Lutz Rahn and his Proto-Synthwave

June 18th, 2018

Prog is big in Japan. Really big. It’s crazy. The prog section at any used record store here is always massive, and it’s always filled with insanely rare and expensive records that sell like hotcakes. I’ve seen prog albums by acts I’ve never heard of fetch over $1,000. I think that prog is big here because there’s a devoted subset of Japanese music fans who really care about technical ability. And the kind of person whose really into technical skill and musicianship (let’s say, over songwriting and personality) is often going to be the kind of person who’s into prog.

That means that in addition to insanely rare and expensive prog albums for sale, you often seen bargain bin sales of obscure prog you’d never find otherwise. Those bins have been my hunting grounds as of late. I really enjoy digging through those crates to see what turns up. But prog is a pretty diverse genre. You got jazz-influenced prog, funky organ-based prog, space prog, whatever the fuck Styx is, and so on.

It can be a little overwhelming at first, so many albums from so many bands, it’s hard to even know where to begin. I’ve got a system that works for me though; I usually check the back of the record or the liner notes until I find the credits. If they went through the trouble to list by name the different keyboards, synthesizers and other electronic components used on the album, then that tells me that the record has a heavy keyboard and/or electronic bent, and that’s really what I’m into the most at the moment. My flirtation with jazz-rock is done, I got burned too many times. Give me all the sequencers all the time.

Lutz Rahn
Galaxy Taxi
September
Jubel-Trubel
Yes. The cover of this album is equal parts horrible and terrifying. Don’t let that turn you off.

Lutz Rahn (and can we just acknowledge for a second that incredible name) is a German keyboardist. He’s a member of the prog group Novalis, and is in fact just one of two people who have performed on every single album by the group. That’s quite a feat as Novalis put out a shitload of records, 15 in total between 1973 and 1985!

I am entirely unfamiliar with Novalis, but this album really makes me want to dive in to their back catalog. This is an damn amazing record. It’s one of the best purely instrumental electronic albums of the era that I’ve ever bought. Keyboardist solo albums can really be a crapshoot. I like me some Rick Wakeman, don’t get me wrong, but he’s not exactly strong when it comes to hooks or memorable melodies. Of course, if you want rock operas on ice, he’s your man.

Lutz Rahn, on the other hand, is crafting sleek songs with strong hooks. These tracks stick with you. It’s like someone took 80s Tangerine Dream (think Le Parc) with 70s analog production. Stunning stuff through and through. If you’ve always wanted to get into acts like Tangerine Dream, Tim Blake or Jean-Michel Jarre but you found their discographies rather daunting or their stuff too droning or drawn-out, this might be the record for you.

Strangely, there seem to be two versions of this record out there. When I look up the songs on YouTube I find very different versions than the ones on my copy. I have a first pressing (Japanese) LP. Anyone out there have a different version and care to compare? I want to know if YouTube rips are taken from the relatively recent CD re-release. The ones I found on YouTube have way more drums. It’s really jarring, and I prefer the versions on my copy. They’re minimal in way that I find really soothing. Especially “Galaxy Taxi,” this shit is my late-night, walk through the backstreets of Tokyo jam.

 

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Koto Vivaldi

June 15th, 2018

What’s your go to music when you need to calm the fuck down? Not chill the fuck out, but calm the fuck down? If I need to chill out, I got plenty. Banks, KLF, The Orb, a multitude of sub-standard prog, lots.

But when I need to calm down, when I need to put the anxiety dogs at bay or I need to stop thinking about any of the multitude of existential crises humanity is currently ignoring, I always gravitate to the same thing.

That’s right, obscure renditions of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

I know, you were totally going to guess that.

Tadao Sawai & Hozan Yamamoto
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Complete album download)
Tadao Sawai was a Japanese koto player. From what I can gather, dude was the Japanese koto player. The Clapton of Koto, expect with dramatically less cocaine (I assume). Hozan Yamamoto was a renowned Shakukachi (bamboo flute) performer who was well-known for his performances and original compositions.

Both often worked outside the realms of traditional Japanese music, and were some of the first classically trained Japanese musicians to work with westerners and perform western music on their respective traditional instruments. Yamamoto was performing with Japanese jazz acts in the late 60s, and in 1968 Sawai released an album of covers, featuring Koto renditions of pop tracks like “Over The Rainbow” and “Johnny Guitar.”

