inner nerd » Nerds

Robot Rock du Jour: Futurisk – Player Piano LP (2010)

beaker — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:20:36 +0000

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!!!

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Dans La Rue: Bay Area Maker Faire 2010

beaker — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:05:29 +0000

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…

Mark Galt – Electric Motor Man

Atoms & Electrons – Apple IIe + Twitter

So this fellow bought an Apple IIe for $15 and rigged it up to turn twitter avatars and feeds into 8-bit artwork. Wicked!

Life-Sized Mousetrap

Remember that game mousetrap? How about a life-sized version for your backyard?

Purincess Labs – Deathwheel 3000dx

With a perverse sense of humor and penchant for fun, classmate Purin’s Deathwheel 3000dx was a huge hit at Maker Faire.

Goligorsky Laboratory – Super Relax Concept Electric Research Vehicle (Tandem Bicycle)

David Goligorsky, Design’s Oscar Wilde, developed this electric tandem as part of his graduate thesis project at Stanford’s Design Program. Also shown is a road bike David designed and built, as well as “Hyper-Lincoln” whose red LED eyes signal out The Gettysburg Address in Morse code. This guys is off the chain. Sorry, bad joke.

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Robot Rock du Jour: Thomas Dolby – Windpower (1982)

beaker — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:32:09 +0000

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…

Windpower (Top of the Pops Live Version) (c.1982)

Crappy sound and video quality, but a great version nonetheless!

Windpower (High Powered Extended Play) (1982)

This particular cut is off the eponymous 12″ single. Readily available on vinyl and cheap.

Windpower Lyrics

Switch off the mind and let the heart decide
who you were meant to be
Flick to remote and let the body glide
There is no enemy !
Etch out a future of your own design
Well tailored to your needs
Then fan the flame and keep the dream alive
Of a continent
A continent a continent a continent a -
There is no enemy !
Switch of the mind and let the heart decide
We’re a continent
A continent a continent a continent a -
Shatter the lens and grind it into sand
One measured exposure
Scatter the seed and furrow in our land
The future is roses! Roses!
Switch off the mind and let the heart decide
There is no enemy!
Lift up the hearts of this your only tribe
We’re a continent
A continent a continent a continent a

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Robot Rock du Jour: Kraftwerk – Ruckzuck (1970)

beaker — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 05:23:18 +0000

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…

Pre-Kraftwerk (Organisation) Live, 1970

Live in Germany, 1975

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Documentary: Robert Moog (2004)

beaker — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:24:19 +0000

“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.

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Robot Rock du Jour: Kraftwerk – Autobahn (1974)

beaker — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:54:01 +0000

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…

The title track off Kraftwerk’s 1974 LP Autobahn was a genesis moment in nerd music, marking the completion of Kraftwerk’s robotic transformation. Without this band or track, electronic music would probably not be what it is today. It represents the seemless merging of musical genius with avant-garde technology. The entire album is available on iTunes for only $3.49!!

Mainwood discussing the history of the film:

No, I never made contact with Kraftwerk, and they had no input into the film images themselves. John Halas got the commission from Kraftwerk’s record company, and it was deliberately experimental in nature and designed to be released on one of the first ever laser discs. Unfortunately the laser disc technology never took off. The film was entered into various film festivals around the world and won a few prizes, but it never got a commercial release in cinemas but was shown on the TV a bit in the UK and I presume in Germany too. I have no idea what Kraftwerk think about it or whether they have even ever seen it.

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Robot Rock du Jour: Doris Norton – Personal Computer (1984)

beaker — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 01:31:32 +0000

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…

Doris Norton – Binary Love

Doris Norton – Norton Apple Software

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Robot Rock du Jour: Futurisk – Player Piano EP (1982)

beaker — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:30:41 +0000

This obscure Miami-based band recorded some of the finest minimal synth-punk tracks ever made on two ridiculously rare 7″ pressings. Check this “live” cut of Meteoright, the audio for which is available on 180g vinyl at Minimal Wave for $22.

Meteoright Live

Schematic

SCHEMATIC: 24bit/96kHz vinyl rips, record scans, cover art and vintage flyer artwork…

Futurisk Flyer Illustration c. 1982

I recently scored an original 7″ pressing of Player Piano from 1982 on Clark Humphrey Records.

To fuel your AV room rock out, all the songs from Player Piano are presented below in their correct order. These videos are also now available on our youtube playlist. Listen to how different the studio and live versions of Meteoright are!

A1) Poison Ivy

A2

A2) Meteoright

A3

A3) Push Me, Pull You (Part 2)

B1

B1) Lonely Streets

B2

B2) Split Second Decision

SPA

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Robot Rock du Jour: Ron Grainer & Delia Derbyshire – Dr. Who (1963)

beaker — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:23:24 +0000

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.

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Robot Rock du Jour: White Noise (Delia Derbyshire) – Love Without Sound (1969)

beaker — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:19:39 +0000

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.

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