Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site peora.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!petsd!peora!jer From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) Newsgroups: net.music.synth,net.music Subject: Re: Synth band discussion Message-ID: <966@peora.UUCP> Date: Wed, 22-May-85 13:23:23 EDT Article-I.D.: peora.966 Posted: Wed May 22 13:23:23 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 24-May-85 03:27:52 EDT References: <526@sftig.UUCP> Organization: Perkin-Elmer SDC, Orlando, Fl. Lines: 39 Xref: watmath net.music.synth:285 net.music:7647 > However, with the exception of Kraftwerk, the above mentioned > bands were more analog artists than synthetic artists. Now, this is a dismal way of judging music, that it should be digitally produced! There is currently this fascination with getting away from analog music-production; look in net.music, where everyone has this fascination with music recorded on digital media; music that has a vague discomforting feel, as if it was covered with small fine hairs. Then, I will patently attack your evaluation criterion, as being based on a desire to be "trendy," rather than on any merit of the music itself. And I will do it this way: I will assert that the almost purely analog Tales from Topographic Oceans, by Yes, is the major contribution to music made by our present era; because unlike the groups you have cited, at least those with which I am familiar, it strives to employ synthesized music in new ways (as vs. those that are simply imitative of traditional musical forms), while maintaining sufficient contact with the traditional forms that the music remains melodic, and not simply noise*. This is accomplished by the use of a continuum ranging from the purely accoustic guitar of "Along Without You," to the purely synthesized (except for drums) sounds of the fight scene in "Ritual" (which itself resolves in an amazing way back to the purely accoustic piano in the transition to "Nous Sommes du Soleil"). This is where the majority of modern-day electronic music fails. While it is interesting, it is emotionally dead material, striving to be purely synthetic, but thereby inhuman. -- jer ---------- * The philosophy underlying this is explained in the bizarre song "Sound Chaser," by the way. -- Full-Name: J. Eric Roskos UUCP: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer US Mail: MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC; 2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642 "Vs vg'f qvssvphyg, be rkcrafvir, be byq, vg zhfg or tbbq." -- Cuvybfbcul bs arg.erp.cubgb