Saturday Theme Eleven: RIP Vangelis

News came through on Thursday evening that Vangelis had died aged 79. Vangelis' soundtrack to Blade Runner (and all the other aspects of the film) are one of the formative influences on my tastes. Back in 1982, aged 12, the dark sci fi crossed with film noir of Blade Runner had a huge impact on me. Vangelis' synth soundtrack, from the pulsing, swooping Main Titles music through to the subtly epic Tears In Rain scene, is superb, the perfect synthesis of music and visuals. The soundtrack wasn't actually released until the 1992. Due to contractual difficulties an orchestral version recorded by the New American Orchestra came out in 1982, a version which was some distance from Vangelis' soundtrack. To listen to that you had to play your VHS copy. 

In the middle of the film replicant hunting Blade Runner Deckard is saved from death at Leon's hands by Rachael (the beautiful and brilliantly cast Sean Young). In a previous scene Rachael had turned up at Deckard's apartment trying to convince him she was human and not a replicant, based on the belief she had memories of her childhood. Those memories, the memories of her creator's niece, were implanted in her. When they return to Deckard's apartment, a single's man's flat in the middle of a futuristic Los Angeles where it rains perpetually, Deckard promises not to track her down and 'retire' her. They kiss and Vangelis' Love Theme plays, lush symphonic synth music with Dick Morrissey's tenor sax taking the lead. 

Love Theme

Later on, in the late 80s and early 90s Vangelis' music would enter my musical world again, with the majestic State Of Independence (both the 1982 Donna Summer single and the 1992 cover by Moodswings) and then the mid- 90s revival of some of his first band's music, the Greek psychedelia of Aphrodite's Child, especially the epic Four Horsemen.

RIP Vangelis. 

Tears In June

Richard Norris continues to produce his Music For Healing series, monthly long form pieces of ambient/ deep listening. It started in March last year, and turned out to be an excellent way to deal with the pressures of lockdown. This year's releases have all been named after the months they appear in- June's is a particularly special piece of music. It's at Bandcamp. As it plays, the twinkling synth parts and washes of warm drone, there are moments where it really reminds me of Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack and especially Roy Batty's death scene with Rutger Hauer's partly improvised monologue. 

'I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the Shoulder of Orion. I watched C- Beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.'

Tears In Rain

As June plays it attains a real sense of weightlessness, of being beyond gravity, the feeling of drifting through space. This feed from the International Space Station provides some very fitting footage to go with Richard's music. 

Too Bad She Won't Live... But Then Again, Who Does?

'A new life awaits you in the Off- world colonies! A chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure!'

Two weeks ago I published a post about Blade Runner and the long lasting impact of Vangelis' music from the 1982 film. The soundtrack, held up for years in legal disputes, eventually came out in the mid 1990s and included pieces of dialogue from the film among the synths and timpani to great effect. For some time there have been a series of bootleg editions of an album called Blade Runner Esper Edition, originating (I think) in 2001 on CDr. The Esper Edition is the full, proper soundtrack to Ridley Scott's film, an ambient/ musical edition across two discs, the score as well as music from the film itself, the dialogue (but not Harrison Ford's controversial film noir voiceover) and all the noises from the film- the rain, street sounds, voices, gunshots, the Voight- Kampf machine, hovercars, footsteps, all the ambient background sounds of Los Angeles in 2019 (or the Blade Runner version of it). You can fall down some internet wormholes looking at all the different bootleg editions that have been produced, various claims to be definitive and better or best quality. This one seems to be highly rated and to my ears is as good  as you're going to need. 

Blade Runner Esper Edition

And if you want to go deeper and further Youtube is full of parts of the soundtrack slowed down for a long, soft, ambient drone, white noise and Vangelis six hundred times slower than intended- this one, Blade Runner Blues slowed right down is a beautiful way to spend an hour.

Tales Of The Future

More and more I think that the soundtrack to Blade Runner has been a formative influence on my listening. Which is weird because if someone asked me to list my favourite artists I'd never reply 'Vangelis'. Then film came out in 1982 and I saw it at the cinema (the Scala in Withington, a very run down flea pit with three screens, two small ones downstairs and a larger one upstairs with double seats on the back row. Entry was £1 and they weren't too fussy about age restrictions. It later became Cine City and then was demolished). The look of the film, the non stop rain and night, neon lights, 1940s/ 1980s fashions, Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Darryl Hannah and Sean Young all captured my attention- the famous roof top scene and Roy Batty's death (and Hauer's famous improvised lines) lingered long after the credits had rolled. Vangelis' instrumental score must have stuck with me too- the synths and keyboards, the rolling drums and pulsing synthesisers, the bleeps and sounds of the machinery worked into the music and the snippets of dialogue, the strange bursts of Japanese singing in Tales Of The Future, the ambient washes of sound and sudden rumbles of distant timpani... I hear these all over the place in things I listen to at the moment. Vangelis has a long shadow.

