When Switched On Bach was released in 1968 it was the first time I heard an electronic instrument without being impressed. Until then I had only heard electronic instruments on Kai Winding's "More," Del Shannon's "Runaway" and the Beatles' "Baby You're a Rich Man." Those examples were very interesting. (Later I would hear "Telstar" and wish I hadn't.) Bach music performed using funny sounds struck me as more gimmick than artistic innovation.
In 1971 Mort Garson released a hideous album of electronic noise called "Black Mass." It was shit. There are certain kinds of Moog sounds that I still despise because of this ugly album.
The guy (J.J. Perrey) who played the electronic instrument on "More" also worked with the guy (Gershon Kingsley) who wrote "Popcorn" in 1969 but I would not hear the latter composition until the 1972 cover by Hot Butter. That was an exciting piece of music. For the first time in my experience a synth tune sounded like the music was written for the synth.
In early 1974 Isao Tomita demonstrated that playing traditional music on synths can result in great beauty if appropriate sounds are used instead of just using funny noises.
In late 1974 Kraftwerk demonstrated that musically awkward people could make mildly interesting "garage" music with synths. (Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh was already brilliantly pioneering robotic nerd music at this point but would not be heard by the masses until 1978.)
Finally, in 1975, Synergy released "Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra." Here was quality music written for and skillfully played on synthesizers. I thought this was the beginning of a big change in direction for synthesizer music. I was wrong. Each successive Synergy album would be a step away from this masterpiece and toward the same automated mainstream as the rest of "electronic music." And no one else picked up where "Electronic Realizations" left off.
[In this spot I artfully blasted the most overrated "electronic" musicians of the boomer era, then changed my mind and deleted it. The surest way to be ostracized in today's oversensitive facade of faux-culture is to tell the truth. I will simply say that I was not as enamored of Jarre, Vangelis or Moroder as the masses were.]
When AEJOTZ was accidentally born in 1983 my main influences would have been the first Synergy album, 1970s Genesis, Devo and the B52s.
The rebirth of AEJOTZ in 2011 was catalyzed by Stereolab, whose music often reminded me of my 1983 synth experiments. I can't tell if Stereolab actually influenced my music or if we just have shared tastes and influences.
1980s synthpop has a bit of an influence on me, but not the usual kind. It influences me mostly by repulsion rather than by attraction. Sometimes I make musical choices to deliberately avoid '80s synth cliches.
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Non-Fiction Music
I want to say "in the preceding article" but from the reader's perspective it's the "following" article. Let's try this:
In the chronologically preceding but physically following article, I endorse the jam band "Drones of Saturn." They are an example of artists who make "Non-Fiction Music." I, AEJOTZ, am another example. Feel free to genuflect.
I've probably written about NFM before but I never do anything quite the same way twice so I'm not really repeating myself if I do it again. Kind of.
There's a sliding scale of gray between extremes of "Fictional Music" and NFM but it's easier to describe the concept if I swing far to either side.
Far over on the FM side you have professional hit song writers who construct musical product according to a strict formula. This product is then sung by an age/gender/fashion appropriate "star" who performs the song the way an actor performs a script. Every step of the process is phony.
Way over on the NFM side you have a penniless bohemian sitting in an urban park coaxing some old instrument to play a spontaneous tune to the morning, expressing the feelings of an artistic soul grooving in the ever-changing now. The whole process is alive and real.
In-between would be songs artists felt when they wrote them, but that later became just "oldies" they are expected to play. (Does Alice Cooper still perform "Eighteen?")
A jam session is, ideally, an expression of spontaneous extemporaneous creativity. I qualify the preceding statement with "ideally" because I've been to "jam sessions" in which one or more egos were doing more showboating than extemporaneous jamming. Trying to impress the other players with your Yngwie scales is not the same as sharing and exploring a groove with the other players.
Ah, the key I was looking for just popped up: "exploring." A good jam doesn't just meander over existing worn rutted trails; it blazes a new trail. Not all "musicians" can do this. A guy who can learn his parts and play in a cover band is called a "musician," even if he never creates an original piece of music. He is totally FM. Only an adventurous sonic explorer can be NFM. Dig?
My new pals (I haven't met them yet) Drones of Saturn are trailblazers. You can draw comparisons between their sound and that of some bands that have gone before, but that's just nerdalizing. Oh crap. Now I have to explain nerdalizing. Sometimes I wish I'd quit making up terms.
I once wrote a seafaring song in 3/4 time that I performed for a number of years. After one such performance, some jackass smugly declared that I'd imitated "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot. The Lightfoot tune was released in 1976. I wrote mine in 1971. I was nerdalized.
