TeslaGuy's YouTube Trove

[TeslaGuy]

I mentioned on the Lili Azian thread that a lot of today's dance music paled in comparison to the pioneering '70's songs that gave birth to the electronic dance music genre. Here are the two most influential songs, and a sample of other '70's artists who influenced non-dance electronic music.



That's Giorgio Moroder playing a Moog modular synthesizer. The 1977 song I Feel Love that he wrote with Donna Summer was probably, due to it's immense popularity, the song that changed the sound of dance music quicker than any other.
To quote David Bowie - "One day in Berlin ... Eno came running in and said, 'I have heard the sound of the future.' … he puts on 'I Feel Love', by Donna Summer … He said, 'This is it, look no further. This single is going to change the sound of club music for the next fifteen years.' Which was more or less right."
The video below is just a live version poorly synced to the studio track. All the music came out of Moroder's Moog.

"I Feel Love

[TeslaGuy]

(I'm splitting up tonight's stuff into separate posts in the hope that some will end up on a new page 5. This page is getting really long.)

Kraftwerk. An incredibly important band. They influenced hip hop, electro, Chicago house, Detroit techno and a multitude of other artists. They had an AM radio hit in 1974 with an edited version of Autobahn, but 1977's Trans Europe Express was the big one.

Trans Europe Express

[TeslaGuy]

The final three artist/groups I will post tonight did not play really danceable music, but did inspire musicians in the decades following the 1970's.

Jean Michel Jarre, son of film composer Maurice Jarre, made some really cool albums in the '70's. In my opinion he, like many other early electronic artists, saw the rest of the world catch up with them in the '80's, and never produced any more work that was significant. He's still at it, but I think his stuff now sounds lame. But Oxygene, Equinoxe, Magnetic Fields and The Concerts in China (and maybe Zoolook) were pioneering works. He still packs them in at his concerts, with 2.5 million watching him play amidst lasers and fireworks in Egypt, New Year's Eve 2000.

Equinoxe part 4

[TeslaGuy]

Vangelis is another electronic composer who, like Jarre, started making music around 1970 and produced some very nice stuff that decade, but then blew it in 1981 with the dorky Chariots of Fire soundtrack. Or maybe I'm just getting tired and cranky. Anyway, he did Blade Runner in 1982, which was cool, and more stuff forever that is nice, but not groundbreaking like his '70's work.

Spiral

[TeslaGuy]

Germany's Tangerine Dream has been around for 40 years with founder Edgar Froese being the only constant member. They have gone through many style changes, but tonight's theme is '70's music, a time when they were pioneers of stoner "space music".

Force Majeure

[EmilScherbe]

What you irritate me is conflicting (good word: sharing) music memories and
the fact you can provide far better introduction than me.
And jealousy about JR requested you while I have been posting same or similar materials in CLT thread. LOL

As for Jean Michel Jarre, I think he continued interesting works after that.
Zoolook was ambitious work.
Rendez-Vous was just good (can be ciriticized as his mannerism though)
and Houston concert was moving after Challenger disater.
following Revolutions and Waiting for Cousteau album was also
his challenge for something new.
I also remember coolest image of "Laser Harp".

as for Vangelis, like JMJ I think he continue to produce interesting
or at least ambitious works. while many of my favorite albums are
form '70s I like 80s works and El Greco as well.
and many his soundtracks was perfect entertaining
including "1492 Conquest of Paradise".

as for Tagerine Dream, their representive works was more
early ones -> 3rd to 6th, Zeit(1972), Atem(1973), Phaedra(1974)
and Rubycon (1975) though especially 1st 2 german titile was
too gloomy later 2 was still on a way of development.
the era of late '70s including a video you inserted from
YouTube did not have good reputation.
at least for writer who wrote Japanese editions of TD albums in '80s.
But it do not prevent ons taste of course.
(he more praised the era early '80s with Johannes Schmoelling)

before you I would post another German electro music from '70s

Klaus Schulze - Ways Of Changes (1974)

Klaus Schulze - Bayreuth Return (1975)

Klaus Schulze - Floating (1976)

while my favorite is Mirage album in 1977

[justriiingo]

I dig Giorgio Moroder's Knights in White Satin.

