John Baker ‎– "The Vendetta Tapes" (Buried Treasure Records ‎– BUTR8) 1966 / 2015

A recently discovered stash of John Baker's jazzy soundtrack to BBC mafia themed crime series "Vendetta", first broadcast in the golden year of 1966 when England won the world cup. That will never happen again, and having inventive musicians such as those of the cabilibre of John Baker won't either. This was hands-on underpaid creativity at its most humble.
As usual, John wouldn't have got a credit for this .That honour always went to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop,and the collective responsibility rule. This is what caused the downfall of the communist block, the human need to be noticed,and given a reassuring pat on the back every now and then...like a pet dog.Some acknowledgment that one exists?
The human ego can be a terrible thing to taste,as does equally the iron boot of the committee.

Tracklist:

1 – The Sugar Man (Cue 2) 0:38
2 – The Sugar Man (Cue 3) 3:35
3 – The Sugar Man (Cue 5) 0:27
4 – The Sugar Man (Cue 7) 2:03
5 – The Sugar Man (Cue 9) 0:29
6 – The Sugar Man (Cue 15) 1:44
7 – The Sugar Man (Cue 17) 0:33
8 – The Dolly Man (Cue 1) 1:06
9 – The Dolly Man (Cue 2) 2:26
10 – The Dolly Man (Cue 3) 1:41
11 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 1) 0:38
12 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 7) 0:50
13 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 13) 0:14
14 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 15) 2:07
15 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 1A) 2:05
16 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 2A) 0:48
17 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 4A) 1:27
18 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 10A) 1:43
19 – The Ice Cream Man (Cue 18A) 1:22
20 – The Widow Man (Cue 8) 0:28
21 – The Widow Man (Cue 9) 0:56
22 – The Caves Of Steel - RQ1 (Music) 1:10
23 – The Caves Of Steel - RQ9 (Music) 0:22
24 – The Caves Of Steel - RQ11 (Mono - Stop T/O) 0:36
25 – The Locusts: Plagues Of Man (Cue 9) 1:31
26 – Orbit 0:44
27 – The Lively Mind 0:21
28 – Suivez La Piste (Cue 3) 1:43
29 – Suivez La Piste (Cue 5) 0:58
30 – Suivez La Piste (Cue 8) 0:49
31 – COI Technology Pavilion 9:32
32 – The Tape Recorder (Cue 1) 1:11
33 – The Tape Recorder (Cue 2) 0:51
34 – The Tape Recorder (Cue 4) 0:21
35 – Computers In Business 0:50
36 – Man Alive: UFO 1:15

DOWNLOAD the bbc vendetta against john baker HERE!

BBC Radiophonic Workshop ‎– "The John Baker Tapes Volume 2 (1963-75) (Trunk Records ‎– JBH029CD) 2008

I suppose the label this was released on should have been called 'drunk' not 'Trunk' records, as Radiophonic Workshop stalwart John Baker was probably drunk while he made the majority of these novel advert jingles and TV soundtracks.
Compared to his colleagues John was firmly on the musicianly side of composition,and also firmly in the Novelty music section of the workshop. Whereas Delia Derbyshire could make her doomy atmospheres, and Brian Hodgson could spent all his time making weird noises,John was lumbered with making funny tunes from varispeeded shampoo bottle pan pipes for a daytime childrens science programme. No wonder he turned to the evil drink.....but then again so did Delia. Although Delia couldn't keep up with Johns voracious appitite for consuming reams of cigarettes and therefore lived a few years longer.
Delia left in 1973 because the electronics were getting too easy and more conventional, but John Baker was sacked for being Drunk most of the time. The last recording he made before his descent into the dark realms of alcoholism was done at home on his piano in 1975(included here)...probably just before he sold it to buy more booze.He never made music again and died, age 60, in 1997.


Tracklist:

1 – Tempo Counter 0:04
2 – Get Happy 3:54
3 – Electro-Twist MQ LP1/1 1:23
4 – Electro-Suspense MQ LP1/2 1:27
5 – Electro-Rhythm MQ LP1/3 1:23
6 – Electro-Slow MQ LP1/4 1:33
7 – Boy On A Bicycle 4:03
8 – Brass Bandied MQ LP14/1 1:17
9 – Brass Widow MQ LP14/2 1:38
10 – Omo And Giro Adverts 1:20
11 – I Wanna Hold Your Hand Medley 2:33
12 – Electro-Auto MQ LP35/1 1:29
13 – Electro 5/4 MQ LP35/2 1:30
14 – Electro Waltz MQ LP35/3 1:28
15 – Johnny Johnson Jingles 1:25
16 – 1980s Feedback Loop 0:04
17 – Requioso - PIL 9011 2:21
18 – JB Dubs 1:13
19 – Out Of Nowhere 5:23
20 – Electro-Beat MQ LP19/1 1:30
21 – Electro-Weird MQ LP19/2 1:24
22 – Electro-Fugue MQ LP19/3 1:14
23 – Electro-Aggression MQ LP38/1 1:57
24 – Electro-Tension MQ LP38/2 2:27
25 – Jazz Advert 1:38
26 – Brylcreem 0:30
27 – John Baker Goon Advert 0:34
28 – Power Source MQ LP39 3:23
29 – 1980s Tape FX 0:42
30 – Pots 'N' Pans MQ LP48/1 3:24
31 – Banshee Boogie MQ LP48/2 1:45
32 – Feedback MQ LP48/3 2:58
33 – Space Workshop MQ LP48/4 3:12
34 – Piano Concrete MQ LP48/5 2:55
35 – JB Test Tone 0:08
36 – Piano Strokes 2:25
37 – JB At Home On The Piano 0:51
38 – Brief Lives - JB Obituary 1:47
39 – JB 78 RPM - All The Things You Are 2:26

