Sonic Boom (Pete Kember) does Kraftwerk’s Hall of Mirrors.

via spacemetalizer:

Here he is! Finally, after many years, I got a chance to see the great Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom, formerly of Spacemen 3)… I filmed this at the Toronto record store Sonic Boom, in their basement where he did a 3 song set- February 4, 2008.

The tune is ‘Hall of Mirrors’ by Kraftwerk.

Sunday Synth Jam: This video captures a great cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, arranged for piano, vocal, theremin and MIDI theremin by Peter Pringle.

Details on the theremins & synths used below.

via copperleaves:

First of all, I’m sorry this video is so long but I wanted to sing all the verses of it that I could find. Leonard Cohen (who wrote the song) said that he wished people would stop singing it but you might as well ask people to stop looking at the Mona Lisa! In its genre, this song is a masterpiece.

I discovered Leonard Cohen back in the early 60’s when a family friend gave my parents a copy of LOVE WHERE THE NIGHTS ARE LONG, a collection of the works of Cohen and his friend and mentor, the late, brilliant Irving Layton. I had never really appreciated poetry until I read that book. Perhaps what has always impressed me most about Leonard Cohen’s work is his ability to be distant and objective about his subject while resting quietly in its heart.

There are two theremins in this video, Samuel Hoffman’s 1929 RCA and the Moog MIDI Ethervox. I have never been able to sing and accurately play the theremin at the same time, so verse three (where I play the Hoffman RCA) is the only verse where I did not sing live. The MIDI theremin (which you see on verse five) is fairly easy to play while singing. Simple gestures of the arm trigger sounds from a separate MIDI module (in this case a Roland JV 2080).

The keyboard on this video is a Korg Triton Extreme (doubled with a Roland Fantom XR). The advantage of an electronic keyboard over an acoustic piano is that there is no leakage into the vocal mike when a singer is playing and singing at the same time. Nothing will ever replace a good Steinway but the latest generations of electronic keyboards are awesome!

The mike I used is a cordless Sennheiser that I have had for years. It was given to me by Sennheiser when they sponsored a tour in the 1980’s and it works as well today as it did when I got it.

Here’s a little bit of trivia you may not know about the RCA theremin in this video. According to Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong’s biographer, Andrew Smith, Armstrong actually took a recording of this theremin with him into space for the moon landing in 1969. The previous owner of this instrument, Dr. Samuel Hoffman, used it on his 1947 recording, MUSIC OUT OF THE MOON. Neil Armstrong liked the sound of it so much that he made a cassette tape of it from his personal record collection and took it with him to the moon.

Andrew Smith ends his book, MOONDUST, with the following words, “…..when I’ve thought of Apollo, I’ve thought of him [Neil Armstrong] and his little band drifting out there toward the secret Moon…..spilling theremin music out at the stars.”

They don’t make music videos like this anymore – if they ever did.

This video pairs Les Baxter’s version of Bach’s Prelude # 1 in C, from the Album Moog Rock, with a clip from the German TV show PARIS AKTUELL from 1967.

Anybody else think it’s time for these styles to come back?

Sunday Synth Jam: Here’s another nice synth jam via mik300z, a cover of Vangelis’ We Were All Uprooted, From Earth:

A piece from Vangelis’ first solo album Earth.

Thanks to a certain youtuber (cheers Phil) who sent me the album at the beginning of the summer, It just grows on you, the unique unworldly atmospherics of organ and percussion.

Hope you like the video, tried to keep everything like 1974!

• Akai s3000- percussion and rain effect
• Juno G- organ, jamisen ,percussion, whistle, thunder
• Microkorg and Juno 106 -bassJuno 6 -haunting lead
• Korg x5 – mandolin
• Drum sequence- ESQ1

Sunday Synth Jam: This is a cover of Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygen 6 on Elka EP-8, showcasing the EP-8’s distinctive sound.

via organfairy:

This is a re-run (notice the hair) of one of my first videos ever. Unfortunately the original post was removed when somebody claimed that their copyrights were violated. But I have read that the composer himself – Jean Michel Jarre – has given permission for amateur performances of his music here on YT. So I’m re-posting this allmost historical video.

