Synth Music Influences

A E J O T Z · Last edited by A E J O T Z on Thu Nov 05, 2015 7:57 am; edited 2 times in total

My synth music is influenced a little bit by "Autobahn," a bit more by Tomita's "Snowflakes..." and "The Planets" and LOT by the first and last tunes on "Electronic Realizations..." by Synergy (Larry Fast). I didn't really care for Carlos, Mort Garson, Vangelis, JMJ or Moroder. And I have to add that Kraftwerk's biggest contribution to my synth music was the realization that one did not need keyboard proficiency to make synth music. They were to EM what the Kingsmen were to garage rock.

Hot Butter's version of Kingsley's "Popcorn" was great, as was the pre-Moog "Musitron" solo on Del Shannon's "Runaway." If I'd known about JJ Perrey and his Ondioline back then I would have been all over it. Unfortunately, I only discovered JJP in recent years.

I loved 80s music, when synths, imagination and fun returned to pop, but I can't say I was influenced by it. (Maybe a little by early Devo and B52s.)

The above is an expression of my personal musical taste and is not a critique of any artists' styles or artistic value.

I'd love to hear about other e-m artists' influences.

wackelpeter · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 11:33 am Post subject:

My enthusiasm for synths and synth music came from my love for a lot of the early Industrial Scene :Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, SPK, NON, Nocturnal Emissions, Nurse With Wound, Zoviet France and so on...

Also The Residents and a lot of other electronic and minimal electronic acts like Severed Heads, early DAF, Fad Gadget, John Bender, Scattered Order, Dome, Minny Pops and others...

Besides that i also share a lot of interest for artists such as Pierre Henry, Gedalia tazartes, Robert ashley, Terry Riley, David Tudor, the BBC Radiophonic Crew and other Experimentalists...

not to forget such 70's legends like Cluster, Neu! or Heldon

A E J O T Z · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 7:50 pm Post subject:

Neu! I like a lot. And you mentioned Nurse with Wound who I know from their Crumb Duck collaboration with one of my favorite groups, Stereolab.

BBC? Delia Derbyshire's rendering of the Doctor Who theme is super-classic. And did you know that George Martin (Beatles producer) also worked at BBC sound labs in his early days?

I forgot to mention that I love Jean Jaques Perrey, but I can't say he's an influence. I heard practically none of his work before 1983 when I started developing my style.

wackelpeter · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 1:28 am Post subject:

Funnily i came to Stereolab the other way... While in my noisy years i loved Tim Gane's first project Unkommunity and later was became interested what his new project sounds like.
But from both NWW and Stereolab collaborations i prefer Simple Headphone Mind.

That George Martin was amongst the BBC Crew was new to me. But the Beatles aren't on top of my favourites although i really love some of their songs like Within You Without You, Come Together, Revolution, back in the USSR and others...

Speaking of the BBC People the one record i adore much over the rest is the first White Noise LP An Electrical Storm... unbelievable when you think that it was released back in 1968...
Luckily most of the Music of most BBC Contributors is now easily available and re-issued.
As we had the Beatles mentioned and the year 1968, what about the Silver Apples and their 1st LP? And as we are already there i forgot to mention Suicide too.

There are still dozens of other artists i like and that in some manner influenced my musical tastes and therefore the style of Music i'm making or trying to make...

tony void · Joined: Apr 26, 2011 Posts: 40 Location: Parma, Ohio

I got introduced to Eno's work at a young age in the early '70's. As well as Todd Rundgren, Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson and I'm sure you get the picture. basically I had a hip Uncle Tim who collected records and had awesome taste in music.
During the '80's it was Human League, Thomson Twins that really got me. I still hold the timbrel qualities of Dare and Side Kicks very appealing.
by the end of the that decade I was in college and getting schooled on the early electronic guru's Henry, Schafer, Varese, etc. from there Avant Guard has been my main focus.

varice · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 6:06 pm Post subject:

The moment that I got bitten by the synthesizer bug was when I first heard Keith Emerson’s Moog modular on ELP’s “Lucky Man”. It was a wow!

