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Tubeway Army - Replicas - 31-Mar-08 09:38 AM
I can't say so much about this releases as Crijevo, except that it's Numan plagiarizing in reverse - that is - I get the feeling that he ripped off his own melodies on later releases as just Gary Numan, not The Tubeway Army. I noticed this as I was listening to Track 1, Me, I Disconnect From You, which sounded rather not so distantly similar to his own I Die: You Die. But none of that really matters when an artist rips off himself. My favorite track, and to me the standout on the album, is Are 'Friends' Electric?. The underlying synthesizer really makes the track come alive. Of course I never really could say that Mr. Numan is a standout vocalist, nor is he a great optimist - his lyrics are dark and rather pessimistic, but sometimes that's what makes a project work. Could you imagine any Gary Numan album with bouncy, poppy vocals? Eeeee! That would be terrible!

Lipps, Inc. - Funkytown - 21-Feb-08 04:29 PM
Jeez, ya know - I was a whoppin' seven years old when this tune was released! I didn't know it at the time just yet, but the cool synthesizer hook is so - COOL! It's so analog. I also didn't know this at the time, and it's still not verified by any source, but I'm pretty sure Steven Greenberg was pimpin' the legendary Oberheim system - well, maybe not quite yet - but an Oberheim synthesizer on this and many other of his tracks. At this time he was still using real drums and bass. But for anyone interested, this track shows where the music was headed. In a few short years after this one came along, everything became electronic. This was a favorite of mine for a spell back in the summer of 1980 when this one was peaking on the charts.

Steven, where are ya? I'd love to discuss your techniques! Especially on the 1983 and later releases.

Paul Hardcastle - 19 - 21-Feb-08 04:19 PM
Now I would have never known that! I think this is a great look at electronic music production technique from a time well before sampling became the de facto norm for any type of electronic music. This came along at a time when the sampling aspect of music was mainly coloring and flavor, and not so much the very fabric of the tune as was the case after around '96 or so. What I mean by that, broadly, is that most of the music was in fact, laboriously written, programmed, and executed on real hardware machines and not just sampled off of existing tracks via software and a computer, uh, and the internet. That alone is why I love this track. The samples do get to be cheesy over a period of dozens of repeated listenings, but that is a singular opinion on the matter and not a criticism of the song. The music is great, the samples are the only thing that may cloud this tune - but, they in fact also made the tune, so where do you go from there?

Controversy or none, this is a standout track in terms of production clarity and if analog synths are your tune, you will like it for sure. Especially that minimoog-flavored bass.

Dick Hyman - The Age Of Electronicus - 16-Jul-07 07:05 PM
I feel this album by Dick Hyman is a little up and down for me. The fact that it was electronic reworkings of the big hits of the day (1969) render that feeling. With what - one original? Which was Kolumbo. This is the definitive track on this album. There's all of the elements of techno involved - Robot drumbeat made by a machine, repetitive bassline (ostinato or riff or pattern), and two soloist synthesizer voices with lots of free-time tweekage. That's techno right? Whereas Dick and programmer Walter Sear used an elementary mechanical drum machine and the Moog provided the "other parts", they just as well could have been a TR-909 or 808, an SH-101, and two TB-303s. For that reason alone, check out Kolumbo. The other tracks that stand out in particular on this album are (above all else) Give It Up Or Turn It Loose (two thumbs way way way up), Obla-di Obla-da (excellent synth programming and fantastic drumming by a human), Blackbird (hey, I just like the song and the all-Paul McCartney melody), and Time Is Tight (same as Obla-di Obla-da). The rest are the "down" feeling of this album, they just don't shine as brightly. Definitely worth buying though, if you love all music electronic.

Aphex Twin, The* - Digeridoo - 11-Jul-07 10:20 AM
What could I say that hasn't been said? Well, yes indeed, this is a fabtasmical release, we know that. Digeridoo seems to be everybody's favorite, we know that. But do we know that A - this could be one of the most singularly UNIQUE "techno" records ever put out? Look out, though, Luke Vibert and Jeremy Simmonds were crankin' out some pretty tripped out stuff too, among MANY other less "out there" but equally brilliant and unique techno tracks that were being put out in the early early 1990s. And B - I could be wrong, but that sounds like a Roland TB-303 Transistor Bassline to me doing that digeridoo! If it is I ask - who but Richard D James would have ever thought to make a 303 replicate NOT a Bass Guitar, but a DIGERIDOO??? Moral of this review/comment - Richard D James as Aphex Twin always was and still is in many ways a real innovator in the realm of techno music. I've heard some of his stuff I don't even know the titles of but would kill to own on vinyl. Now why is this such an in-demand release? Because R.D.J. has earned every bit of his widespread respect - he IS that good.

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