The music is made in two layers. The first layer is recorded on the tape you can see running on the tape deck. The other layer is the one I’m doing while recording the video. The rhytm comes from the old (1977) Elka Preludeo 22L. The other voices are played on the Elka EP-8.

This is the teaser video for Kind of Bloop, an 8-bit tribute to Miles Davis’s classic jazz album Kind of Blue, released on the 50th anniversary of the album on August 17, 2009.

Music by chiptune artists ast0r, Virt, Sergeeo, Shnabubula, and Disasterpeace.

I was prepared to hate this album – but after listening to the previews at the album site, I’ve got to admit, it kind of swings.

Digital downloads will be available starting August 20th at the KindOfBloop site.

About the project:

What would the pioneers of jazz sound like on a Nintendo Entertainment System? Coltrane on a C-64? Mingus on Amiga? For years, I’ve wondered what “chiptune jazz” would sound like, but there are only a tiny handful of jazz covers ever made.

To satisfy my curiosity — and commemorate the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue” — I’ve asked five brilliant chiptune musicians to collaborate and reinvent the entire album in the 8-bit sound.

The lineup, in alphabetical order:
Ast0r (Chris J. Hampton)
Disasterpeace (Rich Vreeland)
Sergeeo (Sergio de Prado)
Shnabubula (Samuel Ascher-Weiss)
Virt (Jake Kaufman)

Chariots Of Sagan – Sagan

Sunday Synth Jam: This is Sagan’s cover of Vangelis’ Chariots Of Fire, which was included as an Easter Egg on the DVD of the 2004 release, Unseen Forces.

Sagan was bLevin bLectum, Wobbly, Ryan Junell and J Lesser.

The audio program of “Unseen Forces” will be available on iTunes, Amazon and other online music sites soon enough while the the movie will be released as vignettes on YouTube.

via jlesser

This video captures a monome-based remix of Radiohead’s Reckoner. Details on the remix below.

The track is available as a free download (mp3).

via suitemusic:

This is a video of a remix performance of Radiohead’s “Reckoner” from In Rainbows that I’ve been working out on the monome for a while now.

I’m using my monome 64 running mlrV to chop and sequence each track/loop. The black monome 40h I built with ultraviolet (UV) LEDs is running vu scroll (a scrolling VU meter app) which is picking up the sound in the studio from the laptop’s built-in mic.

All of the audio was recorded and mixed down in Ableton Live 8. I used my laptop’s iSight and a small Sony for the video. I used Adobe Premier Pro CS4 to edit the video (it was my first time using Premier Pro for a project).

Thanks go out to Radiohead for providing the stems of their music and especially monome.org and the monome community for its collective genius and overall awesomeness!

More info here: http://demsuite.com/2009/08/reckoner

Sunday Synth Jam: This is an awesomely atmospheric synth jam, in the style of Desolation Path, from Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack.

via mik300z:

Uploaded this a couple of weeks back, and removed it, apologies!! Anyway , here it is, the feedback from my other vangelis covers prompted me to take another view…

Here it is – the Vangelis Blade Runner cover that will make you weep.

This is the first time I’ve seen someone really nail the lushness and quirkiness of Vangelis’ soundtrack for Blade Runner. It’s not an exact sonic match, but it’s extremely close, it’s live, it sounds great and and it’s a very musical performance, too.

Give it a listen, crank it up and let me know what you think!

Gear-geek details below.

via mik300z:

The Stars of this video are the ESQ 1 for the Cs80 brass leads and the Juno 6 for it’s authentic sounding electronic beeps. The bells and percussion from the Korg x5 and Juno G. Microkorg on strings.

Really enjoyed this and amazing how a few affordable synths can re-create the unique bladerunner sound.

This is beyond cheesy – but typical of the “switched on” Moog music craze of the first wave of synth pop: Eleanor Rigby, from Marty Gold’s Moog Plays The Beatles.

