Sunday 31 May 2020

Louise Huebner with Bebe and Louis Barron ‎– "Louise Huebner's Seduction Through Witchcraft" (Warner Bros. - Seven Arts Records ‎– WS 1819) 1969


Louise Huebner was the 'Official' Witch of Los Angeles and the only officially appointed Witch in the entire world.This is of course 'showbiz' rather than a real office for a real witch. Witches only exist in their own minds,possibly,and in the minds of the superstitious morons who fear the 'Dark Arts',or believe in any supernatural entities such as the Easter Bunny, or Batman.
This album, primarily existing purely to exploit the age-old problem of getting laid, is the feminine version of Eric Weber's "Picking Up Girls Made Easy", this witchy one relies on manipulation whereas Eric relies on barefaced lying.
That said, the main reason for this Occult cash-in attempt being foisted on these reveered pages, is because the creepy sounds backing up Louise's very silly spoken instructions were made by husband and wife Electronic pioneers, Louis and Bebe Barron.
It's rather good stuff, and inevitably reminds one of Throbbing Gristle's finer ambient moments, and very reminiscent of Kluster's first two albums. 
For those of you sad bastards who think you're gonna prize Beyoncé from Jay Z's insideous grasp; just try developing an interesting line in conversation and washing regularly.Dump the sports clothes and improve your sartorial elegance....in fact making an effort to seem attractive and interesting rather than the obnoxious slob you really are.Then you won't need to sell your soul, or our-soul, to get a girlfriend, who, ultimately, won't like your record collection.
Yours most insincerely, 
the Real Jay Zee.

Tracklist:

1.Introduction - Gods 3:40
2.The Self Fascination Ritual For Increased Power 3:11
3.The Isis Full Moon Ring For Magical Protection 3:34
4.The Demon Spell For Energy 3:26
5.Orgies - A Tool Of Witchcraft 3:38
6.Sun Sign Amulets For Spiritual Protection 4:11
7.The Coleopterous Charm For Romantic Adventure 3:10
8.The Turkish Bean Spell For Tender Love 2:31
9.Seduction Spells From Around The World 4:24
10.The Emotional Bondage Spell 2:35
11.The Earthquake Spell For Unwanted Lovers 2:24
12.Witches And Wizzards 4:24


Saturday 30 May 2020

Louis and Bebe Barron ‎– "Forbidden Planet OST" (Planet Records ‎– PR-001) 1956


Here's the one wot started it all!
The first fully electronic soundtrack,and the first electronic score commited to magnetic tape.For the early sci-fi flick "Forbidden Planet",starring that bloke,formerly known as Frank Drebbin from 'Naked Gun' and Doctor Rumack in 'Airplane', Leslie Nielsen,the master of deadpan, as the star,believe it or not!?
But, the relevant part is that one of the credited composers was Female.
"Bebe" Barron, or Charlotte May Wind, was a political science graduate who studied music composition in New York, where she met future hubby, Louis Barron,who habored a liking for messing around with electronic gear. They got married, and one of their wedding gifts was one of those new-fangled magnetic tape recorders. It all started there I guess,and they began experimenting and acquiring primitive electronic devices,which Louis modified for sound generation.
The cool couple themselves,surrounded by tech.

The first electronic music for magnetic tape composed in America,"Heavenly Menagerie" was completed by Louis and Bebe as early as 1950 ,using the slow and laborious methods of cutting and splicing the tape together.
They opened the first recording studio using tape in New York, and catered primarily for the Avant Garde. This is where they met John Cage, who collaborated with them and convinced them that what they were doing was actually 'Music', and not just a load of funny noises stuck together.
While Louis spent most of his time building the circuits and was responsible for all of the recording, Bebe did all the composing. She had to sort through many hours of tape. As she said, "it just sounded like dirty noise". Over time, she developed the ability to determine which sounds could become something of interest. Tape loops gave the Barrons' sounds rhythm. They mixed the sounds to create the otherworldly and strange electronic soundscapes we all know in the Forbidden Planet soundtrack.
I Dunno if this soundtrack was nominated for an oscar or not,but it had to wait twenty years before it got a vinyl release. I think the powers that be just saw all this stuff as sound effects rather than music. They never went back to the Barrons, and they gradually became as ignored as all of the other electronic pioneers were on this planet. Electronics used as music was the only Forbidden Planet in the arts of the 1950's.


Tracklist:

1.Main Titles - Overture 2:20
2.Deceleration 0:50
3.Once Around Altair 1:09
4.The Landing 0:40
5.Flurry of Dust - A Robot Approaches 1:09
6.A Shangri-La in the Desert / Garden with Cuddly Tiger 1:32
7.Graveyard - A Night with Two Moons 1:15
8."Robby, Make Me a Gown" 1:16
9.An Invisible Monster Approaches 0:46
10.Robby Arranges Flowers, Zaps Monkey 1:17
11.Love at the Swimming Hole 3:11
12.Morbius' Study 0:37
13.Ancient Krell Music 1:47
14.The Mind Booster - Creation of Matter 0:56
15.Krell Shuttle Ride and Power Station 2:31
16.Giant Footprints in the Sand 0:45
17."Nothing Like This Claw Found in Nature!" 1:23
18.Robby, The Cook, and 60 Gallons of Booze 0:56
19.Battle with Invisible Monster 2:50
20."Come Back to Earth With Me" 1:17
21.The Monster Pursues - Morbius Is Overcome 5:45
22.The Homecoming 1:56
23.Overture Reprise 2:13


Friday 29 May 2020

Else Marie Pade ‎– "Face It" (Dacapo Records ‎– 8.224233) 1957-1970


Denmarks version of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was basically just Else Marie Pade, who made weird aural backing tracks for Danish Radiophonic plays.
Musique Concrete is very much in evidence for Symphonie Magnétophonique, but the Little Mermaid, is very much in the realms of Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshires work for the BBC. For us non-Danish speakers, it sound even weirder because of the narration of this Classical Danish fairytale,which sounds like someone speaking backwards to the average Anglo-Saxon ear.
Face It's title track is where it gets really weird,with some unknown Danish phraze concerning a certain ranting German dictator, repeated in a loop,with filtered extracts from one of Adolf's very nasty nazi rally speeches.This was a full decade before William Bennett decided to do the same thing, rather less subtly I may add, for his various Throbbing Gristle aping Come Org projects.Especially unsubtle were his remixes of Maurizio Bianchi's work
Else Marie got there first,and she even fought against the Nazi's in the resistance too,before GPO and Bennett were even a twinkle in their fathers eye,and still in short trousers when these recordings were made.Having said that, I severely doubt they ever heard any of Pade's work....even if they were Danish.


