Electronic Sound Issue 7

MARC HOULE Inside the world of the techno outsider

NIGHTMARES ON WAX George Evelyn reveals his influences

Birth of the Minimoog

FREE SAMPLE EDITION

THE THEMatt Johnson’s

Soul Mining

YOU ARE READING THE FREE SAMPLE EDITION

FOR ACCESS TO ALL THE HIDDEN FEATURES

GET THE FULL ISSUE AT WWW.ELECTRONICSOUND.CO.UK

Editor: PushDeputy Editor: Mark RolandArt Editors: Anthony Bliss / Mark HallContributing Editor: Bill Bruce

Contributors: Andrew Holmes, Andy Thomas, Bethan Cole, Carl Griffin, Chi Ming Lai, Danny Turner, Dave Mothersole, David Stubbs, Fat Roland, George Bass, Grace Lake, Heideggar Smith, Jack Dangers, Jason Bradbury, Johnny Mobius, Kieran Wyatt, Mark Baker, Martin James, Mat Smith, Miles Picard, Neil Kulkarni, Neil Mason, Ngaire Ruth, Patrick Nicholson, Paul Browne, Paul Connolly, Rob Fitzpatrick, Sam Smith, Steve Appleton, Tom Violence, Vader Evader, Vik Shirley

Sales and Marketing: Yvette ChiversPublished by Electonic Sound © Electronic Sound 2014. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced in any way without the prior written consent of the publisher. We may occasionally use material we believe has been placed in the public domain. Sometimes it is not possible to identify and contact the copyright holder. If you claim ownership of something published by us, we will be happy to make the correct acknowledgement. All information is believed to be correct at the time of publication and we cannot accept responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies there may be in that information.

WELCOME TO ELECTRONIC SOUND 07 Welcome to this free sample edition of Electronic Sound 07. If you’re new to us, it’s great to have you on board and we sincerely hope you enjoy what’s on offer here. If you do enjoy what you see here, you might want to get the full edition of the magazine. You can find the link to buy it at our website, www.electronicsound.co.uk. If you’re reading on an iPad, then you ought to check out the fully interactive version from Apple Newsstand; there’s a link for that at the website too.

The full magazine has lots more content, including interviews with Matt Berry, Luke Abbott, Luke Haines, Jochen Irmler from Faust, Xeno & Oaklander, Gazelle Twin, plus Mark Moore of S’Express, Manda Rin of Bis, our regular columnist Jack Dangers from Meat Beat Manifesto, and a big piece marking 20 years of trip hop. And that’s not mentioning the huge pile of album reviews and the many other bits and bobs. Imagine the pleasure a Moog modular system filling an entire wall of your home would give you. It’s a bit like that, but a magazine.

Talking of Moogs, we’ve got a great article about the birth of the Minimoog in this sampler. The story begins at the Monterey Pop Festival in America in 1967, where the Moog Modular was demoed by Bernie Krause and Paul Beaver, and this piece gave us a great opportunity to chat to Moog Music in North Carolina about the company’s hugely significant legacy.

It’s not just us who have been looking back, though. Our cover star is Matt Johnson, who celebrates the 30th anniversary box set reissue of ‘Soul Mining’ with a rare interview about the making of the classic The The album. George Evelyn is on the retro path too, revealing the influences on his work as Nightmares On Wax and remembering the early days of the sound systems in Leeds with particular fondness, while we also talk to alt-techno maverick and one-time Richie Hawtin associate Marc Houle, who brings us firmly into the 21st century.

We’ve thrown a few album reviews and some other bits and pieces into this sampler, but do please check out the full version of the magazine if you like what you see. We’re a totally independent operation, so every sale keeps the wolf from our oscillators. You’ll find all of our editions at our website.Did we say that already?

Electronically yours,

Push and Mark

MARC HOULE Inside the world of the techno outsider

NIGHTMARES ON WAXGeorge Evelyn reveals his influences

FREE SAMPLE EDITION

THE THEMatt Johnson’s Soul Mining

Cover photo of Matt Johnson by JOELLE DUPONT

George Clinton has been working with Rudimental on several tracks destined for the group’s new album. The P-funk legend has teamed up with the chart-topping Hackney collective, who picked up Best British Single at this year’s BRITs for ‘Waiting All Night’, guesting on two songs that are set to appear on the follow-up to their critically-acclaimed 2013 debut album ‘Home’. “It’s the best music we’ve made, ever,” says Rudimental’s Amir Amor. “We went to one of George’s gigs in London and we got to meet him afterwards. We sent him a couple tracks and he was really liking it.” George Clinton is also about to head out on a European tour, with a London date confirmed for The Forum on 26 July. Further UK shows are expected to be announced for October and November.

