Where it all began...

JupiterKid

I see this sub-forum has some pretty cool electro and techno music but all this owes a huge debt of gratitude to pioneers of electronic/synthesizer music in the 1970s such as Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Pink Floyd and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.


Kraftwerk - Autobahn Part 1 (1974)

Kraftwerk - Kometenmelodie 2 (1974)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXdvc_QdLvE

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Trilogy (1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iv_rC7d9tI

Tangerine Dream - Ricochet (1975)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1VTgK9wQdA

Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene 4 (1976)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DDEl7JnWvo

dubsbhoy

we are the robots

cheesemaker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUqnPYwoiF4

seannash

cool,cheers for the heads up


moving on

g5fd6ow0hseima

cheesemaker wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUqnPYwoiF4

hilarious album that is!

JupiterKid

I love early electronic music. These artists were real pioneers...

Giorgio Moroder - Chase from Midnight Express (1978)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akyx5iu_z8Y

Donna Summer - I Feel Love (1977)

Hot Butter - Popcorn (1972)

Vangelis - Heaven and Hell Part 4 (1975)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80Lwj_ybVno

g5fd6ow0hseima

This song was years ahead of its time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG07s80VS2A

jonnny68

This tune absolutely years ahead of it's time,.classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLMGmJzp29Y

cheesemaker

^
See the price they go for :eek:

old gregg

another hugely influential artist and album. Manuel Göttsching and E2-E4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUiA0UOKIlc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E2-E4

Fellow Ash Ra Tempel member Klaus Schulze has also been hugely influential and collaborated with Pete Namlook on the Dark Side of the Moog series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUCYq2qLxJc

Berlin School > Düsseldorf School

Android 666

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa5qs1SKVgg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU23LqQ6LY4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sX4jqylYDU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4o8TeqKhgY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRC9K7iLUAw

Emerson, Lake and Palmer are sh¡t though…

francois

Android 666 wrote: »

+1, plus Cabaret Voltaire

Emerson, Lake and Palmer are sh¡t though…

Tossers of the highest order " fanfare for the common man" has to rank as one of the most pretentious pieces of music written

old gregg

francois wrote: »

Tossers of the highest order " fanfare for the common man" has to rank as one of the most pretentious pieces of music written

I'd go along with this. ELP were for me all that stank about prog rock and god knows I loved and still enjoy a bit of prog especially the mighty 'Yes'.

jtsuited

if you want to get all pedantic about the genesis of modern music, you may as well lock the thread after DeBussy is mentioned.
The guy completely redefined western music.

And in possibly one of my favourite historical stories of arrogance, when a 14 year old DeBussy was entered into the Paris conservatory this happened......

He excelled in every area but got abysmal marks on his harmony class.....His teacher said he was either a genius who would completely redefine tonal harmony or just a complete retard (what with his complete disregard for the conventions).
Debussy, answered back 'I think it's evidently clear that I am the former' and refused to accept the grade.

Wonder how embarassed that teacher was when he first heard this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlvUepMa31o

Android 666

jtsuited wrote: »

if you want to get all pedantic about the genesis of modern music, you may as well lock the thread after DeBussy is mentioned.
The guy completely redefined western music.

No he didn't, Barry Manilow did! Those silk shirts…

But to pinpoint it to Debussy and nobody else seems a bit strange. That dismisses everything else as irrelevant and not worthy of study. What about Stockhausen or Stravinsky? What about the Beatles or Elvis?

The same argument could be made with Modern Art and Duchamp and it's true that a lot of the principles and ideas put forward still inform a lot of modern art to this day but to say that he is the beginning and end of the formation of modern art would be to dismiss everything that has added to, questioned, what Duchamp was creating.

c_o_ck p_i_ss chillage

If we really want to get pedantic about electronic music we wouldn't mention something that doesn't run on electricity! (aka a piano) :-)

Oskar Sala: http://www.furious.com/perfect/ohm/oskarsala.html

this is in German but you get a good look at the Trautonium

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6icEZcKVyHk

Terry Cotta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u7vzaqITMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USijQAth1Tc

JupiterKid

I totally disagree with the dissing of ELP. Keith Emerson was a fantastic pianist and keyboardist and was a pioneer in the use of the moog synthesizer in the early 1970s. Prog rock probably doesn't sit well with minimalist electronic artists like Kraftwerk but it was one of the first genres to use synths extensively.

