I really like this type of video where various significant electronic music recordings are put into their historical context. How they did it, what instruments they used etc. I’d like to see more of this, maybe break it down by sub genre and era, that would make a great video series.
Can’t say I agree with a few of your choices- interesting electronic but not convinced some were important. Not having Oxygene, from point of view of influential records, on a top 5 seems remiss ( especially its use in soundtracks I think probably been heard by more people than any other electronic instrumental ). My personal favourite is sparks no.1 song in heaven, but probably not that important but I think influential for development of much later EDM production.
re: Phaedra - no Arps. all Mellotrons, organs, and VCS3s, with Chris Franke running their very first Moog modular which is where the sequences come from. (ps: the tuning drift you hear in the title track is real! Franke trying to wrestle the Moog into tune and ultimately failing)
Interesting video. Some cool history. Here's 5 electronic albums that were important to me back in the 70s: 1. Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene 2. Vangelis - Albedo 0.39 3. Giorgio Moroder - Midnight Express (soundtrack) 4. Deuter - Celebration 5. Alan Parson Project - I Robot
Good video. Glad you emphasized the technical challenges faced in the early days. I've been asked more than once what plugins were used on Autobahn and that emphasizes how much change there has been. Switched on Bach really triggered so much. Another huge event for us Brits was Kraftwerk's appearance on the Tomorrow's World BBC TV show - that inspired so many of us. My musical foundation albums are Autobahn, Jarre's Oxygène and Équinoxe, and Vangelis' Albedo 0.39 and Spiral. Those are my favourite Vangelis albums and I can never decide which is the favourite of those two because Spiral is atmospheric and polished but Albedo has energy and soaring solos that sadly (for me) weren't really the bag Vangelis was into.
Brilliant choice thank you. For me one of my top 5 electronic albums of that era will have to be Timewind by Klaus Schulze. And don't forget Rubicon by TD, and Moondawn of course and Cyborg ....... Going down memory lane ......
As I am 60 I have lived through the ages of development in the mainstream eras. But my take came mainly at Oxygene but this popped me back to Tangerine Dream and straight to Vangelis and Kraftwerk. At which point I was firing on all cylinders and wanting a synth for my self. And have loads now. Currently my main influence is Boards of Canada.
I love all those groups you mentioned (I'm 38yo). Boards of Canada are so darned good. I listen to a lot of electronic from all across time and there is something really special about them. Truly masters of analogue synths - they make everything sound so "organic" for lack of a better term. I just wish they made more music. Check out "Selected Ambient Works 85-92" by Aphex Twin (the album that made me fall in love with electronic music). You probably already have though. I think that's his most accessible and a good place to start. A slightly more modern album you might like is "Immunity" (2013) by Jon Hopkins. I'm currently very impressed with that.
These are all excellent choices. Of course, there's a lot of earlier music such as the 1956 Fobidden Planet soundtrack by Bebe and Louis Barron and Musique Concrete compositions from conposers like Steve Reich and Luigi Nono. In later years, Jean Michel Jarre (Oxygene),, Vangelis (many, but Heaven and Hell is a good one), Suzanne Ciani (Velocity of Love), and Georgio Moroder (Midnight Express soundtrack, etc.) are all very influential. For the bands that you mentioned, I also like Tangerine Dream's StratosFear. Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express and Wendy Carlos's Clockwork Orange soundtrack.. Tangerine Dream, Georgio Moroder and Kraftwerk were all very influential in the later developments of techno, house and other EDM music.
It's a great selection of 5, especially upto that year of Autobahn. For me personally, my selection would come from just after then, mainly from the mid 1970s to early 1990s. I'd absolutely have to pick a Brian Eno album. Discreet Music makes sense, but I have a personal attachment to Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror, and also On Land and Apollo. With Kraftwerk, I've more of a personal attachment to Computer Love; it's aged so poignantly with it's utopian sentimental/future nostalgia and now some added dystopia, given where mainstream computing has gone. Great songs, like an electronic version of The Beatles; just listen to covers, like Senor Coconut et al. When I fell in love with electronic music, I worked both backward/forward from Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works 85-92 which was the most important for me. That brought me to those Eno albums, and also to the beautiful Phaedra. Rather than Morton Sobotnick, I'd go forward, to Laurie Spiegel's The Expanding Universe for what that represents in the coming wave of Computer Music. I'd have to include a major early hip-hop album too, that changed everything. Probably Public Enemy, 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back'. The most important work in Disco, House, Electro was more in singles than albums so maybe no need to add one, although I'd like to add Prince's Dirty Mind, as it sets the scene, bridging the gap post instrumental Disco / Funk Parliament and putting drum machines and synths in the driving set, from where the vocals were eventually just stripped down.
