My Podcast: The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music
My blog for the Bob Moog Foundation.
A trend I’ve noticed while looking through the archive is the use of instrumental electronic music to invoke that old fashioned love feeling. Vintage electronic music has some pretty special examples—Mort Garson, recording under the name of “Z” produced an album called Music for Sensuous Lovers in 1971. It was two sides of Moog meanderings spiced up with the sounds of, well, human beings moaning and captured in what appeared to be the ecstasy of making love. Following up in 1972 was a cheap imitation called The Sounds Of Love ...A To Zzzz (get it?) by Fred Miller, who was better known as a producer of live jazz recordings. This album also mixed the sounds of people in the throes of lovemaking with electronic music. I think this album used an ARP modular from WARP Studios in New York. In any event, those albums are terribly dated not only because they could only be viewed as sexist, even back then, but pornographic in a simulated kind of way. And while they earn a place in my archive simply because they featured modular synthesizers, I’m not going to play them in this podcast. Those records actually give me the creeps.
I have found a number of vintage and more recent recordings of electronic music that deal with the ups and downs of being in love. I have curated these for your listening pleasure. Most of these tracks have some lyrics, but not all. I’m featuring two length instrumental tracks from Klaus Schulze that he composed for a movie called Body Love in 1977, plus two tracks from new age musician Steven Halpern, which I nearly picked only because of their catchy titles: “Hot Chakra” and “Thigh Chi.” The opening track is a mix of natural sounds and orchestral music from the Mystic Moods Orchestra, replete with a horse neighing near the opening. Then, I came upon an album by Art Linkletter from 1963 called The Story Of Where Did You Come From? and decided to remixed portions of that dialog with some electronic sound by Japanese noise musician Kazumoto Endo. This creates a contrast of traditional sex education with some sharp noise interference around the theme of “Falling In and Out of Love.”
And I did succumb to including one song from an overtly sexist organization, Penthouse magazine. They released an album in 1978 called Penthouse Presents The Love Symphony Orchestra and the song in question is what you are listening to in the background right now. It’s called “Let’s Make Love in Public Spaces” which isn’t an entirely offensive concept.
Episode 123
Love Spells in Electronic Sound
Playlist
| Track Time | Start Time |
Introduction –Thom Holmes | 06:48 | 00:00 |
1. Mystic Moods Orchestra, “Love Token” from Love Token (1969 Philips). Sound Effects, producer, sound director, Brad Miller; Vocals and vocal effects, The Mystic Moods. | 04:33 | 06:48 |
2. Four Tet, “Love Cry” from There Is Love In You (2010 Domino). Written, produced, and performed by Kieran Hebden. | 09:06 | 11:14 |
3. Deborah de Luca, “Love is a Losing Game (Mix Raw)” from Nina (2015 Sola_mente Records). Written, produced, and performed by Deborah de Luca. | 07:14 | 20:16 |
4. Steven Halpern, “Hot Chakra” from Enhancing Sensual Pleasure (1993 Sound Rx). Bass, Marc Vanwaginengen; Silver Flutes, Emerald Web; Grand Piano, Electric Piano, Producer, Trumpet, Steven Halpern; Harp, Susan Mazer; Lyricon, Dallas Smith; Percussion, Kenneth Nash. | 06:48 | 27:26 |
5. Steven Halpern, “Thigh Chi” from Enhancing Sensual Pleasure (1993 Sound Rx). Bass, Marc Vanwaginengen; Flute, Paul Horn; Silver Flutes, Emerald Web; Grand Piano, Electric Piano, Producer, Trumpet, Steven Halpern; Harp, Susan Mazer; Lyricon, Dallas Smith; Percussion, Kenneth Nash. | 05:31 | 34:08 |
6. Klaus Schulze, “Moogetique” from Body Love, Vol. 2 (1977 Island). Producer, Composer, instruments, Klaus Schulze; Drums, Harald Grosskopf. Original electronic music for a film by Lasse Braun. | 13:12 | 39:34 |
7. Klaus Schulze, “Stardancer II” from Body Love, Vol. 2 (1977 Island). Producer, Composer, instruments, Klaus Schulze; Drums, Harald Grosskopf. Original electronic music for a film by Lasse Braun. | 14:13 | 52:44 |
8. Eberhard Schoener, “Events - A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu” from Events (1980 Harvest). Mellotron, Violin, Piano, Moog, Oberheim, Fairlight CMI, Liner Notes, Eberhard Schoener; Fairlight CMI, Morris Pert; Fender Rhodes, Roger Munnis; Tenor Saxophone, Olaf Kübler; Vocals, Clare Torry. | 10:56 | 01:06:50 |
9. Nora En Pure, “Norma Jean” from Come With Me (2013 Enormous Tunes). Written, produced, and performed by Nora En Pure. | 05:48 | 01:17:45 |
10. Art Linkletter, “Narrates The Story Of Where Did You Come From?” (side 1) from Narrates The Story Of Where Did You Come From? (1963 20th Century Fox). This was an early 60s sex-education LP. Linkletter was a Canadian-American radio and television personality. I’ve intermixed this disc with tracks of rolling white sound (by me) and a track by Kazumoto Endo, “Falling In and Out of Love” from Never Gonna Make You Cry (1999 Kling Film-Records). Written, produced, and performed by Kazumoto Endo. All to present a slightly odd view of love. | 19:12 | 01:23:32 |
11. Donna Summer, “Summer Fever” from Four Seasons Of Love (1976 Casablanca). Written-By Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte; accompanied by The Munich Machine; recorded in MusicLand Studios, Munich; mixed and produced by Giorgio Moroder. | 08:12 | 01:42:44 |
Opening background music: The Love Symphony Orchestra, “Let’s Make Love in Public Spaces” from Penthouse Presents The Love Symphony Orchestra (1978 Talpro). Keyboards, Synthesizer, Clifford Carter. (03:12)
Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.
Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.
The sine qua non of Electronic Music for Babies!