That same year, the two teamed up for Koto Sebastian Bach, a collection of Bach covers (duh) and this album, a full performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The album isn’t just koto and shakukachi, there’s some drum, guitar, bass along for the ride, but the koto and shakukuchi are definitely given the spotlight. It’s a wonderful interpretation, it goes well with glass of sake.

This is probably not your thing. And that’s okay! But it might be someone else’s thing, and it is my thing. So please think about that before you leave a comment whining about the music I’m sharing for free. And regardless if this is your thing or not, don’t expect many more posts like this in the future. I just thought it would be a good change of pace. Nice relaxing music for your weekend. Maybe it’ll help you calm down too.

Sure is plenty of stuff not to be calm about lately, it seems.

 

Posted in Complete Albums | 1 Comment »

Yoshinori Sunahara’s Airport Of The Future

June 11th, 2018

I rarely buy albums because they look cool. I’ve probably said this before, but owning over 4,000 records spread across two continents quickly cures you of that habit.

Sometimes though, you come across something so odd or peculiar, that you feel the need to add it to your collection. Last week I came across such a record.

Yoshinori Sunahara
Tokyo Underground Airport
Music For Chicago
Preview
Stinger Stingray
Yoshinori Sunahara is a Japanese musician. I’ve mentioned him tangentially a few times now. He’s a member of Yukihiro Takahashi’s supergroup Metafive, and he’s also a collaborator on Towa Tei’s upcoming album Sweet Robot Against The Machine. Before all that, he was a member Denki Groove, an electronic act here in Japan that is oddly incredibly popular.

Yoshinori left Denki Groove in the mid-90s to go solo. He released albums at a pretty steady clip in the late-90s, but he’s slowed down his solo output as of late. His last album proper came out in 2011. I haven’t listened to all of work, but the stuff I have come across certainly has a flavor of its own, somewhat aligning with the more electronic acts of the 90s “Shibuya Kei” scene that made slight waves in the states at the time, with acts like Pizzacato Five and Cornelius getting some attention internationally.

During the late-90s, Yoshinori went full “lounge pop,” just like his frequent collaborator Towa Tei. I bet their house parties were dope as fuck. In 1998, he released two albums that I feel real exemplify his lounge dance-pop style; The Sound of the 70s, followed by Take Off and Landing. Both are obsessed with the international jet set culture of the 60s and 70s, specifically the style of Pan Am airlines. Hell, The Sound Of 70’s opens with a remix of music Pan Am would play on their flights.

Yoshinori took this obsession to the next level for this single promoting The Sound Of Take Off and Landing, which I’m sharing tonight, an over-the-top deluxe style package that goes out of its way to express the magical retrofuturistic world he wanted to surround himself in.

The presentation outweighs the music. Everything here is created to promote the fantastical Tokyo Underground Airport. The booklet inside features a detailed (future) history of the airport, and includes schematics showcasing the airport’s layout (complete with a list of businesses contained in the shopping center) as well as descriptions of every country serviced by the mythical flight center. The package even includes a sticker sheet with the (real) airlines that would travel through the underground depot. This single was available on CD, but I can’t imagine it would carry the same weight or work as well to transport you to the world Yoshinori was trying so hard to create.

The world-building continues onto the record proper. The first track is a nearly 14-minute guide to the Tokyo Underground Airport, and it goes into an insane amount of detail, giving the minutia an in-and-outs of nearly every aspect of the airport. The recording occasionally gets distorted and twisted, giving it a found object feel, like it’s some sort of damaged recording found by archeologists in the distant future.

Track two is a b-side “Music For Chicago,” that I believe is exclusive to this release. It has a vibe that I can’t pin down. But I feel like it’s something that would’ve played at an exhibit in a World’s Fair or something. “Preview” is a preview of the future featuring narration about the uptopian world Sunihara dreamed of, with music from the album proper. Finally, “Stinger Stingray” is an album cut from Yoshinori’s solo debut Crossover, albeit in a slightly different mix. While it’s not taken from the same thematic piece as the rest of the recordings, it’s style fits well enough.