Electronically created 'music' has always appealed to me, along with sophisticated polyphonic acoustic compositions. But I come back to Jean Michel Jarre (and collaborator Michel Geiss) and Jarre's definition - 'building a resonate landscape somewhere between technology and ecology'. Melody - a soulful riff, counter-balanced with bass and rhythm and enhancing effects make a composition appealing, along with the classic Movement structure. Some early musicians thought they had to reproduce 'classical'' music to have validity with keyboards and tech. Much of the output I think was dismal - the same problem at the avant-garde end of the spectrum - ''Bleeps and Bloops'. For me the exception here was Isao Tomita - his interpretation of Debussy tone poems 'Snowflakes are Dancing' - beautiful. And beauty is the key. There was Perry/Kingsley 'Popcorn' as well. I have followed Jarre/Vangelis (his mature work) and really bits of TD and Brian Eno (Apollo - Atmospheres and Soundtracks) and Equatorial Stars . Today, I don't think anyone is making engaging ambient music. I have heard pieces tossed away on Royalty Free sites - eg, 'Peace and Quiet'' (Sounds From The Leftfield). Ambient1 by 'BalanceBalance?' (featured on RUclips channel The Secret Vault - ''Orfordness Secret Radar' - seriously) - it appealed to me but the original track cannot be found. Thanks. -Andrew Mackenna, Christchurch, New Zealand 7/24
Have that album on vinyl and CD. Classic electronic soundtrack from A Clockwork Orange. And by the way, Walter/Wendy Carlos is not a she. In really life he was born a male. And you can't change that. And that's the bottom line cause Stone Cold said so (from 976-CREOLEMAN)!
Laurie Spielgel's "Expanding Universe" is often overlooked, as is many works by Michael Stearns. Stevie Wonder is often overlooked as an early electronic music pioneer.
So many choices! I will definitely dig deeper and do more of these. Your mention of Laurie is so important. It would be wise to produce a video that focuses on woman in synthesis and sound design. I'll get to work!
These are "important" releases for sure. I've tried finding the Soothing Sounds LP's, but they are always too expensive, or in bad shape when I do. I have the others in the list. I do agree these were the groundbreakers for sure. They are certainly more important than my favorites from these acts. Like many I found Carlos though A Clockwork Orange, but then later realized that I had heard Tron and The Shining a few years prior. The classical stuff soon followed. However, in the past decade I found Sonic Seasonings, and I think it is my new favorite of her works. Autobahn is more important than The Man Machine, but pretty much The Man Machine is their first of their all-killer, no-filler albums. Phaedra is most likely my favorite T-Dream album. I do like Stratosphere a lot. Good list.
Good list - i knew a couple and I'll listen to the others. I'm going to list more modern albums because if we're talking "importance" there must be some important albums around the time when electronic music exploded in the mainstream. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92, Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children, Massive Attack - Mezzanine, Radiohead - Kid A, Jon Hopkins - Immunity. If you like analogue synths then definitely check out Boards of Canada. To me they're just total wizards and masters of subtlety.
Thank you, and I'll definitely get to the others you mentioned. Warp Records is probably the most important indie in the world, and dedicating a video to its roster and aesthetic should most certainly happen in the future.
Cleanse Fold & Manipulate and MIND: the perpetual intercourse (both Skinny Puppy) were absolutely mindblowing for me. As for Kraftwerk I'd pick Computer World. Another great album to my ear is Furnace by Download. It meanders like a river. Switched on Bach is epic, not only because of the work and effort that went in there. It was also early times for a broader audience to listen to a Moog modular.
Yes, re Skinny Puppy! I'll definitely put an industrial list together at some point. I worked with a Metropolis band for a bit, Mentallo and the Fixer, back in the late 90s. If you're not familiar with MATF, you might dig some of what the Dassing brothers produced. And Computer World has been getting a lot of love in my house as of late!
I have been into synths since Switched on Bach. And I’d say that was my number 1, #2 would have to be Sonic Seasonings, also by Wendy, #3 would be the soundtrack from ClockWork Orange, then Tomita’s The Planets comes in at 4, and 5th would be Oxygene by Jarre!
All fantastic albums. My favorites also tend to change from time to time, but from a historical lens, these picks are pretty static for me. I need to pull out my copy of Oxygene as it's been a minute since I listened to that platter. Thank you for tuning in!
I really like this type of video where various significant electronic music recordings are put into their historical context. How they did it, what instruments they used etc. I’d like to see more of this, maybe break it down by sub genre and era, that would make a great video series.