Tracklist:

1 Symphonie Magnétophonique (1958) 19:27
2 The Little Mermaid 42:54 (1957-8)
3 Face It 7:58 (1970)


Thursday 28 May 2020

Else Marie Pade ‎– "Electronic Works 1958-1995" (Important Records ‎– IMPREC406) 2014


Denmark is famous for more than just great Bacon and Carlsberg lager isn't it?...well...er....no, but they did have another one of those female electronic music pioneers,who unwittingly was one of the few persons in the world making weird noises in the fifties.
A veteran of the noble Danish resistance in world war two, from a country that led the nazi-occupied world as an example in its zero levels of collaboration,and the sheltering of its jews; Else worked for the state sponsored Danish Broadcasting Corporation, where she produced very early groundbreaking electronic and concrete compositions for Radiophonic poems and Radio drama productions,like Faust,and the Little Mermaid.Rather like Daphne Oram had been doing in th UK.
Else in action manipulating something that looks rather like an electronic bra?..I notice in the fine tradition of female electronicists,she's got a cigarette on the go.

Like Daphne,and Delia Derbyshire,they were just seen as employees doing what they were told.....a job.Subsequently they were ignored and forgotten.That is,until the younger generations tried to discover the roots of this music,and find out where this music that dominates the modern world comes from.So, from the early 2000's onwards she was now rightly recognized as an electronic music pioneer during her lifetime.



Tracklist:

Faust Suite
Prolog I Himlen 4:18
Faust & Mefisto 6:59
Faust & Margrethes Kærlighed 7:22
Margrethes Fordømmelse 4:13
Rejsen Til Bloksbjerg Og Valborgsnat 8:25
Epilog 4:51


Lyd & Lys 4:41
Syv Cirkler 7:17
Etude 5:33

Illustrationer
Himmelrummet 6:53
Havkongens Slot 7:06
Alfeland 6:10
Kong Vinter 6:11

Glasperlespil I 7:42
Glasperlespil II 7:58


DOWNLOAD some sizzling danish electronics HERE!

Tuesday 26 May 2020

Daphne Oram - "Private Dreams And Public Nightmares" (1957)


Groundbreaking pre-Radiophonic Workshop experimental Radio from Daphne Oram and Frederick Bradnum. Introduced by producer Donald McWhinnie, in that cut-glass BBC accent that no-one in Britain is lumbered with anymore. Donald explains the horrific broadcast that would have sent most children of the era to hide in their room, and most normal vintage 1957 adults running for pen and paper to write a stiffly worded letter of complaint to the authorities.
It certainly is a creepy experience, even for the desentized minds of 2020. No-one was doing stuff like this in 1957.It's to the BBC's credit that they allowed this kind of experimentation to continue,although they also did very little to encourage it.
This programme was the pre-curser to Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange's fantastic "Inventions For Radio" from 1964/5.
As Donald said
“This programme is an experiment. An exploration. It’s been put together with enormous enthusiasm and equipment designed for other purposes. The basis of it is an unlimited supply of magnetic tape, recording machine, razor blade, and some thing to stick the bits together with. And a group of technicians who think that nothing is too much trouble – provided that it works.You take a sound. Any sound. Record it and then change its nature by a multiplicity of operations. Record it at different speeds. Play it backwards. Add it to itself over and over again. You adjust filters, echos, acoustic qualities. You combine segments of magnetic tape. By these means and many others you can create sounds which no one has ever heard before. Sounds which have indefinable and unique qualities of their own. A vast and subtle symphony can be composed from the noise of a pin dropping. In fact one of the most vibrant and elemental sounding noises in tonight’s programme started life as an extremely tinny cowbell.
It’s a sort of modern magic. Many of you may be familiar with it. They’ve been exploiting it on the continent for years. But strangely enough we’ve held aloof. Partly from distrust. Is it simply a new toy? Partly through complacency. Ignorance too. We’re saying at last that we think there’s some thing in it. But we aren’t calling it ‘musique concrète’. In fact we’ve decided not to use the word music at all. Some musicians believe that it can become an art form itself. Others are sceptical. That’s not our immediate concern. We’re interested in its application to radio writing – dramatic or poetic – adding a new dimension. A form that is essentially radio.
Properly used, radiophonic effects have no relationship with any existing sound. They’re free of irrelevent associations. They have an emotional life of their own. And they could be a new and invaluable strand in the texture of radio and theatre and cinema and television.”

Monday 25 May 2020

Daphne Oram - "Still Point " (London Contemporary Orchestra July 11th 2016) 1948/2016




In 1948,yes,1948(!), whilst working as a radio programme engineer at the BBC, Daphne Oram began composing a new and highly innovative piece for double orchestra, entitled "Still Point". Oram was only 23 years old when she wrote Still Point, and the piece reflects her earlier experiences working under the glass dome of the Royal Albert Hall as bombs rained down over London. Bloody Nazi's!

Writing a piece like this would have labelled the composer 'degenerate' in Nazi Germany,and sealed a date with the mobile guillotine unit for a public execution......and this was years before 'nice German', Stockhausen had even touched a transistor. In fact transistors weren't even invented back then. This was done with vacuum tubes!?
Still Point is thought to be the earliest example of a composition specifying realtime electronic transformation of instrumental sounds, and in retrospect can be seen as decades ahead of its time with its explorations of space and acoustic architecture. And you all thought it was John Cage what dunnit first?
In the work the double orchestra is ‘acoustically treated,’ creating one ‘dry’ orchestra (using acoustic baffles) and one ‘wet’ orchestra, which are then manipulated live in performance through turntables, amplification and echo effects. Still Point was to be the last piece that Oram wrote for orchestra before she co-founded the BBC Radiophonic workshop in 1958, laying the roots for the new fields of British,and international electronic music that were to come.

