Re: [LAU] Isao Tomita, synthesizer music

From: Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@email-addr-hidden-dsl.net>
Date: Fri May 13 2016 - 07:31:32 EEST

On Thu, 12 May 2016 19:30:19 -0400, jonetsu@teksavvy.com wrote:
>On Thu, 12 May 2016 19:12:34 +0200
>Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf@alice-dsl.net> wrote:
>
>> However, AFAIK he wasn't well known in Germany.
>
>With all the homegrown electronic-based, or similar, artists it might
>be normal to focus (no pun) on those. Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze,
>Ash Ra Tempel, Einstürzende Neubauten, Popol Vuh, Kraftwerk, etc. I
>always foudn the 'straight' "Moog" bands playing classical-sounding
>material to be too restrictive when compared to those German bands
>which for me were so creative with electronics.

Care about the time. Actually most German bands did not exist or if
they already exist, they made different music, usually Krautrock. For
example "Neubauten" are neither a synth band, nor did this band exist
that time.

Bands from other countries, Hawkwind, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band etc.
made similar music to Krautrock, using synth either.

I guess Kraftwerk is the only band that already put away the flute and
made clean synth music and most likely Kraftwerk anyway is the most
important band for this genre. OTOH while "Autobahn" is from 1974,
Kraftwerk became popular 1978 with "Die Mensch-Maschine". Before 1974
(Wiki claims 1973, but IMO this is incorrect), they were not a clean
synth band.

Isao Tomita definitively is a pioneer. Anyway, I agree with you, he
might not have been that popular, if known at all that time, because
there already were much international and German bands that are more
interesting than classical music played on a synth.

Beside the German bands, Amon Düül and that kind, there were
international bands such as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes or Camel, let
alone that hard rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple or Black
Sabbath made much more energetic music. No Bach fugue, Kraut-/Prog
Rock can hold a candle to the bass riff of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. The
people from my generation, including myself listen to classical music,
play classical music, but we are children of hard rock and punk rock.
IMO the 70s were not the right time for synth music, since the
powerful young musicians even in the beginning 80s had not the money
to make clean synth music.

The first band I played guitar, it were already the 80s, we first had a
single Moog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moog_Concertmate_MG-1 played
by Dirk Brauner who nowadays builds Brauner Microphones :D. Many bands
that time still had no synth at all. Some time later another keyboarder
owned the http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/sh101.php and a few years
later everybody and all bands had a synth, among those synths the
German DIY Doepfer synths. I guess synth music in general became more
popular in the middle of the 80s, when the young musicians could pay
for synth.

The idols regarding synth music, for my generation, the guys that
were/are around ten years older than we were/are played synths in
combination with other instruments:

A German, respl. an European masterpiece from 1981, not made by noobs,
the drummer e.g. is an educated classical musician. That has got the
energy of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSgGNd6thrc

An European (English) masterpiece from that time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0z0vmkJ4MQ

Not made by noobs, the drummer e.g. is an educated classical musician.
That has got the energy of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

In the 70s there was the Vietnam War, in the 80s there was the cold
war, perhaps this explains why classical music played with electric
instruments was not that popular, as either light fare such as Popcorn
and aggressive music was.

I guess most discovered Isao Tomita later (or never).
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Received on Fri May 13 08:15:01 2016

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