Bananas

UPDATE: From Lyn:

Yes We Jan

I did a raved-up remix for Sefa recently - and its NOW OUT digitally. Please go and listen to all the marvellous remixes HERE

More info about the remix album HERE via Sefa's recorded label, Lost Map Records UPDATE: Heres a megamix and video for your consideration

Creeping Out

Our debut album is OUT! Its getting some great press and reviews too. PHEW!

“A deliciously dark electro team–up. Music as tense as Pink Squirrel and as Kraftwerky as Tokyo Metro come together quite happily in the snarling Creep Show sound.” Q – 4 Stars ****

“A full-blown, fun and fearless blast of analogue synthesis… The album asserts the great variety and malleability of electronic music.” The i Paper – 4 Stars **** (Album of the Week)

“There is a mischievous liberationist spirit, a sense of old friends coming together to relax the rules and try out everything in the musical toy box… Propulsive, kinetic and buzzing with paranoid otherness, this is a fantastic exercise in sense–mangling sonic collage.” Uncut – 7/10

“Their debut album is a riot, bending pitches, tempos and comprehension into nice slices of fried, wry funk pop.” Record Collector – 4 Stars ****

“Dark, incendiary electronica harking back to the anything–goes post–punk aesthetic of the late 70s… The record never stands still.” Mixmag – 8/10

“An exciting blend of bizarre twisted electro and otherworldly cosmic funk… Unique and exhilarating.” Louder Than War – 8/10

“Giddy feelings of mischief and liberation collide on the title–track’s pitched–down threat and the disorientating K Mart Johnny… Grant’s trademark baritone returns, at its persuasive best, on Modern Parenting, although it’s wonderfully ruminative closer Safe and Sound that resonates long after the end.” MOJO

“A fearsome array of analogue and modular–synth sounds, eerie vocal effects and beautifully processed classic drum machine hits… Dark, sci–fi tinged electro with attitude to spare.” Long Live Vinyl – 7/10

“Their debut channels repetitive, infectious krautrock… Epic in structure and with subtle Brian Eno-like touches, the songs manage to be both cohesive and fiercely innovative.” Evening Standard

“A debut album that is by turns ominous-sounding, inventive and, on K Mart Johnny – a Blue Jam-like evocation of plastic-dinosaur-based children revenge – surprisingly funny.” The Observer

“Pitch–perfect… A playful and expertly curated exercise in vintage electronic music.” Financial Times

“Creep Show will delight you… The remarkable ‘Endangered Species’ and the affirmative ‘Safe and Sound’ are as good as anything Grant has done solo.” Sunday Times

“Utterly brilliant, esoteric dance music… Creep Show is a Frankenstein’s monster of a project, merging the progressive balladism of John Grant with the dark analogue electro of Wrangler. Musically we are taken everywhere.” Loud & Quiet – 7/10

“Equal parts playful and malevolent, this sits at the experimental end of the synth–pop spectrum and offers enticing grooves aplenty.” Classic Pop

Demo for Jono

Here is a demo of the ARP2500 for Jono who just bought an ARP2500. I'm using the 1050 Mix Sequencer to create a drum pattern:

UPDATE: And here's one straight back at me from Jono in Australia!



UPDATE 2: Ok, so here is another patch I made in return. Its quite a complicated one which involves some other synthesiser modules so here goes: The Arp sequencer is sending 3 CVs out to the Arp mix sequencer which is being clocked by step 1 of the sequencer. This provides a pitch array of 32 notes which controls an Arp VCO. The VCO is going into the Filtamp module which is being controlled by an Arp envelope. Now here is the complicated part: the triggers from the Arp sequencer are not firing the envelope on every step but are being subdivided into shorter patterns and bursts by the Serge Modular clock divider and bi-directional router. So each step of the sequencer is first sent to the clock divider and the 1/3rd output is going to ch-1 of the router, and 1/5ths is going to ch-2. Then the 1/7th output is being used to switch the router and the result is pseudo-random triggering of the envelope, but always rhythmically related to the sequence clock. The Serge sequencer is then being triggered slowly from step 1 of the Arp sequencer and this also controls the frequency of the VCO to add to the complexity of the melody. The audio signal is then being split in two, half going to the Buchla 100 reverb and the other going to a Bel BD80 digital delay for stereo tastiness

