Tuesday 19 October 2010

Saturday 16 October 2010

The Sound Makers of 1963




These amazing BBC archive records found their way in to my studio today. I can't explain how this happened due to the Official Electronic Secrets Act of 1957. I have 3 records which I will put up here over the next few days, and as far as I know these are not online anywhere else

The first is titled "The Sound Makers" and is a documentary about synthesis and sound manipulation at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop from 1963. It was part of the BBC's RECORDED PROGRAMMES PERMANENT LIBRARY which is an archive on vinyl, I believe limited to only a few copies of each




I have always felt that it is a shame the BBC don't make their archives available, think how much amazing stuff they have just sitting there in a vault somewhere - and that includes thousands of amazing TV programmes and documentaries

Below are some pictures from this gallery of Radiophonic Workshop images, chosen because they are from the period covered by the Sound Makers documentary











Download Side A
Download Side B

Music Concrete

My brother Dan has moved in upstairs and is using the space as a studio, which is really great and I was especially pleased because he said he would be installing his new mixer.....

30 Years Later

Steve M passed on this great photo, which was taken in 1979. Just 31 years later he has managed to get these two appearing on the same bill. Thats right, we've got another gig [that is me and Foxxy, aka The Maths, this time with Numan headlining] at the Troxy, London on December 3rd 2010. Expect more synths, vocoders and eyeliner!

Photo: Robert Ellis

Friday 15 October 2010

DJ Poldark

I've been using the Technics SLs this week due to the fact that I had to listen to some actual records. I like vinyl again! I saw these monstrosities and thought they looked pretty cool:







These are made by Fabian Clerc, via designboom


'back in the good old days’ is a set of ceramic turntables created by geneva based artist fabien clerc. the project was created for a recent exhibition which investigated the idea of luxury. the installation is made from glazed earthenware that as been decorated in a very traditional style including small touches of gold leaf. the turntables are fully functional and sit flanking a white ceramic mixer. the dj set-up sits on a red table and intends to proposes multiple forms of luxury; the obvious materiality of the pieces and the more subtle idea of luxury as a way of life

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Serge Wrangle

Me and Phil had a bit of a wrangle with the Serge Modular on Saturday, there's a clip below. I took this picture of Phil and he told me to say that this is him saying "I can't believe how awesome this thing is" and not "Turn it off, how do you make it stop!"



Calculus

I found some really nice calculator catalog and advert designs here. For example:








Studibow[ie]

Here is a video of Bowie recording the amazing Sense of Doubt from Heroes. There seems to be some question about which studio this was shot at; Hansa [where the album was mixed]? Chateau d'Herouville [where it was tracked]? or some other studio? What a mystery! And what is that synth on top of the melotron? A Steelophon S900????



Vector Arpeggiation

I was messing around on the Sequential Circuits Prophet VS today, getting some pad sounds for a Maths tune. I had forgotten how good this synth is. Here's me messing with the arpeggiator

Saturday 9 October 2010

Dancing Foliage

This is for future reference, for when I build my next house



UPDATE

via Robert in the comments:

"Here is someone who had the same impulse..."

http://www.space1999.net/~sorellarium13/intro.htm



Tuesday 5 October 2010

Dangerous Dancing

I discovered this band today. I was listening to the first Disco Not Disco album, which is admittedly pretty mixed-quality when it comes to electronic music. But Liaisons Dangereuses really stood out, so I investigated further and discovered that they practically invented EBM, or at least perfectly embodied it. The debut self-titled album came out in 1981, and was put together by Conny Plank. One day I will write a book about him, unless someone else beats me to it. This video is from 1981. The audience don't seem to get it

Monday 4 October 2010

And Lets Not Forget

These are the source of so much inspiration...
From Joe Kral's flickr set [tons more there]. As he says:

'After buying the book "Penguin By Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005" I started searching local book stores and online for some of the old Penguin and Pelican books. Here's what I have so far'












Sunday 3 October 2010

Albums as Books

Check out Huw Gwilliam's amazing flickr page. He has spent an awful lot of time converting record covers into Penguin Book covers, so we don't have to. For example:




Friday 1 October 2010

La La La, La La-La La-La

Sparks 'Its Number One All Over Heaven'. 1979, produced by Georgio Moroder, synth playing on the record is credited to Dan Wyman, the auther of the user manual for the Moog Modular