Apart from some Theremin versions of the classics, this is the year Zero for electronic music, as performed by The London Contemporary Orchestra at the Deep 'Minimalism Festival", London, 2016, and in 2018 at the BBC Proms.
It was originally submitted to the BBC as a potential entry for the inaugural Prix Italia in 1950. However, it was turned down on the basis that the work could only be judged as a ‘straight score’ and the adjudicators wouldn’t understand the ‘acoustic variants and pre-recording techniques’ utilised. Brian Hodgson, a colleague at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, later commented to Oram that ‘if they had understood it, one feels they would have been even more ‘anti’!’.Thats the story of the BBC,even to this day.

Tracklisting:

1. "Still Point"(1948) (59:50)

Sunday 24 May 2020

Daphne Oram ‎– "The Oram Tapes: Volume One" (Young Americans ‎– YoungAm003CD) 2012


Yes, Daphne was mucking about with tapes and electronics since the early forties.
You could casually slip some of her works into an Industrial DJ set ,like the excerpt from "The Innocents"(1961) for example, and pass it off as unreleased Throbbing Gristle, or,Autechre, even Merzbow, and the kids would swallow it. The music's as weird as her image. It can sound like spy transmissions from behind the Iron Curtain, like those 'Numbers Stations', or proto-dark ambient, Industrial before Industrial, or the theme tune to a ventriloquists doll horror movie. The great Daphne was there first before anyone else,except maybe her peers in the French Musique Concréte movement:but that was certainly a thing of the Fifties,so maybe she invented that as well?
Daphne relaxing in her living room.

Naturally, as a female in a man's world, she never received any credit until around her death.Largely thanks to Pete 'Sonic Boom' Kember of Spacemen 3 etc(so he's gone up in my estimation), we now know about the dynamic duo of Delia and Daphne.

Here's hoping for a volume 2,as I am aware that there are many more hours of recordings in the Oram archive.
I've added a couple of bonus tracks featuring the first couple of electronic pieces Oram did for the BBC Drama department,so no complaints about strange running orders or anything please.

Tracklist:
1.Just For You (Excerpt 1) 3:00
2.Eton 2:00
3.The Innocents - Savage Noises (Excerpt) (1961) 3:20
4.Anchor Butter 0:40

5.Manchester 2 (1962)8:00
6.Wool (1967) 0:40
7.Oxford 12:57
8.Hydrogen Tones 3:30
9.2001 Effects Tape 1 2:52
10.2001 Effects Tape 2 5:23
11.Phensic (1961) 0:41
12.New Atlantis (1963) 6:03
13.Just For You (Excerpt 2) 1:13
14.Winters Journey (Intro) (1958) 0:14
15.Pulse Persephone (Alternate Parts For Mixing) 5:57
16.
Light Music (Excerpt) 4:35
17.Stroke 5:53
18.Shell Flight (Excerpt) 0:27
19.Anacin Components 6:43
20.G.O.S. (Excerpt - 15" Tape Transferred At 7.5" Ps) 1:39
21.Costain Outtake 3:15
22.London University (Excerpt) (1968) 1:26
23.Encephalagraph 2:48
24.Anacin (Excerpt) 0:43
25.Hamlet - Youth Theatre (1963) 12:02
26.For Granada (1967) 1:00
27.Oramics Demonstration (Excerpt) 1:39
28.Electronic Sound Patterns (Excerpt) (1962) 0:48
29.Pure Tone Excerpts 1:07
30.Canadian Idyll 6:37
31.Hospital 3:29
32.Mermaid (Excerpt) 1:25
33.Shell 3:12
34.Illustrations (Fireworks / Hardwich High School) (1967) 2:43
35.Ursa Major (Outtake) (1962) 0:21
36.Ursa Major (Sun Mix) (1962) 3:14
37.Oddments (Excerpt) 1:22
38.Osram & Rank / Pulse Persephone Experiment (1963) 1:52
39.Pulse Persephone Pitch Experiment (1963) 1:02
40.Sardonica (Excerpt) 1:23
41.Progs (Excerpt) 1:22
42.Barclays Bank (Excerpt) 1:55
43.Amphitryon 38 (Bonus Track) (1957)
44.The Ocean (Bonus Track) with Desmond Briscoe (1957)
45.Speech Test 1:00

Friday 22 May 2020

Daphne Oram ‎– "Oramics (1958-1977)" (Paradigm Discs ‎– PD 21) 2007


A rather groovy electronic gig from the very early sixties...just look at that kit!..In fact, just look at that audience!

Yes there was life before Delia Derbyshire.
The Great Auntie of Electronica, and co-founder of the much lauded BBC Radiophonic Workshop,was Daphne Oram, Who ,in 1942, was offered a place at the Royal College of Music but instead took up a position as a Junior Studio Engineer and "music balancer" at the BBC. One of her job responsibilities was "shadowing" live concerts with a pre-recorded version so the broadcast would go on if interrupted by "enemy action".Other job duties included creating sound effects for radio shows and mixing broadcast levels. During this period she became aware of developments in synthetic sound and began experimenting with tape recorders. Often staying after hours, she was known to experiment with tape recorders late into the night recording sounds on to tape, and then cutting, splicing and looping them, slowing them down, speeding them up, and playing them backwards.A BBC employee yes, but an enlightened employee.It was she who foisted the idea that the Beeb should use electronics to create an atmosphere for some of the plays she was involved with...you know like those foreign french types were doing with Musique Concrete and stuff? This was around the early fifties, after she had been experimenting with electronics and tapes throughout the 40's.She created an orchestral work entitled Still Point.This was an innovative piece for turntables, "double orchestra" and five microphones. Still Point was likely the first composition that combined acoustic orchestration with live electronic manipulation. However, as was usual it was rejected by the BBC and remained unheard for 70 years, until on 24 June 2016 when the London Contemporary Orchestra performed it for the first time!
The BBC continued to refuse to have anything to do with any of that new fangled foreign music rubbish, but Daphne continued to demand that she had her way, until they relented and allowed her and Desmonde Briscoe to form the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in a few rooms at Maida Vale Studios.
Although,after hearing some of the work produced by her contemporaries and being unhappy at the BBC music department's continued refusal to push electronic composition into the foreground of their activities, she decided to resign from the BBC less than one year after the workshop had opened, hoping to develop her techniques further on her own.

