ROLL OVER BEATHEADS
by Robert Heller
Is techno the new classical music or is today's electronica just a load of
old ideas wrapped up in new technology? APHEX TWIN hobnobbing it with
classical gurus like PHILIP GLASS and GAVIN BRYARS, MEGATRIPOLIS unleashing
classical electronic music on its clubbers, MO' WAX sampling Eddie ELGAR:
What _is_ going on? Well, the links between the classical highbrows and
techno slapheads go well beyond hair loss and bad dress sense. Robert Heller
of NME presents the evidence for the prosecution...
***
1974 - JOHN CAGE presents his orchestra with a map of the solar system and
tells them to improvise, musically, using it as the basis for 'Etudes
Astrales' (Astrological Studies) and seriously predating techno's deep space
obsession. KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN later claims to have been born on the planet
Sirius. [And don't forget the cult jazz musician SUN RA who claimed to hail
from Jupiter. -ER ;)]
1995 - JUAN ATKINS as MODEL 500 releases 'Deep Space' - the tracklisting is
featured on an astrological map on the cover. CHILDREN OF THE BONG release
'Sirius Sounds'.
***
1971/2 - STEVE REICH creates the mammoth percussion epic 'Drumming' with
about a million African drums. DAVID FANSHAWE records ethnic African music
for his 'African Sanctus'.
1991/2 - Tribal house sweeps the UK's dancefloors and African drums start
turning up on 'global techno' records like TRANSGLOBAL UNDERGROUND's 'Temple
Head'.
***
1969 - Formation of THE SCRATCH ORCHESTRA, an ultra ideological collective
of musicians dedicated to the subversion of society through classical music.
Their leader, Cornelius Cardew, is believed to have died in a not-so-
accidental hit and run accident.
1991 - Formation of SPIRAL TRIBE, an ultra ideological collective of
musicians dedicated to the subversion of society through hardcore techno.
Their leaders get off lightly by being arrested wholesale for 'Breach Of The
Peace', having their homes searched and being followed by police helicopters.
***
1968 - STOCKHAUSEN gets his performers to poke around the airwaves with a
shortwave radio during his 'Spiral' work, picking up random conversations
over the airwaves.
1994 - SCANNER utilises random conversations picked up over the airwaves on
'Mass Observation'.
***
1967 - PHILIP GLASS returns from India and starts making very repetitive
music where a simple cycle is repeated while more and more parts are added to
the gradually building tune.
1995 - Goa trance party throwers RETURN TO THE SOURCE sell out Brixton
Academy and turn 1,500 people away at the door. And what do they play all
night? Very repetitive music where a simple cycle is repeated... etc.
***
1967 - TERRY RILEY uses live electronic delay on 'Poppy Nogood and The
Phantom Band'.
1974 - KING TUBBY uses live electronic delay to create 'dub' versions of
reggae tunes, effectively inventing the remix.
***
1967 - LAMONTE YOUNG insists his orchestra perform his latest chilled classic
on a beach, to ensure he can soak up those 'lapping waves' vibes instead of
simply recreating them in a studio. He is promptly dropped by CBS.
1994 - HOWIE B. lugs BJORK to the seaside to record 'Hyper Ballad' and a
legion of environmental ambient heads sample waves on their records.
***
1965 - STEVE REICH uses rhytmic tape loops and a recording of an apocalyptic
preacher in full flow on 'It's Gonna Rain'. His follow-up piece, 'Come Out',
predates a thousand rap records by sampling a black youngster who's just been
beaten up by the police.
1981 - BRIAN ENO and DAVID BYRNE use tape loops and the sound of an
apocalyptic preacher in full flow on 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts'. Then
years later, THE ORB rope in the preacher again for 'Gaia'.
***
1964 - Minimalist TERRY RILEY composes 'In C', a piece designed to take
forever to go nowhere, and plays all-night concerts in big tents.
1995 - THE ORB play the Megadog tent at Phoenix.
***
1963 - PIERRE HENRY writes 'Variations On A Door And A Sigh', featuring a
woman climbing inside a piano simulating sex (with extensive use of the piano
lid) for over 40 minutes. Audiences are shocked.
1989 - LIL LOUIS' 'French Kiss' features a woman simulating sex over a
throbbing Chicago house groove. Louis' lack of stamina is revealed when he
clocks in well below the 15-minute mark.
***
1956 - Radio engineers lure STOCKHAUSEN into a studio with a tape of silly
noises. Armed with tape manipulation equipment, filters and a host of
electronic effects, he produces 'Gesang der Junglinge' and demonstrates the
future of music.
1994/5 - The SAHKO label from Finland releases records based around silly
noises, tape manipulation, filters and electronic effects. Naturally, it has
been hailed as the future of music.
***
1952 - JOHN CAGE presents '4'33"' to the world, a piano sonata consisting
entirely of silence.
1994 - The Criminal Justice Bill Mix of ORBITAL's 'Are We Here' consists
of... complete silence, natch.
***
1948 - PIERRE SCHAEFFER assembles music out of everyday noises and sounds
recorded by himself, presses them onto dubplates, then mixes together.
1986 - COLDCUT's 'Beats And Pieces', supposedly the first record to be
constructed entirely from other records; later DJ SHADOW and a generation of
MO' WAX acts repeat the trick and THE ORB asemble ambient house using
everyday noises and sounds.
***
1942 - JOHN CAGE enlists 12 musicians to operate 12 different radios all tune
to different stations. At the same time.
1995 - APHEX TWIN is currently planning a show for experimental club Disobey
featuring 15 DJs from his Rephlex label playing 15 different sets of decks.
At the same time.
***
1939 - JOHN CAGE uses two variable speed record players to create his
'Imaginary Landscape 1'.
Early 1980s - The hip-hop community starts to use two variable-speed record
players to create the backing for rappers, and mixing records together
becomes fashionable.
***
1916 - IVES tells his orchestra to imitate the sound of a train as part of
his 4th Symphony and writes 'Central Park In The Dark', blending night-time
city noises over nice ambient sounds.
1993 - RICHIE HAWTIN, in his FUSE guise, imitates a train on his 'Train Trac'
single for Warp.
1994 - PETE NAMLOOK's 'Environmental Frankfurt' blends night-time city noises
over nice ambient sounds.
***
1908 - SCRIABIN writes 'Poem Of Ecstasy', a piece about mystical shagging,
and uses multi-coloured lightshows at his concerts.
1985 - CLUB DOG starts up and earns itself a reputation for its light shows
and orgiastic parties.
***
1889 - DEBUSSY imitates the sound of a gamelan orchestra; later, JOHN CAGE
will do the same thing by sticking household objects under his piano strings.
1995 - LOOP GURU recreate gamelan sounds on their 'Amrita' album.
***
(from NME 21 October 1995)
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ERkki
Tampere, pHinland
trerra@uta.fi