Dream The Night Electro

[seismic1]

Re: Trans-X - that GSOD predates Microsoft by a couple of years n'est ce pas?

But hold on! What is a self-confessed fan of industrial doing posting such a glossy synth disco number?

(Stops dancing. Quickly wipes off the eye shadow.) Oops, I guess I outed myself.

Rumbled.......the game's up

[Frantz]

Re: Trans-X - that GSOD predates Microsoft by a couple of years n'est ce pas?

You probably realize this but that isn't a Green Screen of Death. Someone wrote a tiny program to print blocks on the screen to make it look hi-tech. The entire program would have looked roughly like this:

10 CLS
20 FOR I = 1 TO 25
30 FOR J = 1 TO 80
40 PRINT "□";
50 NEXT J
60 NEXT I
70 GOTO 10

I was a super Commodore geek back in the day.

[seismic1]

I had a BBC model B with the Music 500 Synthesizer

[Frantz]

I had a BBC model B with the Music 500 Synthesizer

Cool. BBC computers never made it to the US.

I had all of the Commodore home computers: Vic 20, 64, and Amiga. I made my first attempts at making electronic music on the Amiga.

[himalaya]

This is what I call dark, minimal synth music:

DAF "Alles Ist Gut"

Actually, that's depressing.
But I like the bass, very cool!
( I do like the minimal approach too)

...with the Music 500 Synthesizer

Did it sound analog?

[Frantz]

Actually, that's depressing.

Yes, that's why it's good. I chose the darkest track on the album to illustrate the point about dark music.

But I like the bass, very cool!
( I do like the minimal approach too)

DAF is my Yazoo. The whole album is similar in style but many tracks are more energetic. For example, "Als wär's das letzte Mal" ("Like it was the last time"):



The girls in front are saying "WTF?"

[himalaya]

I chose the darkest track on the album to illustrate the point about dark music.

The two Yazzo tracks are definitely not that 'dark', agreed, but they are subtle, whereas the DAF track is a bit too depressing, cool it is though. I need some 'light' in my 'darkness'. The Happyzoo have it.



Second DAF track and I like the bass a lot. Good sounds.

[Frantz]

I need some 'light' in my 'darkness'. The Happyzoo have it.



Second DAF track and I like the bass a lot. Good sounds.

When I'm in the mood for darkness, I want it to be pitch black. DAF mainly used the Korg MS20 with a Korg sequencer. Their albums were produced by Conny Plank. He knew how to get the bass and drums to sound massive. Not the usual rinky dink synthpop production. Unfortunately, the albums were never properly remastered for the CD pressings. I prefer to listen to the original vinyl.

[Mariosprt]

Let's keep the retro synth dance party going with the cheesy but fantastic "Living on Video" by Trans-X:

I agree that the hair and make-up sound more dated than the synths
The video is great, so many memories, a friend of mine had a C64 but then I got an Atari ST, I beat him .. LOL
The solo is actually 2 solos in different signatures, right? quite clever...

@hymalaia: the Vince Clarke thing reminded me I noticed one of the tracks for the DCam set is called "Depeche synth", are you a fan too? The Alan Wilder circa SOFAD/Violator era, those were awesome arrangements!

Speaking of dark and to keep the party going:
(ok it's the dark side of pop )

I had a listen to the artists you linked to and I enjoyed Casa del Mirto especially . Good stuff! For old scool 'synpop' with a modern twist I really like Com Truise and similar.

Yeah, check out more stuff by him, he's an italian DJ I think. I know Com Truise too, and Washed Out is quite similar too, great music out there.

@FrantzM: Wasn't familiar with DAF (you got me running to wikipedia there), definitely a Rammstein influence, very nice. Dark is cool

[Frantz]

the most amazing thing...a contrapuntal solo! Genius! We don't get that in pop songs, do we!

The solo is actually 2 solos in different signatures, right? quite clever...

I don't think those solos are counterpuntal in the carefully planned Bach sense. I think he played a solo in one take and played another similar solo in another take without listening to the first one. Then he played back both tracks together, one panned left and the other panned right. It sounded good so he kept it.

@FrantzM: Wasn't familiar with DAF (you got me running to wikipedia there), definitely a Rammstein influence, very nice. Dark is cool

The most direct influence DAF had was on Nitzer Ebb. Their first album sounds like DAF on steriods with the aggression turned way up. Many EBM bands copied the sound of Nitzer Ebb's first two albums.

[Frantz]

I think we cleared the dancefloor with all that depressing music. It's time to get the retro synth disco party going again with Telex's "Moskow Diskow" from 1979:



Let's go in the studio with Telex and see how they made that track (interview in French):



Cool track but maybe it's too dated for you? No problem. LCD Soundsystem lifted the bassline for "Get Innocuous!" from 2007. It's the first track here:

[himalaya]

@hymalaia: the Vince Clarke thing reminded me I noticed one of the tracks for the DCam set is called "Depeche synth", are you a fan too? The Alan Wilder circa SOFAD/Violator era, those were awesome arrangements!

Oh yes! I love the whole DM discography. The happy, the dark, the mad..the whole lot.

@FrantzM
The second Telex video...all that modular gear and I was more interested in his orange seat. actually I always wanted a Moog Multimoog (hopefully that's what it was in the vid and not the MicroMoog - seen there on top of the Polymoog).

I think the first tune in 2013 I make will have to be *dark*. Oh yes. (kinda difficult when all I listen to all day is kids nursery rhymes ).

[Frantz]

The second Telex video...all that modular gear and I was more interested in his orange seat.

Out of all of that retro synth goodness, you are just interested in an orange chair?

I think the first tune in 2013 I make will have to be *dark*. Oh yes. (kinda difficult when all I listen to all day is kids nursery rhymes ).

Great. Looking forward to it.

Nursery rhymes can be quite dark too:

Ring a Ring o' Roses

The rhyme has often been associated with the Great Plague which happened in England in 1665, or with earlier outbreaks of the Black Death in England.

[dusted william]

awesome song himalaya!

I wish I could make something so nice

dw

[himalaya]

Thanks Dusted William.

Out of all of that retro synth goodness, you are just interested in an orange chair?

'cause I had a dodgy office seat for many years, then finally, I decided to 'upgrade' and so now I'm sensitive to a sight of a lovely looking studio seat.
(I love how this thread meanders. Soon we'll end up in Ikea looking at the office furniture ).