GEORGE CLINTON RECORDS WITH RUDIMENTAL

Martyn Ware has made an exclusive selection of classic analogue synth and drum sounds from his archives available as a sample library via Spitfire Audio. The founding member of The Human League and Heaven 17 has launched ‘No Illegal Connections’, a collection he has personally compiled which features many of the signature sounds that defined UK electronica and synthpop in the early 1980s. With over 10,000 samples, the library includes the much sought after Roland System 100, a machine that was given to Ware by Vince Clarke in return for his production work with Erasure, as well as his beloved Jupiter 8 and the distinctive Korg 700 drum machine. Alongside original sounds created by Ware, the

award winning Spitfire team have also compiled a number of new creations inspired by his work. ‘No Illegal Connections’ is available from www.spitfireaudio.com for £99.

MARTYN WARE LAUNCHES SAMPLE LIBRARY

Goldfrapp are to provide the music for a National Theatre production starting at the end of July. The play, a new version of Euripides’ powerful tragedy ‘Medea’, opens at the National’s Olivier Theatre

on London’s South Bank on 21 July and stars Helen McCrory in the title role. While this isn’t the first time Goldfrapp have been heard on the National Theatre stage – ‘Happiness’ featured in the NT production of ‘Earthquakes’ in London in 2010 – the duo of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory have never written music specifically for a stage production before. The resulting score will be played live for the performances. For

those who can’t make the London production, the show will be broadcast live to cinemas across the UK and internationally by National Theatre Live on 4 September.

GOLDFRAPP SCORE GREEK TRAGEDY

The Beastie Boys have officially announced their retirement. The statement that they will make no more music under the Beastie Boys name comes two years after the death of Adam Yauch, aka MCA, in 2012. It has been widely assumed that Mike D and Adam Horovitz would no longer record as the

Beasties after Yauch lost his three-year battle with cancer, but the official announcement came during a recent court case in which the band won $1.7m in damages from energy drinks company Monster Beverage Corps, who had used a number of Beastie Boys’ songs without permission. During

the trial, Mike D revealed he and Horovitz had made an agreement with Yauch that they wouldn’t continue without him. Taking the stand to give evidence, Mike D said: “We have not been able to tour since MCA, Adam Yauch, died. We can’t make new music.”

FAREWELL TO THE BEASTIES BOYS

Tomás Ford is bringing a new electronic cabaret show to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Following the success of his ‘Electric Cabaret’ set at last year’s festival, the award winning Aussie electro-disco showman will debut ‘Tomás Ford, Stop Killing People’ at this year’s Fringe. It tells the story of an assassin who realises murder isn’t a particularly ethical choice and lurks in a world of dark alleys, deadly seductresses and international intrigue through a combination of live beats, cabaret and video projections filmed all around the world. “The new show takes my music toward more minimal electro sounds, which at points feels like Bryan Ferry crooning over Suicide,” says Ford. You can catch him at Just The Tonic at The

Mash House in Edinburgh from 1 to 25 August. Tickets are available from the usual Fringe outlets.

TOMÁS FORD PROMISES TO STOP KILLING PEOPLE

Frankie Goes To Hollywood are releasing an ultra-deluxe boxset to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’ double album. ‘Inside The Pleasuredome’, said to be the most detailed and ambitious release in the history of ZTT Records, has been crowdfunded via Pledge Music and includes many unreleased studio demos, remixes and instrumentals, as well as a 48-page hardback book and a DVD compilation of videos complete with 5.1 audio mixes. It also has a 13-track C90 cassette ‘Relax’ remix anthology and a 2014 vinyl edition of the album, remastered by the original producer Trevor Horn and pressed on 180g vinyl in a unique die-

cut sleeve that frames one of three accompanying prints by illustrator Lo Cole. The entire boxset costs £85, while a number of the individual elements are available for £15, with the remastered album retailing at £30. For more information visit www.pledgemusic.com/projects/frankiegoestohollywood.

FRANKIE RELEASES ‘PLEASUREDOME’ BOXSET

Basement Jaxx, Simian Mobile Disco and a new Flaming Lips side project called Electric Würms, are set to release albums this summer. Basement Jaxx return with their seventh studio album, ‘Junto’, on 25 August. It’s their first full-length since 2009’s double bill of ‘Scars’ and ‘Zephyr’ and follows their 2011 ‘Attack The Block’ film soundtrack. Simian Mobile Disco issue their fourth album, ‘Whorl’, on 8 September. Described as “like Tangerine Dream raised on Detroit techno”, the album was pieced

together over three days in April in the Southern California desert using two modular synths, two sequencers and a mixer. Electric Würms, a new outfit from Flaming Lips’ Wayne

Coyne and Steven Drozd, release ‘Musik, Die Schwer Zu Twerk’ on 18 August. Working alongside Nashville psych-rockers Linear Downfall, the album sets about deciphering the mysterious

frequencies and rhythms sent back to earth by futuristic 70s acid freaks Electric Würms. Remember where you read it first. Righteous, man.