[TeslaGuy]

Originally Posted by EmilScherbe

As for Jean Michel Jarre, I think he continued interesting works after that.
Zoolook was ambitious work.
I also remember coolest image of "Laser Harp".

as for Vangelis, like JMJ I think he continue to produce interesting
or at least ambitious works.

as for Tagerine Dream, their representive works was more
early ones -> 3rd to 6th, Zeit(1972), Atem(1973), Phaedra(1974)
and Rubycon (1975) though especially 1st 2 german titile was
too gloomy later 2 was still on a way of development.

I am happy to hear your opinions. It doesn't surprise me that they are different than mine, it would be impossible for them to be exactly the same.

My main theme was that it is very hard to stay ahead of everyone else forever. Even Kraftwerk were only really special through Computer World. Tour de France was nice, but not groundbreaking.

New keyboards like Sequential Circuit's Prophet Five, EMu's Emulator Two sampler, Roger Lynn's Lynndrum, Roland's Jupiter Eight, Oberheim's Matrix Six and Yamaha's DX7 (and MIDI) made it much easier and cheaper for musicians to create electronic music, and so the '80's were a much wider playing field than the '70's. But people like Jarre and Vangelis pioneered the music in the '70's and are very important. I wish there had been some Synergy on YouTube; Larry Fast also wrote important work in that decade.

Jean Michel Jarre's Laser Harp was featured in The Concerts in China, which I praised. I gave Zoolook a "maybe". I really loved it when it came out, so I agree it deserves to be included in my list. I still think that groups like The Art of Noise were the real Fairlight CMI sampling pioneers. I'm sure that Jarre has done some very good work, but when I looked him up on YouTube the first thing I found was Teo and Tea from 2007, and I thought it was just awful.

Vangelis continued to make very good music, I would not argue that. But I no longer thought of him as a pioneer. There were new groups with new exciting music that were capturing my attention.

I chose the admittedly mediocre Tangerine Dream song for two reasons. I was trying to keep everything as close to the 1977 date of my first two songs as possible. Another big problem was that most of my favorite TD songs on YouTube were live versions from the last 20 years; finding originals was frustrating and I can only spend a limited period of time compiling music. Some of these posts still take me hours.

I'll say in closing that there is one person who I think has made consistently important work for more than three decades, and that's Brian Eno. Hosono and Takahashi's Sketch Show is very impressive as well.

[TeslaGuy]

I'm going to post a set of non-music videos for once, as I ran across an old film on YouTube documenting some very cool retail architecture that I remember from back in the '70's. The owner of Best Products was a sculptor as well as a businessman and commissioned the firm SITE (Sculpture In The Environment) to design some of his stores.

Best went under, all the storefronts were eventually demolished, but a nice short documentary remains. Well worth watching.

SITE Best stores 1 of 4

SITE Best stores 2 of 4

SITE Best stores 3 of 4

SITE Best stores 4 of 4

And one music video from 1975, just because I like it.

10CC-I'm Not In Love

[TeslaGuy]

Today's brief post is for EmilS. Some Tangerine Dream we can agree about? Selections from 1981's Exit, a classic Johannes Schmoelling-era album.

A favorite of mine for a personal reason. This album is full of sounds from the German PPG Wave 2.2 digital/analog synth. Less than 300 made. I own one.


Very little music from Exit exists on YouTube. First, a rather murky live video from 1981.

Kiew Mission

Exit, with an entirely unnecessary extra keyboard track that was added after the release of the album. Almost always a dumb idea.

Exit

One more. A rather weak track, in my opinion, but the only other song available on YouTube.

Choronzon