Red Gallery Gig

Here is our recent gig at the Red Gallery in Old Street, London:

UPDATE:

And hot off the press here is The Quietus review of our first festival! and here from The Electricity Club

Supergroup

LOOK! Theres an in-depth interview with us in this months Music Tech magazine:

UPDATE: Find it here

Runabout

Ive been having a really busy few weeks on a big project that involves me moving house. So I need a new (old) car to do the commute, which is now a lot longer than it used to be. I think I might get a Citroen BX because it can do 65 MPG on the motorway. And also it was designed in the late 70s / early 80s by one of my favourite designers, Bertoni. It started life as the Reliant FW11 and then turned into the Volvo Tundra but both concept cars were rejected until Citroen nicked it in 1982:

UPDATE: I bought a MK3 Golf instead

Evergreen Emu

Just the other day I downloaded the wonderful Emu Modular catalog from 1978 which made very good train reading on the way to the studio. I found it over on matrixsynth. Well would you believe it but today on matrixsynth I saw that Evergreen State College is selling their system, via a local auction house. Oh it looks like it sold already, bummer! Here is a picture I photoshopped from the auction pics (hi-res version here) and below that is the catalog

Here are the modules included in the sale:

2 keyboard output panels
Hex Inverter
3 Sawtooth/Pulse Oscillators
2 Sample and Hold
VC Trigger Generator
2 Triple Latch
5 Memory units
3 VCO
3 Universal Active Filters
2 Quad VCA
Tape Interface and Control panel
Memory Address Generator
2 VC lopas filters
VC Hipas Filter
2 Resonant Filters
Resonant Filter Controller

2 Dual One Shot
2 Dual Reverbs
Triple Latch
4 VCA
Triple OR Gate
Dual ADSR
Quad Inverter
2 Ring Modulator
Memory Programmer
Lag Processor
2 Dual Transient Generators
Analog Switch
Voltage Source 8×4
8 Position Address Generator
Envelope Follower
Summing Amp
LFO
Noise Source
Manuals
Extra Parts, Ribbon Cables, Sockets

1978 Eµ Catalog

UPDATE: It sold for $49,100 to ttown. Thats more than I thought it would go for - about £30k!!!

Also, I found this really geeky interview with the founders of Emu Systems:

Invisible Moments

Look at this amazing video made for us by Macoto Tezka. ILOVEIT!!



UPDATE: Here is his second video for us, Talk:



Here is the story:
November 7, 2013 Macoto Tezka. One day, I came across a very old, classic western-style building in a corner of Ginza-town in central Tokyo. A building stood at the location well over 80 years. It's one of a Tokyo's relics of the past that survived war-fire and many earthquakes. In the building, there are a couple of stairs around an old mechanical elevator. It used be an apartment but no one lives there anymore. Now galleries and antique stores occupy the building. Walking through a narrow passage, I thought about the past and imagined how people lived here. Imagery of old silent films flashed into my imagination. A few months later, I visited there again with my actor friends and a cinematographer. Because I couldn't think of a better location for John Foxx And The Maths videos. John's music has a feeling of "déjà vu". It's always fresh but somehow nostalgic. Silhouette of a figure that walks through an old avenue; vague, indistinctive face . . That is the image created by his music. But some images of my own memories also came up. Our cinematographer shot this film with a Canon camera. Before editing, it had sharply-defined shapes and vivid color, so I removed it all. Next, I adjusted the speed to express an eternal moment. Then I synchronized the music to the image and I found something was still missing. By watching the film for many weeks I kept asking myself, 'whats' missing'? Then an idea came up to my mind to bring the film to perfection. The gaps of 'scattered memories and missing time' need to be added. So I decided to attach these 'invisible moments' to fill the gap. The film was finished by these invisible moments

Ebay Of The Day

Check this out, Martin Hannett's actual very own International 4600 Synthesiser. It sold pretty quickly...