This became known as "Oramics", and she even invented her own Oramics machine,which involved a system from which electronic sound could be produced from drawn images.The Fairlight in the 1980's had some facility that allowed that using a lightpen, but Daphne was doing this decades before that,using a marker pen and 35mm film. The machine itself is now on display at the London Science Museum in perpetuity......alas,not in working order.
But, above and beyond all that technical genius and no nonsense female bloodymindedness, she had a great image. The Blitz-era perm, the horn-rimmed glasses,the floral dresses,and that piercing BBC announcers voice, the kind that makes us Beta-males stand to attention and do whatever she tells us to do.....which in our case would be to very fuck off......or in her era.....bloody bugger off you moron will you please?
All this stuff is as DIY as you can get.All the equipment is home-made,done by herself, in her home studio...which was more studio than home.All tracks are from the post BBC era 1958-1977, recorded in her Tower Folly studio in Kent.
Daphne outside her rather lovely studio

We need more modern electronic acts to look like her, and have the same Heath-Robinson look for their equipment.Then we'll probably start listening again.
A Daphne Oram Look-a-likey Party anyone? We could all dress as Dapne and dance to "Lego Builds It" all evening?....prizes will be given for the best glasses,best Dress,and Best Hair. A dance off will be held to find the best Dancer who will received a copy of Depeche Mode's debut single ("New Life" I believe?)signed by myself as Daphne Oram....yes alright I dress like Daphne Oram most evenings!...Got a problem with that????

Tracklist:

1-1 Introduction 3:33
1-2 Power Tools 0:44
1-3 Bird Of Parallax 12:58
1-4 In A Jazz Style 0:37
1-5 Purring Interlude 0:42
1-6 Contrasts Essconic 8:15
1-7 Lego Builds It 0:56
1-8 Pompie Ballet (Excerpt) 3:35
1-9 Intertel 1:20
1-10 Adwick High School No.1 0:46
1-11 Look At Oramics 0:38
1-12 Rotolock 1:27
1-13 Purple Dust 6:45
1-14 High Speed Flight 0:49
1-15 Studio Experiment No.1 1:48
1-16 Four Aspects 8:05
1-17 Kia Ora 0:47
1-18 Dr. Faustus Suite 9:36
1-19 Adwick High School No.2 2:17
1-20 Tumblewash 1:59
1-21 Studio Experiment No.2 0:41
1-22 Snow 7:46
2-1 Rockets In Ursa Major (Excerpt 1) 4:54
2-2 Food Preservation 3:20
2-3 Studio Experiment No.3 1:07
2-4 Bala 1:42
2-5 Episode Metallic 5:28
2-6 Studio Experiment No.4 0:39
2-7 Adwick High School No.3 1:35
2-8 Fanfare Of Graphs 0:57
2-9 Studio Experiment No.5 1:14
2-10 Brocilliande 10:11
2-11 Mary Had A Little Lamb 2:37
2-12 Incidental Music For Invasion (Excerpts) 5:04
2-13 Costain Suite 13:16
2-14 Rockets In Ursa Major (Excerpt 2) 1:22
2-15 Passacaglia 4:28
2-16 Missile Away 2:06
2-17 Pulse Persephone 4:02
2-18 Adwick High School No.4 2:17
2-19 Nestea 0:28
2-20 Rockets In Ursa Major (Excerpt 3) 3:28
2-21 Conclusion 0:11
2-22 Studio Jinks 6:08

DOWNLOAD right now young man,pay attention and listen! HERE!

Thursday 21 May 2020

Delia Derbyshire & Anthony Newley ‎– "Moogies Bloogies" (Trunk Records ‎– TTT008) 2014/1966


Newley wanted electronics,Newley gets Electronics.
This was gonna be David Bowies vocal influence's 'new' direction,and someone recommended Delia Derbyshire to provide this new fangled electronic stuff. 
So this 'Perv Pop' novelty electronica was gonna be Delia's route to chart sucess.....but.....Newley ,although very enthusiatic about his little dirty raincoat song,went to hollywood to be a crooning star,and it never got released. Delia was initially ashamed of it,but allegedly grew to love it over the ensuing decades....and Newley?..., well he got to hang out at Roman Polanski and Sharon Tait's drug fuelled orgies,and the Moogies and Bloogies were never mentioned again. If he had hung out on the right night in Polanski's residence he could have been stabbed up by the Manson Family,and this would have been a big hit. Delia couldn't even rely on Charlie Manson to help provide those elusive royalties,just like those that the BBC kept for themselves.
"The late Anthony Newley told his label that he wanted to do something electronic. So they got on to me. So I produced this bloopy track and he loved it so much he double-tracked his voice and he used my little tune.
  The winking knees in the rain, and their mini-skirts. I'd done it as a lovely little innocent love song, because he said to me that the only songs are, "I love you, I love you" or songs saying "you've gone, you've gone."
  I'd written this beautiful little innocent tune, all sensitive love and innocence, and he made it into a dirty old raincoat song. But he was really chuffed! Joan and Jackie Collins dropped him off in a limousine at my lovely little flat above a flower shop, and he said "If you can write songs like this, I'll get you out of this place"! It was only a single-track demo tape. So he rang up his record company saying "We want to move to a multi-track studio". Unfortunately the boss of the record company was on holiday, and by the time he returned Anthony Newley had gone to America with Joan Collins, so it was never released.
" (Delia Derbyshire,1999)


Tracklist:

A1 Moogies Bloogies
B1 I Decoded You (Moogies Bloogies Part 2)

BONUS Errant Delia Stuff
"The Anger Of Achilles" (BBC Radio Play 1964)
DOWNLOAD the lost newley from derbyshire HERE!