SUMMER 2014 FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

‘Beatz – Divergences & Contradictions Of Electronic Music’ is a new electronic music documentary by Spanish techno producer/DJ and Analog Solutions label boss Eduardo De La Calle. Three years in the making and shot on almost no budget, the film is a fascinating insight into the development of electronic dance music, charting the scene from its origins to the shift that has come with the digital age. De La Calle says it was born from “a fervent desire

to document an important piece of music history”. Filmed in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, New York and Tokyo, it features contributions from a host of prodcers and DJs, including Marshall Jefferson, Derrick May, Carl Craig, Laurent Garnier, François K, Seth Troxler, Nicolas Jaar, Kenny Larkin, Apparat, Craig Richards and many more. After premiering at this year’s Sonar Festival in Barcelona, ‘Beatz’ is now available to view online via www.eduardodelacalle.com/Beatz.

ANALOG SOLUTIONS BOSS MAKES ‘BEATZ’ FILM

HEADLINES NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF ELECTRONICITY

George Clinton has been working with Rudimental on several tracks destined for the group’s new album. The P-funk legend has teamed up with the chart-topping Hackney collective, who picked up Best British Single at this year’s BRITs for ‘Waiting All Night’, guesting on two songs that are set to appear on the follow-up to their critically-acclaimed 2013 debut album ‘Home’. “It’s the best music we’ve made, ever,” says Rudimental’s Amir Amor. “We went to one of George’s gigs in London and we got to meet him afterwards. We sent him a couple tracks and he was really liking it.” George Clinton is also about to head out on a European tour, with a London date confirmed for The Forum on 26 July. Further UK shows are expected to be announced for October and November.

GEORGE CLINTON RECORDS WITH RUDIMENTAL

Martyn Ware has made an exclusive selection of classic analogue synth and drum sounds from his archives available as a sample library via Spitfire Audio. The founding member of The Human League and Heaven 17 has launched ‘No Illegal Connections’, a collection he has personally compiled which features many of the signature sounds that defined UK electronica and synthpop in the early 1980s. With over 10,000 samples, the library includes the much sought after Roland System 100, a machine that was given to Ware by Vince Clarke in return for his production work with Erasure, as well as his beloved Jupiter 8 and the distinctive Korg 700 drum machine. Alongside original sounds created by Ware, the

award winning Spitfire team have also compiled a number of new creations inspired by his work. ‘No Illegal Connections’ is available from www.spitfireaudio.com for £99.

MARTYN WARE LAUNCHES SAMPLE LIBRARY

Goldfrapp are to provide the music for a National Theatre production starting at the end of July. The play, a new version of Euripides’ powerful tragedy ‘Medea’, opens at the National’s Olivier Theatre

on London’s South Bank on 21 July and stars Helen McCrory in the title role. While this isn’t the first time Goldfrapp have been heard on the National Theatre stage – ‘Happiness’ featured in the NT production of ‘Earthquakes’ in London in 2010 – the duo of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory have never written music specifically for a stage production before. The resulting score will be played live for the performances. For

those who can’t make the London production, the show will be broadcast live to cinemas across the UK and internationally by National Theatre Live on 4 September.

GOLDFRAPP SCORE GREEK TRAGEDY

The Beastie Boys have officially announced their retirement. The statement that they will make no more music under the Beastie Boys name comes two years after the death of Adam Yauch, aka MCA, in 2012. It has been widely assumed that Mike D and Adam Horovitz would no longer record as the

Beasties after Yauch lost his three-year battle with cancer, but the official announcement came during a recent court case in which the band won $1.7m in damages from energy drinks company Monster Beverage Corps, who had used a number of Beastie Boys’ songs without permission. During

the trial, Mike D revealed he and Horovitz had made an agreement with Yauch that they wouldn’t continue without him. Taking the stand to give evidence, Mike D said: “We have not been able to tour since MCA, Adam Yauch, died. We can’t make new music.”

FAREWELL TO THE BEASTIES BOYS

Tomás Ford is bringing a new electronic cabaret show to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Following the success of his ‘Electric Cabaret’ set at last year’s festival, the award winning Aussie electro-disco showman will debut ‘Tomás Ford, Stop Killing People’ at this year’s Fringe. It tells the story of an assassin who realises murder isn’t a particularly ethical choice and lurks in a world of dark alleys, deadly seductresses and international intrigue through a combination of live beats, cabaret and video projections filmed all around the world. “The new show takes my music toward more minimal electro sounds, which at points feels like Bryan Ferry crooning over Suicide,” says Ford. You can catch him at Just The Tonic at The

Mash House in Edinburgh from 1 to 25 August. Tickets are available from the usual Fringe outlets.

TOMÁS FORD PROMISES TO STOP KILLING PEOPLE

Frankie Goes To Hollywood are releasing an ultra-deluxe boxset to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’ double album. ‘Inside The Pleasuredome’, said to be the most detailed and ambitious release in the history of ZTT Records, has been crowdfunded via Pledge Music and includes many unreleased studio demos, remixes and instrumentals, as well as a 48-page hardback book and a DVD compilation of videos complete with 5.1 audio mixes. It also has a 13-track C90 cassette ‘Relax’ remix anthology and a 2014 vinyl edition of the album, remastered by the original producer Trevor Horn and pressed on 180g vinyl in a unique die-

cut sleeve that frames one of three accompanying prints by illustrator Lo Cole. The entire boxset costs £85, while a number of the individual elements are available for £15, with the remastered album retailing at £30. For more information visit www.pledgemusic.com/projects/frankiegoestohollywood.

