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Unheard music from Moog synthesizer maestro Mort Garson
11.19.2020
05:17 pm
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I’ve always been very partial to the whole genre of Moog music. Late 60s and early 70s Moog records sound like white molded plastic chairs look. Fifty years on and those albums still sound futuristic. And totally artificial. To my mind, the sound of analog synthesizers make the perfect soundtrack for one’s aesthetic life, or at least mine. No really, if I go into a record store that has a selection of vintage Moog and exotica albums, I’m drawn to that first. It’s not like there’s many Moog albums I don’t already have, but hope springs eternal that I will find a “Switched On” something or other that I didn’t know existed.

My Moog bonafides are deep. Given an opportunity to do a compilation via Sony 20 years ago, I pitched a CD titled Best of Moog and they went for it. (Sadly six of what I considered absolute must-have key tracks were denied. Wendy Carlos actually hung up on me when I requested her cover of “What’s New Pussycat?” and I also had to make do with nothing from Mike Melvoin’s The Plastic Cow Goes Moog and no Mort Garson either—I wanted his cover of “Hair”—which was a drag.)
 

 
Which brings me to the new Mort Garson compilation, Music From Patch Cord Productions, released by the Sacred Bones record label. It’s fantastic, highly enjoyable. If you are already a Mort Garson aficionado, this will thrill you, and if you are new to Garson’s uniquely idiosyncratic work, this collection of sci-fi movie themes, radio ads, robotic disco, a wonderfully kooky stab at aural erotica along with alt versions of numbers from Garson’s 1976 classic Mother Earth’s Plantasia, is a decent place to start. It has a nice flow and is sequenced well, as if by a skilled DJ. It finishes up with a stellar Moog rendition of the Frankie Valli hit, “Our Day Will Come,” which surprise, surprise, was actually composed by Garson himself. It comes in a handsome retro package perfectly suited to the music within.

Apparently the archive of Garson unheard music is vast. Here’s hoping for more volumes like Music From Patch Cord Productions. Sacred Bones have also re-released four of Garson’s highly sought-after albums, the movie soundtrack Didn’t You Hear?(1970), Lucifer’s Black Mass (1971), Ataraxia’s The Unexplained (1975) and a 2LP 45rpm audiophile edition of Garson’s legendary 1976 album Mother Earth’s Plantasia.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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11.19.2020
05:17 pm
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Moog synthesizer pioneer Gershon Kingsley dead at 97
12.17.2019
02:08 pm
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I was sad to read on The Quietus today that Moog pioneer Gershon Kingsley—best known for composing the worldwide novelty smash “Popcorn”—died in his Manhattan apartment on December 10th. He was 97 years old.

One half of Perrey and Kingsley with Jean-Jacques Perrey, their two best-selling albums of the mid-60s, The In Sound from Way Out and Kaleidoscopic Vibrations introduced the sound of electronic music to the masses. Their “Baroque Hoedown” provided the music for Disneyland’s “Main Street Electrical Parade” attraction (a fact actually unknown to Perrey until 1980). Their “Electronic Can-Can” became the theme music for the Wonderama children’s program of the early 1970s and the popular 70s game show The Joker’s Wild used their track “The Savers” as its instantly recognizable title tune. (On his own, Kingsley would compose the famous station ident music for WGBH, the PBS station in Boston which was well-known to 70s viewers of Zoom and The French Chef.)
 

Gershon Kingsley, left, and Jean-Jacques Perrey
 
Kingsley conducted several Broadway musicals and composed for film, including 1972’s proto-slasher Silent Night, Bloody Night and the Oliver Stone co-produced softcore crime drama Sugar Cookies the following year. He also worked on TV commercials and was the winner of two Clio awards.
 

 
Although Kingsley’s compositions were wildly eclectic and varied from poppy novelty songs to funky weirdness, he also produced religious music, but with his own twist. His “Shabbat for Today” was an attempt to fuse traditional Jewish religious music with a more contemporary avant-garde sound, to draw in younger people to temple. The “Shabbat” utilized, of course, the then-futuristic electronic instrument Kingsley helped make famous, the Moog Synthesizer. A televised excerpt from “Shabbat for Today” was broadcast on PBS in 1971, conducted by the composer, and featuring cantor Ephraim Biran, Rabbi Gunter Hirschberg, narrator Alfred Drake and Kenneth Bichel on the Moog Modular.
 

 
In 1999, I was invited by Mr. Kingsley to hear his “Shabbat for Today” performed in a synagogue in Manhattan and it was a wonderful experience. I am pretty sure that recital was held in the same synagogue seen in the video below, Temple Rodeph Shalom, located on the Upper West Side. A compilation of Kingsley’s religious compositions, God is a Moog: The Electronic Prayers of Gershon Kingsley was released in 2006.
 

 
More Moog after the jump…

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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12.17.2019
02:08 pm
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‘Moog Plays ABBA’: Australian synthesizer record rarity is fantastic goofy fun
02.25.2015
08:26 am
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The mini-craze for Moog synthesizer albums that Switched-On Bach launched in 1968 yielded a bumper crop of kitschy delights, plenty of which are still waiting for you to rescue them from thrift stores. Some of them remain classics—Moog: The Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman, with its indelible “Topless Dancers of Corfu,” is a keeper, as is Gershon Kingsley’s Music To Moog By, which features the ridiculously catchy “Popcorn,” but plenty of lesser-known efforts in the genre are larded with fun listens.
 