Wednesday 20 May 2020

White Noise ‎– "An Electric Storm" (Island Records ‎– ILPS 9099) 1969


Island Records eh?
Dunno if it was King Crimson, or that Richard and Linda Thompson album that first exposed me to the inner sleeves of Island releases, which was basically an advert for their other releases; but that is where I first saw the White Noise album. I had no interest in finding out what was on it,thinking it was some third rate hard rock group or something like Free,but the image stayed with me.
I always had a minor obsession with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and some thirty years after its rlease it came to my notice that Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson were behind the electronics,is not the concept,which was the idea of american composer bloke David Vorhaus.
A lot of people say they are frightened shitless by parts of this record? Can't say I am one of them, being wholly desensitized,but I can certainly see why...its the screams y'see. The mere mention of 'Hell' especially if accompanied by the sounds of tormented souls can induce dihorrea among a lot of those unfortunate enough to have been brainwashed by a church in their delicate formative years.
The BBC moonlighters ,which they were doing a lot around the cusp of the seventies to earn a decent crust, are credited with Electronic Sound Realisation......in other words they did the hard work......the same as they did at the Beeb,for no credit. At least Vorhaus gave them a credit I suppose. The subsequently Shite Derbyshire-less follow up albums only emphasise who supplied the magic for this pioneering major(ish) label album. Its equivalent I suppose, has to be the "United States Of America" album from the same year,but that one is far more hippy than 'An Electric Storm',which does have its hippy-trippy moments,but ultimately falls firmly on the dark side of the room. It is often referred to as a 'Cult' album, which means it didn't sell any units when it was first released,but was a slow burner for decades until it now gets mentioned as a groundbreaking moment in Electronic Rock.
I doubt miss Derbyshire or Brian ever received any money for their role in this,but at least we now know who made it.


Tracklist:

A1 Love Without Sound 2:57
A2 My Game Of Loving 3:38
A3 Here Come The Fleas 2:31
A4 Firebird 2:43
A5 Your Hidden Dreams 4:25
B1 The Visitation 11:45
B2 The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell 7:04


Tuesday 19 May 2020

BBC Radiophonic Workshop ‎– "Doctor Who At The BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Volume 2: New Beginnings 1970-1980)



Towards the end of Miss Derbyshire's and Brian Hodgson's tenure in the workshop, the arrival of a state of the art EMS Synthi 100 modular synth,nicknamed 'the Delaware' after the address of the workshop, started to change the direction of the music the team produced.
Also the arrival of 'proper' musicians, like Malcolm Clarke,also normalised the sounds somewhat.Malcolm also brought long hair,flak jackets and moustaches into the fold.
Malcolm with the Delaware and moustache.
Having, mildly,expressed my disapproval of the replacement of the two key members of the Radiophonic Workshop from the sixties,one must say that Clarke's soundtrack for the imfamous 'Sea Devils' episodes makes me shit bricks in fear. I was too young to remember any of the sixties soundtracks,mainly because I genuinely hid behind the sofa in terror in the time-honoured fashion, so didn't connect the sound with the images.By 1973 I was,older and watching,in colour, from that same sofa,pretending not to be shitting in my short trousers while The Sea Devils rose out of the murky polluted  waters of the North Sea, fuming mad at what us land dwellers were doing to their aquatic abode. A parable for our times but from nigh-on fifty years ago. I can still hear those harsh synthesizer notes clanging unapologetically down every child's spine the whole length and breadth of this island nation. 
What amazes me most about this stark electronic ass kicking, is the total lack of ambient soundscapes that were the trademrk of Derbyshire and Hodgson, just stark monophonic EMS synthesizer noise,that seem incompatable with the images,yet strangely in tune with the experience. Terrifying!
The end of this collection sees Delia's most hated version of her fabulous Theme tune,as done by her and Hodgson on the 'Delaware' as a request by the boss.She was not happy that they insisted on messing about endlessly with her 'Perfect',organic ,sci-fi anthem.By 1980,after Delia had given up on music for wine,snuff,and working in a bookshop, they had someone else (Peter Howell)do a characterless synth version,also included here.


Tracklist:


1–Delia Derbyshire- Doctor Who (Opening Title Theme, 1970) 0:46
2–Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Control On & Warp Transfer 0:22
3–Delia Derbyshire- Blue Veils & Golden Sands 3:25
4–Delia Derbyshire- The Delian Mode 5:33
5–Brian Hodgson- The Master's Theme 0:43
6–Brian Hodgson- Dover Castle 0:30
7–Brian Hodgson- Keller Machine Appears/Vanishes 0:23
8–Brian Hodgson- Keller Machine Theme 0:42
9–Brian Hodgson- Brain Centre Atmosphere 0:21
10–Brian Hodgson- The Axons Approach 1:45
11–Brian Hodgson- TARDIS Lands 0:22
12–Delia Derbyshire- Doctor Who (Closing Title Theme, 1970) 1:13
13–Malcolm Clarke- The Prison 1:19
14–Malcolm Clarke- The Master 2:05
15–Malcolm Clarke- The Naval Base 1:28
16–Malcolm Clarke- The Sea Fort 2:13
17–Malcolm Clarke- Stranded 2:39
18–Malcolm Clarke- The Sea Devil 2:43
19–Malcolm Clarke- The Master At Large 3:04
20–Malcolm Clarke- Air-Conditioning Problem 0:48
21–Malcolm Clarke- Duel 1:44
22–Malcolm Clarke- The Master's Plan 1:31
23–Malcolm Clarke- The Submarine 1:52
24–Malcolm Clarke- Jo Frees The Doctor 1:11
25–Malcolm Clarke- Rock Bottom 1:15
26–Malcolm Clarke- The Beach 1:57
27–Malcolm Clarke- The Minefield 0:23
28–Malcolm Clarke- Devil Underwater 1:18
29–Malcolm Clarke- The Doctor And Jo On The Run 0:35
30–Malcolm Clarke- The Sea Devils Take The Prison 3:24
31–Malcolm Clarke- The Diving-Bell 1:23
32–Malcolm Clarke- Mr. Walker's War 3:05
33–Malcolm Clarke- Torpedo 1:28
34–Malcolm Clarke- Attack In Force 2:02
35–Malcolm Clarke- Ventilation Shaft 1:20
36–Malcolm Clarke- Sea Chase 2:06
37–Malcolm Clarke- Escape 0:46
38–Delia Derbyshire & Brian Hodgson With Paddy Kingsland- Doctor Who (Stereo Version, 1972) 2:21
39–Delia Derbyshire & Brian Hodgson With Paddy Kingsland- Doctor Who (Delaware Version, 1972) 2:08
40–Dick Mills Aggedor's Temple Atmosphere, Peladon ("The Monster Of Peladon", YYY) 0:59
41–Dick Mills- Metebelis III Atmosphere ("Planet Of The Spiders", ZZZ) 1:51
42–Dick Mills- Nerva Beacon Infrastructure & T-Mat Couch ("The Ark In Space", 4C) 1:42
43–Dick Mills- The Planet Karn ("The Brain Of Morbius", 4K) 1:43
44–Dick Mills- The Shrine Of The Sisterhood Of Karn (As 43) 1:13
45–Dick Mills- The Mandragora Helix ("The Masque Of Mandragora", 4M) 0:46
46–Dick Mills- Nova Device Countdown & Explosion ("Destiny Of The Daleks", 5J) 0:12
47–Peter Howell- Demo 1 1:13
48–Peter Howell- Demo 2 1:07
49–Peter Howell- Doctor Who (New Theme, 1980) 2:42