What an amazing piece of design. A lot of deluxe packages today don’t come close to the level of detail in this. And damn, imagining this dream airport of the future does it Narita Airport suck even more.

 

Posted in Complete Albums, Yoshinori Sunahara | 1 Comment »

パックマン・フィーバー (Pac/Puc Man Fever)

May 29th, 2018

Buckner & Garcia
Puc-Man Fever (Japanese Version)
Buckner & Garcia’s “Pac-Man Fever” is kind of an infamous track at this point, but I think it gets a bad rep. Sure, it’s not the best song ever written and its definitely not a song you’d want stuck in your head for more than 10 minutes. But as song about video games go, it’s pretty damn good. And yes, there are other songs about video games. Who could forget Gary Wright’s “Dig Dug?” (The answer is, of course, literally everyone.)Don’t forget, this song was a Billboard Hot 100 top ten hit single, peaking at number nine.

But the song wasn’t only a hit in the states, it saw an official release in many other territories too, including Japan. That makes sense, Pac-Man was just as big (if not bigger) in Japan than it was in the states, so why not release the song there?

Well, one problem with that, in Japan, Pac-Man was still officially Puck-Man.

I’m sure a large portion of my audience already knows this, but Puck-Man was Pac-Man’s original name. It was only changed after someone realized that Puck-Man looks and sounds way too much like Fuck-Man, with the graffiti and vandalism possibilities too horrific to even imagine. So “puck” became “pac,” and most of world never realized that the little yellow guy was supposed to be shaped like a hockey puck.

Anyways, back to the song. When the time came to release the song in Japan, Buckner & Garcia apparently went back into the studio to re-record the chorus of the song, changing every instance of “Pac” to “Puck.” If you ever wanted proof that record companies just had fucking millions to burn in the early 80s, there you go.

I highly doubt this version of the song ever got any other official release aside from the Japanese 7″ single. The album itself was never issued in Japan. Hell, the original version of “Pac-Man Fever” has never been re-issued on a proper Buckner & Garcia CD or digitally (any CD or iTunes version is a re-recorded take from the 90s). So I feel safe in assuming that this is a proper rarity.

Here’s an idea for Record Store Day 2019; completely remastered “Pac-Man Fever” 7″ single using that dope as fuck Japanese art, with “Puc-Man Fever” as the B-side. Someone get on this now.

Posted in Buckner & Garcia | No Comments »

Towa Tei Or Towa Die

May 25th, 2018

Towa Tei has a new album coming out this summer, in a sense. It’s actually a collaborative effort between him, fellow Metafive member Yoshinori Sunahara and someone who goes by the name Bakarhythm (“baka” is Japanese for “stupid” FYI). The project is using the name of an old Towa pseudonym, Sweet Robots Against The Machine.

I have high hopes for this one, despite the fact that the original SRATM album a rather forgettable affair. I’m much more of a fan of Towa’s current sound than his older stuff, and anything he’s done with anyone from his Metafive crew has just been fabulous. His albums Sunny, Lucky, Cute and Emo are all top-notch dance-pop bangers so here’s hope the streak continues with what he has coming up next.

In the meantime, let’s check out some of the stuff he put out in the past, which I coincidentally bought last week.

Towa Tei
Let Me Know (TT Remix)
Let Me Know (Mighty Bop Remix)
Let Me Know (Mighty Bop Remix Instrumental)
This is a track from Towa’s 1999 album, Last Century Modern, featuring Chara on vocals. This is very 90s Towa, with a heavy emphasis on that ever-so-hard-to-define “lounge” sound that he typified at the time. I really dig this stuff, but only in really small doses. It’s very much a singles genre for me. A whole album of it tires rather quickly. It’s just not uptempo enough for me. I need some more beats. I guess that’s why I prefer his newer stuff, it finds a happy middle-ground between his low-key lounge act stuff and the hyperactive techno that’s still relatively popular here in Japan. These remixes came from a 10″ single that, in addition to being green, has the cutest damn cover ever.

