Category Archives: Music

Glam Days

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Hopefully this blog will not degenerate into a series of YouTube highlights, but since I broke the ice with the Nina Hagen post, I thought I’d add another peek at an era young viewers are probably not familiar with. Frankly, the beginning of term leads me to seek relaxation on certain days (you might be able to guess specifically which days) and there are times when light entertainment is needed.

First up, “White Punks on Dope” by The Tubes, a tongue-in-cheek send-up of early 70’s glam band excess. You’ll recognize the tune from Nina Hagen’s “TV Glotzer”: Nina borrowed the song but changed the words. Not sure how that would have worked out copyright-wise. Other than being hilarious, this video is a record of the Tubes’ UK tour, which made an impact on early UK punk, or so goes the story.

This dates back to my pre-teen years. I can vaguely recall this catchy tune being on the radio. My family made a trip back home to the UK in the early 1970’s and I can remember watching glam bands on TV, most likely on “Top of the Pops” rather than the more mature “Old Grey Whistle Test”. I also have a surreal memory of some teachers getting our class to dance to Gary Glitter‘s early 70’s glam anthem “Rock and Roll Part 2”. That must have been either grade six or seven.

Two excellent acts of the glam era were David Bowie and Brian Eno (with Roxy Music during Glam). First, a recently re-discovered video of David Bowie in a 1973 Top of the Pops performance of “The Jean Genie” a pun on the name of controversial writer Jean Genet. It seems that the BBC had erased this video tape, but one of the cameramen had saved a copy because it used a television camera customized with fisheye lens. The video showed up on YouTube late last year.

In the final video for today, you can watch Brian Eno, when he still had feathers, playing the tambourine and soloing the VCS3 during his glam days with po-mo art school rockers Roxy Music. The VCS3 was an early commercial synth that had only three oscillators and rather unstable voltage controls. These days a VC3 in good condition will fetch more than £5000.

Ich glotz YouTube

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Everyone should know about Nina Hagen.

She wasn’t the first to wear memento mori as a fashion statement: that must go back to Neanderthal times at least. But she may have been the first modern pop star to do so. And she may have been the first to wear pacifier earrings, or perhaps that’s something she noticed a punk doing when she visited London after defecting  East Germany in ’76. Legend has it the punks loved Nina. Who wouldn’t? Isn’t that a Diana camera around her neck? This is about 25 years ahead of the toy camera hipstas!

I was 16 years old when I heard her voice. There has never been anyone else quite like Nina.

「直島銭湯 I♥湯」I♥ユー

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Click for full size

The artist who created this unique and delightful sento Shinro Ohtake (大竹伸朗), must have known I was coming, because just as I entered the hot water, Fripp & Eno‘s 1975 ambient album Evening Star began to play. It was impossible for me to leave without listening to the entire 45 minute album. Needless to say, I had a good long soak.

You can listen to track 2, on YouTube. Try it in the bath.

The First NIME

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The BBC News web site currently has a good article about the Theremin, an electronic instrument invented by Russian Léon Theremin in 1919. Though it was not the first synthesizer, I consider the Theremin to have been the first NIME: earlier electronic synthesizers like the Telharmonium (1897) mainly used keyboard-like controllers. The Theremin, by contrast, is played with non-contact gestures (waving your hands in the air). It is a full blown new electronic instrument, the product of a futurist/modernist outlook and cutting-edge technical mastery (for the day), which opened the potential for completely new forms of human artistic expression.

I am not going to introduce the Theremin here. Better to start by reading the BBC article or Wikipedia entry, both linked above. You can get an idea of how it can be played by watching any number of videos on YouTube. Here’s Léon Theremin’s neice, Lydia Kavina, playing Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”:

The BBC article quotes an interesting statement from Theremin biographer Albert Glinsky which I would like to include here:

RCA felt this was going to replace the parlour piano and anyone who could wave their hands in the air or whistle a tune could make music in their home with this device. The Theremin went on sale in September 1929 at the relatively high price of $220 – a radio set cost about $30. It was also much more difficult to play than the advertising claimed. And just one month later came the Wall Street Crash. You took it home and found that your best efforts led to squealing and moaning sounds. So the combination of the fact that only the most skilled people could teach themselves how to play it and the fact that there was a downturn in the economy meant that the instrument really wasn’t a commercial success

This seems to be a somewhat common story with the most unusual/innovative new music technology – it is difficult to get make significant cultural impact.

The Theremin, however, has had good staying power. It is still a niche instrument with few virtuosi, but you can, in fact, purchase a Theremin and find someone to help you to learn how to make music with it. High quality Theremins are made by Moog Music. As it turns out, electronic instrument pioneer Robert Moog got started by selling Theremin kits while he was still an undergraduate physics student. Moog represents an important link between the earliest NIMEs and contemporary electronic music technology and culture. For this reason we invited Dr. Moog as a Keynote speaker for NIME-04, which was held in Hamamatsu, Japan’s mecca for music technology.

I had the good fortune to invite Dr. Moog to give a talk at the company where I used to work, ATR, in southern Kyoto prefecture. It was a great experience to spend time talking with Dr. Moog and to introduce him to a huge and enthusiastic audience who showed up from all over Japan to hear him speak. I will never forget what a kind-hearted person Bob Moog was.

 

Joseph Beuys in Ubud, Bali

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It has been seven years since I was on the magical island of Bali. So magical that I managed to capture the voice of Joseph Beuys while doing some field recordings in the rice paddies surrounding Ubud:

(A note of thanks to Ableton, Leonardo of Pisa (aka Fibonacci) and, not least, Ubudweb.

 

kuniko plays reich in kyoto

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I’m really looking forward to this concert. What a cool poster!!! It has two holes in the shape of marimba mallets.

On the program:

  • Steve Reich – Electric counterpoint (version for percussion)
  • Steve Reich – Six marimbas counterpoint
  • Steve Reich – Vermont counterpoint (version for vibraphone)
  • Iannis Xenakis – Rebonds (a,b)

More info. about composer Steve Reich is available at his official web site. You can also have a look at the Wikipedia (English, 日本語). Similarly, you might like to read up about Iannis Xenakis at the Wikipedia (English, 日本語) as well as the official Xenakis site in French and English.

Here are the details about the concert from the web page of the Kyoto Art Center:

国内外で活躍するパーカッショニストの加藤訓子を特集するMusic Room vol.10。近年加藤が精力的に取り組むミニマル・ミュージックの作曲家、スティーブ・ライヒの作品を中心に、創造性あふれる演奏をお楽しみください。
日時：2012年3月18日（日）　開演15:00　（開場14:30）
会場：講堂
構成・出演：加藤訓子（パーカッショニスト）
音響空間デザイン：深田晃
料金：一般前売1,800円／当日2,000円、大学生以下1,000円（前売・当日共）
チケット取扱：京都芸術センター窓口<10:00-20:00>、チケットぴあ（Pコード：160-836）にて発売中
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