Other synth pioneers in the early to mid 1970s were Stevie Wonder who brought soul and funk to a whole new level and Pete Townshend of The Who who effectively invented the "string" synth sound. Mike Oldfield also used synths in his work.

Of course we could go way back to the theremin of the 1920s and Stockhausen's work of the 1950s but IMO the 1970s were the decade when electronic music really took off thanks to the invention of the synthesizer.

Android 666

JupiterKid wrote: »

I totally disagree with the dissing of ELP. Keith Emerson was a fantastic pianist and keyboardist and was a pioneer in the use of the moog synthesizer in the early 1970s.

He might have been all those things but they were still sh¡t.
If you want other moog pioneers you could look at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfmQ6w7RW7k

or even:

Maxwell's Silver Hammer is brutal though…

JupiterKid wrote: »

Of course we could go way back to the theremin of the 1920s and Stockhausen's work of the 1950s but IMO the 1970s were the decade when electronic music really took off thanks to the invention of the synthesizer.

What I think is as important as the invention of the synthesizer is the sonic experimentation that a lot of modern classical (oxymoron) music was involved in that has informed a lot of what dance and electronic music is about. So while in a discussion like its important to show the early pioneers of the synthesizer I think it does know harm to show the composers and artists maybe working outside the areas of pop and electronic music whose approach to music help influence what we see being created by house and techno producers today.

BaZmO*

You can’t say “Here’s where it all started” as a finite statement unless you define what exactly "it" is. Are you talking about the first people to use synthesizers regardless of the context they were used? Or are you talking about the first people to synths in a form that would easily be classed a forbearer of modern electronic music as we know it? And even at that, it’s still very subjective as to when it actually became relevant, i.e. any good.
You could argue that Da Vinci invented the Helicopter. But he didn’t though, he made plans, which in practice wouldn’t work. Much like the early experiments with synths may have been pioneering and ground breaking, but still sounded sh1t.

Scubadevils

Yeah no way to absolutely pinpoint where it started so to speak, there has been so much that led to its beginning, without the beginning itself even really having a starting point - by that I mean for example Juan Atkins didn't set out as such to create techno or be one of the founders, but the sounds & music that had influenced him became the starting point for what became known as techno, which then evolved into numerous other things over the years.

There are obviously clear connections to other periods of music where the influences are 100% apparent and I agree that the likes of Schulze, Tangerine Dream etc in the 70s have to be a large part of the influence to what we know as modern electronic music. Equally moving into the early 80s with various EBM, industrial and synth-pop acts emerging that took the use of synths, drum machines etc to other levels, again a clear connection from these on into house, acid house, early electro, hip hop etc etc etc!

So the point really is to look at the influences over the years and what is interesting for me is how the sounds have evolved, merged and became basically new genres as they progressed... different artists over the years with varying influences maybe from their childhood that filter into their own work, which moves on to something else with another generation or decade, etc!

I'd love actually to put together a sort of timeline chart that maps out the connecting points from over the years and a clearly defined picture of how to join-the-genre-dots so to speak. Just going off to get my anorak now...

iamstop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7oa5A2LRj4

iamstop

Scubadevils wrote: »

I'd love actually to put together a sort of timeline chart that maps out the connecting points from over the years and a clearly defined picture of how to join-the-genre-dots so to speak. Just going off to get my anorak now...

This guy has been updating this for years, at least 10 I think:
http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/

Scubadevils

iamstop wrote: »

This guy has been updating this for years, at least 10 I think:
http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/

Cheers yeah I had a wander around that site a few years ago, must have another browse again.

JupiterKid

Gary Wright - Dream Weaver (1975). Powerful string synths!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N1wnJoFAl4

Hermy

old gregg wrote: »

another hugely influential artist and album. Manuel Göttsching and E2-E4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUiA0UOKIlc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E2-E4

This is amazing.
Never heard it before you posted.
(Although I was familiar with Suano Latino)
So far ahead of it's time.
Thanks for posting.

old gregg

Hermy wrote: »

This is amazing.
Never heard it before you posted.
(Although I was familiar with Suano Latino)
So far ahead of it's time.
Thanks for posting.

No worries mate, it's why they pay me the big money around here

JupiterKid

old gregg wrote: »

another hugely influential artist and album. Manuel Göttsching and E2-E4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUiA0UOKIlc

That Maunel Gottsching track is truly astounding and truly groundbreaking. The very first proper techno piece perhaps? And to think that is was recorded nigh on 30 years ago.:cool:

Hermy

old gregg wrote: »

No worries mate, it's why they pay me the big money around here

They need to pay you more!

