Saturday 30 April 2011

Hey Hey

Look at this amazing example of british post war modernism. I would love to live in this house, but somehow I think it would be easier to find a way of transporting this beautiful thing to be nearer to where I live than it would be for me to uproot and relocate to Yorkshire






Want 3

Its such a shame I got all my lottery numbers wrong this week, because on ebay today is a mixing desk that I would like in my studio. You might have seen my other blog which is all about recording consoles and from that you can gather that I am fairly obsessed with these things, and the Neve 8078 is regarded by many to be the best ever made. Apparently this one has been in the same studio since it was first commissioned in 1977






Want 2

Heres another synth I saw on matrixsynth, this time from craigslist. OK, I know I've already got a Moog 3C, but you can never have enough modules can you.

This is what the seller says:

"Howdy,

Here is your once in a life time chance to own a vintage Moog Modular. If you are looking at this I probably don't need to tell you about the history of Moog and the importance these early modulars had on the impact of music. This is THE classic vintage analog synthesizer. This Moog modular is all original, and was made in 1969! All modules have close serial numbers, with matching stamped manufacture date from March 6th, 1969. It has been well preserved over the years and is in excellent shape for a 40+ year old instrument. This synth is fully functional and has recently been restored and fully serviced, including a recap, touching up the keyboard for perfect triggering, with replaced bushing for smoother action, and a cleaning of all pots and jacks. Cosmetically it is in great shape too, the only major issue is the rear a small piece of wood was cut away to tuck the keyboard cables under. You aren't likely to find another one from this year in such all original and nice condition!
Even includes the original keyboard.

Price is $35,000

Some of the modules included, all dated from March 6th, 1969, are:

901 Voltage Controlled Oscillator
901-A x2 Oscillator Controller
901-B x5 Oscillator
902 x2 Voltage Controlled Amplifier
903 White Sound Source
904-A Voltage Controlled Low Pass Filter
904-B Voltage Controlled High Pass Filter
904-C Filter Coupler
905 Reverberation Unit
910 Power Supply
911 Envelope Generator
907 Fixed Filter Bank
984 Four Channel Mixer
950 Keyboard

Serious buyers only. Please reply with phone number. Cash preferred, may possibly be interested in a partial trade for other high end synthesizers (Arp 2500, 2600, EMS AKS Synthi VCS3, Buchla) or high end recording equipment (Neumann microphones, u47 u67 preamps, compressors)
See pictures below. More pictures are available per request. This synth is actually located in SF, but for a serious buyer I can deliver it to LA.
You are welcome to come test it out in person. We can ship it, but all money must clear before shipment. Skype demos are available if you are not local. I recommend that you better come hear it in person though, once you start patching and playing with this you won't want to give it up!"





Want 1

I saw this over on matrixsynth a few days ago, its a very interesting synthesiser made in the mid 70s. Its being sold as not working, and is really cheap at the moment, but the seller is in CA USA and won't ship to the UK. These pictures are from the auction, and the video is from vintagesynthexplorer, where you can read some (rather sketchy) info about it






Friday 29 April 2011

Commercial Break

I saw a link on matrixsynth to more scans from the retro synth ads blog and I couldn't resist putting some pictures up here. So thats a blog-blog-reblog thingy







Thursday 28 April 2011

WTF? 2

Turn it Down a Wee Bit

Dury Drumming

I've been getting into Ian Dury again recently, what a geezer (and funky too). Check out this great vintage doc on youtube: part one

Saturday 23 April 2011

Brown

Saw this great picture scanned in by Chris Carter from an old Roland catalog



Reminds me of this:

Thursday 21 April 2011

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Underpassed

Look at this great footage of us playing Underpass at the Troxy. Thanks Tara! See also here

Blank Media World



Me and Joe took a spin down to Margate to see the new Turner Contemporary gallery which just opened, and we met up with Dan and Nick there

Margate is a strange place, seemingly stuck in at least three different pasts if that is possible - part Victorian promenade, part Art Deco lido, part post-war / pre-easyjet holiday destination. This place is a mess! Quite why they have plonked a huge modernist contemporary art museum here with its car park overlooking the best bit of seafront is beyond me, but judging by the rest of the town's jumble of architectural disasters, I'm guessing that some unusually retarded town planning officers are to blame. In fact, this place is so bad its good!

The gallery itself is superb, but at the moment is let down by a very lacklustre show including what must be J M W Turner's worst ever painting

Anyway, I took some pics of Margate so see below my own little gallery of our day out to the seaside



















Tuesday 19 April 2011

Addiction

I just missed this one on ebay. These are very interesting looking synths, and I have only ever seen one come up before about 10 years ago. This one was in NJ USA so would have been a complicated buy from here in the UK as the seller wanted to keep it in the US, but it went very cheap - £450. This video was made by the seller I believe, who is called fsiz. It came with an Apple IIe computer and the editing software. Damn!


Yesterdays World

I was having breakfast in my home town of Loughton yesterday and I noticed on the other side of the road this shop. I grew up in Loughton and remember when they first fitted this shopfront and I thought how incredibly futuristic it looked and how daringly space age the world had become:

Monday 18 April 2011

Forest of Evil



So just to prove how great some of these lost library treasures are, here is a link to one of my favorite De Wolfe albums, Forest of Evil Part 2 composed by Eric Allen & Frank Reidy in 1981. As a general rule of thumb, I have found whilst searching through the huge amount of library music out there that the albums and tracks I like best are the darker and more suspenseful ones, as opposed to the lighter stuff, and the good news is that in the library music world tracks are generally given very descriptive names, such as 'forest of evil'. I only wish that the rest of the music industry would follow this trend. This album has a very dark edge, and combines acoustic and electronic instruments beautifully, so typical of its time

Here is a link to the zip

Below is track 4 from the album, March of Time



Into the Trunk



There was a great program on BBC Radio 4 this week about library music. Its made by the wonderful Johnny Trunk, he of Trunk Records, who I met in 2008 when he interviewed me on his radio show. I find it slightly troubling that there even needs to be a special program on the BBC about this subject, because in my opinion there should be a regular outlet for this huge archive of amazing music, so come on BBC, give Johnny a weekly show!

So here is the full 30 minute show, called Into The Music Library, first aired on BBC radio 4 on 12th April 2011



Sunday 17 April 2011

A Word in Your Eye

I just discovered the work of Ken Garland