Deee-Lite
Pussycat Meow (The Meow Mix)
Pussycat Meow (Murk Boys Miami Mix)
Pussycat Meow (The Pussy Power Remix)
Pussycat Meow (Infinity Extended Mix)
Pussycat Meow (Murk Bonus Dub)
I’ve listened to this track about 10 times now and have gone from kinda liking it to kinda outright hating it. It’s such a non-song. Man, Deee-lite is fucking tragic. I’m including this for all your remix completists out there and for no other reason at all. I can see why I disliked a lot of early Towa Tei now, he had to get stuff like this out of his system.

Also, if you like this song, HEY THAT’S COOL MAYBE DON’T LEAVE A COMMENT ABOUT HOW I’M STUPID FOR NOT LIKING IT.

Posted in Deee-Lite, remixes, Towa Tei | 2 Comments »

Electronic Music For Dead Feet

May 21st, 2018

Entertained a guest the past few days, which was very fun. It’s always great to show someone around Tokyo for the first time. It’s also incredibly exhausting. Holy shit I’m tired. Hence the short random post tonight. And hence the first post without proper art of any kind since December of last year. Damn. I was on a roll too.

Nah, fuck it. Here’s a picture of dancing mascots.

Okay, the streak continues.

Ram Jam World
Bluesy Baby
Bluesy Baby (Instrumental)
Bluesy Baby (Ed Rush & Optical Remix)
Ram Jam World is a Japanese drum and bass act. That was a surprise to me, because in my four years here I have yet to find anyone who remotely enjoys DnB. On the few occasions that I visit dance music record stores, I rarely come across the genre. Most dance music here is house or techno. I had no idea the act was Japanese when I bought this single. I snagged it solely because it featured a remix by Ed Rush and Optical, my favorite drum and bass act of all-time.

Now that I am aware of Ram Jam World’s existence, I hope that I can find some of their CDs proper. I really want to track down Uta To Oto, since it features Tomohiko Gondo from Metafive. This track doesn’t feature any luminaries of the Japanese electronic music scene (as far as I know) but it does feature Speech from Arrested Development. Speech is big in Japan. I have no idea why. I just know that he toured here as recently as 2016, and has several albums that either are exclusive to Japan or came to Japan first. So the next time someone drops on you that Mr. Big and Scatman John are big in Japan, you can throw that fact on them too.

Of course, no one in Japan is bigger than me in a literal sense because I’m a giant.

Gershon Kingsley
Popcorn (2000 Instrumental)
Popcorn is, of course, not a rare track. It’s probably still one of the most popular and recognizable electronic songs of all time. But this version is, as it was a vinyl only bonus track to the Grand Royale compilation At Home With The Groovebox. That album contains another version of this song that features Gershon Kingsley describing how he created the song the first time around. This version strips away that explanation and leaves us with a rather interesting modern take on the song, one that I can assume was created primarily with digital synths and computers of the era. It doesn’t have the classic analog sound of the original version, but it’s still great. And the wordless vocalizing that fades in near the end of the track is a nice touch that serves the song well.

Posted in Gershon Kinglsey, Ram Jam World, remixes | No Comments »

Easy Going – Claudio Simonetti’s Inappropriate Disco

May 16th, 2018

Easy Going
Fear
I Strip You
To Simonetti
Put Me In The Deal
Easy Going was an Italian Disco act that featured horror rock icon Claudio Simonetti. While Simonetti’s involvement with such a project might be surprising for fans of his work with Goblin, it wasn’t the only time that he was involved with dance music. Around the same time of Fear, Simonetti was working as Capricorn, pumping out a few singles from 1980 to 1982. There was also Kasso, probably the best known of his disco aliases. He released three albums as Kasso in the 80s, with the first two being very widely acclaimed by fans of electronic disco. Like Kasso and Capricorn, Easy Going was more or less a Simonetti solo project. The album has a multitude of performers, but Simonetti composed, arranged, conducted and produced the album, with lyrics by Giancarlo Meo.

Also like Kasso and Capricorn, Easy Going is a good example of Italo-Disco. For those not familiar with the genre, it is disco from Italy (duh) that blends the disco sound of the 70s with the Hi-NRG and synthpop sounds of the 80s. The best cuts from this album, the first two tracks, are both very Italo-Disco, very Moroderesque, while the latter two are decent examples of more traditional disco.