, what the hell is THAT Question

experience. After that, I was pretty much an equal opportunity synth music consumer. Any decent rock band that used a synth effectively would be added to my record collection as soon as I could scrape up some cash. Of course that meant all of ELP’s early albums, Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and “Wish You were Here”, and even Wing’s “Band on the Run”, Joe Walsh’s “The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get”. Later on in the 70’s I liked The Steve Miller Band, Yes, Kansas, Styx, and Rush.

But in the meantime, a greater electro-music influence for me came when I first heard Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”. After that were the works by Carlos, Tomita, Tangerine Dream, Synergy, Vangelis, and Jarre. I was amazed by all of this great music, and I still am to this very day.
And so these early influences have affected my own music making. They are probably easy to detect in some of the music that I have posted here on electro-music.com:

http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-59945.html

http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-43025.html

A E J O T Z · Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 8:36 pm Post subject:

wackelpeter,

I just listened to White Noise, An Electrical Storm on YouTube.
Wow! A true gem!

This is what I hoped would happen when I started this thread; that we might introduce each other to some artists and works we've missed.

Also, I'm pretty sure Tim Gane digested this album thoroughly. It reminded me of late Stereolab with Sean O'Hagan several times.

On the other hand, sometimes different artists sound somewhat similar only because the artists have similar tastes and/or influences.

Anyway, thanks for the tip!

wackelpeter · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 1:51 pm Post subject:

Sorry for the late reply, but didn't got a notification mail that someone responded to this thread...

Glad to hear that you like the White Noise Album... I have to confess that i for myself discovered this true gem only a few years (6 or 7) ago...

my first thoughts are also wow what a great record... most electronic music of that era i know where only pioneers like Henry, Tudor and Schaeffer for example... but these are at sometimes not very easy listening... i've stumbled upon this i think via discogs, which is in my opinion a really good source and library dedicated to not only electronic music...
there are a lot of things to discover and i still do...

Maybe as we are here in an heavily diy inspired Forum i should mention the first two Silver Apples records... for that time also way ahead from other eletronic musicians... maybe not ahead but at least i would say a bit different...
two People on drums and self-built synth with vocals (okay the voice of the vocalist is sometimes not so well suited for my tastes... but the whole Songs are really intersting and nice to my ears...

as i've seen there are also a few People here liking field recordings i would like to recommend the work of swiss artist Marc Zeier aka G*Park, especially his two latest vinyl releases "Reuters" and "Gour"
Not exactly the same but also from switzerland Norbert Möslang member of Voice Crack... Very intensive sounds made out of found objects, field recordins, home made instruments and every day electronic Utensils...

...and maybe not to Forget my favorite Video Clip of the Severed Heads whose early work up to 1984 i really enjoy... well that is my poppy side of music... it Shows some of the maybe less academic methods how they created some of their sounds... always good for a smile and a laugh...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0goKMpB4Y

Queer

Skrog Productions · Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 9:34 am Post subject:

I think it was hearing "Blancmange - Don't tell me" on the radio when I was a youngster opened my ears to synth sounds , my older sister had cassette tapes by Depeche mode (some great reward / construction time) / communards / Human League , and there was synth music on UK TV intros too I liked , clothes show (PSB- in the night) ,where there's life (Jarre- Oxygen) .

Dave.

Smile

agerven · Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2016 2:05 pm Post subject: My synth music influences

My sister started it all, long ago, when she brought Klaus Schulze's album Picture Music to our house. I was just fascinated by it. The music of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream has intensively accompanied me for decades.
Another great influence was Vangelis China album. Also various documentaries about John Cage were fascinating.

In the 1990s I was fortunate enough to play a small part in the Eindhoven (Netherlands) golden years of music with Ron Boots, Bas Broekhuizen, Erik van der Heijden and various others.

Not much later I discovered Steve Roach and Robert Rich.