 
Specifically: in 1976, when international ABBA-mania was nearing its height, a wonderful Moog tribute to that band was released on the Australian label TeeVee Records, titled Moog Plays ABBA. The album was made by one Robin Workman, who largely built the songs around traditional rock instruments and played synth leads as stand-ins for vocals. Available biographical data about Workman is mighty scanty, though someone by that name is the longtime director of a company in Sidney called “Keyboard Koncepts.” Amazingly, within a year, following the release of ABBA’s completely HUGE album Arrival, Workman released the album anew—retitled Moog and Guitars Play ABBA: 20 Golden Instrumentals, and given a much less inspired cover—at almost double the original’s length, to accommodate remakes of almost every song from that new ABBA LP! So I guess he really liked it. Here are a few examples, and if this version of “Mama Mia” doesn’t make you smile, you have NO heart.
 

“SOS”
 

“Dancing Queen”
 
More Moogy ABBA after the jump…

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Posted by Ron Kretsch
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02.25.2015
08:26 am
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Lucifer, Wozards & Music for Plants: The Electronic World of Mort Garson
09.19.2014
12:44 pm
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Cover for Mort Garson's
 
When people talk about pioneers of electronic music, several key names are invoked. Musique concrète founder Pierre Schaeffer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage and Moog-goddess Wendy Carlos, just to mention a few. But one name that does not get invoked nearly enough is Mort Garson. This Canadian-born composer was not only a mere innovator but went on to make some of the most deliriously strange and wondrous electronic compositions (and cover versions) of the 20th century. Just the fact that the phrase, “occult-pop” has been used as a descriptor of his work should give you just a tiny hint of this man’s wholly unique genius.
 

 
Originally finding work as a session musician and lyricist, working with artists like Julie London, Rod McKuen, Doris Day and The Lettermen, it was when he started to work with the still new instrument known as the Moog Synthesizer, that things become very, very interesting. Albums like Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds and The Wozard of Iz, a psychedelic retelling of The Wizard of Oz, managed to create something that was on one hand very much of its time and yet, transcended the calculatedness of an industry cashing in on “The Love Generation” and become something on its own. The Wozard of Iz in particular, with such strong tracks like “Big Sur” and “Killing of the Witch,” is symptomatic of the high quality of Garson’s work. Some parts are kitschy-in-a-groovy-way, while others are as lush as they are alien.
 

“Big Sur”
 
In 1971, Garson made Black Mass under the appropriate moniker, “Lucifer.” While it’s not as ooky-spooky as it may sound, Black Mass is the kind of album you can listen to in a pitch black room and be transported to some charismatically unsettling landscape with nary a drug in your system. You don’t need drugs for this kind of beautiful high-weirdness. Mort Garson is the drug.

Mort would dip into the occult realm yet again with 1975’s The Unexplained: Electronic Musical Impressions of the Occult under the nom de plume Ataraxia, which is the Greek definition of “lucid state of robust tranquility.” Change “robust” to “robot” and that definition is apt for The Unexplained.
 

 
More Mort after the jump…

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Posted by Heather Drain
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09.19.2014
12:44 pm
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Techno pillows: the full set

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Sure, there may be one or two synths missing (why no SH-101?), but this is the fullest set of synth-cushions I have yet seen. It would also make a great home studio.

On a related note, today, for one day only, the Arturia company are giving away a soft synthMoog emulator that is usually worth over $200. There is more info on that offer (too good to be true?) on the Arturia Facebook page.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
The Minimoog Sofa
8G Roland TR-808 USB-Stick

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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06.21.2012
04:09 pm
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The Minimoog sofa
04.03.2012
04:25 pm
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This delightful item is made by the Spanish company Woouf. Tonylongmusic.com says:

They tell me it is nice to play on – it looks touch sensitive and has a good action but it is designed for you to make many bum-notes. I could go on but I am sure you get the picture.

I wonder if a soft version is available?

Thanks to TJ Kong.

 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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04.03.2012
04:25 pm
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Fully-operational LEGO Minimoog
06.27.2011
01:43 pm
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The Arvo Brothers built this replica Minimoog made of LEGOs and say “Fully-operational MIDI Interface - demo video coming soon.” I’m damn curious to see this video and wonder how it’s going to sound?  I’ll keep you updated once they post it.

Below, a photo of a Minimoog for comparison.


 
(via KMFW)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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06.27.2011
01:43 pm
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A mini-doc about the Minimoog
05.06.2011
01:04 pm
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Here’s a cute lil’ doc about the origins and early use of the wondrous Minimoog from the company that brought it into existence. It’s so very easy to take for granted today but this was the very first synth to have a built-in keyboard. I was fascinated to learn that its signature tone, the thing that allows it to cut through any musical setting it’s used in was an unintended excess of overdrive. Credit Moog for realizing what a brilliant mistake they had made and not changing it.
 

 
Bonus: Two of my favorite funky Minimoog workouts, firstly it’s The Harlem Buck Dance Strut from Les McCann’s 1973 LP Layers:

 

And here’s crooner Marvin Gaye bringing you some Minimoog (or is that an Arp Odyssey ?) magic on After The Dance (instrumental) from his brilliant and under rated 1976 LP I Want You:

Posted by Brad Laner
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05.06.2011
01:04 pm
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‘Moog’ art print from DKNG Studios
11.15.2010
05:41 pm
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image
The print above is part of a limited edition of 100 and is screen printed with four colors. It will be available for purchase after the weekend of the festival (November 1st).
 
‘Moog’ art print by DKNG Studios for the upcoming show SYNTH at Moogfest 2010.

(via Coudal Partners)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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11.15.2010
05:41 pm
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When Moogs ruled the earth: video mindbender of the day

 
This is indescribably surreal. Just watch.

Film footage from 1970 Czech film Na Komete (On The Comet). Moog music by Jean Pierre Decerf and Marc Saclays from the album Pulsations (1980).

Posted by Marc Campbell
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08.18.2010
04:20 am
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