JupiterKid wrote: »

That Maunel Gottsching track is truly astounding and truly groundbreaking. The very first proper techno piece perhaps? And to think that is was recorded nigh on 30 years ago.:cool:

+1 a million times over

What can I say about this track that hasn't been said already. I've listened to nothing else this past day and a half and it just gets better and better. And it was released in 1981 for feck sake.:eek:
Boards.ie has introduced me to a number of interesting tunes these past few years but this is out there on it's own.

Scubadevils

Hermy wrote: »

They need to pay you more!

+1 a million times over

What can I say about this track that hasn't been said already. I've listened to nothing else this past day and a half and it just gets better and better. And it was released in 1981 for feck sake.:eek:
Boards.ie has introduced me to a number of interesting tunes these past few years but this is out there on it's own.

Yeah its a stunning track, was actually released in 1984 and prior to that Cybotron had been lashing out a few techno/electro numbers... granted not as polished a sound as Manuel Göttsching (I shouldn't even really compare them, the only link really is they are both electronic musicians and Manuel was very much the whole Krautrock electronic sound) but definitely the early stages of techno as far back as 1981 with 'Alleys of Your Mind'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TccgyZVkonw

And Cosmic Cars in 1982...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw8ro8o4524

Nolanger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVc2tJUjeZU

Hermy

Scubadevils wrote: »

...was actually released in 1984...

...but recorded in December 1981 according to discogs.

What about Rockit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK0Pi4wC8Hk

Scubadevils

Never noticed that, and actually also on the wiki entry... I wonder what he did with it for the 3 years before it was released?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E2-E4

Yeah Rockit is great, love that early electro sound. 'Beat Box' by Art of Noise is brilliant too...

Art of Noise - Beat Box Version 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk1Kvpds15o

Scubadevils

Another classic electro track from the early 80s.

Hashim - Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXPqTFoNbuo

Scubadevils

Here's another, 1984... think I'm going to have to start picking these up on 12"!

Arthur Baker - Breaker's Revenge (Extended)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-fp_zd-aP8

Scubadevils

Back to late 70s for these two...

Gino Soccio - Dancer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3y2C8jqG8Q

Cerrone - Supernature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V112pTo--Js

Scubadevils

Some mad industrial/EBM stuff now, again shows another use of the electronics that were becoming available!

This first one from 1981.

Liaisons Dangereuses - Los Niños Del Parque

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksuVl3sEf7s

A little later this one, 1986... Nitzer Ebb

Let Your Body Learn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxt6ADTWrXk

& 'Join In The Chant' from 1987... (I love this live version from 1989)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZ-0EXnbj8

Scubadevils

A few from early Mute.

The first Mute release actually here by Daniel Miller, founder of Mute Records.

The Normal - Warm Leatherette (1979)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5QErPDNcj4

Fad Gadget - Ricky's Hand (1980)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut99KQbkIOg

Yazoo - Situation (1982)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdV-5ivltkc

Scubadevils

Last two for now!

Paul Hardcastle - 19 (The Final Story) (1985)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAQWUWMJxg8

And back again to late 70s...

Giorgio Moroder - Chase (1978)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akyx5iu_z8Y

Nolanger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjR4QYsa9nE

Hermy

Scubadevils wrote: »

Back to late 70s for these two...

Gino Soccio - Dancer

That track reminds me a lot of The Race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY5bWOQzko0

Some of you might be interested in Variations on Radio Web Macba a series by Jon Leidecker (aka Wobbly) charting the history of sampled music.

Hermy

Scubadevils wrote: »

And back again to late 70s...

Giorgio Moroder - Chase (1978)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akyx5iu_z8Y

Just noticed on discogs that the above was arranged by Harold Faltermeyer, he of Axel F fame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dASqLXiuomY

JupiterKid

Space - Magic Fly (1977)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_ukfGAd8T4

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra (1974)

Scubadevils

Love that Magic Fly track, years since I've heard that one and could well have been many more years!

Got an email from Boomkat about the reissue of the 1980 album 'Synthesist' by Harald Grosskopf. Limited run of course with nice packaging and a bonus remix CD. Stuck it on my already over the limit card so hope it slips through!

