Tonto's Expanding Head Band – Zero Time

Reissued as a cheap CD by Rhino/Warners in 2008 but swiftly withdrawn as they, somehow, didn't have the rights to it. I was working in a record shop at the time and we were putting 'em out for £4. By the time we realised what was happening ..... it was too late.

really fantastic album and excellent edition cd:must! super analogue electronic with Big Moog !!

Sheer synthetic brilliance by a duo who superseded Kraftwerk's more synthy based music by years. Way ahead of their time and well recorded by yesteryears standards. The creative tones that where squeezed out of the primitive gear has got to be on par with their fellow synth guru's Tomita and Carlos but no classical mimicry which gave the release a fresher musical appeal.

In addition to production invites from the likes of Stevie Wonder, the T.O.N.T.O project influenced a wide range of musicians of all colours and creed. From Stevie Wonder to Parliament/Funkadelic, from a US perspective, this was a highly influential album, opening up the possibilities while being released just as the Funk sound of the 70's was forming. This marriage led to some of the most prolific music of the era.

Atlantic reissued this on cd several years ago. Can't recall exact year - 2007 or something like that. I was working in a record shop at the time and the boss ordered a few in. We put 'em out for £4 each as it was part of a budget series.
A week later he told me he'd tried to re-order and was told that Atlantic didn't have permission to reissue it so they were all pulled. My boss said if he'd known he would have ordered several boxes the first week we had 'em.
After that they very quickly went up to £40 and more on Amazon. I thought I saw them on Discogs as well but can't find it now.

"Jetsex" anticipates the trippy middle section of Kraftwerk's Autobahn by three years.

Baptised as 'The Original New Timbral Orchestra' (T.O.N.T.O.) for being considered the first and biggest multitimbral polyphonic and analog synthesizer, the revolutionnary equipment was originally designed and constructed by the talented Malcolm Cecil, founder of TONTO's Expanding Head Band with Robert Margouleff.
The plethora of timbres it could create (remember, we are talking about more than three and a half decades ago), from warm sound to the most unexpected, did not have any parallels on the other equipments and it is said that some of the timbres cannot be copied by any other kind of synthesizer until today.

With Robert Margouleff, Malcolm Cecil produced TONTO's Expanding Head Band first album back in 1971 - 'Zero Time', bringing together atmospheric experimentalism, new timbres and huge creativity. Because of the very huge acclaim of it, the duo was invited to work as synthesizer programers, engineers on very well-known projects such as Stevie Wonder's electronic-Soul albums "Music of My Mind", "Talking Book", "Innervisions", "Fulfillingness' First Finale" and "Jungle Fever". The list of invitations also included albums for the major producer Quincy Jones, Bobby Womack, The Isley Brothers band, revolutionnary Gil Scott-Heron and future Jazz band Weather Report, as well as releases from Steve Stills, The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, Little Feat and Joan Baez, just to mention some.

All the compositions of Tonto's Expanding Head Band - 'Zero Time' long play (1971) are rather experimental and ahed-of-their-time. The story behind Malcolm Cecil's synthesizer, 'The Original And New Timbral Orchestra' (also known as T.O.N.T.O.) is just as amazing as the compositions on this album. The impact was so strong that, writing for a Keyboard Magazine in 1984, John Dilberto asserted that "... this collaboration changed the perspectives of black pop music as much as The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper altered the concept of white rock".

Tonto's Expanding Head Band's initial album 'Zero Time' was released with different sleeve artworks, even though the listener must not think the album or any of its tunes in particular were well-known - 'Zero Time' was vanguardist and its knowledge on the big audiences was restricted, far away from the mainstream. Through 'The Original New Timbral Orchestra' synthesizer collaboration on the compositions of other pop artists, its sounds would finally reach the masses.

This is a lost analogue classic from the 1970's that is, IMHO, on par with the best work of any of the more well-known names of the era (TDream, etc.)

In short, if you like big rolling Moog crescendoes with innovative arrangements (without the "bad Vangelis" comparisons) pick this up! I managed to find mine at a local used store for just a few bucks...