Claude Mono presents an explosion of tranquility as he starts of the show with light as gossamer folk and old-school Beatles and somehow twists it all up into some sort of electronic wash of vintage electronica and cinematic hardcore – well that is if you are thinking 80 + 90s = vintage electronica…
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PLAYLIST
Oakenwood – Bramble – Oakenwood
The Advisory Circle – Lonely Signalman – As The Crow Flies
Michael Mayer – Sully
Teamforest – Leave On A Jet Plane – Leave Again
Testbild – Astroboy – Where Did This Begin
Artist Unknown – Interlude Nordic Mellow Rhodes Keyboard Jam
Wyrdstone – Meditation On Lost Gardens – Active Listener Acid Folk Sampler
Kathy McCord – Leaving Home – Kathy McCord
The Beatles – Sun King (isolated guitar) – Abbey Road
Wendy and Bonnie – The Pailsey Windowpane – Genesis
Laetitia Sadier – By The Sea – The Trip
Electronic Migration Panel – Sifter
The Greg Foat Group – Cast Adrift – Girl and Robot with Flowers
Catching Flies – Let Your Hair Down – The Stars EP
Lilt – Can’t Here – Swim EP
Bill Withers – Can We Pretend +justments
Antena – To Climb The Cliff – Camino Del Sol
Antena – Camino Del Sol (Todd Terje) – Versions Specials
Laetitia Sadier – Find Me The Pulse of the Universe – Silencio
Propaganda – The Last Word (Strength To Dream) – Secret Wish (Deluxe)
Propaganda – Dream Within A Dream – Secret Wish (Deluxe)
The Future Sound Of London – Papua New Guinea
The Greg Foat Group – Girl and Robot with Flowers Part 5 – Girl and Robot with Flowers
Leonard Nimoy – By Myself – The Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: electronium, ondes martenot, Theremin, vintage electronica
Here at the Golden Apples we are huge fans of Theremin virtuoso May Roosevelt and we were very excited to see recently on her FB page the news for 2013: “My upcoming album: 10 tracks, 31:15 total time” – the news comes after an extended musical break where her pursuit of her graphic design career left many of us anxiuos she may not return to give us another ‘Haunted’. Asa reviwer so aptly put it “The Theremin is a very complex instrument yet absolutely submissive to the hands of May Roosevelt”…
But what of Ondes Martnenot the title of this post. Well we have also been reading ‘The Sound of Tomorrow’ which is a wonderful history of electronic music, and it is here that we have been discovering the sound of the Ondes Martenot. A vintage electronic instrument which belongs to a very exclusive musical club where it could be referred to as the slightly more sophisticated cousin of the Theremin.
In looking for Ondes Martenot virtusos the name Christina Ott appears often.
… typically haunting atmospheric sounds – but then – this crazy jazz thing!!!…
…in performance with Yann Tiersen…
PS
You cannot touch on the Theremin and the Ondes Martenot without mentioning Raymond Scott’s legendary Electronium fames as the first ever sequencer. It sits today gathering dust in the basement of Devo’s Mutato Studio on Sunset Blvd buried (but treasured) amongst Mark Mothersbaugh’s amazing vintage electronica collection.
Its been a long time between drinks… a new Colleen album for 2013 !!!
Out on Second Language Music
The Golden Apples has recently been immersed in the book ‘The Sound of Tomorrow’ by Mark Brend and we were totally hooked as soon as we read the introduction which explores an ill-fated collaboration where Paul McCartney met with Delia Darbyshire and Brian Hodgson on a planned BBC Radiophonic electronic backing soundscape to ‘Yesterday’…. oh what might have been…
The book charts the origins of electronic music. It is indeed “a fascinating history of the inventors, producers and technicians behind the early televisual and cinematic breakthroughs of electronic music”.
Mark Brend the book’s author is also a musician and has a release under his artist name Ghostwriter. Check out the beautifully packaged The Continuing Adventures Of The Strange Sound Association.
