This is so not a real post
For Matt Groening's brilliant animated series, Futurama he wanted a particular song from an old Moog record for the theme. Unfortunately, he couldn't get the rights to the record, so he had Christopher Tyng write a sound-alike.
This is the original song, "Psyche Rock" by Pierre Henry.
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me @ Wednesday, August 24, 2005
11 Comments:
What does Huey Lewis have to say about this?
Wow, that's... a mess. :D
Not a Mass, like the title of the album says, just a mess. Heh heh!
And yeah, sad about Robert Moog passing away- but I'm glad he lived long enough to see how FAR electronic music went from the days of his initial invention!
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word verification: efeptiz, which I'm pretty sure was a French soft drink in the early 1970s.
I like the Futurama theme better, but I actually really like the Pierre Henry record... of course, I really adore a lot of Moog records (some of the more uninspired ones, though are sorta... meh. But even they have a little bit of interest, I guess.)
But then again, I am a die-hard analog-synth fan, pretty much of the opinion that digital synths only got good when they realized the key wasn't to try to accurately emulate other instruments but to be their own instrument, and, well, basically went back to analog-modelling! Analog sounds, only with digital reliability!
If I had a million-zillion dollars, I would love a Nord Lead. Those are awesome.
(Also, though, the new Mini Moogs that have been built again, but those are actual analogs, still.)
I was a HUGE Moody Blues fan in the 80s and on into the 90s... I can still dig out most of their albums almost anytime and really enjoy it. :) They wouldn't have even existed, I don't think, if it weren't for the Mellotron... is that the one I'm thinking of? It used loops of magnetic tape to create sounds playable on a keyboard.
Now THAT'S pretty analog- but I don't know if that counts as a synth. More of a sampler, I guess. I still love those, though... the last record I know of to use one was Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream, though a lot of John Frusciante's solo stuff has sounded like it might include a Mellotron.
I also like the Optigan, which I only found out about thanks to the band Optiganally Yours.
Coil at one point were actually sending emails out to their fan club list, looking for Optigan discs to buy... they ended up never doing anything with an Optigan (that I know of), but right before John Balance died they recorded a 3-CD album called ANS that was made using a type of optical synthesizer (also calles an ANS) built in Russia in the 1930s. Apparently it's played by scratching designs on a glass plate covered in black goo, then sliding it through the machine, and the play of light through the markings makes the sound. It's very hypnotic, at least as Coil play it.
My bad.. accoridng to my own link, the ANS unit they played was invented in the 1950s, not the 1930s. :P
Yep -- that's the mellotron, one of the earliest sampling keyboards. I'd love to have one; there's some really cool work that was done with it (and, well, is still done, too, but much more rarely -- for new stuff, check "For All Mankind" by Mono Puff).
The Optigan is another instrument in the "So Much Want For This" pile. But I just love stuff like that. I got the Optiganally Yours album based on the desire to hear the Optigan in action (little did I realize that Mark Mothersbaugh used one on the EZ Listening DEVO version of "Beautiful World"). It was pretty good, I need to go back to it, but I thiunk my favorite track of theirs is the one that showed up on the Powerpuff Girls Heroes & Villains CD.
The ANS album sounds pretty cool, actually -- I might have to check that out!
I'm listening to the excerpts now -- it really is neat. An instrument like that would be SO fun to play. (Perhaps I could see what the 4th side of DEVO's Now It Can Be Told sounds like...)
I've heard a couple of the songs from the Optiganally Yours album ("Spanish Flea" is hilarious), but yeah, I LOVE the song on the Powerpuff Girls album. :) They also did a great cover of an old Human League song, "Empure State Human," on a Human League tribute album.
I seem to remember liking their version of "Wichita Lineman", too, but I haven't heard that album in years. Maybe I'll throw it on after I shower.
Also, there's a cut on there, "Beebo", which I'm pretty sure was the source of the name of the creature the Professor creates in an epiosde of the Powerpuff Girls.
And, seriously, Heroes & Villains is one of my favorite records. It's SO good. The City of Soundsville CD is really awesome, too, actually. (I didn't bother with Power Pop, though, as it looked like Craig McCracken had _nothing_ to do with that, and the only good tracks on there were stuff that was carried over from H&V like the Shonen Knife one. And I'd seen the videos for the other ones which were all fuckin' excruciating. Also, on the sleeve, they gave the PPG navels, which just doesn't make any sense!)
on the sleeve, they gave the PPG navels, which just doesn't make any sense!
This just cracked me up right in the middle of the newsroom. :D
Well, it's true! PPG navels are of the utmost concern! This is serious stuff here, people!
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