Can’t say I agree with a few of your choices- interesting electronic but not convinced some were important. Not having Oxygene, from point of view of influential records, on a top 5 seems remiss ( especially its use in soundtracks I think probably been heard by more people than any other electronic instrumental ). My personal favourite is sparks no.1 song in heaven, but probably not that important but I think influential for development of much later EDM production.
re: Phaedra - no Arps. all Mellotrons, organs, and VCS3s, with Chris Franke running their very first Moog modular which is where the sequences come from. (ps: the tuning drift you hear in the title track is real! Franke trying to wrestle the Moog into tune and ultimately failing)
Interesting video. Some cool history.
Here's 5 electronic albums that were important to me back in the 70s:
1. Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygene
2. Vangelis - Albedo 0.39
3. Giorgio Moroder - Midnight Express (soundtrack)
4. Deuter - Celebration
5. Alan Parson Project - I Robot
Good video. Glad you emphasized the technical challenges faced in the early days. I've been asked more than once what plugins were used on Autobahn and that emphasizes how much change there has been.
Switched on Bach really triggered so much. Another huge event for us Brits was Kraftwerk's appearance on the Tomorrow's World BBC TV show - that inspired so many of us.
My musical foundation albums are Autobahn, Jarre's Oxygène and Équinoxe, and Vangelis' Albedo 0.39 and Spiral. Those are my favourite Vangelis albums and I can never decide which is the favourite of those two because Spiral is atmospheric and polished but Albedo has energy and soaring solos that sadly (for me) weren't really the bag Vangelis was into.
Brilliant choice thank you. For me one of my top 5 electronic albums of that era will have to be Timewind by Klaus Schulze. And don't forget Rubicon by TD, and Moondawn of course and Cyborg ....... Going down memory lane ......
Timewind is a great album.
I've been listening to a lot of Klaus lately... usually when up late working on the computer.
As I am 60 I have lived through the ages of development in the mainstream eras. But my take came mainly at Oxygene but this popped me back to Tangerine Dream and straight to Vangelis and Kraftwerk. At which point I was firing on all cylinders and wanting a synth for my self. And have loads now.
Currently my main influence is Boards of Canada.
I love all those groups you mentioned (I'm 38yo). Boards of Canada are so darned good. I listen to a lot of electronic from all across time and there is something really special about them. Truly masters of analogue synths - they make everything sound so "organic" for lack of a better term. I just wish they made more music.
Check out "Selected Ambient Works 85-92" by Aphex Twin (the album that made me fall in love with electronic music). You probably already have though. I think that's his most accessible and a good place to start. A slightly more modern album you might like is "Immunity" (2013) by Jon Hopkins. I'm currently very impressed with that.
Nice T-shirt. Back to the future!
Phaedra is my favourite TD album too. 👍
These are all excellent choices. Of course, there's a lot of earlier music such as the 1956 Fobidden Planet soundtrack by Bebe and Louis Barron and Musique Concrete compositions from conposers like Steve Reich and Luigi Nono. In later years, Jean Michel Jarre (Oxygene),, Vangelis (many, but Heaven and Hell is a good one), Suzanne Ciani (Velocity of Love), and Georgio Moroder (Midnight Express soundtrack, etc.) are all very influential. For the bands that you mentioned, I also like Tangerine Dream's StratosFear. Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express and Wendy Carlos's Clockwork Orange soundtrack.. Tangerine Dream, Georgio Moroder and Kraftwerk were all very influential in the later developments of techno, house and other EDM music.
Definitely going to check Morton Subotnik's work. Never heard of him, thanks man. Keep more content coming!
Love the OMD shirt! Such a great live band!
It's a great selection of 5, especially upto that year of Autobahn. For me personally, my selection would come from just after then, mainly from the mid 1970s to early 1990s. I'd absolutely have to pick a Brian Eno album. Discreet Music makes sense, but I have a personal attachment to Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror, and also On Land and Apollo. With Kraftwerk, I've more of a personal attachment to Computer Love; it's aged so poignantly with it's utopian sentimental/future nostalgia and now some added dystopia, given where mainstream computing has gone. Great songs, like an electronic version of The Beatles; just listen to covers, like Senor Coconut et al. When I fell in love with electronic music, I worked both backward/forward from Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works 85-92 which was the most important for me. That brought me to those Eno albums, and also to the beautiful Phaedra. Rather than Morton Sobotnick, I'd go forward, to Laurie Spiegel's The Expanding Universe for what that represents in the coming wave of Computer Music. I'd have to include a major early hip-hop album too, that changed everything. Probably Public Enemy, 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back'. The most important work in Disco, House, Electro was more in singles than albums so maybe no need to add one, although I'd like to add Prince's Dirty Mind, as it sets the scene, bridging the gap post instrumental Disco / Funk Parliament and putting drum machines and synths in the driving set, from where the vocals were eventually just stripped down.