Monday 18 May 2020

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


Sunday 17 May 2020

Delia Derbyshire / Brian Hodgson / Don Harper ‎– "Electrosonic" (KPM Music ‎– KPM 1104) 1972


Again Delia and Brian earning a few extra quid moonlighting for a soundtrack library,under the pseudonyms of Li De La Russe,and Nikki St.George,inexplicably, with Aussie Jazz violinist Don Harper.
A lot of these kind of electronic ditties used to frequently turn up on kids programmes,and programming for schools when i was a nipper.So there's a nostalgic feeling about them, ironically, as they were supposed to invoke visions of the future;but as always, the future envisaged in the past is so much better than the actual future we actually get.

Tracklist:

1 Quest 1:40
2 Quest-fast 1:05
3 Computermatic 1:10
4 Frontier Of Knowledge 2:02
5 The Pattern Emerges 2:50
6 Freeze Frame 1:32
7 Plodding Power 1:46
8 Busy Microbes 1:35
9 Liquid Energy 1:50
10 Liquid Energy (Rhythm Only) 0:55
11 No Man's Land 1:46
12 Depression 1:24
13 Nightwalker 1:55
14 Electrostings 0:16
15 Electrobuild 0:17
16 Celestial Cantabile 3:26
17 Effervescence 1:57
18 The Wizard's Laboratory 2:03
19 Shock Chords 0:35


Saturday 16 May 2020

Delia Derbyshire/Brian Hodgson/ David Vorhaus ‎– "Electronic Music" (Standard Music Library ‎– ESL 104) 1969

.Delia and Brian (Hodgson) moonlighting from the Radiophonic Workshop,appearing as Li de la Russe(a reference to Delia's flowing Red locks) & Nikki St. George,presumably to avoid conflict with the BBC, with future White Noise partner David Vorhaus;doing their bit for library music.
Even more naughty is that a lot of these tracks were used by Beeb rivals Thames Television, for their kids sci-fi series' "The Tomorrow People" and "Timeslip".
The music on this library disc certainly is not synth pop but provides a perfectly sinister atmosphere for that science fiction movie you were making in your attic.Or the quirky track for those lighter moments.It's Delia's trackmark Musique Concréte moments that provide the more disturbing sonic vistas;one of the tracks is described as 'Heavy Industrial'...is this the first use of the term as regards to music? Another track description on the rear cover is "Abstract, despairing cries" of a soul lost in space.Could this be a pointer to how Miss D was feeling? For there was surely some darkness struggling to get out of Miss Derbyshire's mind,which would help explain her slow terminal slide into alcoholism. Brain,aka Nikki St. George, mentioned that she seemed almost on the edge of a breakdown towards the point of her ,and his, departure from the Radiophonic workshop. The source of which one can only speculate.Maybe the lack of recognition, or it may have something to do with her dismissive comment about her parents...you know, the one's who fuck you up?...."The only thing my parents gave me was my name."
Whatever the cause,she was burnt out by the mid-seventies,but the soundscapes she left us are a disturbingly descriptive soundtrack to any breakdown.

Tracklist:

A1 Lure Of The Space Goddess 0:27
A2 Battle Theme 1:00
A3 Homeric Theme 1:19
A4 Greek Concrete 0:20
A5 Attack Of The Alien Minds 2:19
A6 Gothic Submarine 1:55
A7 Whirring Menace 2:17
A8 Souls In Space 1:39
A9 Time Capsule 1:52
A10-1 London Lemons (Theme 1) 0:04
A10-2 London Lemons (Theme 2) 0:04
A10-3 London Lemons (Theme 3) 0:03
A10-4 London Lemons (Theme 4) 0:04
A10-5 London Lemons (Theme 5) 0:04
A10-6 London Lemons (Theme 6) 0:03
A10-7 London Lemons (Theme 7) 0:05
A10-8 London Lemons (Theme 8) 0:06
A10-9 London Lemons (Theme 9) 0:04
B1 Restless Relays 1:03
B2 Planetarium 1:34
B3 Wet Asteroid 1:30
B4 Way Out 1:49
B5 Fresh Aire 0:08
B6 Delia's Theme 1:19
B7 Tentative Delia 0:20
B8 Delia's Idea 0:20
B9 Delia's Psychadelian Waltz 0:35
B10 Delia's Resolve 0:04
B11 Delia's Dream 0:39
B12 Delia's Reverie 0:21
B13 Delia's Fulfilment 0:21
B14 Build Up To... 1:22
B15 Snide Rhythms 0:05


Friday 15 May 2020

Delia Derbyshire And Elsa Stansfield ‎– "Circle Of Light (Original Electronic Soundtrack)" (Trunk Records ‎– JBH061LP) 1972


