I think the main title theme from Bladerunner has to remain one of the most pivotal pieces of electronic music for me, at least in terms of how it affected my musical tastes and development. In retrospect I find that a lot of early electronic music permeated my subconscious and it has only been in the last few years that I have been able to appreciate the early influences on my musical taste. From the early 80s I have this mixed montage of film scores (including Terminator - the soundtrack album is amazing. One side of quality electronics and the other side containing the pop-rock tracks) and synth pop like Ultravox, Soft Cell, Visage... the usual suspects.
I think the first pieces of electronic music that I truly appreciated for what they were are Inner City's 'Good Life' and Aphex Twin's 'On'. The years in between were spent in the Canary Islands, and I didn't have access to radio or MTV - it was only when I came back to the UK that I was in a position to discover what I'd been missing. Ah, those sweet, sweet memories. N -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 02 July 2002 19:13 To: Hugo Sweet Cc: 313 (E-mail) Subject: Re: [313] Soundtracks and Early Memories Well - my favorite electronic soundtracks - Bladerunner - all time favorite hands down Chariots of Fire - spent many evenings with my head between the speakers listening to this one again and again Mishima - Philip Glass Tron - but I remember the visuals more Close Encounters of the 3rd kind Most of this stuff was either introduced to me from my older brother's record collection back in the late 70s & early 80s or I first heard on a local radio station KFAI 90.3 (in Minneapolis) - the DJs name was Drew and I remember he was the bassist for Celtic rockers "Boiled in Lead" who also took their sound from industrial and punk groups of the time (early 80s) the show he hosted was called "Crash Gearbox" and it sounded exactly like that - right after that Maximum Rock n' Roll's all punk program came on from California but I always remember liking the stuff from Crash Gearbox so much more because it didn't stick to one style - you could hear serious bluegrass played right after some wierd experimental one-man-band tape loop track. As far as what early music drew me toward techno (top 3 are most likely in order) Kraftwerk - Music Non-stop Devo B-52s Pink Floyd Yello Stevie Wonder Thomas Dolby Yes Laurie Anderson David Bowie various industrial punk/pop groups: Test Dept., SPK, Scraping Foetus off the Wheel, Depeche Mode, Einsturzende Neubauten, Skinny Puppy, Cabaret Voltaire, Front 242, etc. MEK Hugo Sweet <[EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "313 (E-mail)" <[email protected]> tles.co.nz> cc: Subject: [313] Soundtracks and Early Memories 07/01/02 11:18 PM Hey fellow 313er's I have a couple of discussion threads that I hope may have a bit of traction. After watching "The Insider" again, and being reminded of Pieter Bourke and Lisa Gerrard's great synth-laden soundtrack, I was wondering what are listmembers' picks for their favourite electronic soundtracks? On another slant, I think most of you will agree that as soon as you discover a real appreciation for techno, you want to explore its roots, through electro, dub, italo-disco, kraut-rock, punk, or whatever. I'm about to turn thirty, and being a naturally introspective chap, a memory prompted me to consider my own roots for appreciating techno [self indulgence alert]. I'm interested in member's first experiences of hearing electronic music, back when you really had no opinion about music. I'll explain by example. When I was at primary school (years 1 to 8), we would have an assembly each Wednesday. Before each assembly, one of the teachers would put an album on the PA to keep us quiet while the staff met out the back of the hall. Bizarrely enough, considering the number of albums I must have listened to in this way, I can only remember one album, and I remember that distinctly; Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene". I found this memory significant because even though I have never had any inclination to own that album, and I don't even recall ever hearing it in its entirety, the quality and nostalga of the memories of that, "The War of the Worlds", and Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor for organ at annual carol services, are distinct from any other music (those recitations of Bach on a cathedral organ were probably my first experiences of serious bass). This was music that I listened to passively, when I never would have thought "I've got to get a copy of that and find out everything else they've done!", and without any reference to any other music. Living in Anglophile New Zealand, meant from the late seventies until the Christmas of 1996, after diversions through Orbital, Global Communication and Aphex Twin (thanks to "Q" and "Select" magazines), I didn't find what I was looking for until my brother asked for Stacey Pullen's DJ Kicks as a present. Did any of you have similar experiences? As a side note did anybody else ever hear the version of the soundtrack of "Star Wars" entitled "Star Wars and other galactic funk". I remember hat it was great for flailing around to when I was six, but of little musical value. On television here, if the schedule was ahead of time, and at a time that we only had half an hour of music videos a week, the station would play a single video. The electronic music one I remember had time lapse photography of views of an American city. Any ideas? Nostalgically yours Hugo ############################################################################ ######### This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared by MailMarshal For more information please visit www.marshalsoftware.com ############################################################################ ######### --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
