Tangerine Dream “Phaedra” (Virgin, 1974)
A lot of smart people—and yours truly, too—think Phaedra represents peak Tangerine Dream. With a catalog as vast as this German electronic group’s, you’ll never get a consensus on said peak, but for...
View ArticleMandré “Mandré” (Motown, 1977)
Michael Andre Lewis, formerly of soul band Maxayn, reinvented himself in the mid ’70s as Mandré, a helmeted and masked synthesizer savant (Roland TB-808, among others) to whom Daft Punk paid homage...
View ArticleThe Art Of Noise “Who’s Afraid Of The Art Of Noise?” (ZTT, 1984)
The Art Of Noise’s debut album has the air of a Dadaist art prank (orchestrated by NME journalist and propaganda minister Paul Morley) mixed with the savvy production of a prog-rock/synth-pop genius...
View ArticleLothar And The Hand People “Presenting…” (Capitol, 1968)
Look at that cover. The five members of Lothar And The People seem like the high-school students most likely to join a benign cult based on the plot of a ridiculous fantasy novel. Yet after they moved...
View ArticleA.C. Marias “One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing)” (Mute, 1989)
A.C. is Angela Conway, the mysterious chanteuse who cowrote the 10 songs on One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing) with Wire/Dome guitarist Bruce Gilbert. She’s also appeared on Wire bassist Graham...
View ArticleKraftwerk “Kraftwerk” (Philips, 1970)
Musicians sometimes have very poor insight into what constitutes their best work. Bob Seger and Alex Chilton come to mind. One of the most extreme cases of this unfortunate phenomenon is Kraftwerk....
View ArticleTerry Riley “Shri Camel” (CBS, 1980)
As we round into the most stressful week of the most stressful year in recent memory, we need frequent immersions into the transcendent sonic world of Terry Riley, the greatest living American...
View ArticleNed Lagin “Seastones” (Round, 1975)
Seastones might be the strangest document to emerge out of the vast Grateful Dead diaspora. From 1970-1976, Ned Lagin was the psych-rock figureheads’ modular-synth guru, a computer-savvy maverick who...
View ArticleSeesselberg “Synthetik 1.” (self-released, 1973)
I’m fascinated by artists who release one amazing album and then go quiet, for whatever reason. Examples? Skip Spence, the United States Of America, Tomorrow, Friendsound, Ibliss, McDonald & Giles,...
View ArticleCiccone Youth “The Whitey Album” (Enigma/Blast First, 1988)
When The Whitey Album came out, many Sonic Youth fans and critics treated it as a trifling post-modern prank. And yes, it does have its share of shtick, starting with the project name and nudge-wink...
View ArticleDoris Norton “Personal Computer” (Durium, 1984)
Whether it’s down to sexism or her Italian nationality (or perhaps both), composer/musician Doris Norton has gone largely overlooked as a major figure in the computer-based electronic-music world....
View ArticleHeldon “Interface” (Cobra, 1977)
When someone opines that “French music is weak” or some such uninformed blather, you should drop a dose of Heldon on them—specifically Interface, guitar/synth master Richard Pinhas and company’s most...
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