Back in the days when Eno was just a sideman in Roxy Music, and  the so-called 'inventor' of the Dark Ambient genre,Lustmord , was still in nappies, Delia Derbyshire and artist chum Elsa Stansfield, had beaten them both to it, with this forgotten soundtrack to photographer, Pamela Bone's award-winning, short film "Circle Of Light". But,then again, Delia was doing this kind of stuff when Eno was still in short trousers.
One really has an impression of being alone in a wilderness,.....even though i'd feel alone in a crowded room...., with the processed field recordings of nature, juxtaposed with Delia's groundbreaking Musique Concréte inspired electronics,you could almost breath in the fresh pollution.Without the images,it's as if we are clinging to a lump of rock careering wildly  through space,dependant on a thin layer of life preserving gases that are slowly being destroyed...wait a minute...we are!!?
I guess it is better to view the images and sound together for the full effect,which concentrates heavily on the beauty that surrounds us...another reminder to STOP fucking it all up you bunch of Twats!..I believe thats what Delia,Elsa,and Pamela wanted to say?
Sadly both Delia and Elsa are no longer with us so we will never know how they made it,what they wanted to communicate or how they worked together, but luckily now we can just listen, enjoy it and drift away speculating how we can turn this circle of shite (society) back into a circle of light.

Tracklisting:

1. Circle Of Light (Part One) 21:15
2. Circle Of Light (Part Two) 10:26


Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange -"Inventions For Radio No.4: The Evenings Of Certain Lives " (1965)


In the grand old tradition of the BBC, the tapes for Inventions for Radio No.4 have been 'lost'(which usually means thrown away or erased), All that remains is this short edited extract for the "Sculptress of Sound" documentary taken from a ten minute section from one of the reels in the box of tapes that were recovered from Delia's house, from the attic, after she died. That is now the property of the university of Manchester,and they don't seem keen to allow anyone to make a complete copy of it.
The programme is about life at a certain age, not at the extreme point when people ‘just give up and wait’ but, perhaps more poignantly, at the point where old age begins and the body just won't work like it used to and the eyes just won't see, the ears just won't hear, and the memory of what you were is dim.
The Evenings of Certain Lives is about the sense of isolation, and the private agony of aging.Fun stuff,but it looks like we will never get to hear the whole 40 minutes worth.

A typical story is on the day that the Radiophonic workshop was finally closed, the Workshop archivist Mark Ayres,discovered 9000 tapes dumped in a skip,which he recovered,and spent the next few years digitising and cataloging.

Despite, again not being credited (BBC policy),these Inventions for radio are probably Delia's greatest works,and i was amused to hear of a series of complaints from the 'public' at the time of transmission.Indeed, the BBC received complaints from a number of listeners about some of the 'harsh' or 'uneducated' accents and opinions that were featured in the 'Inventions'.
Don't you just love the ignorance of the 'Public' and the stupidity of of government corporations? It still goes on of course, but at least Aunty Beeb has stopped throwing stuff away,but there's a new wave of mass ignorance that dwarves the old skool version,which was mainly due to lack of information as opposed to too much information,or rather, too much incorrect information,where one man's truth is anothers lies if it doesn't fit their agenda.
And.....Oh yeah....University of Manchester people!.....put the archive online will you? Its not just for academics!?
Unbelieveable!?

Tracklisting:

1. The Evenings Of Certain Lives (extract) 2:11

DOWNLOAD for two minutes in this uncertain world HERE!

Thursday 14 May 2020

Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange -"Inventions For Radio No.3: The Afterlife" (1965)


The third in a cycle of inventions for radio by Barry Bermange, in collaboration with the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop.An attempt to reconstruct in sound the spiritualistic vision of Death and Eternity. It is conceived as a dream of Death. Using the montage process of the earlier programmes, 'The Dreams' and 'Amor Dei', the author has arranged in settings of electronic sound provided by the immortal Delia Derbyshire.A collection of voices of people who are now likely to have found out if their beliefs were correct,or have disappeared into the eternal darkeness and silence of oblivion. Recorded from life before death in four movements.
Its this kind of stuff that makes paying your taxes a pleasure.
If Kluster had made this in 1969,it would have been hailed as a proto-industrial masterpiece,and proof of how the Krautrockers invented Ambient.Nah! It all began here,with a bit of help from John Cage,Pierre Henry,Edgard Varese, and maybe Louis And Bebe Barron....but none of those got anywhere near the articulate structured brilliance of the Dr.Who theme from whence sprung electronic pop.

Tracklisting:

1.Death is Going from Shadow into Reality 7:41
2.It's Just Like Going to Sleep 11:09
3.Light. Everywhere is Light 10:27
4.Death is Just a Changing 10:37
5.The Afterlife (Extended ) 40:00

DOWNLOAD before you get to the afterlife HERE!

Wednesday 13 May 2020

Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange -"Inventions For Radio No.2: Amor Dei" (1964)



The second fantastic slice of 'Inventions For Radio' by the legend that is Delia Derbyshire, and Barry Bermange.This time the subject for the public of 1964 to discuss is the subject of 'God'.
Then there's the task of creating backing music that invokes a feeling of the true horror of life,fear of death,yet can also represent the natural spirituality of human superstition.
When Delia asked Barry Bermange what he wanted musically, he drew a sketch of a church altar over the notes for the dialogue track.
"He wanted sounds which would sound like a Gothic altarpiece. 'Oh,' I said, 'yes. What a good idea. But what do you really mean? What sort of sounds?' He said 'Well, give me a pencil and paper'. I did, and with great care and elaboration he drew me a beautiful Gothic altarpiece and said 'That's the sort of sound I want'." (Delia Derbyshire 1964)
Barry's inspiring sketch...a lesson in how to write music.
Barry Bermange said that he himself thought of Amor Dei as ‘rather in the manner of a Renaissance painting with the believers in God in the foreground or centre and half-hidden disbelievers looking out from shadowy places round the edge of the painting.’
This programme was made in four sections. In the first you will hear several thoughtful voices groping towards God, feeling their way into something undefined. In the second, some more assured voices cite concrete images; a defined notion of God begins to emerge. The third is a contest between those who love God and those who cannot believe in Him. The assured and confident voices in the last section are inspired by absolute faith.