DOWNLOAD some sober sounding novelty tunes HERE!

John Baker / BBC Radiophonic Workshop ‎– "The John Baker Tapes Volume 1 - rare and unreleased recordings 1963-1974" (Trunk Records ‎– JBH028CD)

John Baker, was a scumbag who lived at the shitter end of my street when I was vilified for daring to win a place at Grammer skool.Being called intelligent was as good as wearing a sign saying 'please kick my head in' for us unfortunate members of the underclass from the oxygenated end of the gene pool. The 'Bakers' all had scoliosis, the word 'Shithouse' was written in dripping black gloss on their toilet door,the eldest male was nick-named 'Igor',and they had a predeliction towards violence and criminal behaviour in general.
The John Baker responsible for the music on this CD, however, didn't live on my street as a kid growing up, but he was an unnamed member of the household through his prolific production of TV Theme tunes and Radio jingles throughout the sixties, seventies and no further, after he got the sack in 1974.
A contemporary of the legend that is Delia Derbyshire, he brought musicianly technique into the Workshop, as well as forty fags a day...thats cigarettes to you americans. He filled the vacancies for the Jazz Musician of the group, as well as the chain smoker. I'm also sure he joined in on the heavy wine consumption that the workshop was also renowned for,especially as wine bottles with various levels of liquid in them were an essential sound source for the staff to record and manipulate.
Many of those bottles no doubt found their way onto many of these jolly little tunes.
John,like Delia,died early from heavy cigarette and Alcohol comsumption in a confined space for too long a period. 
After becoming an alcoholic, Baker recorded no further music after being sacked by the Radiophonic Workshop and later died in poverty.......a life summed up in one dismissive sentence!?
He deserves more than that,thats why we've have three John Baker retrospectives lined up to revive the forgotten man of the Radiophonic Workshop's tarnished reputation.
This John Baker died while the scummier John Baker with the bad posture probably still lives,just, on my childhood street,and 'Shithouse' is probably still written on the toilet door.The wrong one died young,there's still time for that to be put right,if it hasn't been already?But,Justice is something that is rarely doled out fairly in this cruel world.
PS...Igor still lived,by the way, because i saw him down the pub on the night Leicester City won the League Cup back in '97....he gave me a HUG(?).Ahhhh,Association Football....the great leveller!?

Tracklist:

1 Newstime BBC 1+2 0:23
2 Tros Y Gareg (Main Theme) 2:50
3 Tros Y Gareg (Idents) 0:20
4 20th Century Focus 2:22
5 Vendetta: The Ice Cream Man 1:18
6 Woman's Hour (Reading Your Letters) 1:47
7 Many A Slip 0:57
8 Look And Read 0:35
9 Building The Bomb 6:24
10 Au Printemps 2:27
11 Big Ben News Theme 0:33
12 Codename 1:03
13 Decimal Currency 0:20
14 Barnacle Bill 0:21
15 Dial M For Murder 2:25
16 Farm Management 0:30
17 Radio Sheffield (News Idents) 0:45
18 French Science And Technology 0:39
19 Good Morning Wales (Idents) 0:37
20 Heavy Plant Crossing 0:59
21 COI Technology Pavilion 9:30
22 John Baker Interview (Radio Nottingham) 2:33
23 Radio Nottingham Idents 0:34
24 Look North: Newstime 0:50
25 Man Alive: UFO 1:14
26 PM - Computers In Business 0:39
27 Submarines 1:59
28 Oranges And Lemons (Radio London) 2:36
29 Orbit 0:47
30 Places For People 0:47
31 Sling Your Hook 2:27
32 Suivez La Piste 0:49
33 Scene (Never Never) 1:40
34 Diary Of A Madman 3:54
35 The Two O'Clock Spot 0:58
36 Radio London: News Idents 0:25
37 The Caves Of Steel 3:11
38 The Locusts 0:45
39 Square Two 0:29
40 The Tape Recorder 1:11
41 Tom Tom (Theme) 0:42
42 Tom Tom (Idents) 0:15
43 Trial (Opening Theme) 0:35
44 Trial (Closing Theme) 1:22
45 Vendetta: The Sugar Man 2:01
46 Spin Off 0:21
47 Radiophonic FX C 0:10
48 Radiophonic FX A 0:54
49 Radiophonic FX B 0:35

DOWNLOAD the butcher the baker the candlestick maker of musique concréte HERE!

