MOTM

O.k. I'm sure this has been covered before but I don't "Yahoo" so I
can't check the archives.  I discovered electronic music in the
eighties, along with a local used record store where all the good stuff
(Jarre, TD, Kitaro, etc.) was in a corner for cheap - cuz I guess it
wasn't Maddona or Duran Duran.  The groups/artists listed in this recent
thread are new to me.  Would anyone be willing to make a little list of
artists/albums with real brief descriptions or comparisons to "known"
standards of reference?  It is always a joy for me to discover a new EM
record, let alone a whole new artist/catalog.

So here's what I mean: 

Artist: Triumvirat
Albums: Spartacus, Julius Caesar, The Sacking of Alexandria
Style: prog rock

Artist: Kayak
Albums:
Style:  Like Jarre with some TD  

Of course the above is made up, but that's the idea.  

Thanks,
Larry D. (from The People's Republic of Detroit)


Alan Wagner wrote:

> 
> Triumvirat! I still listen to Spartacus from time to time! And yup, I still
> have my Kayak Albums and Camel, and Nectar, and Barcley James Harvest, and
> Renaissance, and........
> 
>

OK Larry, here goes,

'Spartacus' is my personal favorite Album by Triumvirat. You can still get a
copy from www.Cdnow.com. They are basically a Kraut Rock version of ELP.
Keyboard, Bass, Drums. Excellent Mini-Moog antics! 'Pompeii' and 'Illusions
on a double Dimple' are also very good. If you get a copy you won't be
disappointed!

Kayak is a late 70's early 80's prog rock band from Holland that in the
middle of their career sounded (IMO) Genesisy. Notable albums are 'Royal Bed
Bouncer', 'Starlight Dancer', and 'Phantom of the Night' (Best one AFAIC).
Good keyboards and orchestrations but not much EM...

Rennaisance is another of my prog rock favorites. Lots of orchestrations and
the voice of Annie Haslam is to die for! No electronics but the talent more
than makes up for it. 'Scheherazade' is my personal favorite followed by
'Turn of the Cards' (the song Mother Russia is awesome). If you have a prog
rock collection these are must have. There are sound samples at Cdnow Turn
of the Cards.

Ditto for the other bands I mentioned...

Now if you're into electronic space rock and science fiction you need to
check out Hawkwind. Vcs3's with bleeps bloops and all the trimmings set to
grungy guitars mixed with weirdness! No two albums are the same... My
personal favorite album is 'Quark Strangness and Charm'. Then again
'Allieenn 4', or 'Doremi Fasol Latido', 'Chronicles of the Black Sword' are
also very good! They have tons of material out there including many live
versions which are quite often very different (and good) from the studio
versions... Oh yeah, BTW, their bass player Lemmy went on to form Motorhead,
Simon House also worked with David Bowie, Nik Turner went on to form the
Anubian Lights as well as several solo projects) Another fledgling band,
Ozric Tenticles owes it start to Hawkwind as well as their spin off techno
masters Eat Static! Hawkwind is still active (formed 1968) and boasts having
the guinness record for the most lineup changes of any band!

Steve Hillage (originally from Gong) is another one of my obscure electronic
favorites. Again space rock featuring female synthesist Miquette Girundy and
Steve with his Guitar Synths. Notable albums 'Motivation Radio' (my
favorite), 'L', and 'Fish Rising'. Steve and Miquette went on to form the
techno band System 7 (also very good and worth a listen).

Another notable is Eloy. Another Kraut prog rock band that is heavy on
analog synths. They're still together over 20 years. Notable albums are
'Metromania', 'Destination', and 'Ocean 2'. Metromania features some
outstanding Vocoder work.

I could go on but I think I'll someone else chime in since everyone has
different tastes!

Al

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry David [mailto:ldavid@...]
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2003 12:07 PM
To: Alan Wagner
Cc: MOTM listserv
Subject: [motm] OT: EM records (was:Ice Station Zebra)

O.k. I'm sure this has been covered before but I don't "Yahoo" so I
can't check the archives.  I discovered electronic music in the
eighties, along with a local used record store where all the good stuff
(Jarre, TD, Kitaro, etc.) was in a corner for cheap - cuz I guess it
wasn't Maddona or Duran Duran.  The groups/artists listed in this recent
thread are new to me.  Would anyone be willing to make a little list of
artists/albums with real brief descriptions or comparisons to "known"
standards of reference?  It is always a joy for me to discover a new EM
record, let alone a whole new artist/catalog.

So here's what I mean:

Artist: Triumvirat
Albums: Spartacus, Julius Caesar, The Sacking of Alexandria
Style: prog rock

Artist: Kayak
Albums:
Style:  Like Jarre with some TD

Of course the above is made up, but that's the idea.

