Archive for the ‘Videodrome’ Category
Robot Rock du Jour: Real Life – Send Me an Angel (1983)
RAD is to BMX what Gleaming The Cube is to skateboarding.
An instant cult classic when it hit theaters in 1986, RAD is an absolutely essential piece of 80’s history.
This next clip features a sick “bicycle boogie” set to Send Me an Angel by Australian band Real Life. I watched several versions of this clip on youtube and this one presents the best clip length, video and sound quality. Keep your eyes peeled for the Crimson Twins, Xamot and Tomax!!
SCHEMATIC: RAD BMX credits and three versions of the Send Me An Angel music video… Read the rest of this entry »
Documentary: BBC Radiophonic Workshop – Alchemists of Sound (2003)
REQUIRED NERDLING EDUCATION!!!
This is a fantastic documentary on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which was responsible for such tunes as the Doctor Who theme song. This electronic music primer traces the development of recorded sound from magnetic tape onward. Reel-to-reel beat matching included! Ultimately enlightening and presented in, I think, its entirety (over six roughly 10-minute parts).
SCHEMATIC: The remaining five parts…
Robot Rock du Jour: Thomas Dolby – She Blinded Me With Science (1982)
This video was an integral part of my nerdlinghood. Visually rich to the nth degree: Besides the sweet sidecar motorcycle and lunatic scientists, you have the superhot lab assistant, Ms. Sakamoto, who doubles as a cello. Classic nerd track. BTW, Dolby has been the Musical Director of the TED conferences since 2001.
SCHEMATICS: Album artwork and other gems from Dolby… Read the rest of this entry »
Snort: Phoebe Cates – Paradise (1982)
Despite becoming the center of millions of pubescent fantasies that very same year, Phoebe’s Paradise didn’t quite launch her musical career into orbit. Strip the crappy music, run the vocals through a vocoder, add some beats, change that dress to skin-tight silver lamé and…VOILA!!…instant classic.
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…
Snort: Rémi Gaillard – The Astronaut Golfer
This frenchman is pretty much off his rocker.
Turn your keyboard into Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger” or “Technologic”
HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGEUR! Don your robot helmet and climb aboard your psychadelic pyramidal spaceship. This funky little web app allows you to perform Daft Punk’s Harder Better Faster Stronger or Technologic live using your computer’s QWERTY keyboard! It has advanced considerably over time and now has built in beats and pitchbending. Even available as a free iPhone app through iTunes.
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.