BBC Radiophonic Workshop ‎– "Doctor Who At The BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Volume 1: The Early Years 1963-1969" ( BBC Music ‎– WMSF 6023-2)

Shit this is good!
Thrill to the sound of the BBC's 'wobbulator',the home-made 12 Oscillator sound generator, keys scraping down the guts of an old piano, loaded with analogue effects and 100 yard long tape loops.
This was naked innovation,going where no man or woman had gone before,and an argument against having too much equipment.
Then synthesizers came and ruined everything!

Brian Hodgson plays a tune on the Workshop's home-made keyboard, controlling 12 individual oscillators.The infamous  'Wobbulator is bottom right.

Probably the greatest sound ever made is the sound of the TARDIS dematerialising and materialisng, up there with Godzilla's screech......incidently both sounds were made in the same way,with varispeeded analogue tape and scraping strings. A close third place in the greatest sounds ever made league has to be the Bass sound from the original theme for Doctor Who. Not the sound of a disembodied  oscillator as I always thought, but a varispeeded plucked string;as simple as that!? A string, plucked ,of course, by the slender fingers of the sonic goddess that is Delia Derbyshire.

Delia with technology

She then proceeded to cut up the various,varispeeded  plucks, and laboriously make a splice edit for every single note.....incredible stuff. She wasn't,however, responsible for the TARDIS sound effect. That honour goes to her under-acknowledged partner in sonic crime, Brian Hodgson.

Brian Hodgson with dismembered piano, as used to create 'the Tardis sound' from the Doctor Who TV series.

Now you can experience the smooth, warm analogue beauty of actual electronics, lubricating your lugholes like being spoonfed tepid honey by your mother, or in this case Delia Derbyshire,not forgetting Brian Hodgson in charge of the saucepan.
As great as those eound effects are, the original themes for Doctor Who will go down in history, carved in rock, as the beginning of adult orientated Synth-pop.
Oooooooh I could listen to this all day.

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop Team in 1963

Tracklist:

