Friday, September 20, 2013

The Shape Of Things That Hum



The Shape of Things That Hum 
is a synthesizer documentary series that first aired by Channel 4 in the UK during 2001.

The series focused on electronic instruments that helped shaped modern music, with every episode focusing on a specific instrument. The episodes were broadcast between 01.30am and 01.41am, and featured musicians talking about classic vintage synthesizers, including the DX7 that defined the sound of the 1980s.


Production company Allied Forces
Producer Jacques Peretti
First broadcast 2001
Original channel Channel 4 (UK)
Genre documentary
No. of episodes 8
Length 11 minutes (episode)

Episodes:

Mini Moog (15-01-2001) - Cult electronic instruments that helped to shape modern music.

Vocoder (22-01-2001) - Developed as a scrambling device in World War II, includes interviews with Orbital and Rick Wakeman.

DX7 (29-01-2001) - Synthesizer that defined the sound of the 1980s. Interviews with Vince Clarke and Nick Rhodes.

Fairlight (05-02-2001) - Computer based snthesizer offering sampling, digital recording, sequencing and editing. Includes Nick Rhodes.

Simmons (12-02-2001) - Includes producer Arthur Baker talking about making "Planet Rock".

Roland TB-303 (19-02-2001) - House innovators Coldcut and Orbital discuss the Roland 303 synthesizer.

Roland TB-808 (26-02-2001) - Includes producer Arthur Baker, plus Ray Keith talks about the importance of the bass.

Akai Sampler (05-03-2001) - Instrument that helped fuel the rave scene and the white label explosion

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington to release Darkside album


Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington will release an album as Darkside on October 8th.

It'll be the duo's first album together, and follows the release of the Darkside EP on Jaar's now defunct Clown & Sunset label in 2011, as well as their full-album remix of Daft Punk's Random Access Memories earlier this year. These days Jaar has a new label venture, Other People, and it'll be that imprint that co-releases Psychic under licence from Matador. News of the album first surfaced via Jaar's Twitter account on August 21st—this was followed by a performance at New York venue 99 Attorney St. on the same day, where they played the album in full. You can listen to the first 11 minutes of Psychic via the YouTube video below:


Tracklist
01. Golden Arrow
02. Sitra
03. Heart
04. Paper Trails
05. The Only Shrine I've Seen
06. Freak, Go Home
07. Greek Light
08. Metatron

Other People and Matador will release Psychic on October 8th, 2013.