FRANKIE RELEASES ‘PLEASUREDOME’ BOXSET

Basement Jaxx, Simian Mobile Disco and a new Flaming Lips side project called Electric Würms, are set to release albums this summer. Basement Jaxx return with their seventh studio album, ‘Junto’, on 25 August. It’s their first full-length since 2009’s double bill of ‘Scars’ and ‘Zephyr’ and follows their 2011 ‘Attack The Block’ film soundtrack. Simian Mobile Disco issue their fourth album, ‘Whorl’, on 8 September. Described as “like Tangerine Dream raised on Detroit techno”, the album was pieced

together over three days in April in the Southern California desert using two modular synths, two sequencers and a mixer. Electric Würms, a new outfit from Flaming Lips’ Wayne

Coyne and Steven Drozd, release ‘Musik, Die Schwer Zu Twerk’ on 18 August. Working alongside Nashville psych-rockers Linear Downfall, the album sets about deciphering the mysterious

frequencies and rhythms sent back to earth by futuristic 70s acid freaks Electric Würms. Remember where you read it first. Righteous, man.

SUMMER 2014 FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

‘Beatz – Divergences & Contradictions Of Electronic Music’ is a new electronic music documentary by Spanish techno producer/DJ and Analog Solutions label boss Eduardo De La Calle. Three years in the making and shot on almost no budget, the film is a fascinating insight into the development of electronic dance music, charting the scene from its origins to the shift that has come with the digital age. De La Calle says it was born from “a fervent desire

to document an important piece of music history”. Filmed in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, New York and Tokyo, it features contributions from a host of prodcers and DJs, including Marshall Jefferson, Derrick May, Carl Craig, Laurent Garnier, François K, Seth Troxler, Nicolas Jaar, Kenny Larkin, Apparat, Craig Richards and many more. After premiering at this year’s Sonar Festival in Barcelona, ‘Beatz’ is now available to view online via www.eduardodelacalle.com/Beatz.

ANALOG SOLUTIONS BOSS MAKES ‘BEATZ’ FILM

HEADLINES NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF ELECTRONICITY

If you wanted to take a year out of history and hold it up in order to prove to an alien or a halfwit that pop music contains some of mankind’s finest achievements, 1967 would certainly fit the bill. The

Beatles released ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, The Rolling Stones released ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’, Pink Floyd and The Velvet Underground made their album debuts, Jimi Hendrix cranked out two records, and Brian Wilson gave up on The Beach Boys’ ‘Smile’ sessions. So far, so Wikipedia.

The summer of 1967, the Summer of Love, also saw the Monterey Pop Festival, a three-day event held at a county fairground in California. The festival is a music landmark and is remembered for, among other things, Jimi Hendrix setting fire to his guitar, captured in the ‘Monterey Pop’ movie by DA Pennebaker (who, more than 20 years later, would make Depeche Mode’s ‘101’ film). It’s a nice thought that the iconic torching of a guitar may have a symbolic resonance for fans of electronic music, because Monterey was also the venue for a less flashy but no less auspicious appearance.

You don’t see the names Beaver & Krause in many Monterey Pop write-ups, but they were there. Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause were both well known on the Los Angeles music scene and they set up a booth at the festival to demonstrate the Moog Modular. Dr Robert Moog’s original company – R.A. Moog Co – was based in New York City at the time, but Beaver was their West Coast rep and his Monterey gamble paid off. This was the year that the Moog was first used on commercial pop recordings, usually played by

Beaver. Among the records that featured his Moog sounds were The Monkees’ ‘Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd’, which included the spectacularly bonkers ‘Daily Nightly’, and LA psych-rockers The Electric Flag’s soundtrack to Roger Corman’s film ‘The Trip’.

The following year, Bernie Krause showed the Moog system to George Harrison, who made his album ‘Electronic Sound’ with it (much of it played by Krause himself, although Krause later disowned the release). The Doors’ ‘Strange Days’, issued in early 1968, also boasted Paul Beaver’s Moog contributions, but when he later tried to put the machine through its paces for the band and their producer, recapturing sounds proved very difficult. The modular system, while sophisticated and clearly all kinds of awesome, was unwieldy and just too plain difficult for rock musicians to cope with. Patch cords? On acid? Fuggetabahtit.

Back in New York, the guys at R.A. Moog Co were by now working on the Minimoog, a machine that would combine an exotic sound palette with something musicians, stoned or otherwise, demanded – playability and portability. The first Minimoog, the Model A, was built by Moog engineer Bill Hemsath from spare parts he found in his workshop during lunch breaks. The keyboard was rescued from what remained of the five-octave keyboard that was being cannibalised for replacement keys. It so happened there were just three octaves left. Where the mod wheel ended up was a blank space, which Hemsath decided needed something, so he put a pot there to bend the note.