Electronically created 'music' has always appealed to me, along with sophisticated polyphonic acoustic compositions. But I come back to Jean Michel Jarre (and collaborator Michel Geiss) and Jarre's definition - 'building a resonate landscape somewhere between technology and ecology'. Melody - a soulful riff, counter-balanced with bass and rhythm and enhancing effects make a composition appealing, along with the classic Movement structure. Some early musicians thought they had to reproduce 'classical'' music to have validity with keyboards and tech. Much of the output I think was dismal - the same problem at the avant-garde end of the spectrum - ''Bleeps and Bloops'. For me the exception here was Isao Tomita - his interpretation of Debussy tone poems 'Snowflakes are Dancing' - beautiful. And beauty is the key.
There was Perry/Kingsley 'Popcorn' as well. I have followed Jarre/Vangelis (his mature work) and really bits of TD and Brian Eno (Apollo - Atmospheres and Soundtracks) and Equatorial Stars . Today, I don't think anyone is making engaging ambient music. I have heard pieces tossed away on Royalty Free sites - eg, 'Peace and Quiet'' (Sounds From The Leftfield). Ambient1 by 'BalanceBalance?' (featured on RUclips channel The Secret Vault - ''Orfordness Secret Radar' - seriously) - it appealed to me but the original track cannot be found. Thanks.
-Andrew Mackenna, Christchurch, New Zealand 7/24
Respectable picks. I get the importance of Switched on Bach but I think Walter/Wendy Carlos' Clockwork Orange is a better album.
Have that album on vinyl and CD. Classic electronic soundtrack from A Clockwork Orange. And by the way, Walter/Wendy Carlos is not a she. In really life he was born a male. And you can't change that. And that's the bottom line cause Stone Cold said so (from 976-CREOLEMAN)!
Laurie Spielgel's "Expanding Universe" is often overlooked, as is many works by Michael Stearns. Stevie Wonder is often overlooked as an early electronic music pioneer.
So many choices! I will definitely dig deeper and do more of these. Your mention of Laurie is so important. It would be wise to produce a video that focuses on woman in synthesis and sound design. I'll get to work!
These are "important" releases for sure. I've tried finding the Soothing Sounds LP's, but they are always too expensive, or in bad shape when I do. I have the others in the list. I do agree these were the groundbreakers for sure. They are certainly more important than my favorites from these acts. Like many I found Carlos though A Clockwork Orange, but then later realized that I had heard Tron and The Shining a few years prior. The classical stuff soon followed. However, in the past decade I found Sonic Seasonings, and I think it is my new favorite of her works. Autobahn is more important than The Man Machine, but pretty much The Man Machine is their first of their all-killer, no-filler albums. Phaedra is most likely my favorite T-Dream album. I do like Stratosphere a lot. Good list.
Good list - i knew a couple and I'll listen to the others. I'm going to list more modern albums because if we're talking "importance" there must be some important albums around the time when electronic music exploded in the mainstream. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92, Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children, Massive Attack - Mezzanine, Radiohead - Kid A, Jon Hopkins - Immunity.
If you like analogue synths then definitely check out Boards of Canada. To me they're just total wizards and masters of subtlety.
Thank you, and I'll definitely get to the others you mentioned. Warp Records is probably the most important indie in the world, and dedicating a video to its roster and aesthetic should most certainly happen in the future.
Cleanse Fold & Manipulate and MIND: the perpetual intercourse (both Skinny Puppy) were absolutely mindblowing for me.
As for Kraftwerk I'd pick Computer World.
Another great album to my ear is Furnace by Download. It meanders like a river.
Switched on Bach is epic, not only because of the work and effort that went in there. It was also early times for a broader audience to listen to a Moog modular.
Yes, re Skinny Puppy! I'll definitely put an industrial list together at some point. I worked with a Metropolis band for a bit, Mentallo and the Fixer, back in the late 90s. If you're not familiar with MATF, you might dig some of what the Dassing brothers produced. And Computer World has been getting a lot of love in my house as of late!
I have been into synths since Switched on Bach. And I’d say that was my number 1, #2 would have to be Sonic Seasonings, also by Wendy, #3 would be the soundtrack from ClockWork Orange, then Tomita’s The Planets comes in at 4, and 5th would be Oxygene by Jarre!
All fantastic albums. My favorites also tend to change from time to time, but from a historical lens, these picks are pretty static for me. I need to pull out my copy of Oxygene as it's been a minute since I listened to that platter. Thank you for tuning in!
Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre too.
Great presentation!
Should have mentioned the band Silver Apples from the late 60’s
Fantastic album.
Now make a list with albums that don't sound like elevator music, or toddlers messing around on toy keyboards.