ANALOG progressive electronic

Hello all,

1. The most obvious - albums from before digital synths were commercially available.  I'd put it at roughly 1978 for the bigger artists, some hangers-on didn't really switch until maybe '80, or '81 (gear was expensive back then!).  Kraftwerk, Schulze, TD, Eno, Cluster, Heldon, many associated acts of all the above...

2. Artists deliberately staying analog into the 80s - e.g. Bernd Kistenmacher and Steve Roach, as far as I know.

3. 90s and onward "analog revival" type music, for example hoax krautrock albums of Psi-Fi studio.  Note Minimoog being reissued in 2002, Korg/ARP in the 2010s...  Many youtube/soundcloud type musicians are fully analog, but it's harder to have info about what progressive electronic artists were using.

Edited by Triceratopsoil - October 24 2024 at 14:16

Gordy wrote: I wonder what you'd make of Alessandro Cortini. He has yet to be added here, but is a modern prog electronic artist through and through, operating with analog and modular synthesizers. A markedly different yet related sound to what you're looking for in category 3: https://cortini.bandcamp.com/

Oh my, a favorite topic of mine!!  One really needs to go into the history of electronic music and development of its instruments, all the way from the Theramin to present!  

Edited by cstack3 - October 23 2024 at 19:50

Hi,

I'm enjoying the latest album from US duo Zombi called Direct Inject. As far as I know they use analog synths. I also love Tubeway Army's Replicas, a proper masterpiece of an album if ever there that used analog synths. Never got that much into Berlin school. No doubt you'll get a bunch of Klaus Schulze and early Tangerine Dream releases on this thread!

I had a nice post all typed up last night, but the site glitched. So: Round Two!

Triceratopsoil wrote: Artists deliberately staying analog into the 80s - e.g. Bernd Kistenmacher and Steve Roach, as far as I know.

Steve Roach had added digital equipment by no later than 1986, in time for the supremely impressive Empetus.

Triceratopsoil wrote: I am primarily looking for album suggestions in category 2 and 3 above but would welcome discussion on any of it.

I see some great suggestions in this thread, like Zombi's brand new album. Direct Inject (they're one of my favorite bands). Zombi are Steve Moore and A.E. Paterra, who both have many solo releases to their credit. Paterra records as Majeure.




We'll get the usual mentions (Tangerine Dream, Schulze, Jarre), but what about the States' very own Larry Fast aka Synergy? From 1975-1987, he recorded a number of tremendous albums that unfairly get nowhere near as much bandwidth. (For some reason, Synergy is classified Prog Related rather than Progressive Electronic on PA.)

(from Audion, 1981)



Larry Fast later named his boutique electronic music label after that album, and released UK synth duo Wavestar's grand third effort, Moonwind. That turned out to be the best EM album of 1987, since Mark Shreeve wasn't exactly a household name on this side of the pond. Moonwind spent much time in the player, and I enjoy it to this day.




I'll always mention the late, great Mark Shreeve in these kinds of threads. Pre-Redshift/Arc (both are amazing, no guesswork req'd), Mark recorded a string of classic albums that halfway through veered sharply from the familiar tresses of spatial Berlin School-inspired bliss to a style that's much more cinematic, much more "rock." That started with Legion, an album that blew my mind when I first heard it in late 1988.

This is a live version of "Storm Column" from Legion (1985).

a nice relatively unknown one:

Edited by Triceratopsoil - October 24 2024 at 15:36

While this was evidently sourced from needle drops, it's still very much worth it to have the albums on disc!

simianmobiledisco wrote: Iv'e always liked the old skool sound of the analog synths

Edited by moshkito - October 26 2024 at 22:11