TIME MACHINE

THE EARLY DAYS OF THE MINIMOOG

Back to when things weren’t how they are now

We’re spinning back to 1967, to the birth of Dr Bob’s Amazing Contraption, aka THE MINIMOOG, arguably the most famous synth of all time Words: MARK ROLAND

If you wanted to take a year out of history and hold it up in order to prove to an alien or a halfwit that pop music contains some of mankind’s finest achievements, 1967 would certainly fit the bill. The

Beatles released ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, The Rolling Stones released ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’, Pink Floyd and The Velvet Underground made their album debuts, Jimi Hendrix cranked out two records, and Brian Wilson gave up on The Beach Boys’ ‘Smile’ sessions. So far, so Wikipedia.

The summer of 1967, the Summer of Love, also saw the Monterey Pop Festival, a three-day event held at a county fairground in California. The festival is a music landmark and is remembered for, among other things, Jimi Hendrix setting fire to his guitar, captured in the ‘Monterey Pop’ movie by DA Pennebaker (who, more than 20 years later, would make Depeche Mode’s ‘101’ film). It’s a nice thought that the iconic torching of a guitar may have a symbolic resonance for fans of electronic music, because Monterey was also the venue for a less flashy but no less auspicious appearance.

You don’t see the names Beaver & Krause in many Monterey Pop write-ups, but they were there. Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause were both well known on the Los Angeles music scene and they set up a booth at the festival to demonstrate the Moog Modular. Dr Robert Moog’s original company – R.A. Moog Co – was based in New York City at the time, but Beaver was their West Coast rep and his Monterey gamble paid off. This was the year that the Moog was first used on commercial pop recordings, usually played by

Beaver. Among the records that featured his Moog sounds were The Monkees’ ‘Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd’, which included the spectacularly bonkers ‘Daily Nightly’, and LA psych-rockers The Electric Flag’s soundtrack to Roger Corman’s film ‘The Trip’.

The following year, Bernie Krause showed the Moog system to George Harrison, who made his album ‘Electronic Sound’ with it (much of it played by Krause himself, although Krause later disowned the release). The Doors’ ‘Strange Days’, issued in early 1968, also boasted Paul Beaver’s Moog contributions, but when he later tried to put the machine through its paces for the band and their producer, recapturing sounds proved very difficult. The modular system, while sophisticated and clearly all kinds of awesome, was unwieldy and just too plain difficult for rock musicians to cope with. Patch cords? On acid? Fuggetabahtit.

Back in New York, the guys at R.A. Moog Co were by now working on the Minimoog, a machine that would combine an exotic sound palette with something musicians, stoned or otherwise, demanded – playability and portability. The first Minimoog, the Model A, was built by Moog engineer Bill Hemsath from spare parts he found in his workshop during lunch breaks. The keyboard was rescued from what remained of the five-octave keyboard that was being cannibalised for replacement keys. It so happened there were just three octaves left. Where the mod wheel ended up was a blank space, which Hemsath decided needed something, so he put a pot there to bend the note.

TIME MACHINE

THE EARLY DAYS OF THE MINIMOOG

Back to when things weren’t how they are now

We’re spinning back to 1967, to the birth of Dr Bob’s Amazing Contraption, aka THE MINIMOOG, arguably the most famous synth of all time Words: MARK ROLAND

owners that there was a market for this odd piece of kit.”

Once prog superstars like Keith Emerson of ELP and Rick Wakeman of Yes started to tour with Minimoogs, its popularity was assured. Before the decade’s end, the instrument had jumped the prog ship as it sank and become the heart of the new wave of electronic music that was building momentum. Kraftwerk were very early adopters of the Minimoog – it’s all over their breakthrough 1974 album ‘Autobahn’ – and when Gary Numan discovered one in the studio while trying to record ‘Replicas’, the follow-up to his ‘Tubeway Army’ debut, he used it to rewrite most of the album. Giorgio Moroder remodelled R&B with a Minimoog and gave the world disco, while jazz virtuosi like Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea were able to play dazzling solos on them. Even Bob Marley made use of the Minimoog.

There were other synthesisers out there, notably ARP in the USA and EMS in the UK, but the Minimoog is electronic music’s Hoover – a brand name that, for many people, may as well be what every synthesiser is actually called.

“The Minimoog became the cornerstone of the Moog company,” says Kehew. “Most later instruments were based upon the classic Minimoog set-up, a tradition that continues today.”

“The Minimoog Model D was the launchpad that propelled the company into studios, onto stages and into stores all over the world,”

says Mike Adams, the President and CEO of Moog Music. ‘It also single handedly transformed the sound of popular music and its system architecture is still the foundation of all Moog instruments that have followed. It is the legacy that we stand on and we work hard to preserve and advance that legacy every day.”

If you want to buy an original Model D, they fetch around £3,500 these days. For a similar wad you can get a brand spanking new Minimoog Voyager, designed by Dr Robert Moog himself, which won’t detune or get upset if you look at it in a funny way, unlike many of its vintage predecessors. The choice, as they say, is yours.