“Fear,” sounds like a horror remix of “I Feel Love,” with a pulsing sequencer rhythm wonderfully punctuated by some ominous-sounding strings and intense vocoder-aided vocals (along with some random screaming). And then there’s “I Strip You.” It’s halfway between traditional disco and electronic music, with just as much strings as keyboards and sequencers. It’s a really powerful, funky song with a fantastic groove…that seems to be from the point-of-view of a potential rapist, maybe?

You made a mistake
Don’t play games with me, girl
You made a big mistake
And now you’re staying here

Furthermore, he seems to be willing to commit this crime just because he wants to disprove rumors that he’s gay?

This way you won’t say
That you think I am gay
To the people you won’t say
That you think I am gay

But wait, maybe he is gay! Because as the song ends…

Now that you’re turned on
I don’t want you now, girl
So now you’re free to say
The truth that I am gay
It’s better that I go
I don’t want you no more
You’ve got the reason to say
To say that I am gay

So he was gay all the time and he was just fucking with her? Or he was gay and he was trying to convince himself that he wasn’t? Or he can only be with women when they’re not interested? This is a weird track. It sounds like a treatment to an unmade Argento film that was turned into a club track.

It should be mentioned that Easy Going was named after a gay night club. The cover of their first album is an explicit piece of art that was part of the club’s dance floor. It has a song called “Little Fairy.” Their third album has a cover of “Gay Time Latin Lover.” I have no idea if anyone involved with Easy Going was actually gay, but they were certainly playing with the idea that people must’ve thought they were. I’m sure there’s something icky about the politics of that, but I don’t want to bother going there.

Regardless of all of this, these tracks are certainly better than the Capricorn disco cuts I’ve heard, and actually make me interested in tracking down those first two Kasso records. I assume they have less songs about potential sexual assault and ambiguous sexual orientations.

I mean, I don’t know for sure, but it’s a safe bet.

Posted in Claudio Simonetti, Complete Albums | 1 Comment »

Hudson Game Music – Arranged Versions

May 10th, 2018

Hudson Game Music
Bomberman (Arranged Version)
Nuts & Milk (Arranged Version)
Binaryland (Arranged Version)
Championship Lode Runner (Arranged Version)
Star Soldier (Arranged Version)
Hudson Game Music was the third release by G.M.O. Records, a subsidiary of Afla Records that was set up by Yellow Magic Orchestra for releases of game music soundtracks. Nearly all of the label’s early releases were compilations for specific developers, most likely because games at the time didn’t have enough music on their own to fill a complete album.

Most of the early releases by G.M.O. featured only one or two “arranged” (or remixed) versions and instead focused on pure audio rips from the games themselves. The Hudson Game Music release is a bit different as its entire B-side is dedicated to arranged versions, with nearly every game from the A-side getting a proper arranged version on the B-side. I don’t know if this was because Hudson didn’t have enough games of note to fill an album, or because G.M.O. wanted to showcase arranged versions, it’s hard to say.

Some of these titles are pretty damn obscure. Of course, I know Bomberman and Lode Runner (albeit not in its “Championship” variation), and I have a vague recollection of Star Soldier, but I know Nuts and Milk by name only, and have never even heard of Binaryland. A quick YouTube search of both confirms that I’ve never played either.

These arrangements were all done by Yoshihiro Kunimoto, who did a ton of arranging and remixing for a lot of early game music releases by GMO Records. He also worked with a few legends of Japanese music, including Jun Togawa and Denki Groove. He certainly knows what he’s doing here, all of these arranged versions are pretty damn great. The standout for me is the manic take on the Bomberman theme, a sample-heavy remake that also features a rad guitar solo. The Nuts and Milk track is a bit more sedate, but builds off the game’s simple melody in some fun ways, while the Binaryland theme is oddly re-imagined as a string quartet piece (with some synth overdubs) that makes it sound a bit like a lullaby. Championship Lode Runner is the sparsest of the bunch: a dreamy re-working that’s bookended with music box-esque takes on the tune, while Star Soldier is probably the most standard of the group, but that’s not a bad thing; it’s a fully synthed out remix that would fit alongside most 16-bit shooters, and with so much synth-bass. Love the synth-bass. Need more synth-bass.

