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News from the darkest corners of the musical universe:
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Sunday, September 28, 2008 ◦
Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman have just released their new CD, "Destination Space " for Oglio Entertainment Group, Inc. "Destination Space" features Perrey's trademark crazy tape loops and Moog-filled melody lines, featured in 17 brand-new tunes.
Jean-Jacques Perrey is a legend, and a pioneer in the popular electronic music field, and he continues to be a favorite and honored performer at electronic music festivals around the world. In the two years since their last Oglio CD ("The Happy ElectroPop Music Machine"), Perrey and Countryman have performed their special brand of crazy electronic pop in Germany, Norway, England, Holland, France, Switzerland, Romania, Russia and the United States. Young audiences have great respect for this living legend of electronic pop music, who, at age 80, is still composing, still performing and still rocking.
Over the past five decades, Perrey has released many classic Moog albums, featuring his trademark crazy tape loops and his catchy original melodies. His theme "Baroque Hoedown" (co-composed with Gershon Kingsley) has been featured as part of Disneyland's much-loved "Main Street Electrical Parade" for over 30 years. Perrey's "E.V.A." has been sampled by countless popular Hip-hop and Rap artists, including Ice T, Dr. Dre, Fatboy Slim, and many others. His music has been featured in countless commercials, and even The Beatles featured one of his tunes on one of their famous Christmas recordings! The Beastie Boys, Smashmouth, Negativland, They Might Be Giants, and Luke Vibert (to name just a few) have all paid tribute to Perrey in their own music.
Perrey's music partner for "Destination Space" is Seattle arranger and composer Dana Countryman. The CD was recorded in Countryman's studio, in the Seattle area. A culmination of two year's intense work, this CD blazes new musical territory for Perrey and Countryman, this time veering into more rock themes, and they even get funky with a Moog-ed out dance tune: "Funky Little Spacegirl."
Besides Perrey's famous happy-go-lucky space-age pop tunes, "Destination Space" also features several new "Spy" tunes, and Science-Fiction themed musical creations. The closing song to "Destination Space" is "Beyond The Milky Way", Perrey and Countryman's first song, written with lyrics. Always aiming to surprise, the musical duo used computers to synthesize to create artificial singing voices for the song, instead of merely bringing in real singers. The effect becomes an eerie version of "The Carpenters Meet ELO in Outer Space."
"Destination Space" is Perrey's 22nd album in his long career, and at age 80, he is showing no signs of slowing down. A September tour of the East Coast is planned, with shows in NYC, Boston and Montreal. Stayed tuned to www.danacountryman.com for tour dates.
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Friday, September 19, 2008 ◦
Argentine-born composer Mauricio Kagel, whose experimental body of work also ranged into theater, has died in Germany, his publisher said Thursday. He was 76.
The C.F. Peters musical publishing house said Kagel died overnight in Cologne following a long illness, but did not give details on the cause of death.
Kagel was born in Buenos Aires on Dec. 24, 1931, into a Jewish family of German-Russian origin.
A self-taught composer who learned to play instruments including the piano, organ and cello, he studied literature and philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires and at age 18 became an adviser to an avant-garde group, Agrupacion Nueva Musica.
In 1955, he rose to become a director at the Argentine capital's Teatro Colon.
Two years later, he went on a student grant to Germany, where he settled - working in chamber and electronic music. His musical theater piece "Sur Scene" - first performed in 1960 - established a genre of "instrumental theater" that became a prominent part of his work.
Kagel was known for a humorous approach to art, with works such as "Fantasie fuer Orgel and Obligati," which included a toilet flush as an instrument.
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008 ◦
Atavistic has announced the release of a new Sun Ra reissue, Secrets of the Sun, to be released on october 7th.
Secrets of the Sun is one of the last great early 60s Saturn LPs to be reissued, and is one of his classic early New York releases. So rare that it is barely known even by hard-nosed Ra collectors, it contains music related in approach, acoustics, and arrangement to the more widely heard material on Out there a Minute (Blast First). From a fertile period in Ra's oeuvre, the "Solar" years, this group is more loose-limbed and ragged than the Chicago bands, and considerably more edgy.
Read the full anouncement here.
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Monday, September 15, 2008 ◦
Richard Wright, a founder member of Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 65 after battling cancer, his spokesman said.
Wright played the keyboard with the legendary band and wrote music in classic albums such as Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here.
His spokesman said: "The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness, that Richard died ... after a short struggle with cancer. The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this difficult time."
Wright's spokesman did not say from what form of cancer the star had been suffering.
The self-taught keyboardist and pianist met fellow band members Roger Waters and Nick Mason while at architecture school.
He was a founder member of The Pink Floyd Sound in 1965, and the group's previous incarnations, such as Sigma 6.
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Thursday, September 04, 2008 ◦
An important chapter of British pop-music history goes on sale today. Two thousand master tapes recorded by celebrated 60s producer Joe Meek are being auctioned at the Idea Generation Gallery in London. They are expected to fetch 300,000 GBP.
Meek committed suicide in 1967 and the tapes passed on to Cliff Cooper, who worked with the producer when playing bass with the Millionaires. Totaling over 4,000 hours of music, they contain previously unheard songs by Billy Fury, Tom Jones and David Bowie's first band, the Konrads, as well as forgotten 60s stars as the Honeycombs, John Leyton and Heinz, all of whom had UK No 1s with Meek.
Read the full story here
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Monday, September 01, 2008 ◦
Jimmy Carl Black, former drummer for Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, has been diagnosed with lung cancer.
The Idiot Bastard Son website reports: "I spoke with Jimmy Carl Black last week following his operation to remove a tumour on his lung. He confirmed that, despite what he had been told, the tumour was in fact cancerous. He sounded fairly chipper, but they say they can now only treat him with more chemotherapy. He comes out of hospital on today (Monday 1 September) and will soon start his treatment as an out patient."
To help Jimmy pay his mounting medical bills, there's a special limited edition CD called Stick Man For Ever! available to buy here. There are also plans for a beneift concert in the UK in November.
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