Visit the Moog Music Inc website at www.moogmusic.com

TIME MACHINE

After several refinements and unreleased iterations, the final result of a fairly DIY process saw the light of day in 1970 – the monophonic Minimoog Model D. It came housed in a handsome walnut case and the control panel was propped up perpendicular to the three-and-a-half octave keyboard. The control panel could be dropped back into the box for storage and travel. “A Moog for the Road” was the advertising line and the marketing blurb also touted its “affordability”. Which at $1,495, close to $10,000 in today’s money, was stretching it a bit.

“When the Minimoog first came out in 1971 – only one was made in 1970 – it was a slow, tentative start,” says official Moog historian and archivist Brian Kehew. “They had trouble convincing many people of its worth. Some studio and traveling musicians accepted it at first, but it was only a few dozen.”

According to Brian Kehew, it was the tireless efforts of Moog salesman David Van Koevering that made the Minimoog a success.

“He was a touring musician who saw the public response to his own Moog demonstrations. He found that he could move from town to town with a stack of Minimoogs, using clever ideas to convince reluctant music stores to sell the unusual instrument. It’s hard to imagine, but nearly everyone felt a synthesiser was too difficult to understand and operate. Van Koevering showed musicians the sonic power and flexibility of the instrument at their local shows, then he’d take prospective customers to their nearest store to prove to the store

owners that there was a market for this odd piece of kit.”

Once prog superstars like Keith Emerson of ELP and Rick Wakeman of Yes started to tour with Minimoogs, its popularity was assured. Before the decade’s end, the instrument had jumped the prog ship as it sank and become the heart of the new wave of electronic music that was building momentum. Kraftwerk were very early adopters of the Minimoog – it’s all over their breakthrough 1974 album ‘Autobahn’ – and when Gary Numan discovered one in the studio while trying to record ‘Replicas’, the follow-up to his ‘Tubeway Army’ debut, he used it to rewrite most of the album. Giorgio Moroder remodelled R&B with a Minimoog and gave the world disco, while jazz virtuosi like Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea were able to play dazzling solos on them. Even Bob Marley made use of the Minimoog.

There were other synthesisers out there, notably ARP in the USA and EMS in the UK, but the Minimoog is electronic music’s Hoover – a brand name that, for many people, may as well be what every synthesiser is actually called.

“The Minimoog became the cornerstone of the Moog company,” says Kehew. “Most later instruments were based upon the classic Minimoog set-up, a tradition that continues today.”

“The Minimoog Model D was the launchpad that propelled the company into studios, onto stages and into stores all over the world,”

says Mike Adams, the President and CEO of Moog Music. ‘It also single handedly transformed the sound of popular music and its system architecture is still the foundation of all Moog instruments that have followed. It is the legacy that we stand on and we work hard to preserve and advance that legacy every day.”

If you want to buy an original Model D, they fetch around £3,500 these days. For a similar wad you can get a brand spanking new Minimoog Voyager, designed by Dr Robert Moog himself, which won’t detune or get upset if you look at it in a funny way, unlike many of its vintage predecessors. The choice, as they say, is yours.

Visit the Moog Music Inc website at www.moogmusic.com

TIME MACHINE

After several refinements and unreleased iterations, the final result of a fairly DIY process saw the light of day in 1970 – the monophonic Minimoog Model D. It came housed in a handsome walnut case and the control panel was propped up perpendicular to the three-and-a-half octave keyboard. The control panel could be dropped back into the box for storage and travel. “A Moog for the Road” was the advertising line and the marketing blurb also touted its “affordability”. Which at $1,495, close to $10,000 in today’s money, was stretching it a bit.

“When the Minimoog first came out in 1971 – only one was made in 1970 – it was a slow, tentative start,” says official Moog historian and archivist Brian Kehew. “They had trouble convincing many people of its worth. Some studio and traveling musicians accepted it at first, but it was only a few dozen.”

According to Brian Kehew, it was the tireless efforts of Moog salesman David Van Koevering that made the Minimoog a success.

“He was a touring musician who saw the public response to his own Moog demonstrations. He found that he could move from town to town with a stack of Minimoogs, using clever ideas to convince reluctant music stores to sell the unusual instrument. It’s hard to imagine, but nearly everyone felt a synthesiser was too difficult to understand and operate. Van Koevering showed musicians the sonic power and flexibility of the instrument at their local shows, then he’d take prospective customers to their nearest store to prove to the store

John Foxx limited edition art printsPrices start at £18 plus p&p from www.duck-artshop.com/acatalog/John_Foxx.html

FAT ROLAND, our Special Investigative Reporter with a special specialisation in special things, deconstructs the semantics of album cover art.

