The Moog Machine - Switched-On Rock (1969, US, electronic) 
Tuesday, August 28, 2007, 06:46 PM - Music, - US, English
The Moog is played by Kenny Ascher, arrangements are done by Alan Foust and Norman Dolph produced & tuned.

Some liner stuff:
The amazing thing about all the sounds is not that they are done one voice at a time, but rather one finger at a time. The silly machine only plays one note at a time and the temptation play a chord must be overcome... you only get the lowest note if you press more than one key. Improvisation is difficult but far from impossible if you redefine the problem.
We, being faced with the limitations of the Moog as far as chords are concerned. built a gadget called the Protorooter that structures chords above the note the keyboard is playing to alleviate the problem somewhat.
Compared with the old cut-and-splice way of making electronic music, the Moog is a tune boon. As great as we feel the Moog is for making music in the light of what is possible and what Mr. Moog is no doubt cooking up, the Moogs of today are like the Kon Tiki. It takes quite a bit of physical tuning and set-up time to achieve the sounds, though once tuned they go down very quickly.

Moog himself is quite a guy, too. Most cooperative, and now has a weekly emissary to New York to touch up any fixits and keep everyone up on the new discoveries. Moog really made quite an invention — and how appropriately space-age his name is! How bland would be the "Jones" or the "Irving Spidor-sha" as a nickname for the gadget. If he ever comes to town for a lecture, go listen.
There is nothing like inventing a synthesizer to give you expertise in its use.



Side one:
1 Spinning Wheel
2 Jumpin' Jack Flash
3 The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
4 Get Back
5 Yummy Yummy Yummy

Side two:
1 The Weight
2 Time Of The Season
3 Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In
4 You Keep Me Hangin' On
5 Hey Jude

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Skeleton Crew - Pandora's Music Box 1983 (US, noise/folk) 
Friday, August 17, 2007, 06:18 PM - Music, - US, English
Skeleton Crew was a project from ex-Henry Cow alternative guitarist Fred Frith and experimental Bay Area cellist and multi-instrumentalist Tom Cora.
Formed as a duo, the two (occasionally augmented by Zeena Parkins on keyboards and harp) toured extensively with a combination of experimental rock, noise, and folk music, even playing one concert of nothing but Eastern European folk tunes.
On stage, both musicians operated drums with their feet, while busying their hands with various stringed instruments, professional or homemade. Tape cut ups were also part of the performance.
Cora died in 1998. (all music)


2 3/4 songs, 8'32"

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Peter Nero - Midnight Cowboy (1969, US, lounge/electronic) 
Saturday, August 11, 2007, 12:00 AM - Music, - US, English
Formerly entitled: Hits from "Hair" to Hollywood.
The Moog synthesizer, heard on "Midnight Cowboy", "The Windmills of Your Mind", Let the Sunshine In" and "Be-In", is played by Peter Nero.



Side one:
1 Midnight Cowboy - Everybody's Talkin'
2 Love theme from "Romeo and Juliet" (A Time for Us)
3 The Windmills of your mind
4 The April Fools
5 Theme from "Picasso Summer"

Side two:
1 Aquarius
2 Let the Sunshine In
3 Be-In (Hare Krishna)
4 Where do I go
5 Hair
6 Good Morning Starshine

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The Dead Beatle 
Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 07:55 PM - Music, - US, English
I got a message from Alleee of Mondo Diablo. My Silly Beatles post inspired her to make a podcast with some of my shared music. She combined it with a lot of other worthwhile Beatles covers and a radio broadcast of a syndicated special detailing the Paul is Dead phenomenon, which is a funny idea: Paul is with Ringo the only Beatle who survived. The radio recording can be found on the 365 Days Project.
Alleee had so much material, she made two podcasts out of it: Two hours of silly Beatles and even sillier comments.



And while you are there, try the other episodes, they all have nice surprises.

Gil Trythall - Luxikon II/Echospace (1980, US, electronic) 
Thursday, May 31, 2007, 09:37 PM - Music, - US, English
Original music from the man who covered lots of country hits on his moog: Country Moog & Nashville Gold. Thanks to Vasco who sent me this gem.
Both compositions were made for a dance performance.
Principal instrumentation includes: Moog IIIc modular, two interconnected Micromoogs, EML 400 Sequencer, Multivox Analog Echo and a Farfisa combo organ.



Luxikon II [14:36]
Echospace [12:30]

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Gabor Szabo - Nightflight (1976, HU/US, smooth jazz) 
Thursday, May 10, 2007, 03:36 PM - Music, - HU, - US, English
Jazz purists hate this record. They have problems with soul and disco producer Bunndino Siggalucci (Bunny Sigler). I think it's his best album. Beautiful sound, relaxing tunes and excellent guitar playing. Never released on cd; shame!
Music to crash by...



Side one:
1 Concorde (Nightflight) [6:48]
2 Funny Face [3:04]
3 Baby Rattle Snake [6:50]
4 Theme for Gabor [4:31]

Side two:
1 Keep Smilin' [7:25]
2 Every Minute Counts [6:50]
3 Smooth Sailin' [6:47]

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This is Gabor Szabo's "Concorde (Nightflight)", recorded for the Club Date TV program in 1977 and included as part of Carlos Santana's video "Influences":



And another great song, Breezin from the High Contrast album, on YouTube. Same session.

This is Gabor Szabo performing "The Biz" at the Budapest Hilton Hotel in 1978 during a visit back to his native land. The original version of this song by Bobby Lyle appears on the Szabo's 1977 album, Faces. This performance was broadcast on Hungarian television in 1978. What synthesizer is played here?


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MX-80 Sound - O Type (1980, US, industrial rock) 
Friday, May 4, 2007, 12:32 AM - Music, - US, English
The best rock band I've never seen.
An 8'20" instrumental version of O Type can be found on the cd Das Love Boat.
This 7" version is split in two parts, with vocals. On Ralph records.
You can watch MX-80 on YouTube:
15 Laffs (1992 live, Bottom of the Hill, SF)
(It's a) FatAss World (1992 live, Bottom of the Hill, SF)
We're An American Band (2005, Grand Funk cover)


I cannot find this movie on IMDb


O Type (pt.1) [3:34]
O Type (pt.2) [4:51]

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UPDATE:
I knew it existed, but could never get my hands on it: a Ralph Records video with MX-80 Sound. Thanks to Monsieurblabla it is available on YouTube: Why Are We Here.



And I left my heart in San Francisco thanks to dumbydumberton
See also O-Type: The Hounds of Spring.

Recipe for downloading YouTube video's (on windows):
- Use Firefox
- Install Greasemonkey add-on
- Install Download YouTube Video script in Greasemonkey add-on
- 'Download this Video' appears in YouTube below the video, click on it and save with .flv extension
- Convert it to whatever you like (I use PAL VCD) with WinFF (based on ffmpeg), use 4:3 Aspect Ratio
- Play with VLC media player
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