Within the Sound of Tomorrow there is a whole chapter dedicated to Louis and Bebe Barron the “Forgotten Pioneers of Electronic Music” (NPR radio interview) and their early electronic music composition work in the 1950s mixing sound and vision using their own hand-made electronic instruments which can be heard in their collaborations with Ian Hugo and Anais Nin and most importantly in the landmark all-electronic film soundtrack to ‘The Forbidden Planet’ where the ‘electronic tonalities’of the Barrons 50 years later now stands as a beacon for all electronic music that followed it – these are sounds worth re-exploring. The Forbidden Planet was nominated for an Academy Awared for its audio and visual effects but Louis and Bebe were not named in the award even though the work was exclusively thier own. The film did not win the award but thier dispute with the studio left the Barrons forever exluded from the studio system and they never completed another soundtrack, Even more tragically, the studios subsequently licensed thier original music to provide eerie space effects in later B-grrade sci fi films leaving thier landmark sound to became a parody of itself. Thier original studio which they both worked in and lived in (see pictures) was dismantlked and over the subsequent years they continued to create strange but beautiful music working out of a home garage studio in relative obscurity. Today their son maintains the garage studio and its equipment as a legacy to his parents work but wonders what will become of the legacy.
Oliver Laing says: “Continuing my stint in the role of RTRFM ‘journeyman’ by presentation of today’s edition of Golden Apples of the Sun, from 2pm. Tune in for the sinister tropical vibes of Mike Cooper, the demented genius of Bruce Haack and the pure Egyptian malevolence of Alan Bishop’s post-post-Sun City Girls project The Invisible Hands”.
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PLAYLIST
1) Soft Focus – Polysommographic ‘Soft Focus’ (Sahko)
2) Burnt Freidman – It Hurts! ‘Plays Love Songs’ (Nonplace)
3) Nurse With Wound – Black Teeth ‘Huffin’ Rag Blues’ (United Durtro)
4) Joe Meek & The Blue Men – Magnetic Field ‘I Hear a New World’
5) Cul De Sac – Song to the Siren ‘ECIM” (Capella)
6) Lapalux – Without You ‘Nostalchic’ (Brainfeeder)
7) 230 Divisadero – Old Photograph ‘230 Divisadero’ (Locust)
8) The Invisible Hands – Black Blood ‘ The Invisible Hands’ (Abduction)
9) L’Augmentation – Negative Walk ‘L’Augmentation’ (Kookydisc)
10) Bablicon – Rhinoceros ‘In A Different City’ (Misra)
11) Volcano the Bear – Russian Milk ‘Classic Erasmus Fusion’ (Beta Lactam Ring)
12) Buck 65 – The Floor ‘ Secret House Against the World’ (Warners)
13) Bruce Haack – Program Me ‘The Electric Lucifer’ (Columbia)
14) Paavoharju – Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Lapi ‘Yha Hamaraa’ (Fonal)
15) Current 93 – In the Heart of the Wood and What I Found There ‘ Thunder Perfect Mind’ (United Jnana)
16) Mike Cooper – Po Mahina ‘White Shadows in the South Seas’ (Room 40)
17) The Evolution Control Commitee – 5000BC ‘Plagiarhythm Nation’ (Seeland)
18) Stock, Hausen & Walkman – Gruel ‘Ventilating Deer’ (Hot Air)
19) Le Forte Four- Japanese Super Heroes ‘L.A.F.M.S. – Unboxed’
20) Richard Youngs – Sonar in my Soul ‘The Naïve Shaman’ (Jagjaguwar)
21) Jessika Kenney & Eyving Kang – Kidung ‘The Face of the Earth’ (Ideologic Organ)
22) Odd Nosdam – Untitled 11 ‘Why?/Odd Nosdam Spilt’ EP (Anticon)
23) The Godz – Womban ‘The Third Testament’ (ESP Disk)
24) The Legendary Pink Dots – Untitled 12 ‘Chemical Playschool’
25) Ted Milton/Loopspool – You’ve Seen the Light ‘Sublime’ (Charhizma)
Volume Two now availabe with more amazing sounds and again packaged with a great booklet – this is what Private Press is about.
Bedroom Castette Masters on Facebook.
Get your copy over at Bandcamp
Filed under: Uncategorized
The Golden Apples is definitely not into ‘retro’ – more like ‘reference points’ which is a subtle but all together different thing – but we have just ‘discovered’ Tandyn Almer through a tip-off via the impeccable music selection of the BBC’s Sean Rowley.