This time, it’s ‘Original Pirate Material’ by THE STREETS

ANATOMY

MC Hammer lives here. Doorbell says “U can’t touch this”. Doesn’t get many visitors

Interior: 27% magnolia, 1% dado rail, 19% family photos, 53% heavy metal death cult

Love don’t live here anymore. It moved to Urmston in 2006

Brian Eno’s spare room. Contains only grey matter, fractals and broken synths

The apartment in which they filmed ‘Friends’. Do not enter: technically it’s a crime scene

Where the Pet Shop Boys live. The walls are a bourgeois construct, but the floors are cheap lino

Interior: Bedroom studio, Atari, Casio keyboard, four-track mixer, bottle of Blue Nun

This is either KLF’s white room, The Orb’s blue room, or Kraftwerk’s apocryphal show-room. No idea which, we’ve lost the keys

Roxy Music museum. Made entirely of papier mache. No drinks allowed

Jean Michel Jarre’s three-bed-room apartment. Will play you a personal lightshow in return for cigarettes

A room with a view. Sadly, that view is racist and offensive, like your grandmother on crack

The occupant here is awake late, sorting out CDs according to the colour of the spine Contains sofas

only made from “original pirate material” (parrot feathers, eye patches, bottles of rum). It’s super uncomfortable

This room contains all your hopes and dreams. Or is that next door? Is this the one with the alligators? We forget

Seven toilets, all belonging to Lil Louis. Will one day be auctioned for $16

Wall lighting has three options: full tilt, dimmer switch, depeche mode. The last one’s broken

The home of Magic from Yellow Magic Orchestra. Yellow and Orchestra are still on the missing person’s list

Home is where the heart is. This is full of them, stolen from hospitals

A room within a room within a room within an enigma within a metaphor within an idiot

Max Headroom’s retirement flat. Ironically has very high ceilings

This window rep-resents the eyes to the soul and/or a special offer at Discount Glazing

Minimalist flat. 135bpm. The walls are set at 45rpm

Interior: 99% banisters, 1% eternal vacuum of space

MAKE SUREYOU DO TOO

GARYNUMAN

GETSELECTRONIC

JOIN THE MAILING LIST ATELECTRONICSOUND.CO.UK/SUBSCRIBE

THE ELECTRONIC SOUND WALL

We put a call out to all the electronic artists on Reverb Nation, inviting them to submit tracks for the Electronic Sound Wall. We had 2,256 submissions. We’ve whittled them down to the best 100 or so, but that’s still quite a long shortlist. Anyway, here’s the next batch of tracks that have tickled our fancy in some way.

Have a listen and see what you think. Unfortunately you can’t vote for your favourite on this PDF version of the magazine, but iPad readers voted in the last issue, the winner was one-woman electropopster Dolls, and you can read an interview with her in this issue.

NWSPR, aka New Wave Solar Powered Robots, are a Brooklyn four-piece with a love of synthpunk riffs and industrial lubricants. Heat ‘em up and watch ‘em go.

NWSPR ‘EXPRESSWAY’

Anesz Szalai and her musical partner Zoltan Demeter are from Hungary and mix innovative downtempo electronica

with theatrical visuals. Fascinating stuff.

ANEZMUSIC ‘TING-KANG’

Brighton’s Fyu-Jon manages to craft a track that is simultaneously chilled and weighty. No mean feat.

There’s a cunning little earwormy melody in there too.

FYU-JON ‘SOUL FIRE’

They’re two baldy blokes from Sunderland and they’re big 80s synthpop fans. This song is very Ure-era Ultravoxy,

but who’s complaining about that? Not us.

EURASIANEYES ‘FAR OFF LAND’

A stripped-down and squelched-up old skool garage tune with vocals redolent of one-time Shut Up And Dance and Massive Attack associate Nicolette. Lots to like, then.

HELEN ADOVE HAWK ‘CRYSTALHEART’

An experimental sample-fest from a talented young German producer. Imagine if DJ Shadow found a tape of a crackly old

radio programme about the blues.

IOKA ‘BLACK AND TAN FANTASY’

Malaysian. Shouty. Funny. Annoying. Likes gaudy colours and men with zebra heads. “I’m so fucking glam, I’m pissing

glitter all over the world,” she says.

ZE! ‘BROKE’

We can’t tell you anything about Naakunta Laab, but he/she/they have a neat line in dirty and noisy dubtech soundscapes.

This one’s a particularly mean beastie.

NAAKUNTA LAAB ‘TAU=6.28’

Pure pop for now people! Something like that anyway. A confident track from a Dallas indietronic trio who have

so far resisted the pull of EDM. Good for them.

THE ONES YOU LOVED ‘NIGHTMARE’

This haunting track from Glasgow’s Sleate SeventyTwo consists of little more than a piano and some electronic

atmospherics. Ambient music to the max.

SLEATE SEVENTYTWO ‘MELEN KALE’

NWSPR, aka New Wave Solar Powered Robots, are a Brooklyn four-piece with a love of synthpunk riffs and industrial lubricants. Heat ‘em up and watch ‘em go.

NWSPR ‘EXPRESSWAY’

Anesz Szalai and her musical partner Zoltan Demeter are from Hungary and mix innovative downtempo electronica

with theatrical visuals. Fascinating stuff.

