's also available on iTunes and Spotify) is a good starting point.


Read full review of Four Electronic Pieces 1959-1966 - PAULINE OLIVEROS on Boomkat.com ©

If you want to dig deeper there's also the massive 12 CD box set released by Important Records recently. Quite unusually they have produced a trailer for the box set. It's a rather proper and dignified affair.



Oliveros is also a a figurehead of improvisational music, and the following clip focuses on that aspect, but also contains a good basic overview of her development as an artist.

Kradak

Today I published my first release from my industrial project Kradak on bandcamp. It's a project I have been planning for a while, but this is the first time I've released anything. The tracks were all recorded to tape on my old Fostex X-77 portastudio and then transferred to Logic. Download for now but thinking of doing a very limited run on CD-r or cassette.

Suzanne Ciani and David Letterman

Suzanne Ciani got invited to talk about her methods and instruments on David Letterman's show. Somehow I find it hard to think of something like this occurring on tv today. Sadly.

The Human League live on TV 1979

The Human League performing "The Path of Least Resistance" from Reproduction on BBC in 1979. Marvelous!



And here's a clip of "Empire State Human" performed on Granada, also in 1979:

Mushroom Chapter

A couple of years ago after having given up on my old electropop/futurepop project Radical Tea Party (a name chosen way before the rise of the movement, and really just referring to the band members as a bunch of lazy sods who liked to drink tea and talk about the problems of the world, without ever really doing anything about it) I felt I needed a more melodic output for my music making, that had by then started to delve in to the less song oriented structures I mostly aim for today.

Anyway, born was Mushroom Chapter. The influences were obviously leaning towards the kind of industrial electronics produced by Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly and others of the same ilk, music that had managed to keep me interested since I first came in to contact with it in the late eighties. Inspiration struck and I quickly recorded seven tracks. Then I kind of forgot about it until a year later, when I recorded two more tracks and found myself with an albums worth of material. Why it took me until now to publish it on bandcamp I don't really know. But now "Brethren of the Fungi" is available to stream for free or download for pay what you want (including free):

Conrad Schnitzler live 1979

After a brisk Sunday walk today in the company of Conrad Schnitzler's amazing 1973 album Rot, I went on the prowl for interesting Con-related clips on youtube and quickly stumbled on this "Space Concert" from 1979. Astonishing as always from Schnitzler.

Ralph Lundsten

A look at the home and studio of legendary Swedish electronic music composer Ralph Lundsten. (It's of course in Swedish, but worth a look for the studio pictures anyway.) Lundsten is a bit of an eccentric and pretty full of himself sometimes, but undoubtedly one of the pioneers of synthesizer music. His Andromeda studio holds a couple of unique pieces, like the "Andromatic" synth, that Lundsten claims to be the worlds first polyphonic synth with a built in sequencer, which might be true (but the less well read presenter who introduces the interview of course gets it wrong and claims that it's the oldest synthesizer in the world...). Apart from the studio, Lundstens pink house Frankenburg also houses the "official" embassy of the Andromeda galaxy, and he issues visa for travel there ...

Lundsten has composed a few theme tunes in his days as well as his less commercial output. His opening theme for the 70's talk show "Kvällsöppet" was baldly going were few Swedish television themes had gone at the time, but less impressive compared to, say the output of the Radiophonic Workshop in the 70's. In this particual instance it's used to introduce an interview with Shirley MacLaine and then leader of the Swedish shadow cabinet, later prime minister Olof Palme.



Most of Lundstens later works fall somewhere between new age and kosmische, but his early works are actually quite good and definitely feels related to what other pioneering composers were doing in the 60's and 70's. The 4 cd box set "Electronic Music from the 60's and 70's by Ralph Lundsten" (whose cover also modestly claims "The king of synthesizer") is a good place to start if you want to investigate his oeuvre. The first two discs actually hold material that is surprisingly good. It's available to buy as download from Plugged records. It is also available on Spotify.

Do the Front 242

Quite an unusual one from Front 242 this one. A live (tv?) version of Commando Mix with some lyrics from Don't Crash thrown in for good measure. And the bullet proof vests. And the dancing. The dancing, the dancing.

Tod Dockstader

Mordant Music recently released a collection of Tod Dockstader's commercial music electronic library music from the late 70's. Whenever I see Dockstader's name on the credits of one of my son's Tom & Jerry movies it brings a smile to my face. He even wrote the script for 1962's "Mouse Into Space":

I haven't quite figured out the connection between Dockstader's Quatermass piece and the dear professor of rocket science of the tv and film series though. Anybody know more about this? Well, anyway don't miss out on the new Mordant Music collection:

Read full review of Electronic Vol. 1 - TOD DOCKSTADER on Boomkat.com ©

Novation Drumstation rescue

About two and a half years ago (I think) I bought a second hand Drumstation for 500 SEK, and was quite pleased with my bargain. But when I plugged it in it turned out the knobs didn't work on it. Well, except for the main volume one. Everything else seemed to be fine with it, it was just the editing part that wasn't there. I went back to the store where I bought it and managed to get them to lower the price to 300 SEK. At the time I was just beginning to set up a hardware studio again after years in the software realm, so I thought it at least would give me some basic drums until I could afford some better ones.

