Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM
Subject: Re: [motm] OT: Electronic Music Albums
From: jwbarlow@...
Date: 2003-03-05
I've been enjoying this thread as I always do when we start drifting off towards music since I always learn something. And I always enjoy Mr. T's and Trenkel's stuff since they always have a bunch of things which I recognize and like, and a bunch of stuff which I haven't heard before.
I was just listening to a CD by Gong today and I started thinking how few bands have done a harder edge rock with electronics (and I'm not thinking of Uriah Heep). I guess I'm thinking less prog and more hard rock, and more noisy than "keyboardy" -- Crimson, Gong, Pere Ubu, Bowie (Low through Scary Monsters), Talking Heads (Remain in Light), Ornette Coleman's Prime Time (Of human Feelings), Zappa, Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society -- these all kind of hit the mark at least in some way.
Anyone have any suggestions here?
BTW, for the Eno ambient crowd let me recommend Jon Hassell -- especially his "Fourth World vol. 1 Possible Musics" with Brian Eno. Really great music!
JB
In a message dated 3/3/2003 8:56:35 AM Pacific Standard Time, ken.tkacs@... writes:
∗POP ELECTRONICS∗
_(Not primarily electronic music, but synthesizers get used to good effect)_
"Tubular Bells" who doesn't know about Mike Oldfield? "Hergest Ridge" is a classic, too, but he remixed and ruined it, and you just can't find a copy of the original anymore. "Five Miles Out" is fun if you've only heard Hall &Oates' version of "Family Man."
Anything by "golden age" YES, but "Close to the Edge" is a real high point for progressive rock. Complex, long compositions that just seem effortless. "YesSongs" for Wakeman's solo...
As for solo albums by YES members, you just have to have Wakeman's "Six Wives..." album, and "Criminal Record" is also a classic. "White Rock" sent me to the store to buy an MS-10 with my allowance, decades ago. Do not begin your Wakeman collection with "No Earthly Connection," an album I've always assumed was a dig at Jon Anderson for "Topographic Oceans."
"Olias of Sunhillow" is one of my favorite albums of all time, yet it's virtually unknown, even being the first solo work of Jon Anderson. It's alien electronic folk, if you can imagine that. My father called it "Chinese music" I think because of Anderson's layered, high-pitched vocals and lots of cymbals and bells. But he recorded it in Vangelis' studio, and you can sorta tell.
Anything by Gentle Giant, but "Octopus" and "Freehand" are incredible. The pieces "Knots" and "On Reflection" got my high school band reading books on music theory to understand counterpoint better.
The band Premiata Forneria Marconi (aka "PFM") has some good stuff, obviously inspired by many of the great 70's bands. "Photos of Ghosts" gets a lot of play here.
Emerson Lake &Palmer ("ELP") surely needs no introduction, nor does their paramount album "Brain Salad Surgery." But don't miss "Trilogy" either, gentler but very well done.
Genesis: "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" has some very good moments, 'Carpet Crawlers' being fantastic.
King Crimson: intense, and with attitude, these guys keep going! Check out "Red," and "Discipline" may be their best album ever, with every note a jewel, but for Mellotron second only to 'Six Wives,' you have to have "In The Court of the Crimson King." Recently remastered.
"War of the Worlds" by Jeff Wayne. I didn't want to like this 2-CD set, but I do. I loved the novel, and the George Pal movie, and here's the "rock opera." It dwells too long on certain less-important plot points, but in general it's catchy and moving. After a second listen, you will be humming '...but still they came,' "Forever Autumn," and "Spirit of Man." "Red Weed" sounds like the whole track was recorded with the mod wheel pushed up... weird, but it works.
"Ashes are Burning" &Scheherazade" by Renaissance. Progressive folk. Good stuff. Not prog-Celtic like Steeleye Span (whose 'Below the Salt' is a must-have). Great vocals.
"Trans Europe Express" by Kraftwerk. Gotta have a little Kraftwerk!
"Birdy," "Security" by Peter Gabriel. Larry Fast on keyboards during Gabriel's golden age.
"Eskimo" by the Residents. Love the fresh approach to music these guys take. "George &James" and "Stars &Hank Forever" are classics, too.
"Happy the Man" &"Crafty Hands" by Happy the Man. Boy are these good albums. The first two minutes of "Starborne" just lulls me into some weird, big, dark, empty space that I don't want to leave. Also check out Kit Watkins' solo career on albums such as "Azure," which is fantastic.
"Mister Heartbreak" by Laurie Anderson. Some people hate her for "O Superman," but she really created some unique, landmark works during her career, and this is one of them.
"Fish Rising" by Steve Hillage (of the original 'Gong'). Psychedelic, swirling, Echoplex, mystical lyrics, guitar... a kind of a classic that not many have discovered. Fun album.
"Spartacus" by Triumverat. At the time, many griped "ELP rip-off," but in the dearth of good music that followed for decades, don't we need more good progressive rock? ;)
"The Story of i" by Patrick Moraz. 'Thick' album, needs remastering, ostensibly rushed so that he could work on YES' "Relayer" album, but still has wonderful moments. A very knotted up concept album.
"Glassworks" by Philip Glass. It's true---Koyanisqaatsi is a high point of Western music (and the movie is a must-see, too), but don't miss this collection of "smaller" hypnotic works.
"Winter Songs" by Art Bears, and "In This Life" by Thinking Plague; ReR Records has some weird stuff, like demonic folk music. Unusual scales, attention-getting vocals.
"Low," side 2, by David Bowie. Fabulous, incredible... Brian Eno!