Thanks,
Larry D. (from The People's Republic of Detroit)


Alan Wagner wrote:
>
> Triumvirat! I still listen to Spartacus from time to time! And yup, I
still
> have my Kayak Albums and Camel, and Nectar, and Barcley James Harvest, and
> Renaissance, and........
>
>




Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Best prog band ever: Gentle Giant. To me, nobody even comes close. 
Listen to "Octopus", "Power and the Glory", and "Free Hand".

You'll never find this, but it's a monster prog record: David 
Sancious and Tone "True Stories". Tons of Polymoog, Minimoog solos 
and heavy Hammond.

Listen to any Weather Report or Zawinul Syndicate for the absolute 
best organic jazz electronic music.

Moe

<mate_stubb@...> wrote:


> You'll never find this, but it's a monster prog record: David
> Sancious and Tone "True Stories". Tons of Polymoog, Minimoog solos
> and heavy Hammond.
>
> Listen to any Weather Report or Zawinul Syndicate for the absolute
> best organic jazz electronic music.

I have that Sancious album!  This and any flavor Zawinul get my vote.  Also,
old Herbie Hancock - Polyfusion modular, Polymoog and good ol' Rhodes.  But
this is not really EM.  Oh well.

George

You can also use http://www.allmusic.com to search by style, including:

Electronic
Electronica
Progressive Electronic
Electro-Jazz
Electro-Techno
Electro
Neo-Electro
Electro-Acoustic
Electro-Industrial
Experimental Electro
etc

Also, you can search for a band that you already know and like, and then
follow links to research similar artists.

Another one is http://strawberrybricks.com -- it's all prog, but has a good
bit of obscure EM as a result.

Both of these sites grow daily it seems... :-)

best,
- Scott
____________
http://www.red-noise.com
http://www.strawberryplanet.org

At 5:09 AM +0000 3/1/03, mate_stubb <mate_stubb@...> wrote:
>Best prog band ever: Gentle Giant. To me, nobody even comes close.
>Listen to "Octopus", "Power and the Glory", and "Free Hand".
>
>You'll never find this, but it's a monster prog record: David
>Sancious and Tone "True Stories". Tons of Polymoog, Minimoog solos
>and heavy Hammond.
>
>Listen to any Weather Report or Zawinul Syndicate for the absolute
>best organic jazz electronic music.
>
There's a recently issued live Weather Report, compiled from concerts 
between 1975 and 1985, that is really nice. It made me into a WR fan 
all over again.

But, to me, the most organic use of electronics in jazz has to be 
Herbie Hancock's Sextant, w/ Patrick Gleeson on (I think) ARP 2600. 
Rain Dance, the opening piece on the record, still sounds totally 
contemporary.

On the prog front, the Italian band Goblin deserves a mention, their 
soundtracks to Dario Argento's horror flicks of the 70's have some 
very fine (and occasionally charmingly cheesy) moog work.

Any Gentle Giant fan should have the Thomas Metcalf album "One."  Has
lots of Rhodes Chroma too for you analog fans.

John Loffink
jloffink@... 

The Microtonal Synthesis Web Site
http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com/

The Wavemakers Modular and Integrated Synthesizer Web Site
http://www.wavemakers-synth.com/

> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Best prog band ever: Gentle Giant. To me, nobody even comes close.
> Listen to "Octopus", "Power and the Glory", and "Free Hand".
>

Gentle Giant is probably my favorite as well.  I would recommend 
that anyone who is unfamiliar with them to start with "Playing the 
Fool" which is probably the best live album I have ever heard.  I 
have every album they ever did and although some of the earliest 
albums are somewhat raw I love them all.
I also love Genesis, but mainly "Nursery Cryme," "Foxtrot," "Selling 
England," and "Lamb Lies."  My favorite is the live version 
of "Lamb" from the Genesis Archives Vol. 1.  The first two albums 
after Peter Gabriel left are also pretty good, but after that they 
sort of lost me, although there is still a lot of good playing in 
the later stuff.
Yes is very good as well.  I like the epic albums "Close to the 
Edge," and "Relayer" in particular.  The Keys to Ascension live 
recordings are quite good, but too obviously sweetened.  I have the 
DVD to "Keys" and quite often the sweetened audio that you're 
hearing does not match the video, especially where there are 
multiple vocal parts and no one appears to be singing!
I would also recommend the Larry Fast stuff mentioned by others.
Peter Gabriel has some unique music which I like very much as well, 
particularly the "Security" and "So" albums.  I found his latest 
album depressing.  Too many downer songs.
As for the more electronic stuff.
I like the Tomita albums.  Although some of the sounds strike me as 
odd, some of them are absolutely outstanding. (I'm speaking of the 
synthesizer voicings chosen.)
Vangelis is one of my favorites.  I would 
recommend "Spiral," "Beauberg," and "China."  I also really 
like "Heaven and Hell," although I think parts of it are hokey.
I also have an album called "White Noise" that I know absolutely 
nothing about, but I like it a lot.
In both prog rock and electronic music, I like stuff that is layered 
sonically rather then beat based.  I like lush backgrounds rather 
then in your face virtuosity.
One more recommendation:  Jordan Rudess - Feeding the Wheel.  This 
guy is one of the most outstanding keyboardists I have ever heard 
and I think he could give Wakeman a run for his money.  However, the 
stuff he does with Dream Theater does absolutely nothing for me at 
all.