"Martin Hannett's ( Joy Division producer and many Manchester and Factory bands producer, he played synths on many Factory records) actual International 4600 analog patchable synth . Not much needed to restore as cosmetically it is all there and the keyboard was triggering synth sounds recently, but sold as complete restoration project. comes with Martin Hannett's build and instruction manual from 1977/78/79/80 and copy of his patch notes. A much tattier one of these recently sold non working for around £1000 without it having any Martin Hannett ownership.so its a snip at £1400 with all the Hannett related historyThis one has metal protective edging. If you are in the UK would still ship in foam and a crate or you can collect. Will ship anywhere in the word but would crate it up to ship"
Via Matrixsynth


UPDATE: And now they have listed Hannett's Transcendant synth and Revox tape machine! at £6K its not cheap though

"Working Transcendent analog synth 1978/79(with documentation) used and owned by Martin Hannett ( he owned two of these) Transcendents were actually used on Joy Division, Durutti Column and lots of Factory and Manchester band recordings and Hannett often had one in the control room as well as the band having one in the studio area. This includes his instruction manual and handwritten mods he did to the synth. We know the Transcendent was used as a straight synth sound and also used to feed triggers from sound sources into it on many Hannett recordings. There are several photos of Hannett using Transcendents around 78/79. Also included is one of four of Hannett's Revox mastering machines that he would take one to studios to make copies of his mixes each day and he had them at home too to listen to his studio work on his home hi fi system. This Hannett RevoxB77 powers up but needs attention. these are important Hannett and Joy Division related artefacts and will climb in value as fascination with Martin Hannett continues to grow"

Gene Youngblood

UPDATE TO PREVIOUS POST: via Rick on Muffs. It seems the Buchla 101 that Sorrel is using in the video in the previous post is the one recently restored by Rick, and came from the same hoard obtained from Ralph Hocking / Experimental TV Center

Here is the full hoard:
170 ARP 2473 Omni II Synthesizer Keyboard w/ footswitch
708 ARP Keyboard Model 3604-P with Synth Model 2608P
182 Arp (Tonus) Electronic Music Synthesizer 2002 (Arp Model Series 2000, cabinet 2500)
1804 Atari C-240 Video Music
1319 Bode 6552 Frequency Shifter
1320 Bode 6402 Dual Ring Modulator
426 Buchla. Also CBS Musical Instruments. Wood box holds models 180, 156, 185, 191, 110, 158, 111, 160, 165. Keyboard model 112.
427 Buchla The Electronic Music Box: Larger metal box Dodecamodule model 212; Smaller metal box Dual Oscillator model 258;Polyphonic Keyboard model 237.
171 The Electronic Music Box; Bayside Model 10140
183 & 270 Electro Harmonix Instant Replay and External Trigger
1801 Electro Voice, Unidyne, RCA, Shure, Sony, Sennheiser, Bell & Howell, Sheridan Electro Units Corp, MICROPHONES
167 EML-101 ElectroComp Synthesizer Keyboard
164 EMS 73913 Pitch to Voltage Converter
169 EMS Synthesizer DK 2 Keyboard Modulator
184 EMS Sequencer 32 SS32
238 EMS Synthi A
164 EMS VCS3a Putney
1321 Fairchild 658A Reverbertron Dynamic Reverberation System
1173 & 1222 Fairlight CVI Compact "Producer" & keyboard used with Fairlight CVI Compact coll. # 1173
428 Fairlight The Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument (CMI)
1154 Furman RV-1
1298 Hammond Solovox Keyboard and Tone Cabinet KB
1299 Korg MS 10
1032 Lafeyette Two Channel Echo Verb II
173 Moog 950 Keyboard Controller; 951 Keyboard Controller
Module Breakout: Modified Addition- Sequential Glide with CV adjust Auto Glide Multiples 901A Oscillator Controller (3) 901 B Oscillator (9) 901 Voltage Controlled Oscillator 903A Random Signal Generator 984 Four Channel Mixer with: VC modules/filters and input processors 960 Sequential Controller (2) 962 Sequential Switch (2) 961 Interface 914 Fixed Filter Bank 905 Reverb Unit CV Input 904-B voltage controlled high pass filter 904-C Filter Coupler 904-A Voltage Controlled Low Pass Filter 902 Voltage Controlled Amplifier (3) 911 Envelope Generator with module called "Trigger and Envelope Voltages" for 902 and 911 911A Dual Trigger Delay 912 Envelop Follower 174 & 175 Moog 951 Keyboard Controllers
180 Moog 1125 Sample - Hold
1310 Moog Prodigy Model 336A; RQ542AS
1316 Moog 1084 Mixer/Amplifier
179 Moog Sonic Six Synthesizer
176 Moog 901-B Moog Model 10 Modular
178 Moog Mini Moog
177 Moog 2090 Micromoog Synthesizer
707 Moog (RA) 956 Ribbon Controller
153 Roland MC-202 micro composer
166 Roland RE-201 Space Echo
154 Serge Quad VCA; Dual Slope; Function Generator; Audio Mixer
155 Serge Sequencer; Envelope Generator; +&- Slew
156 Serge Programmer; Power Supply
232 Serge VCO; VCF; VCA
233 Serge slope generator; comparator; mixer
186 Triadex MUSE
227 EAB Videolab

