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Post by paultuffy on Oct 21, 2009 17:12:07 GMT
Has anyone seen the BBC Synth Britannia documentary yet? OMG! I cannot sleep since watching this - it totally summarizes the development of my taste and inspiration in music (well, british synth pop in the early 80s). Human League, Gary Numan, Heaven 17, Wendy Carlos, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, New Order, Kraftwerk, OMD. I have been through all the other phases - Industrial/House/Warp...and back to the roots of Eno/Cluster/Klaus/Giorgio. But this documentary was just a most satisfying way to remember why I love these pieces of electronics.
Today I took a day off work (to play with recently purchased Creamware ABS Minimax+Pro-12). I watched the Moog Documentary then Synth Britannia, some Youtube stuff about Stanley Kubrick making A Clockwork Orange......dear oh dear I am way too excited. The amazing feeling when watching these is that it all seems to make sense.
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Post by Tokyohunter on Oct 21, 2009 17:34:19 GMT
Yeah great docu-programme, but don't forget to checkout the companion programme to it, "Synth Britannia At The BBC" all on the same channel, which has no commentary just live footage back to back of Numan. Foxx.. and the others from BBC shows archives.
It was interesting seeing the section where they said that synths had once been only used by the "extremely rich highly talented" during the 70s and that during the late 70s early 80s the smaller synths made it possible for "anyone" to use/get one!
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Post by Minimoog on Oct 21, 2009 18:01:58 GMT
Yeah great docu-programme, but don't forget to checkout the companion programme to it, "Synth Britannia At The BBC" all on the same channel, which has no commentary just live footage back to back of Numan. Foxx.. and the others from BBC shows archives. Unfortunately only a few of those clips were live performances - most were TOTP or OGWT mimes. Shame. Numan was (excruciatingly) live of course!  |
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Post by Tokyohunter on Oct 21, 2009 18:26:19 GMT
Unfortunately only a few of those clips were live performances - most were TOTP or OGWT mimes. Shame. Numan was (excruciatingly) live of course! live being "with a pulse" rather than playing/singing live... I didn't know OGWT were mimed , always thought that was meant to be "live", No clips from the BBC2 show Riverside... |
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Post by MrArkadin on Oct 21, 2009 21:35:27 GMT
i'd like to see a longer docu made from the interviews. i'm slightly tired of the NME-trendier-than-thou rewriting of history: "Of course we were all into Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle". Bollock off. We were into Numan and Human League etc. Also some bias when finally Numan makes an appearance and the first clip they show is him discussing what make-up he uses.  Enjoyed it other than that. i thought OGWT was live, perhaps they did that thing where they recorded various live versions in the studio then mimed to the best audio take. |
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Post by MrArkadin on Oct 21, 2009 21:37:55 GMT
Today I took a day off work (to play with recently purchased Creamware ABS Minimax+Pro-12). ;D If you need any advice pop over to planet z. i have a Scope system with both those synths in and they sound great. Sadly you can't transfer presets between these systems as i have loads for both synths. PS. They're now Sonic|Core ASBs |
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Post by Tokyohunter on Oct 22, 2009 1:39:42 GMT
I was only aware of Throbbing Gristle as a name, that docu was the first I'd heard their stuff, whereas the stuff I actually listened to back then of those featured was Numan/Foxx/HL/DM/OMD the obvious candidates, as for Caberet Voltaire I only became aware of them when Just Fascination came out.Not really heard their stuff before that much to judge it.
That Wendy/Walter Carlos thing was news to me... So she orginally pretended to be a man with a false beard?(based on the clip).
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Post by MrArkadin on Oct 22, 2009 2:14:16 GMT
That Wendy/Walter Carlos thing was news to me... So she orginally pretended to be a man with a false beard?(based on the clip). No. She started out as Walter Carlos (check 'Switched On Bach') and later had surgery and became Wendy. It seems obvious now from the clip 'he' was quite effeminate already. Perhaps that was a 'transitional' phase we saw. |
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Post by Dubsounds on Oct 22, 2009 9:42:04 GMT
I agree with Ant about an extended documentary. The clips on the website show that there was plenty of unused material, McCluskey playing through the parts of Enola Gay multitrack on his computer for instance.
I didn't take offence at the "make-up clip" being shown. I saw it as the director setting up the transition from spotty art students in raincoats the renaissance of "glam". Let's face it, a lot of people really cared about Numan's image back then and identified with it. The electronic scene was always camp, from Kraftwerk mincing about in suits to Oakey's Veronica Lake but Numan took it up to eleven at the time and for a lot of the public, the dyd hair, white face and eyeliner caused quite a stir, (especially amongst the new generation that had forgotten Ziggy).
As for the OGWT. I believe they did have a live policy, (very much like Jools Holland today) but did allow supportive backing tapes on occasion. As far as I'm aware though, Numan's set was all live, hence the croaky (I'm shitting myself) vocal in places.
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Post by Gavin on Oct 22, 2009 11:24:46 GMT
As for the OGWT. I believe they did have a live policy, (very much like Jools Holland today) but did allow supportive backing tapes on occasion. As far as I'm aware though, Numan's set was all live, hence the croaky (I'm shitting myself) vocal in places. Ive got a couple of the OGWT dvd's where the presenters explain about the live/miming situation. Annie Nightingale tells how Numan was physcally sick before playing. |
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Post by MrArkadin on Oct 22, 2009 15:37:12 GMT
As far as I'm aware though, Numan's set was all live, hence the croaky (I'm shitting myself) vocal in places. Yes. Apparently he threw up just before doing this too, so it's amazing he got through it without fainting. i take you point about the glam aspect - i just saw it from the other angle of "oh we're so arty we don't do image" and i thought the implication was Numan was less worthy because he did. Like your version better though. |
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Post by paultuffy on Oct 22, 2009 17:13:19 GMT
I had for years gone with the assumption that Oakley was a complete tw#t (maybe reading too much NME). But here, he, McCluskey, Numan and Martyn Ware came across as being amongst the least pretentious and most genuine people - it was often heart-warming to hear what they had to say (even about each other "I was gutted when I heard that....it was really good!"). Superb!.
I guess that's what age does to a bloke.
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Post by secretagent on Oct 24, 2009 17:43:11 GMT
Tears for fears doing mad world was painfully live!!  |
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Post by vortex on Oct 24, 2009 19:21:17 GMT
I agree with Ant about an extended documentary. The clips on the website show that there was plenty of unused material, McCluskey playing through the parts of Enola Gay multitrack on his computer for instance. Naturally I haven't seen this documentary. It sounds like the McCluskey clip is taken from their DVD documentary released through the fan club last year( I assume its a current day Andy sat in front of a DAW). There is also a bit where he demoing the Korg from the intro/arpeggio line of Messages which is amusingly lo-tech |
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Post by Minimoog on Oct 24, 2009 19:39:23 GMT
Ive got a couple of the OGWT dvd's where the presenters explain about the live/miming situation. And...? |
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