[The Devil's Flashback] -- In my experience of being a music fan for several decades, I have found that there are albums that are seared into one's memory, almost imprinted onto the DNA. There are albums that flash furiously and brightly into one's life, but that flash is of limited duration, and even more limited in terms of recollection. And, of course, there are releases that span the gap between. This week's flashback album is of the furious albeit brief variety. In fact, I did not even consciously recall this record until I started listening to its playlist on YouTube.
Electronic and avant-garde composer Nicolas Collins is known as a pioneer in the use of microcomputers and kit-bashed instruments in live performance. His homemade instruments would combine circuitry, simple computers, and traditional instruments. His third album, 1985's Devil's Music, features a performer DJ-ing with snippets of a live scanning radio, for example.
According to Collins himself, "Devil’s Music is a performance piece about global media, local culture and individual interference. It developed in 1985 out of the confluence of my fascination with early Hip Hop DJs, a Cagean love of the splendor of radio, the introduction of the first affordable, portable samplers [nicolascollins.com, June 2009]. Devil's Music is a music collage in which radio transmissions are "digitally sampled, looped, retriggered, reversed, and de-tuned" through a "cheap sampling system (consisting of two Electro Harmonix Super Replays and one 16 second Delay) to develop the quirky rhythmic interplay that characteristizes the piece" [Collins].
Had I not been involved with the Penn State Electronic Music Lab, I probably would never had heard of Collins or this album. It seems I promptly forgot about his work shortly thereafter. But in listening to this album anew, I am pleasantly reminded of my own late hours in the studio, and discussions with the other students attempting to compose pieces from an assortment of loops, Moog recordings, and live instruments.
Your mileage may vary, particularly if you have not noodled around with electronic music, but this record is still an interesting snapshot of everyday sounds turned into fodder for a compositional tapestry. Was it ahead of its time? Well, it was unsuccessful upon release 40 years ago. And I cannot find any commercial information regarding the album's 2009 reissue. At least it hasn't been completely abandoned to the dustbin of history.
Flashback: Devil's Music (July 1985)
And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.
See you in seven!
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