1 –Delia Derbyshire- Doctor Who (Original Theme) 2:21
2 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Exterior Hum And Door (Original) 0:23
3 –Brian Hodgson- Entry Into The TARDIS 0:40
4 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS: Original Takeoff Sequence 1:47
5 –Delia Derbyshire- Doctor Who (Original Titles Music) 2:09
6 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Takeoff 1:23
7 –Brian Hodgson- Skaro: Petrified Forest Atmosphere 1:46
8 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Computer 1:08
9 –Brian Hodgson- Dalek City Corridor 1:01
10 –Brian Hodgson- Dalek Control Room 0:26
11 –Brian Hodgson- Capsule Oscillation (Bomb Countdown) 0:19
12 –Brian Hodgson- Explosion, TARDIS Stops 1:10
13 –Brian Hodgson- Sleeping Machine 0:52
14 –Brian Hodgson- Sensorite Speech Background 1:10
15 –Brian Hodgson- Dalek Spaceship Lands 0:16
16 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Lands 0:11
17 –Brian Hodgson- Chumbley (Constant Run) 0:27
18 –Brian Hodgson- Chumbley At Rest 0:28
19 –Brian Hodgson- Chumbley Sends Message 0:07
20 –Brian Hodgson- Chumbley Dome (Rises/Falls/Rises/Falls) 0:19
21 –Brian Hodgson- Chumbley Dies 0:11
22 –Brian Hodgson- Activity On Dalek Ship Control Panel 0:46
23 –Brian Hodgson- Energy Escapes 0:22
24 –Brian Hodgson- Machinery In TARDIS Goes Wild(Regeneration) 1:03
25 –Brian Hodgson/Dick Mills- Regeneration Runs Down 0:09
26 –Brian Hodgson/Dick Mills- The Doctor's Transitional Trauma 0:52
27 –Brian Hodgson- The Fish People (Incidental Music) 0:37
28 –Brian Hodgson- Heartbeat Chase 1:57
29 –Delia Derbyshire- Chromophone Band 1:56
30 –Brian Hodgson- Controller Chimes 0:10
31 –John Baker- Muzak (From "Time In Advance") 3:19
32 –Brian Hodgson- Propaganda Sleep Machine 1:08
33 –Delia Derbyshire- Doctor Who (New Opening Theme, 1967) 0:51
34 –Brian Hodgson- Sting & Web 2:04
35 –Brian Hodgson- 4 Stings 0:18
36 –Brian Hodgson- Mr. Oak And Mr. Quill (Incidental Music) 0:39
37 –Brian Hodgson- Lead-In To Cyber Planner 0:14
38 –Brian Hodgson- Cyber Planner Background 0:37
39 –Brian Hodgson- Cyberman Stab & Music 1:32
40 –Brian Hodgson- Rocket Stab 0:08
41 –Brian Hodgson- Birth Of Cybermats 0:44
42 –Brian Hodgson- Cybermats Attracted To Wheel 0:39
43 –Brian Hodgson- Rocket In Space 1:49
44 –Brian Hodgson- Interior Rocket (Suspense Music) 1:55
45 –Brian Hodgson- Servo Robot Music 1:28
46 –Brian Hodgson- Wheel Stab 0:14
47 –Brian Hodgson- Cosmos Atmosphere 1:08
48 –Brian Hodgson- Alien Ship Music 1:00
49 –Brian Hodgson- Jarvis In A Dream State 0:47
50 –Brian Hodgson- Floating Through Space 1:14
51 –Brian Hodgson- 2 Stabs 0:11
52 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS (New Landing) 0:18
53 –Brian Hodgson- Galaxy Atmosphere 1:04
54 –Brian Hodgson- Tension Builder (A) 0:45
55 –Brian Hodgson- Tension Builder (C) 0:40
56 –Brian Hodgson- Tension Builder (D) 1:06
57 –Brian Hodgson- Low Sting 0:10
58 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS: Extra Power Unit Plugged In 1:53
59 –Brian Hodgson- Zoe's Theme 1:19
60 –Brian Hodgson- White Void 1:16
61 –John Baker- Muzak (From "Time In Advance") 2:48
62 –Brian Hodgson- Cyberman Brought To Life 1:12
63 –Brian Hodgson- Cyber Invasion 2:11
64 –Brian Hodgson- The Learning Hall 2:40
65 –Brian Hodgson- Entry Into The Machine 1:33
66 –Brian Hodgson- Sting 0:19
67 –Brian Hodgson- Machine And City Theme 1:49
68 –Brian Hodgson- Kroton Theme 2:13
69 –Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Land 0:25
70 –Brian Hodgson- Alien Control Centre 0:27
71 –Brian Hodgson- Time Zone Atmosphere 0:40
72 –Brian Hodgson- Dimensional Control 0:49
73 –Brian Hodgson- War Lord Arrival 0:16
74 –Brian Hodgson- Silver Box (The Doctor Calls For Help) 1:02
75 –Brian Hodgson- Time Lord Court Atmosphere 1:18
76 –Delia Derbyshire- Doctor Who (Closing Titles) 0:41

DOWNLOAD time and relative dimensions in sound HERE!

Doris Hays / John Matthews ‎– "Electronic Music" (Southern Library Of Recorded Music ‎– MQ/LP 38) 1971

There was indeed another Doris phaffing about with electronics other than Doris Norton you may be amazed to hear.This one was called Doris Hays,slightly less an inspiring name than the other Doris, but this American Doris  was a bit more avant-garde than the other Anglo-Italian Doris,working with musique concrète, modern classical and voice works. She also dabbled in Early Electronics,as this library LP of novelty hits or misses,and daytime kids television theme tunes reveal.
The John Matthews who shares this album, is none other than BBC Radiophonic Workshop legend John Baker himself.

Tracklist:

A1 –Doris Hays -13th Street Beat 1:06
A2 –Doris Hays -Tune Maker II 1:11
A3 –Doris Hays -Grim Carnival 1:49
A4 –Doris Hays -Dream Maker 0:45
A5 –Doris Hays -Kalliope II 1:28
A6 –Doris Hays -Carnibell 1:35
A7 –Doris Hays -Somersault Beat 1:48
A8 –Doris Hays -Syn - Rock 0:48
A9 –Doris Hays -Arabella Rag 1:07
A10 –Doris Hays -Creepy Street 1:32
B1 –John Matthews  -Electro - Agression 1:56
B2 –John Matthews  -Electro - Tension 2:23
B3 –John Matthews  -Electro - Antiphony 1:12
B4 –John Matthews  -Electro - Busy 0:41
B5 –John Matthews  -Electro - Bongo Part 1 0:54
B6 –John Matthews  -Electro - Bongo Part 2 0:43
B7 –Doris Hays -Four French Cathedrals 1:26
B8 –Doris Hays -Oh Dear What Can The Matter Be? 1:18
B9 –Doris Hays -Scared Trip 2:11
B10 –Doris Hays -Bleepy M 1:47

DOWNLOAD doris and john in this electronic library HERE!