ANEZMUSIC ‘TING-KANG’

Brighton’s Fyu-Jon manages to craft a track that is simultaneously chilled and weighty. No mean feat.

There’s a cunning little earwormy melody in there too.

FYU-JON ‘SOUL FIRE’

They’re two baldy blokes from Sunderland and they’re big 80s synthpop fans. This song is very Ure-era Ultravoxy,

but who’s complaining about that? Not us.

EURASIANEYES ‘FAR OFF LAND’

A stripped-down and squelched-up old skool garage tune with vocals redolent of one-time Shut Up And Dance and Massive Attack associate Nicolette. Lots to like, then.

HELEN ADOVE HAWK ‘CRYSTALHEART’

An experimental sample-fest from a talented young German producer. Imagine if DJ Shadow found a tape of a crackly old

radio programme about the blues.

IOKA ‘BLACK AND TAN FANTASY’

Malaysian. Shouty. Funny. Annoying. Likes gaudy colours and men with zebra heads. “I’m so fucking glam, I’m pissing

glitter all over the world,” she says.

ZE! ‘BROKE’

We can’t tell you anything about Naakunta Laab, but he/she/they have a neat line in dirty and noisy dubtech soundscapes.

This one’s a particularly mean beastie.

NAAKUNTA LAAB ‘TAU=6.28’

Pure pop for now people! Something like that anyway. A confident track from a Dallas indietronic trio who have

so far resisted the pull of EDM. Good for them.

THE ONES YOU LOVED ‘NIGHTMARE’

This haunting track from Glasgow’s Sleate SeventyTwo consists of little more than a piano and some electronic

atmospherics. Ambient music to the max.

SLEATE SEVENTYTWO ‘MELEN KALE’

GETTING THE LONDON

LOOK Dolls’ theatrical synthpop is influenced by Depeche Mode,

New Order, Nine Inch Nails and 80s Madonna, combined with huge “talent crushes” on Prince, Kate Bush and The Cure,

plus a visual style drawn from the films of David Lynch. Originally from Toronto and now living in London, she arrived in the UK having notched up two Top 20 singles in Canada as the singer of electronic trio The Royal Society. She released her debut album as Dolls, the self-produced ‘Secret Sulk’, in early 2013. It was, somewhat ironically, the by-product of a technology failure.

“I moved to London to start learning production and released the first album after a hard drive crash,” she explains. “Since I’d already walked away from two years of work in Canada, when the HD died I decided to put out the tracks regardless of them being in various states. So the initial ethos was very ‘fuck it’ and I guess I’ve just evolved it from there.”

In terms of both her look and her sound, it’s clear that Dolls is a glamour puss, so it’s unsurprising to learn that she soundtracked and appeared in a cosmetics advert for Rimmel London. However, unlike one or two other female synth artists with a strong visual flair, Dolls isn’t the puppet of some electro svengali working the controls in the background and she is deeply proud of the fact that she has complete control over all aspects of her music. Following on from ‘Secret Sulk’, she has recently released a single, ‘Limited Ltd’, which was the track featured on the Electronic Sound Wall.

“My tracks always start from a mood translated into synth,” she says. “Until the last year, I’d just bashed whatever sounded OK into Logic fairly intuitively, but it was an annoyingly unreliable way to work. I’d finish something and be like, ‘I have no idea how I got this result and can’t recreate it’. So I spent the last year eating up tutorials and learning by experimenting, which is reflected in ‘Limited Ltd’ and on my upcoming EP.

“Finally performing the material that I wrote 100 per cent myself was big for me, since I didn’t know how it would be received. The UK and European audiences have been much more receptive to experimental synthpop and the blogs who’ve given me love have been incredible. They’ve managed to repackage my project in concise and articulate terms, like ‘fairytale smut’. I’m like, ‘GOD, why didn’t I think of that? Can I steal that?’. Singing on the Rimmel advert was pretty cute too.”

The way Dolls operates seems almost like a reaction against an industry that expects new artists to happily hand off responsibility for their music to other people. She agrees with this assessment.

“Having previously released music that was glossed up by ‘proper’ producers, suddenly I was doing the exact opposite to everything they’d preached. The combination of total freedom and no real framework for the business side meant I went through a phase of saying yes to everything, which led to some avoidable bullshit, but taught me a lot in a relatively short amount of time. The princess in me was used to having other people to do the legwork of booking, promotions and management, so it was humbling to start from scratch and DIY it, but also an opportunity to prove myself and see different sides of the industry.”

Dolls’ future plans include finishing off her new EP, playing more live shows and connecting with other artists for collaborations, while continuing to take part in photo and video shoots.

“I’m also hoping to incorporate more theatrical elements into my live show,” she adds. “And that should be a thrilling alternative to staring at a Logic session for 10,000 hours!”

‘Limited Ltd’ is available from iTunes. For more info, visit www.dollsxx.com

The latest winner of our Electronic Sound Wall vote is DOLLS, a Canadian girl with a smart synthpop sound, a strong DIY ethos, and a nod and a wink to Rimmel London

Words: BILL BRUCE