Moog/Analog Synth albums

It is not propably exactly what you are searching, but try some works of Isao Tomita.

 

Be patient and listen full album (not some random parts only), if you want to evaluate it

 

 

if you don't know Trace, try to give a chance Trace too :-)

 

and something from Ars Nova

 

The mention of Larry Fast brought to mind his really cool "Prog 101 Lecture" at the very first NEARFest.  I thought that was a really cool idea... and a way to give our ears a break from the all-day music assault.    

He deserves some credit, as he was playing a lot of different things and making good use of his ability.

 

But really ... you take the cape ... and the bleach blond hair out, and you really think anyone will give a damn?

 

Washed out versions of Grieg, or any other classical composer are a dime a dozen in the keyboard world in rock music and there are far better and more competent keyboard players than some spoiled rich kid. But yeah, his albums are all those analog things ... wasted in my book!

 

The album cover, also has the first representations shown of what eventually became a part of every DAW out there ... and this one was the first version of what became Cakewalk, by the way! Todd Rungren was originally involved with them until they got so big that they could no longer give him anything except a kick in the pants!

You really have to have a friendly feeling and attention/affection for classical music, and this version is magnificent and probably one of the best ever done out there, when all is said and done.

 

But, in general, Tomita's versions are very faithful to the spirit of the music, and added some atmospherics to it, that the classical music versions do not have. And it makes the music full'er (is that a word?) than otherwise for my ears.

 

As a side story, my dad was a very avid classical music listener and very well rounded in its history. He was well known for having created the Comparative Literature field at the UC systems. And he was fairly cool as an "intelectual" in his field.  So I played that for him, and he did not like it a whole lot and dismissed it. So I trashed him for being a snob and not accepting a modern version doen with the "instrument of today". And I left home. So mom tells me that he listened to it attently the next evening and sat there and then made the comment ... that's actually very well done and very pretty. It was well defined and designed with the instruments. I had never heard or thought that the synthesizer could do so much. Later I explained to him that rock music was stretching the synthesizer a lot, however I also told him that the synthesizer was becoming a replacement for the orchestra with everyone learning how to do different instruments on it, rather than use an orchestra! And while I appreciated Vangelis (so did my father!), that sometimes, it made things tougher to appreciate, from a purist point of view.

 

He had been familiar with Heineman, Stockhausen and some of those folks whose synthesizer work, we will NEVER listen to here or discuss, and did not imagine that the synthesizer could do anything else. So, by that time I already had Terri Riley and Beaver & Krause and his comment ... no wonder Stanley Kubrick used electronics in 2001! I had to joke with him that Kubrick didn't like music and that is why he used it! And Clockwork Orange came up immediately and it was a film I did not care for and the music in it was just as bad! He actually agreed, and thought the music was just as cold and off the rocker as the film was!

 

Times are interesting ... things change ... and music moves on ... but the early synthesizer pioneers were interested in experimenting with the sounds. The german folks that were "classical" were using an idea that was out there and no one related to it, and most still don't -- except Lou Reed and Metallica for an album each! The rest, the Berlin Factory (where New, Agitation Free, Tangerine Dream et al came from), ended up doing all kinds of different things with it, and making it sound even better and stronger.

 

Today, "synthesizer" means that an orchestra is not necessary!

 

I didn't much like the syntheiser at first and found J M Jarre boring but then Emerson and Wakeman awakened my interest (bombast ). From there I sort of found my way to Tomita.Jarre,Vangelis etc although I havn't really explored much further. I love Tangerine Dream probably far too much even some of the later stuff. I blame my Dad