> Best prog band ever: Gentle Giant. To me, nobody even comes close.
> Listen to "Octopus", "Power and the Glory", and "Free Hand".

The best band ever, prog or no prog !

These guys could play, and they knew how to *compose*. (Especially
Kerry)

The magic of GG is that while most songs sound "difficult" rather than
nice at first, they sound better and better the more you hear them, and
you won't get bored when you've heard a song for the 50th time.


> Listen to any Weather Report or Zawinul Syndicate for the absolute
> best organic jazz electronic music.

I just start to get into Weather Report. Heavy Weather and Black Market
are awesome. What would you recommend from Zawinul's solo stuff?
(His *sound* has dramatically changed, and not for the better, on what
little I've heard of his recent work ...)

JH.

I once saw Jordan Rudess play live at NAMM.  He is an amazing keyboard
player.  In terms of technique he is certainly up there with Wakeman and
Emerson, though I'm not so sure any of his recordings have shown that.
He also played on the live Wendy Carlos concert that happened a few
years ago.  

John Loffink
jloffink@... 

The Microtonal Synthesis Web Site
http://www.microtonal-synthesis.com/

The Wavemakers Modular and Integrated Synthesizer Web Site
http://www.wavemakers-synth.com/

> 
> Gentle Giant is probably my favorite as well.  I would recommend
> that anyone who is unfamiliar with them to start with "Playing the
> Fool" which is probably the best live album I have ever heard.  I
> have every album they ever did and although some of the earliest
> albums are somewhat raw I love them all.
> I also love Genesis, but mainly "Nursery Cryme," "Foxtrot," "Selling
> England," and "Lamb Lies."  My favorite is the live version
> of "Lamb" from the Genesis Archives Vol. 1.  The first two albums
> after Peter Gabriel left are also pretty good, but after that they
> sort of lost me, although there is still a lot of good playing in
> the later stuff.
> Yes is very good as well.  I like the epic albums "Close to the
> Edge," and "Relayer" in particular.  The Keys to Ascension live
> recordings are quite good, but too obviously sweetened.  I have the
> DVD to "Keys" and quite often the sweetened audio that you're
> hearing does not match the video, especially where there are
> multiple vocal parts and no one appears to be singing!
> I would also recommend the Larry Fast stuff mentioned by others.
> Peter Gabriel has some unique music which I like very much as well,
> particularly the "Security" and "So" albums.  I found his latest
> album depressing.  Too many downer songs.
> As for the more electronic stuff.
> I like the Tomita albums.  Although some of the sounds strike me as
> odd, some of them are absolutely outstanding. (I'm speaking of the
> synthesizer voicings chosen.)
> Vangelis is one of my favorites.  I would
> recommend "Spiral," "Beauberg," and "China."  I also really
> like "Heaven and Hell," although I think parts of it are hokey.
> I also have an album called "White Noise" that I know absolutely
> nothing about, but I like it a lot.
> In both prog rock and electronic music, I like stuff that is layered
> sonically rather then beat based.  I like lush backgrounds rather
> then in your face virtuosity.
> One more recommendation:  Jordan Rudess - Feeding the Wheel.  This
> guy is one of the most outstanding keyboardists I have ever heard
> and I think he could give Wakeman a run for his money.  However, the
> stuff he does with Dream Theater does absolutely nothing for me at
> all.
> 
>

If you get a chance, check out Zawinul's Dialects. It has a lot of 
improvised pseudo-instrumental vocal work by Bobby McFerrin and 
plenty of subtle electronics and vocoders.

Moe
--- In motm@yahoogroups.com, "jhaible" <jhaible@d...> wrote:

> I just start to get into Weather Report. Heavy Weather and Black 
> Market are awesome. What would you recommend from Zawinul's solo 
> stuff?
> (His *sound* has dramatically changed, and not for the better, on 
> what little I've heard of his recent work ...)