Mills.Multics@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA (07/20/85)
From: Mills@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA
Since music in sf or vice versa has been a hot topic lately, here is a
review of:
The Android Sisters
Songs of Electronic Despair
As you might guess form the title, its even more obvious if you saw the
jacket, this is an extreamly entertaining album. Whether its good music
or not is quite another story. In fact one of the eleven cuts , "Telephone
Wires in the Tropics", is more a short horror story. The first two cuts,
"Sss-X Minus One" and "Invasion" are snappy, but somewhat disconnected.
I particularly like the arrangment of Invasion. I am tempted to say its
not quite like anything I have ever heard before, but that could describe
most of the album realy well. A key exception to this whould be the cut
"Livin' in the 50's", which is a realy fun electronic parody. While on the
humour end of things the cut "Down on the Electronic Farm" is probably one
of the funniest songs I have ever heard. The strange part is that I can't
realy figure out why. If you can imagine a mixture of a classic "Ompa"-type
rythym, with an overvoice of very high femalish voices doing a very tame
version of rap using 3-4 word sentences, all on top of a symphony of sentient
quasi-animals, you get the idea sort of. About the most normal cut on the
album is probably "Robots Are Coming". It wouldn't be hard to imagine DEVO
or Gary Numan doing something like this, but the tonal fabric is very
different. The album even includes a lesson on how to make your music so
you don't have to listen to the dumb music on the radio any more. "Dumb is
Fun" shows you how to create your own in a Top-Down manner. And how could
anyone resist a cut by the title, "Macho Robot or The Banana Trilogy"?
If you like sf and unusual modernistic electronicish music, this record
is a must. Also if you have been interested in hearing some of the more
bizare things the Synclaviar II can do, this is for you.
Believe it or not this is a real review. The Android Sisters, Songs of
Electronic Dispare is available from:
ZBS Foundation
RR#1, box 1201
Fort Edward NY 12828
The album is $8.50 plus $1.00 for 4th class or $2.50 for 1st class shipping.
If you call ZBS at (518) 695-6404 or -3960 they will probably send a catalog.
John Mills