The actual effect of this haunting piece,is the pure gothic horror of mortality and the plunging depths of infinity,in which the abstract choirs and aging believers seem to be drowning.
Quite an extraordinary and powerful piece of work that lay hidden in the vaults of the BBC for decades,and I struggle to think of another piece that can match its wide ranging encapsulation of this profound subject. 

Tracklisting:

1.Groping towards God
2.Rorate Coeli
3.I'd like to believe in God but...
4.There IS a God!

DOWNLOAD mans love of ghosts HERE!

Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange -"Inventions For Radio No.1: The Dreams" (1964)


"Dreams" was made in collaboration with Barry Bermange (who originally recorded the narrations). Bermange put together The Dreams (1964), a collage of people describing their dreams, set to a background of electronic sound,provided by Delia Derbyshire.In true BBC style, Delia's name isn't mentioned in the Radio Times listing,it's just the BBC Radiophonic Workshop that gets the collective credit.
The original PsycheDelia 

However, Dreams is a rather sinister collection of spliced and reassembled interviews with people describing their dreams, particularly the recurring elements,represented here in five movements,such as running away, falling, landscape, drowning, and colour.The stuff of nightmares.

These programmes,only designed to be broadcast once,then earmarked for erasure, with Barry Bermange,are arguably Delia's second greatest moments......the greatest, much to her chagrin, is obviously the original Doctor Who Theme;but artistically,Inventions for Radio blow that proto-synth pop miesterwerk out of the very water that the subjects of this broadcast were drowning in.

Tracklist:

1 Intro/Edited version 27:24

2 Running 8:22
3 Falling 7:19
4 Land 5:32

5 Sea 9:16
6 Colour 8:59
7 Outro 0:31

Tuesday 12 May 2020

Delia Derbyshire - "Blue Veils and Golden Sands-The Unsung Heroine Of British Electronic Music" (BBC Transcription Services) 2002


Ten years before 'Autobahn' the British public were exposed to popular electronics by the government funded BBC Radiophonic Workshop,who pioneered the art of making electronics useable and coherent for the average working man.It all started with Delia Deryshires rendering of Ron Grainers 'Doctor Who Theme'.I dunno if that bass-line has ever been bettered? What makes this more intriguing is that in the semi-socialist state that was post-war Britain, this was all done without recognition or plaudits, in complete anonymity in the bowels of BBC Maida Vale studio's where 20th century music history was recorded from The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, to Joy Division and Frank Sidebottom. The BBC also had its own composers on the payroll although they categorically avoided this,as Ms Derbyshire explains......"The only way into the workshop was to be a trainee studio manager. This is because the workshop was purely a service department for drama. The BBC made it quite clear that they didn't employ composers and we weren't supposed to be doing music." One of these 'composers' was the one and only, Delia Derbyshire,who has posthumously risen inexorably towards 'Legendary' status as not only a pioneer of women in Electronic music,but as a pioneer of all Electronic music.
Using the notoriously non-existent BBC budget, Delia and her collegues, worked tirelessly with basic equipment to create other worldly music that wasn't being produced anywhere else in the early sixties outside of the Avant Garde arena,which was basically just using electronics to make funny noises.God knows what shite Stockhausen would have come up with for the Doctor Who Theme,and Morton Subotnik was still deciding whether to use Silver Apples or Oranges for his Moon.
The thing is, Delia did 'weird' as well.There is much of her work that would stand up effortlessly in the Avant Garde arena if it ever allowed someone from the BBC to be taken seriously.
The radio plays she did with Barry Bermange in 1964/65, "Inventions For Radio", are among some of the most bizarre pieces of Musique Concréte ever made.
They will be coming up; but as there is inexplicably NO(!?) Greatest hits of Delia Derbyshire,or of The Radiophonic Workshop, in existence?This file contains the BBC Play based on Delia's life (featuring Sonic Boom/Pete Kember of Spaceman 3),and 20 of her most popular pieces,including the one that started it all, "The Doctor Who Theme".
Here's a great quote by Delia about the Dr Who Theme,that shows the BBC's faultless socialist principles:"I did the Dr Who theme music mostly on the Jason valve oscillators. Ron Grainer brought me the score. He expected to hire a band to play it, but when he heard what I had done electronically, he'd never imagined it would be so good. He offered me half of the royalties, but the BBC wouldn't allow it. I was just on an assistant studio manager's salary and that was it... and we got a free Radio Times. The boss wouldn't let anybody have any sort of credit."
Personal favourite , "Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO", could have been taken from The Residents 'golden era',also ten years hence!Or as inspiration for The Mole Show, almost twenty years later! Delia was also far more anonymous than The Residents could ever be.Hardly any pictures exist of her,the same images cropping up endlessly.
She left the workshop, and music, in 1975 to do ordinary jobs,complaining that Synthesizers were killing electronic music,believing that it should be hand-made.She has a point.Music is made by machines more than ever in the 21st century.
'You will be Replaced' is a line you'd expect from an episode of Doctor Who.....now its becoming a reality.
However, Delia Derbyshire was never replaced.The synthesizers never cut the mustard.

Tracklisting:

The Unsung Heroine Of British Electronic Music(BBC Radio Play 2002) 
01 - Introduction
02 - There Is No Such Thing As Silence
03 - The Meaning Of Sound
04 - A Glass Or Two Of Wine
05 - My Real Living Room
06 - Doctor Who
07 - New Music And Open Minds
08 - The Effect Of The Soul On Sound
09 - Another Day At The BBC Radiophonic Sweatshop
10 - Some Recognition
11 - Remembering Without Trying
12 - Credits
The Music (1962-75):
13 - Doctor Who (Original Theme)
14 - Time On Our Hands
15 - Arabic Science And Industry
16 - Know Your Car
17 - Mattachin
18 - Pot Au Feu
19 - Happy Birthday
20 - Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO
21 - Towards Tomorrow
22 - Door To Door
23 - Air
24 - Science And Health
25 - Chromophone Band
26 - A New View Of Politics
27 - Environmental Studies
28 - Chronicle
29 - Great Zoos Of The World
30 - Dance from ''Noah''
31 - Blue Veils And Golden Sands
32 - The Delian Mode
33 - Time To Go
34 - Doctor Who (Closing Theme)

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