“The Sundazed reissue, which was mostly finished at the time of Almer’s death, presents fifteen of the songs that he wrote as demos for his publisher, Davon Music, and comes with a long essay by the music writer Parke Puterbaugh, which makes a case for Almer as an underappreciated talent who was almost as gifted as Brian Wilson. Again, “underappreciated” is somewhat of an understatement” from the Washington Post Article by Ben Green
Liner Notes from the 2013 Sundazed Compilation
This episode selected by Tristan Gibbs, scholar of all things wyrd and hauntological…
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PLAYLIST
Bruno Spoerri – Lilith: Singing in the Dark- Gluckskugel
The Advisory Circle – Here! In the Wychwoods- As the Crow Flies
The Strawbs – Witchwood – From the Witchwood
Kevin Ayers – Lullaby – Whatevershebringswesing
Jonny Trunk – How Sweet It Is – Scrapbook
Broadcast – The Gallops – Berberian Sound Studio
Samara Lubelski – Jammage Cruiser – Wavelength
Josephine Foster – Waterfall – Blood Rushing
Tyrannosaurus Rex – Scenescof – My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair…But Now They’re Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows
H.P. Lovecraft – Blue Jack of Diamonds – H.P. Lovecraft II
Iannis Xenakis – Concret PH – Electronic Music
Oval – Lens-Flared Capital – Dok
Laurel Halo – Carcass – Quarantine
Nuno Canavarro – Crimine – Plux Quba
Flaming Tunes – Beguiling the Hours – Flaming Tunes
Belbury Poly – Monstroon – The Willows
Delia Derbyshire – Effervescence – Electrosonic
The Focus Group – Falling Leaf Beat – We Are All Pan’s People
Faust – Picnic on a Frozen River – So Far
Love – Wonder People (I Do Wonder) – Forever Changes
Harmonia – When Shade Was Born – 76: Tracks and Traces
Isan – Eastside – Glow in the Dark Safari Set
Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras and the Congos Sunshine – Icon Give Thank
Vashti Bunyan – Jog Along Bess – Just Another Diamond Day
The Incredible String Band – Witches Hat – The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
Broadcast – Our Darkest Sabbath – Berberian Sound Studio
Bonzo Dog Band – Readymades- Tadpoles
Stereolab – Doubt – Switched On Stereolab
Wendy Carlos – Adagio from Third Brandenburg Concerto – Switched-On Bach
Bruno Spoerri – Soft Art Theme – Glückskugel
Actress – Jardin – R.I.P.
Cover Art: Annea Lockwood
Cover Sounds: Greg Foat Group
Strange and beautiful folk, psych and electronica as Claude Mono returns from his Villa Mono renovations sabbatical – an absence that has been too long, to present this week’s Golden Apples of the Sun.
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PLAYLIST
Noir Deco – Magic, Myths and Wonder – Future To Fantasy
The Advisory Circle – Fire Damp and Air – Other Channels
Testbild – Theme from Inviting The Demon – Where Did This Begin – A Testbild Retrospective 2000-2012
Testbild – Fake Firmament – Where Did This Begin- A Testbild Retrospective 2000-2012
Mirrorring – Cliffs
BVDub – Surrender To Your Cold Embrace (feat. Wang Lijing & Lu Yan)
Michael Mayer – Sully
The Hardy Tree – The Fields Lie Sleeping Underneath – The Fields Lie Sleeping Underneath
The Besnard Lakes – You Make Loving Fun – Rumours Revisited Mojo Magazine
Loose Fit – Magnetise – Manuel Tur’s Spin Wave Reduction – Jazzanova’s Secret Love 6
Origambiro – Sedimental Value (K-Conjog Remix) – Flicker EP
Mr Beatnick – Synthetes Original Mix
L Pierre – Dum Dum – The Island Come True
King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard – Evil Man – Eyes Like The Sky
Blandis Salvation – By Our Side
Temple of the Smoke – Kingdom of Apples
Time and Space Machine – Path Through The Cathedral
The Treetop Flyers – Things Will Change
America – Ventura Highway (Deepsky’s Blizzard in L.A. Remix)
Greg Foat Group – Girl and Robot With Flowers Pt 1 Pt3 – Girl and Robot With Flowers
Piero Umiliani – Nostalgia – La Ragazza Fuori Strada
Death and Vanilla – Godspeed 1 – Death And Vanilla EP
The 2 Bears – The Birds & The Bees
Jonny Trunk – Hawks – Scrap Book
Jonny Trunk – Lesbian_77 – Scrap Book
Death and Vanilla – The Clearing – Death And Vanilla Album
The Golden Apples of the Sun 