Saturday, June 20, 2009

KrautRock Synth Flashback Overload... with Cupcakes.


BTM is deep in a krautrock flashback overload zone while tinkling the ivories of moog/arp synthz and dreaming of an ocean of melted tones of archived madness.... and eating cupcakes. Can you dig it, man?


I scored my first keyboard on my second birthday in 1958 and then eventually a Magnus Chord Organ (when i was in The Electric Onion band) in 1969 and then a Ace Tone Organ in 1971 and then at Arp Odyssey ('74 white panel model) in 1976 and a Roland JX-8P in 1983 and then MOOG Taurus Bass pedals (found in the trash around 1996 at rehearsal complex, which just needed power supply adapter wired in.) Then I started collectin a mountain of Casios and assorted circuit bent toy keyboards and software synths from late 90s onward. Still want more more more.


My Dad had been a hi-fi enthusiast since the late 40s and turned me onto Switched on Bach by Walter Carlos. I also caught snips of theremin and synth sci-fi tweakage on the tube in the late 60s as well. After years of British Invasion and recycled blues and assorted hippie trippy sounds i needed more indulgent sounds with less vocals. I started exploring all those euro prog-ish bands (in all flavors from King Crimson, Hawkwind, Nektar, Gentle Giant to the more obvious, ELP, Yes, Genesis, seeing ALL of them live in concert at some point) starting back when I was teenager around 1970. Somewhere about 1973-74 got turned onto CAN, Amon Duul II, Kraftwerk. But ya know it it really was the portamento glide into that bass resonance on Keith Emerson's Lucky Man solo that I just couldn't get out of my mangus chord organ, that kick-started the quest.



In 1976, I scored my Arp Odyssey and along with my guitar bouncing delay into a Revox A-77 reel to reel I started to create music in that sort of synthy space realm. A few short recordings from that era survived and will be released at some point. I only wish I had recordings my early Electric Onion (68-70 era) solo freak-out guitar verb feedback excursions (and on one weekend I even had a sine wave oscillator, my dad checked out of his lab.) Lost sonic memories.


It took me to until the early 90s to really hear Karlheinz Stockhausen, Einstürzende Neubauten, Holger Czukay solo and eventually re-discovering the golden era of CAN... digging way deep into that space. It wasn't until recently that I got to actually HEAR bands I had HEARD OF forever like, Faust, Neu!, Cluster, Ash Ra Tempel, (early) Tangerine Dream, Conrad Schnitzler, and truly grew to appreciate Producer Conny Plank.

This DVD documentary... Kraftwerk and the Electronic Revolution was the trigger for my recent excursion.

OK... enough flashback distractions, gotta get back to video editing the ORGY OF NOISE Live in Concert Halloweeny TTs DVD footage.

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