Tales Of The Future

Blade Runner (End Titles)

Tears In Rain

Strange to think that when Blade Runner came out the year it was set in, 2019, was nearly four decades away in the future and is now two years gone. These Polaroids were taken by Sean Young during filming are an incredible time capsule and snapshot of the past/ future.

Isolation Mix One

'Don't create congestion in commonly used space', a poster from the Soviet Union, 1950s.

I thought I'd do something new today and maybe make it a regular feature. Everyone and their dog is transmitting DJ sets at the moment. One thing we've all got lots of is time. So in the moments between phoning in to long video conferences, teaching online lessons, wiling away hours absentmindedly surfing the internet and social media, spending time with my family and getting my state sanctioned daily exercise allowance I've also put together the first Bagging Area mix, fifty four minutes of music called Isolation Mix 1.



It's actually Isolation Mix 1.1, the first one wasn't quite right and I removed a couple of tracks and replaced them with some other ones. It's a mix of old and new, largely ambient and instrumental, a bit of dub and dub techno in there and appearances from Rutger Hauer and a retired French footballer.

Daniel Avery and Alessandro Cortini: Illusion of Time v Eric Cantona 'As Flies To Wanton Boys...'
Four Tet: Teenage Birdsong
Durutti Column: The Second Aspect Of The Same Thing
Richard Norris: Shorelines
Sabres Of Paradise: Jacob Street 7am
A Winged Victory For The Sullen: Keep It Dark, Deutschland
Vangelis: Tears In Rain
The Orb: The Weekend It Rained Forever (Oseberg Buddha Mix (The Ravens Have Left The Tower))
Dub Trees: King Of The Faeries (Avengers Outer Space Chug Dub)
Two Lone Swordsmen: As Worldly Pleasures Waves Goodbye...

Do Androids Dream Of 2019?

We're now in the year Blade Runner was set. We have until November for all the aspects of the film to be realised- replicants, flying cars, off world colonies, Voight- Kampff empathy response machines (although it wouldn't surprise me if these do exist). Maybe Blade Runner isn't very far from our 2019 at all- in the film corporations are all powerful, product and advertising is everywhere, the climate is seemingly broken (perpetual rain and night), the wealthy isolate themselves living high up above the streets where everyone else exists. Deckard's Esper machine is voice controlled and has the functions of Google Earth, the ability to manipulate photographs.

In Blade Runner's 2019 people dress in a cross between 1940s film noir and early 80s synth pop.

In the meantime, Vangelis' soundtrack remains a repeated joy.

Rachel's Song

Blade Runner Blues

Towca Androidow

Sometimes things just come together nicely, one thing from over there and another from over here. On Friday the Pulp Librarian posted this Polish promo poster for Bladerunner on Twitter. On Saturday while watching something completely unrelated on Youtube this long trancey remix of Vangelis' Bladerunner soundtrack turned up on the right hand side. A rather good expansive, trippy re-working of the film's soundtrack by Tranonica.

Orion

Sons And Daughters were a two boy/two girl band from Glasgow, dressed like Johnny Cash and sounding like a roots group gone punk. Taut guitars, crisp drums, Scottish swagger, growls and shrieks in the vocals. I liked their first two albums a lot. They split up a few years ago.

The Emperor Machine is Andrew Meecham, synth enthusiast and producer and formerly a member of Bizarre Inc. In 2012 he remixed Sons And Daughters' Orion and turned it into a long, funky, expansive, in your face, cosmic trip. Eleven minutes and thirty seven seconds of trip.

Orion (Emperor Machine Mix)

Orion is one of the most prominent constellations in the sky, visible across the world, named after Orion the Hunter from Greek mythology. It makes me think of Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty in Bladerunner...

'I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the Shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-Beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die'

Playground Mix

Back to the playground (and the classroom) for me today. Let's start the week with a smashing mix from The Orb, featuring mainly The Orb but also Lee Perry, Madlib, Cypress Hill and Vangelis (from the Bladerunner soundtrack ...'I've seen things you people wouldn't imagine...attack ships on fire off the Shoulder of Orion, C-Beams at the Tannhauser gate...'). A pretty relaxed mix all round.



Baghdad Batteries - THE ORB
Interlude - MADLIB
Outland's (Fountains Of Elisha Mix ) - THE ORB 
Africa - THE ORB Feat LEE SCRATCH PERRY 
Legalise It - CYPRESS HILL
Fussball (Instrumental) - THE ORB 
You're Heard - DAEDELUS & TEEBS 
No Ice Age - THE ORB Feat LEE SCRATCH PERRY 
Majestic 6 - THE ORB UNRELEASED 
Congo - THE ORB Feat LEE SCRATCH PERRY 
Frogtime - SCREEN 
Moon Building Part 3 Ambient - THE ORB UNRELEASED 
Jahara - TEEBS 
Tears In The Rain - VANGELIS