According to the Video Game Music Database, Hudson Game Music was released on vinyl and cassette on July 25, 1986, with the CD version coming out exactly one month later. That would make it the fifth GMO title to be released, between Konami Game Music Music Vol. 1 and Capcom Game Music. It’s exceedingly rare to find these days, I’ve never even seen a CD copy. This rip is from the vinyl edition. Unlike other early G.M.O. releases, the Hudson Game Music vinyl edition was a picture disc. And yes, that certainly does look cool, it doesn’t do wonders for audio quality. Thankfully, I think my vinyl restoration software did a pretty good job of cleaning it up. Hope you dig it.

Posted in Game Music, remixes | 5 Comments »

Japanese Covers of the Classics (and Time of the Season)

April 29th, 2018

April is in full effect! And longtime readers of Lost Turntable know that means I’m currently getting my ass kicked with my legendary April bad luck. It’s been a pretty rough one; a drastic fibro flare-up, workplace drama, and a lot of wasted money on shoes (DON’T BUY SHOES ONLINE EVER IT’S NOT WORTH IT).

Anyways, the month is almost over and I’m unwinding the only way I know how, with odd covers of well-known music.

Jun Fukamachi
Classical Medley
Ave Maria
This record is so obscure that I literally can’t find a single English word about it on the internet so someone please help me.

I know that in the mid-80s Fukamachi briefly launched his own label, releasing a promo-only LP entitled 86 Spring & Summer Collection. Despite the similar name (and I suspect similar promo-only status) I don’t think that record and this one have anything in common. That album is a collection of original material, while this is entirely covers of classical compositions.

That, it’s entirely dope as fuck covers of classical compositions! This is some great, hyper-digital synth work and arrangement on display. While at first it sounds a bit cheesy, the more you listen to these all-digital reworkings, the more you appreciate just how much work went into them, especially with the epic 20-minute medley. These aren’t just classical pieces played through a keyboard’s default settings, many are reworked and tweaked to be equal parts jazzy and funky. It’s like an all-digital “Fifth of Beethoven.”

Like I said, I literally know nothing about this record. If you do, please give me anything you got! Especially if you have any idea about what the fuck is going on with that cover.

Ippu-Do
Time Of The Season
I don’t know what kind of stature Ippu-Do have in Japan now, or had during their peak, or even if they had a peak. Whenever I mention them to literally anyone I know, I get blank stare. That is, save for my boyfriend, who not only knows of the group, but remembered the melody of their biggest hit when I was playing the live record from which this track came from. My boyfriend literally never recognizes any music I ever play for him, especially Japanese music, so they must’ve been at least a little bit popular? I don’t know.

I have nearly all of their albums now. They’re good, obviously influenced by YMO and Japan (the band) in equal parts. I think bizarro cover of “Time Of The Season” is quite indicative of their sound, a strange combination of off-kilter vocals, heavy use of synths, and some rad guitar work. I really do need to give these guys more of a chance and dig into their discography a bit more.

One additional note, this is supposedly a live album, but considering how produced it sounds and the suspiciously looped crowd noises I’ve heard on several tracks, I have my doubts.

 

Posted in Ippu-Do, Jun fukamachi | 2 Comments »

Moogapalooza – Obscure Moog Covers

April 17th, 2018

A few weeks back I wrote a thing about how dope Moog records are. The response wasn’t just middling, it was negative-middling. So few people read that (even for the standards of the stuff I write) that I think it took away hits from other pages.

Whatever, ain’t my fault that y’all are ignorant. So I’m going to follow the age-old adage of “show don’t tell” and share some of this music instead of just writing about it, in hopes that this might interest someone into tracking this stuff down for themselves.


Tsuneaki Tone
Chim Chim Cheree
As I said in my previously mentioned article, a lot of Moog albums seemed to be exclusive to Japan. For whatever reason, there must’ve been a niche market here for the things. Of the Japanese-exclusive records I own, this one by Tsuneaki Tone isn’t the best, but it’s one of the oddest thanks to its bizarre tracklisting of tunes from various films. The selection seems to be totally random. Yeah, it has stuff from family fare like the above “Chim Chim Cheree,” but it also has the “Theme From Shaft” and “The Morning After.” An odd sort for sure.

