Archive for the ‘Nerds’ Category
Robot Rock du Jour: Futurisk – Player Piano LP (2010)
Hot off the press!!!
Aptly-named revival label Minimal Wave has compiled Futurisk‘s entire catalog and pressed it on collector-quality 180g vinyl, including this alternate take of their signature track, Meteoright. Destined to be a collectible. At $22, you’d be crazy not to pick one (or two) up.
SCHEMATIC: Need more Futurisk videos??? Get your fix HERE!!!
Dans La Rue: Bay Area Maker Faire 2010
The Maker Faire is like an engineer’s craft show on acid. There’s dudes riding around in go-carts that look like cupcakes, sixty-year-olds playing Jules Verne in the Steam Punk pavilion and lots of fire. This first video features Mark Galt’s intoxicating “Quadruped” kinetic sculpture at the Bay Area Maker Faire in May 2010.
SCHEMATIC: More videos and photos from Maker Faire 2010…
Robot Rock du Jour: Thomas Dolby – Windpower (1982)
The future was indeed 1982. Nerd of nerds Thomas Dolby laid out “Windpower” on his seminal LP The Golden Age of Wireless, which featured the über hit She Blinded Me With Science. This song is an intellectual call to arms; a utopian nerd manifesto. If anyone wants to build a new city (or take over a cool one like Denver) I’m IN!
SCHEMATIC: Two more versions and inspiring lyrics…
Robot Rock du Jour: Kraftwerk – Ruckzuck (1970)
Are you kidding me???!!! This song is ridiculous. It is shocking to me how many people who LOVE Kraftwerk have never even heard this song. Just in case there was ANY doubt in your mind as to the genius of these boys from Düsseldorf, this lead song off their 1970 eponymous debut album should clear it up.
I spent two hours combing youtube for every worthwhile version of this song including two additional live performances. One is from Germany in 1975 and the other is a pre-Kraftwerk (Organisation) performance complete with…congas!!! Each offers a unique glimpse into the inner nerd.
SCHEMATIC: V-I-D-E-O-S…
Documentary: Robert Moog (2004)
“I think it would be egotistical of me to say, ‘I thought of it.’ What happened is, I opened my mind up and the idea came through…and into my head.”
- Robert Moog (which, btw, is pronounced “Mohg”)
This documentary is available for puchase on 
for $9.99.
Robot Rock du Jour: Kraftwerk – Autobahn (1974)
An 11-minute face-melting video edit of Kraftwerk’s 23-minute opus. The real cybernetic acid trip is the five-minute breakdown that beings around 3:06. Animation by Roger Mainwood and John Halas in 1979. The video was posted in two parts, so load the rest of the post to view the second half…
SCHEMATIC: Video part two, Mainwood interview and high res vinyl rip…
Robot Rock du Jour: Doris Norton – Personal Computer (1984)
OK. Check this out:
Super hot italian chick doubles as an electronic music pioneer, gets sponsored by Apple and Roland in the 1980s and eventually becomes a consultant to IBM. **sigh**
All video clips taken from the 1984 LP Personal Computer on Durium.
SCHEMATIC: Two more videos and high res studio photo…
Robot Rock du Jour: Futurisk – Player Piano EP (1982)
Robot Rock du Jour: Ron Grainer & Delia Derbyshire – Dr. Who (1963)
While working with a group of nutters at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the 1960s, Derbyshire pioneered loop-based composition by manually recording and piecing together magnetic tape loops and rocking multiple reel-to-reel machines (see below). This brief clip of Derbyshire reel-to-reel beat matching is taken from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop documentary Alchemists of Sound, which can be viewed in its entirety on our Equipment + Theory playlist.
To give you an idea of just how progressive this dame was, this audio clip from the BBC archives reveals the makings of a dense, tasty electro track that predates Kraftwerk’s Autobahn by at least four or five years.
Lastly, to demonstrate how all this theory and avant garde technical ability combine to create legendary music, I’ve included the original Dr. Who TV intro which, although composed by Ron Grainer, sounds so amazing because Derbyshire “realised” it.
Robot Rock du Jour: White Noise (Delia Derbyshire) – Love Without Sound (1969)
This song was composed and performed by Delia Derbyshire, THE goddess of electro. Although it might sound like Gorillaz to contemporary listeners, you’ll find a texture in this music that you just don’t hear today. The sexual undertones are distinctly 1960s and add an wickedly psychedelic component to the song. For more info on Derbyshire, check the post related to the Dr. Who theme song.