Archive for the ‘Vocoder’ tag
Robot Rock du Jour: La Bionda – I Wanna Be Your Lover (1980)
Back in 1980, these Italian brothers gave Daft Punk a blueprint for combining vocoder-laden electronic music, cosmic story lines and robot animé. Be kind, please rewind.
SCHEMATIC: Candid photos, original cover art and record scans…
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…
Keyser Söze Alert: Gay Cat Park – I’m a Vocoder (1982)
Wait…Who? Don’t let the peculiar name distract you from the raw genius of this track. This masterpiece marked the genesis of Italo thoroughbred label Il Discotto Productions in 1982. By the way, you can learn a ton about vintage vocoders by watching our vocoder youtube playlist or checking out our friends over at Matrixsynth.
SCHEMATIC: More vocoder intel…
Keyser Söze Alert: Iko – Iko ’83 LP (1982)
Virtually Nothing is known about this Montréal (?) group, but I’ve deduced what is going on here:
Iko was an android trio from the future that traveled back in time to 1982 in order to learn what it meant to be human in the decades just preceding the merger of man and machine. Archetypal and powerful nerd music.
Only 500 copies of this LP sold. So if you account for DJ/radio promos, maybe 1,000 were even pressed, making this gem truly obscure. The $100+ price tag for this album is one of the deals of the century.
’83 is presented here in its entirety, ripped from my mint copy at 24bit/96kHz and converted to MP3 at 196 kbps for optimal sound quality. I also found and posted two unreleased tracks (9 & 10) for posterity.
SCHEMATIC: MP3s, album review and cover artwork…
Robot Rock du Jour: Vocoder – ¿Que Sucede Ahora? What Happens Now? (1984)
¿Que Sucede Ahora? (What Happens Now?) was Vocoder’s first single, released as a 12″ on Neon Danza in 1984. I wish I could find a Roland TB-303 in the cereal aisle…
Keyser Söze Alert: Fric – Erreur Erotique (1982)
A synthy, robo-erotic slow jam created by two guys that look (and sound) like perverted middle school math teachers. Sung in Québecois French and vocoded to perfection. Need I say more? Pretty robo-heady lyrics, so check out the SCHEMATIC section for the original French and English translations.
Here is their (not so) live performance on Musi-Video from the early 1980s.
SCHEMATIC: Hot cover art, original record scans, Montréal distributor’s sticker and LYRICS… Read the rest of this entry »
Robot Rock du Jour: Rational Youth – Cité Phosphore/City of Night (1982)
So let’s get the show started right now with a very hot Montreal group…their name Rational Youth…here for their first time on TV singing their big summer hit, Cité Phosphore…enjoy the show.
Cité Phosphore (Musi-Video)
SCHEMATIC: LP Version (English), 12″ Danse Mix (bi-lingual) and a scan of the original English lyrics…
Keyser Söze Alert: R.E.M. – Computer Communication (1983)
No, Michael Stipe and did not dabble in Italo. Actaually, Computer Communication was the second of four releases to appear on the short-lived Xanadu label from Italy in 1983. This is a readily available and largely underrated Italo classic 12″ that you can still buy in excellent condition for around $20. They’re pretty tough to find for sale in the US, so you’ll probably have to pay international air postage from Italy if you’re dying for the track.
SCHEMATIC: Automan 11 bootleg reissue…