Of all those songs, why share this one? Well, I feel that this sparse, minimal arrangement showcases what a dark song “Chim Chim Cheree’ is, at least from a musical standpoint. It’s in a minor key, and has a descending chord sequence. Musically, that just sounds sad, much like R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” It’s a downer beat and a downer melody, when you take away the glorious goofiness of Dick Van Dyke’s horrid accent, that becomes a lot more clear.

Tsuneaki Tone released a few albums under assorted names. The ones I can find the most information on are his New Zealand releases, which he put out as The T-Tone Synthesizer, which is an ingenious pseudonym.

 

Synthesonic Sounds
Apache
For A Few Dollars More
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Synthesonic Sounds is Mike Batt, a British musician who has done damn near everything from synth-pop to film and television scores. If you do any research on this pseudonym of his, you’ll read that he released two albums as Synthesonic Sounds; Moog At The Movies, and Ye Olde Moog.

But that’s wrong! Batt actually released three albums as Synthesonic Sounds, but his third, Wonderful World of Moog Sounds, was only released in Japan. It’s an odd album actually, taking tracks from his Moog At The Movies release and throwing in some new compositions as well, like a version of “Spanish Flea,” “Help” and the above version of “Apache.” Of everything on the album, the Morricone covers work the best, the whistling sounds of “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” just sound great on the Moog. Mike gets an “A+” for curation, but maybe a “B-” for instrumentation. His albums aren’t really moog albums exactly. All of his records feature full bands with just some moog accompaniment. And that’s fine,but that’s not what I’m looking for when I see an album touting its electronic sound. Get these string instruments out of here!

 

Elektrik Cokernut
Wig-Wam Bam
Another one to file under “not entirely moog” but damn if I care because this is a cover of The Sweet’s “Wig-Wam Bam!” This is one of the weird “switched-on” records as it eschews the big hits of the time and instead focuses on slightly more obscure material. In fact, I’m completely unfamiliar with all of the songs covered on this record save for this Sweet cover and their equally awesome take on T-Rex’s “Jeepster.”

Elektrik Cokernut (aka Electric Coconut – which is far easier to type) released two albums, with their first one being released under the names Go Moog! and Popcorn And Other Switched-On Smash Hits. The group was a duo made of Bill Wellings and Len Hunter. Wellings went onto a semi-successful career releasing cover albums in Australia, while Hunter did some session work and contributed to some library music albums in the 1970s.

Electrophon
Greensleeves
The Flight Of The Bumble Bee
Hall Of The Mountain King
So you have your all-moog albums, and your moog with live band albums, but what about moog with a classical orchestra? That’s exactly what Eletrophon contributed to the greater moog oeuvre in 1973 with their sole album In A Convent Album; where a moog and a 16-piece orchestra perform classical pieces and traditional numbers.

From it’s name to its cover choices, this is the most British moog album I own. Damn thing should come with a tin of digestive biscuits and a packet of earl grey tea. That shouldn’t be a shocker though, as the album was produced by Brian Hodgson and Dudley Simpson of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, aka the people behind the music to Dr. Who. While Simpson and Hodgson didn’t compose the iconic theme music, they did do a lot of incidental stuff, such as the sounds of the TARDIS. Hodgson was also in the group White Noise, which was an early avant-pop electronic music act from the late 1960s, so he really is a pioneer with this stuff.

All of these tracks are fantastic in different ways. “Bumble Bee” is a relatively straightforward take on the classic piece, no doubt chosen to showcase the technical abilities of the synthesizers they used. Their version of “Greensleeves” is a bold interpretation, however, incorporating some odd distortion and echo effects that help accent the somber tone the song can have in the right hands. This sounds like “Greensleeves” as it was being performed by ghost trying to communicate with this mortal coil once last time. And “Hall Of The Mountain King” is such a dope tune that it would sound rad on damn near anything, so of course a moog/orchestral version sounds incredible.

I know I’m skipping over a lot of information about all of these artists. This post is meant to be just a quick primer, not an in-depth look. But if you want to share any additional information about any of these acts, please do in the comments!

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