rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (06/05/84)
> One other Synergy tidbit: Larry Fast > has developed a reputation as "synthesist to the stars", coming up with new > timbres for various groups (to name one, "Foreigner"). I think it may be Thomas Dolby you are thinking of. Thomas Dolby "made his name", in part, by doing session work on Foreigner 4, especially "Waiting for a Girl Like You", their last hit single. My understanding is that Fast does most of his outside work with Peter Gabriel. (Michael Boddicker is the name I most associate with "providing timbres to the stars". To me, he sounds like nothing more than just another hack L.A. studio musician who comes up with nothing new on a bevy of MOR recordings.) By the way, I checked out my recommendation of Fast's work on Peter Gabriel's "San Jacinto". It turns out that on the original cut (from the "peter gabriel" album that wasn't called "SECURITY" on Geffen), it was Gabriel himself who played the Fairlight ("blown drainpipe"---what a great sound; I now get to hear it everywhere; is it a stock sound on the Fairlight?). Actually, the live version of that song is the one that really sends chills down my spine. -- WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Rich Rosen WHAT IS YOUR NET ADDRESS? pyuxn!rlr WHAT IS THE CAPITAL OF ASSYRIA? I don't know that ... ARGHHHHHHHH!
abh@ccivax.UUCP (A. Hudson) (06/06/84)
THE WAY IT USUALLY WORKS:
An experimenter comes up with an original idea,
in this case new synthetic timbres, textures, circuits, techniques.
Examples: Moog with vco oscillators, Fast with computer/synthesizer
interfaces (not the first but rather widely used), Jeff Beck with
the 'talking guitar' effect.
The original idea is then applied to a more 'accessable' (this descriptor
is used by that musical traitor, John Wetton, to describe the mindless
schlep of Asia), commercial medium.
And of course there are fairly popular bands that reap the benefit of
the previous works: J. Geils (Love Stinks), Van Halen, "Jump", Thomas
Dolby and his Fourier driven, real-time wave synthesizer, etc...
In the case where someone brings a 'new sound' to a musical force
there are two opposing viewpoints one can take. One can be viewed as
a Marco Polo bringing new goods, or as a revisionist in the act of
degrading the art form. These views are of course pretty heavily
dependent upon whether 1) you like the music, 2) you like the
band, 3) you like the direction. A lot of people were upset when Dylan
went electric at Monterey, but even more turned on to it when they got over
the initial fright.
"Synthesist of the stars" - I'll reserve personal comment on Dolby's
current direction in his commercial medium. If you're interested,
reply via mail.
--
Andrew
...{rlgvax | decvax | ucbvax!allegra}!rochester!ritcv!ccivax!abh
"From the ever cycling epicenter of Rochester...."peterr@utcsrgv.UUCP (Peter Rowley) (06/06/84)
No, it really was Larry Fast, being interviewed on "The New Music" a couple of years ago. (TNM is a syndicated weekly magazine-format show produced in Toronto by CITY-TV). I'm sorry I can't remember names of other people he came up with sounds for. But, yes, Thomas Dolby did the same kind of work. This seems to be a growing breed-- you could refer to them generically as "programmers". Martin Rushent has done a lot of this for Human League, while never being considered part of the band. peter