The two Buchlas listed there were sold to Ralph Hocking by Gene Youngblood who is a very cool bloke. So he owned my Buchla 100 and also Sorrel's Buchla 200. Here is Gene interviewing George Lukas:

UPDATE: It has now been confirmed that Sorrel Hays definitely recorded the Southern library music album stuff on this very Buchla. See previous post

Sorrel Hays

I was browsing over on Toys & Techniques and came across the work of Sorrel Hays. She is interesting to me because she makes experimental music on some of my favourite machines (i.e. vintage Buchla and Synclavier). But it seems there is little info on her out there and also some confusion as to some of her musical output. Here is a wiki page about one release in particular, the Southern library album called Electronic Music from 1971. Here is an extract, which sounds very Buchlaesque:



And some more uploaded by toysandtechniques:




And heres a video of her in action, check out the Buchla 101 at 1.15

UPDATE: MYSTERY SOLVED - As a result of matrix publishing a link to this post and the awesomeness of the internet in general, Sorrel Hays HERSELF confirmed that she did in fact record the Southern library tracks and it was NOT Delia Derbyshire. So Wikipedia was wrong and I was right. It is a Buchla on that record - the very one that Rick has just restored while he was working on my 100 Series

My Type

UPDATE: Cool! The other two arrived today as well

On my return from tour I had the pleasant surprise that the typewriter had arrived that I bought on ebay while I was away. Isn't she a beauty? I used it for the typed bit on the design for the previous post...

Catwalk

UPDATE: Oh, and we were chosen as one of the best tracks of the NY fashion week, LOOK!

Harmonic Fun

Here is a little demo I made using the Verbos 262v Harmonic Oscillator. Its a very interesting module. Google it (or why not try alta vista?) The touch plates are great with it because you can send pressure info to control the harmonics of the 262v. This patch also uses the 191 filter, the 190 reverb and the 288v delay



UPDATE Heres another one, but with different tunings on the touch plates:

Tape Alchemy

I just watched a documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop called Alchemists of Sound which was quite good. It focussed mainly on the early tape era of the workshop, and had quite a few bits of footage I hadn't seen before. Here's one featuring Delia Derbyshire beat matching:

UPDATE: and here is a beautiful pice of electronic music made by John Baker from the early RW period, kind of reminds me of the krell meme music

Bestival Festival

Here are a few shots of us playing last thursday, taken by Mark Jones our inimitable host. Somehow we managed to be selected as act of the day by Bestival

Here is a clip I took backstage. John is checking our visuals for the gig...


And this is where we played - the Big Top - Wooo!

UPDATE: Finally there is a youtube clip of us at Bestival. Thank-you Guildfordghost:

Photographic Pictures

After the show we got taken to an awesome after party discotheque by the show's promoter David, who looked after us all so well while we were in Madrid. I had such a great night!!! You can just make out David, Sefa and Malins dancing about like crazed teenagers, and so was I which is why the video is so rubbish See the comms and check this video out:

Mountain Boat

When I was last in LA I spent a lot of time driving round the hills looking at houses. One time I discovered these amazing wonked-out house pods up in Hollywood and fell in love with them. They were designed in the late 50s by Harry Gesner. Theres one for sale at the moment, $600K

UPDATE
Check out this video that I just found over on a great blog called JUST OFF MULLHOLLAND:

B&A

UPDATE: Here are the latest panel designs (the top two)