Featuring fashion from 1969!

via cosmocorps2000:

Eleanor Rigby from MARTY GOLD’s album “MOOG PLAYS THE BEATLES” from 1969.Clips from old fashion report, 1969.

This is a video for project Sincura’s cover of Vangelis’ Blade Runner end titles theme.

The electronic drums on this cover don’t pack enough wallop for my taste, but this cover made me realize how horrifically bad the New American Orchestra’s Orchestral Adaptation Of Music Composed For The Motion Picture By Vangelis really is.

via projectsincura:

Ever wonder what your favorite 80’s jams would sound like if they were written around the turn of the century, at the height of the ragtime piano era?

Wonder no more.

Scott Bradlee “squanders his expensive music education making ridiculous YouTube videos”, but where else are you going to hear Never Gonna Give You Up as an ode to President Taft’s epic moustache?

The songs featured are:

• Come on Eileen – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
• Don’t You Want Me Baby – Human League
• THE FINAL COUNTDOWN – Europe
• Axel F – Harold Faltermeyer
• Material Girl – Madonna
• Every Breath You Take – The Police
• Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey
• Living on a Prayer – Bon Jovi
• Never Gonna Give You Up – You’ve Been Rickrolled! ( or Ragtimerolled?)
• Total Eclipse of the Heart – Bonnie Tyler

via ScottBradleeLovesYa

Moog Cookbook – Smells Like Teen Spirit

This is a few years old, but worth revisiting if you have any appreciation for the cheestacular happy synth pop of the 70’s Moog music era.

Moog Cookbook specializes in retro-styled synth pop covers of recent hits.

via upvenue

The London Geek Community iPhone OSCestra performs the Dr. Who theme May 8th at Open Hack London.

Jim Purbrick organized the iPhone orchestra on the spot, using mrmr on the iPhone, and OSCulator and Ableton Live running on his Mac:

After booking a slot for the non-existant iPhone orchestra during the hack demos, I set out to make it exist. With a combination of arm twisting and volunteering I convinced 8 plucky hackers to join the orchestra then spent a few hours auditioning synth patches in Ableton and assiging MIDI controllers to their parameters and tweaking iPhone accelerometer smoothing settings in OSCulator to get a couple of Wiimotes working as drums.

I managed to organise an hour’s rehearsal on Saturday afternoon where we spent the first half trying to connect all of the devices and the second huddled around the laptop trying to hear the audio from the built in speakers. After a bit more tweaking I set up a 3rd Wiimote to launch loops and start and stop the set, allowing me to get in on the fun while conducting and borrowed an amp for our second and final rehearsal.

Adds Purbrick, “It went down a storm with the assembled geeks.”

This Daft Punk Piano Medley, by the Napkin Holder, may drive you to ritual hari kari if you don’t like light lounge piano covers of French electro pop – so consider yourself warned.

via theNapkinHolder:

Harder, Better Faster Stronger,
Da Funk(1:10)
Human After All(1:50)
Robot Rock(2:35)
One More Time(2:53)
Aerodynamic(3:42)
Digital Love(4:41)
Crescendoll(5:46)
Television Rules the Nation(6:06)
Around the World(6:38)
HBFS(7:42)

Andy Baio has announced a project to create an 8-bit CD version of Miles Davis’ jazz classic Kind Of Blue:

What would the pioneers of jazz sound like on a Nintendo Entertainment System? Coltrane on a C-64? Mingus on Amiga? For years, I’ve wondered what “chiptune jazz” would sound like, but there are only a tiny handful of jazz covers ever made.

To satisfy my curiosity — and commemorate the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue” — I’ve asked five brilliant chiptune musicians to collaborate and reinvent the entire album in the 8-bit sound.

The lineup, in alphabetical order:
Ast0r (Chris J. Hampton)
Disasterpeace (Rich Vreeland)
Sergeeo (Sergio de Prado)
Shnabubula (Samuel Ascher-Weiss)
Virt (Jake Kaufman)

I hope to have the entire album download ready for Kind of Blue’s 50th birthday on August 17. (Printing and shipping CDs will take longer.)