Fast forward to now, and I have two borrowed drum machines in my studio (a Sequential TOM and a Yamaha RX-5) but no easy editable ones. I have been pondering getting rid of the Drumstation for a while and was googling it out of pure chance tonight when I stumbled upon a thread in the Gearslutz forum. It was about people with Drumstation problems very similar to mine. The last entry, made very recently, got me intrigued. The user laitos had apparently the exact same problem as me and had managed to fix it by just changing one contact between the two PCB:s. Sounded to good to be true, but I thought what the heck, might just as well try it, since it isn't worth much half functioning anyway.

So I opened it up and located the the single green wire that was supposed to be the culprit. Indeed the contact seemed to be a bit oxidized. First I tried to clean it but that didn't make any change, so I simply cut it, peeled the wire (as laitos suggested) and wrapped it around the screw before fastening it again. I plugged in the Drumstation and, lo and behold, it's working perfectly. A ten minute repair job, with no new material needed, made my Drumstation, serial nr 107, as good as new.

The user laitos over at Gearslutz didn't provide any picture, and asked anybody else trying the procedure to take some, so I thought I'd put some up here to help others in the same situation locate the wire. The troublesome wire contact is located to the left of the Drumstation (looking at it from the rear) on the  PCB just behind the Congas section.

This is what the cut contact looks like:

It seems there are other varieties of the ailing knobs on the Drumstation and this will most likely not be a solution for everybody. In the thread over at Gearslutz there was some who had trouble with all of the pots, including the master volume one. So tread carefully, I take no responsibility whatsoever for this method. Anyway I got a bit excited about having a working Drumstation and quickly recorded this:

 Polesotechno by AB Lundberg 

Crumar Compac Synth

In the early 70's quite a few of the new compact integrated new synthesizers available on the market were designed to be put on top of an organ, hence got the controls placed under the keyboard in stead of above it as has since become the norm. One of these monosynths were the Compac Synth by the Italian manufacturer Crumar. Crumar is probably best known for the Bob Moog designed Spirit from the early 80's and the BIT-series of polysynths from around the same era. Maybe not big hits in the synth world, but at least minor successes of design in their own right. The Compac however did not maker much of a dent in the market.

The information available on the Compac is scarce to say the least. I bought mine from a second hand music dealer who mainly focused on antique string instruments in the early 90's for 250 Swedish kronas (roughly 30 euros or 25 pounds). It was the first real synth I owned and quite a temperamental beast.

The architecture of the Compac is a bit unusual in that it has two separate voices, playable simultaneously or split in two zones on the keyboard. Each has it's own oscillator, filter and AR envelope. Separate outputs are also available. Sounds quite good for 1973/74, right?

Well, in the case of the one I have, not so much. The two voices have two separate controls for tuning, and unfortunately I was never able to get them to align tunewise. Also, there was no form of external control available. Anyway, I used it quite a lot right after I bought it. And I remember doing one great recording running it through a Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal pedal. Then it fell into disuse.

Nowadays my Compac is not in such a good shape. One of the voices has gone totally and the other one doesn't track very well across the keyboard. I did open it up to try to see what could be done, but quite soon realised my knowledge wasn't quite up there with what was needed to fix this one.

So now the Compac sits among my other gear, without seeing much action unfortunately. As an eye catcher of the more funky kind it still does it's job admirably though.

Suzanne Ciani

Suzanne Ciani on giving a pinball machine a voice. Quite dated clip from the early 80's narrated by Peter Ustinov. But a lot of wonderful gear are visible, among it of course Ciani's legendary Buchla system.



Be sure to check out the great Ciani compilation released by Finders Keepers in February if you haven't already. Quite a no-brainer if you have any interest in early electronic music:


Read full review of Lixiviation - Suzanne Ciani on Boomkat.com ©

Four Just Men

The first episode of the 1959 TV adaption of Edgar Wallace's Four Just Men suite. The full series is available on dvd from Network.

Doctor Who Weetabix

The Daleks sets out to exterminate ... kids eating breakfast?

2000AD seventies advert

An artefact from the days when comic books were advertised with commercials.

Florian Schneider's vocoder poem

Florian Schneiders electronic poem about the Doepfer A-100. Schneider apparently spoke the poem onto the answering machine of Florian Anwander, who then processed it with the A-100 vocoder modules. The full story, of which I wasn't aware until PatchPierre pointed it out to me, is available over at his blog.

Something of a forgotten gem of Kraftwerk meta musical lyricism. But "A-100 nicht so teuer"?

Bruno Spoerri

A wonderful clip of swiss jazz and electronic musician Bruno Spoerri demonstrating the Synthi 100 and the VCS3.



I don't know too much about Spoerri but he seems to have been a collaborator of Can, and Finders Keepers released a collection of music by him from the seventies a few years ago.


Read full review of Gluckskugel - BRUNO SPOERRI on Boomkat.com ©

Spoerri is also featured on several of the Support Finders Keepers compilations, among them the one by Demdike stare, as well as on the Music Minus Music compilation by Andy Votel.


Read full review of Music Minus Music - ANDY VOTEL on Boomkat.com ©