MOTM

Sure I can throw out some opinions.

First of all, SOB 2000 is probably my *least* favorite work in her catalog
by a huge margin, followed by her "Peter & the Wolf" CD with Weird AL
Yankovich, although every now and then it's fun to throw that last one on. I
really don't know why she spent valuable years creating that album.

The SOB Boxed set, if you can justify the price, really is great. It's worth
it for the huge booklet that comes with it, as well as a handful of rare
out-take tracks.


Other high points in her career:


For me, the "Wendy Carlos' Clockwork Orange" soundtrack, recently
re-released, is a gem. The variety of tracks, including the wonderful
"Timesteps" which is an anomaly in her career, all performed on the Big Moog
is just wonderful. If I had to have one Carlos album, this would be it.

(I didn't care so much for the recent sequel album ["Tales of Heaven &
Hell"] that she did, personally.)

For ground-breaking yet listenable work in unusual tunings, "Beauty in the
Beast" can't be beat. I think it may be hard to find right now; she is
(has?) supposedly been working on remastering it for East-Side Digital.

"Digital Moonscapes" is a nice album for smooth orchestral timbres. It's
almost 'easy listening electronic music.' 

Her CD essay on 'how she did it,' "Secrets of Synthesis," is very nice (if
you can find it) for those of us building our own modulars, although
sometimes her opinions of modulars is colored by the bad experiences she had
in the pioneering days and must be taken with a grain of salt.

"Sonic Seasonings" is a 2-disc set with environmental/ambient music on it.
The new CD has three bonus tracks, too. It's Moog timbres mixed with
environmental sounds, pretty unique for the time, and it still stands up.
Great background for reading 'Carlos Castaneda' books.

(She's currently struggling to get the rights to re-release her work for
"Tron" and "The Shing" too. Tron is good stuff, her compositions played half
by an orchestra and half in the studio on synthesizer. Of "The Shing,"
little is known. Two tracks made it onto the vinyl soundtrack album, and the
film, but in interviews at the time she said that she recorded six hours of
music for that film, at the time she called it "some of my best work," and
yet it's locked in a vault because it belongs to the Kubrick estate... it
may never see the light of day.)

Hope this helps.

-----Original Message-----
From: moog@... [mailto:moog@...] 
Sent: Wednesday, 05 September, 2001 11:16 AM
To: Tkacs, Ken
Cc: 'motm@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: Re: [motm] OT: Electronic Music CDs

Anyone have recommendations for Wendy Carlos on CD ?
I wish i could afford the box set but cannot, any alternatives ?
Ive heard SOB 2000 is not very good.
Jim

In a message dated 9/5/2001 11:52:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
ken.tkacs@... writes:


> 
> 
> "Sonic Seasonings" is a 2-disc set with environmental/ambient music on it.
> The new CD has three bonus tracks, too. It's Moog timbres mixed with
> environmental sounds, pretty unique for the time, and it still stands up.
> Great background for reading 'Carlos Castaneda' books.
> 
> 

ken,
for me, this is the most interesting carlos disc.  and, casteneda, 
too........... definitely a power duo right out of my grieviously mis-spent 
youth..........  :^)
best,
dave