The 8-bit take on this jazz classic, Kind Of Bloop, could be epic or awful, but we’ll have to wait until August to know.

Will Kind Of Bloop join its predecessor as one of the ultimate collegiate make-out albums of all-time, or will it be a monstrous carbuncle on the face of an old friend?

Leave a comment with your thoughts!

Earlier in the week, we put up a post on 9 Flavors of Popcorn, a collection of music videos for a variety of versions of the synthpop classic.

Once again, though, a Synthtopia reader, Ian Page-Echols, has topped us – finding an ancient WFMU post that offers no less than 79 covers of Popcorn. They cheat a little and use Prodigy’s Popcorn Techno Dance 99 Remix 1 twice, but it’s a pretty good cover, so why not?

Others on board for this massive collection include Aphex Twin, Kraftwerk, The Boston Pops & twisted children’s musician and techno pioneer Bruce Haack.

A few examples are embedded below; see the WFMU post for the motherload.

Transgendered organist & synthesist Miss Denise Hewitt performs the opening theme from Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra on a modern Technics PR903 Digital Piano, in 1980’s Poly Synthesiser Mode, coupled with electronic organs.

via MissDeniseHewitt:

Also Sprach Zarathustra (Opening Theme) – Composed by Richard Strauss – 1896 – Opus 30 – is one of his famous tone poems, which was inspired by the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. This theme is best known for its dramatic use in the opening credits of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 visionary film – 2001 – A Space Odyssey – based itself on the science fiction novel written by Arthur C Clarke. In the context of the Kubrick Film, the title is often translated as Thus Spake Zarathustra, or even Thus Spoke Zarathustra!

Photo in the opening and closing credits courtesy of the Hubble Telescope – NASA/ESA.

The opening theme from Also Sprach Zarathustra is performed by transgendered musician – Miss Denise Hewitt -

Transgendered Musician Miss Denise Hewitt performs a version of Purcell’s Funeral March of Queen Mary II, by way of Walter/Wendy Carlos’ classic synth soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange.

via MissDeniseHewitt:

Welcome to my Spring 2009 Version of the Theme Music from the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick’s futuristic film – A Clockwork Orange.

I recorded this version to celebrate my 10th Anniversary On-Line – March 1999 to March 2009 Wow! – Originally my on-line tag line in the olden days of Web1.0 was “Denise in Cyberspace”, but since the birth of YouTube and Web2.0 I’ve updated my channel tag to “Dressed for the Classics” – Enjoy the power, depth & beauty of Henry Purcell’s Eternal Theme played on a 20thC Technics PR903 Digital Piano!

Originally written by Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695) for the Funeral March of Queen Mary II (Died 28th December 1694) – This 17th Century Classic Processional Funeral March was originally scored for 4 trumpets, and then adapted for the Main Opening Title Theme Music of the 1971 film “A Clockwork Orange” which was directed by Stanley Kubrick.

he electronic synthesized soundtrack was orchestrated by Wendy Carlos, together with Rachel Elkind, including adaptations of several other extremely well known classical music compositions including several parts of Beethoven’s Chorale 9th Symphony. The full soundtrack also includes excerpts from the William Tell Overture, the Thieving Magpie, Land of Hope and Glory, and the well-known 1st and 4th Pomp and Circumstance Marches composed by Sir Edward Elgar.

Wendy Carlos has been one of my musical inspirations and role models since my teenage years with her revolutionary & futuristic Moog Synthesizer adaptations that include “Switched-on-Bach” from way back in 1968, and of course the highly creative soundtrack for “A Clockwork Orange”. More info on music genius Wendy Carlos at: http://www.wendycarlos.com/

This very personal interpretation and improvised extension of Henry Purcell’s – “Music for the Funeral March & Procession of Queen Mary” (1694) is performed on a vintage late-1990s Technics PR903 Electronic Keyboard by amateur transgendered musician – Miss Denise Hewitt.