Harald Grosskopf - 1847 EARTH

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CeWjSS5he0

**Super-limited pressing comes in a beautiful metallic print, reverse-bound sleeve including a 60 minute bonus CD of remixes by James Ferraro, Oneohtrix Point Never, Stellar Om Source, ARP +++ ** Finally touching down in deluxe, reverse-bound jacket, the RVNG reissue of Harald Grosskopf's influential solo debut from 1980. 'Synthesist' was created on the cusp of a new decade, as the New Age of the '80s was dawning and the titans of Krautrock had largely left their best work behind them. Harald had worked with the very best of them, playing drums on seminal albums by Klaus Schulze, the notorious Cosmic Jokers, Ashra, and Tarot before he retreated to the West German countryside with a MiniMoog and Revox Reel-to-Reel in 1979 to create his personal opus. It's been said elsewhere, but it bears repeating that this album feels like a symbiosis of the two eras, the proggy excesses of the '70s reigned in by percussively pulsing arpeggiations which would signal Techno on the horizon, especially on the jaw-dropping '1847 Earth' and the joyfully funky ecstasy of 'Transcendental Overdrive'. His legacy is faithfully handled on the remixes, the best of which appear in CFCF's dreamy remake of 'B. Aldrian', JD Twitch's emphatically NRGetic mix of 'Emphasis', the wormhole experience of OPN's 'Trauma' and Ferraro's slyly charming interpretation of 'Transcendental Overdrive Zone' under the Keyhole Voyeur alias, retitled 'Wishmaster'. Strictly limited copies - don't sleep!
http://boomkat.com/vinyl/378947-harald-grosskopf-synthesist-re-synthesist

Hermy

Scubadevils wrote: »

Harald Grosskopf - 1847 EARTH

Scary stuff!

a148pro

I think its hilarious that Juan Atkins is on record as saying Sharevari is not a techno track. The opening alone is more techno than anything Atkins made for years afterwards, as is the rest of the track. The lyrics are about going out and partying all night and the name comes from a party which was being promoted around Detroit in the late 70's early 80's.

It almost seems like Atkins doesn't want people to think anyone else had anything to do with inventing techno. IMO his role is wildly overstated, prob as a result of him being marketed in England as one of its inventors on the early techno albums.

In fact, can anyone point me to a good Atkins track? I wanna be there is pretty good. No UFO's is very good. A lot of the others are overrated, and are really electro IMO, particuarly all the early ones.

Saw him DJ in London in the late 90's. He was crap.

a148pro

Absolutely love this, really shows where this music came from and how long ago. Also reminds me of that old Kooky Scientist video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OScrghVh15s&feature=related

Here's one from the same show with No UFO's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EarSRa19sZc&feature=related

a148pro

Here's my candidate for a very early housey / technoey / trancey / something track, from the unlikely Eddy Grant of Electric Avenue fame, first released in 1977. Apparently a massive track in the Paradise Garage nightclub. I came accross it in a Masters at Work essential mix and it didn't sound out of place at all, thought it was prob from the late 90's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjipEFenTmM

Scubadevils

a148pro wrote: »

I think its hilarious that Juan Atkins is on record as saying Sharevari is not a techno track. The opening alone is more techno than anything Atkins made for years afterwards, as is the rest of the track. The lyrics are about going out and partying all night and the name comes from a party which was being promoted around Detroit in the late 70's early 80's.

It almost seems like Atkins doesn't want people to think anyone else had anything to do with inventing techno. IMO his role is wildly overstated, prob as a result of him being marketed in England as one of its inventors on the early techno albums.

In fact, can anyone point me to a good Atkins track? I wanna be there is pretty good. No UFO's is very good. A lot of the others are overrated, and are really electro IMO, particuarly all the early ones.

Saw him DJ in London in the late 90's. He was crap.

Heresy!

Some of his early work is more electro sounding alright and some of it pretty harsh on the ears these days, not aged very well. But there is other material which is most certainly more techno than electro, take 'Off To Battle' from 1987 for example... I like this one a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So0kzVXGB2E

Typical early electro from Model 500... love this myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5kKUtTX0yU

Electro is definitely not for everyone though and in the minority around here for sure!

The album 'Deep Space' is a real classic and a personal favourite too.

Model 500 - M12 Milky Way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0jg3x0P3kw

Scubadevils

Just to add also, I think in fairness to Juan Atkins, really he gave the name 'techno' to something that was already being made or had evolved to the point where he called it something... thats not to say that the sound didn't already exist, just without the tag I suppose.

Anyway, who gives a fck... we've got the music one way or the other :pac:

Android 666

Forgot to post these guys:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BXGsCNue1k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi9tNT4Aar8

You have to listen to Festival of Death the whole way through. Brilliant...