Nerdalizing is when some uncreative, unimaginative nerd jackass compares anything and everything new to the few things he's experienced in his stupid past. The nerdalist will ALWAYS say, "oh, that sounds like _____." Nerdalizing can be found in every comments section on every music-related webpage in the universe.
Anyway, back to the Drones. They play electric guitar, drums and bass guitar, so they sound a lot like a band that plays electric guitar, drums and bass guitar. DUH!!! The important thing is that they start with a hint of a shadow of a germ of a groove and then explore the @#$% out of it until they've completely ravished it and left it panting and satisfied in a ditch by the road. Pure creativity. Pure Non-Fiction Music.
Have I sharpened this point enough, yet? I sure hope so.
In the chronologically preceding but physically following article, I endorse the jam band "Drones of Saturn." They are an example of artists who make "Non-Fiction Music." I, AEJOTZ, am another example. Feel free to genuflect.
I've probably written about NFM before but I never do anything quite the same way twice so I'm not really repeating myself if I do it again. Kind of.
There's a sliding scale of gray between extremes of "Fictional Music" and NFM but it's easier to describe the concept if I swing far to either side.
Far over on the FM side you have professional hit song writers who construct musical product according to a strict formula. This product is then sung by an age/gender/fashion appropriate "star" who performs the song the way an actor performs a script. Every step of the process is phony.
Way over on the NFM side you have a penniless bohemian sitting in an urban park coaxing some old instrument to play a spontaneous tune to the morning, expressing the feelings of an artistic soul grooving in the ever-changing now. The whole process is alive and real.
In-between would be songs artists felt when they wrote them, but that later became just "oldies" they are expected to play. (Does Alice Cooper still perform "Eighteen?")
A jam session is, ideally, an expression of spontaneous extemporaneous creativity. I qualify the preceding statement with "ideally" because I've been to "jam sessions" in which one or more egos were doing more showboating than extemporaneous jamming. Trying to impress the other players with your Yngwie scales is not the same as sharing and exploring a groove with the other players.
Ah, the key I was looking for just popped up: "exploring." A good jam doesn't just meander over existing worn rutted trails; it blazes a new trail. Not all "musicians" can do this. A guy who can learn his parts and play in a cover band is called a "musician," even if he never creates an original piece of music. He is totally FM. Only an adventurous sonic explorer can be NFM. Dig?
My new pals (I haven't met them yet) Drones of Saturn are trailblazers. You can draw comparisons between their sound and that of some bands that have gone before, but that's just nerdalizing. Oh crap. Now I have to explain nerdalizing. Sometimes I wish I'd quit making up terms.
I once wrote a seafaring song in 3/4 time that I performed for a number of years. After one such performance, some jackass smugly declared that I'd imitated "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot. The Lightfoot tune was released in 1976. I wrote mine in 1971. I was nerdalized.
Nerdalizing is when some uncreative, unimaginative nerd jackass compares anything and everything new to the few things he's experienced in his stupid past. The nerdalist will ALWAYS say, "oh, that sounds like _____." Nerdalizing can be found in every comments section on every music-related webpage in the universe.
Anyway, back to the Drones. They play electric guitar, drums and bass guitar, so they sound a lot like a band that plays electric guitar, drums and bass guitar. DUH!!! The important thing is that they start with a hint of a shadow of a germ of a groove and then explore the @#$% out of it until they've completely ravished it and left it panting and satisfied in a ditch by the road. Pure creativity. Pure Non-Fiction Music.
Have I sharpened this point enough, yet? I sure hope so.
DRONES OF SATURN
Go right now to
https://soundcloud.com/dronesofsaturn
and listen your @#$% off
to some of the best non-fiction music anywhere, anywhen
These guys are my "neighbors" in NWI (Northwest Indiana, duh).
They're looking for a synth player to join them and I'm so tempted.
But they sound great and tight as a trio.
More might be too much.
On the other hand, since I realize that, I might be the perfect addition.
I would be carefully restrained.
Hm...
Maybe I should at least go jam with these guys once.
What do you think?
https://soundcloud.com/dronesofsaturn
and listen your @#$% off
to some of the best non-fiction music anywhere, anywhen
These guys are my "neighbors" in NWI (Northwest Indiana, duh).
They're looking for a synth player to join them and I'm so tempted.
But they sound great and tight as a trio.
More might be too much.
On the other hand, since I realize that, I might be the perfect addition.
I would be carefully restrained.
Hm...
Maybe I should at least go jam with these guys once.
What do you think?
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