Next level. "Radiophonic Workshop" – no cognizance? Read the
previous post.
Reading some scarps of
Ekkehard Ehlers' interiview (cannot clearly recall the source) I've found a line on matter of two questions: "What?" and "How?", both are endlessly relevant for a listener (by the way, in that interview, Ehlers rejects the influence of "How?" question on his own experiments... a slyness, I think). In opposition, isn't it bewitching to look at
Thomas Brinkmann cutting and scratching 12'' with a knife
(a short video) for his "Klick" or the
Staalplaat YOKOMONO 10 vinyl killers - toy car record players, each customised with its own fm transmitter when the sound comes through a set of radios receiveing the signals transmitted by the toy VWs. It's not the problem of spectacularity. Here the process becomes a part of the final result
(a short video).
So this post is an extract of the Radiophonic's "tech" history, the history of the process. Cause when in 1959 you're asked to produce "...out of existance..." (citation from Delia Derbyshire (will not link her name – the next post theme!) interview from BBC Radio Scotland's Orginal Masters in 1997) sound, you have no choice but to fail or to become a pioneer.
There are few "tech" facts listed below in no particular order which impressed me while familiarize with BBC Radiophonic Workshop in pre-synth era.
"In 1958, the Radiophonic Workshop began by providing musique concrète material for radio. Using a wide range of equipment, often obtained from other departments, it soon acquired an enviable reputation for the sounds and music that it created for radio and television".
© Ray White 2001 (and all texts in quotation marks further).
| M I X I N G
"Sound mixing was provided by an outside broadcast mixer, originally used during the war. Jeff Bottom of Radio Projects once recited a tale concerning a mixer that had been installed in the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral for Winston Churchill’s funeral. For some inexplicable reason, it managed to fall down from the BBC’s commentary position onto the aisle of the church, but was almost unscathed, apart from the glass in its meters and the valves. However, to the credit of BBC engineering, but not to those in the vicinity, it left an embarrassing dent in the floor!"
| T A P E M A C H I N E S
"In 1962, the Workshop received six
Philips tape machines. These were the first high-quality machines to be used in the Workshop. All incorporated three tape heads (erase, record and replay), allowing the user to check the quality ‘off tape’ whilst creating a recording. Although only considered ‘semi-professional’, they were absolutely perfect for fast editing. A standard BBC editing block and a splicing tape dispenser was fitted to each machine. Single-sided razor blades were used for editing: this was a safety nightmare, requiring ‘razor-blade’ boxes that would ensure their safe disposal. In front of the tape deck was a BBC-designed panel containing switches that could prime the ‘remote start’ facility provided on the mixing desk. This allowed the machine to be started in playback or record, with green and red indicators on the desk showing the setting. Three of these machines were arranged in a line, allowing a tape to pass through the heads of every machine. A special remote control box allowed one or more machines to be started by means of a single switch. This was an incredibly flexible arrangement, since any of the machines could be in recording mode. The tape could be drawn out as a loop between any pair of machines, or a tape loop could be created that returned from the third machine back to the first. Such a loop was conveniently held at tension by a special spring-loaded ‘loop stand’. This was a modified microphone stand with a sprung arm, the end of which contained a tape guide".
| E F F E C T S
Reverberation "was provided by a small echo room located in the basement of the building. This had bare painted walls, was cold and damp, but had a loudspeaker with an amplifier at one end and a microphone at the other. It featured a sloping ceiling, although the author never really found out whether this was for acoustic reasons or simply a structural necessity. Despite having a reverberation time fixed by the dimensions of the room, the actual sound quality was quite good".
Delay, "discovered first as the delay introduced between the record and replay heads of a tape machine, later been explored running a tape directly from the left hand spool of one tape machine to the right hand spool of another, passing both sets of record and replay heads. By drawing the tape out between two machines on a sprung loop stand (or bottles, if stands weren’t available), the delay on the output from the second machine could be extended. Also, the audio output of the second machine could be carefully mixed back into the input of the first machine, so creating rising and falling ‘waves’ of sound". But still it was impossible to get the delay in range of 1/100 second using the scheme mentioned above. The inquisitive Italian company Binson offered tape echo effects without the hassle of tape. "...
Binson Echorec Baby, had a spinning metal drum, surrounded by tape heads that produced multiple delays".
Stretching. "Another device, the
Tempophon, was strapped to the side of a tape machine, with the tape passing its spinning replay head. Since the tape speed in relation to this head was set by the Tempophon itself, irrespective of the actual speed, it was possible to vary the pitch without altering the tempo".
Composite effects or processing tricks. "Echo rooms, plates and springs were commonly used. Most echo springs gave awful results, although hitting them could often generate interesting sounds! One popular trick involved copying a tape backwards and adding reverb, then playing it forwards to give a reverse echo. Equalisers, preferably of the "graphic" type, were much in vogue for musique concrète. Passive versions, comprising simply of coils and capacitors, often provided a remarkable degree of quality (Q), enabling dramatic changes to be made to any sound. The mechanical voices were created using a simple ring modulator, consisting of three transformers and a ring of four diodes. An untreated speech signal was connected to the ‘main’ input, with a low frequency (usually upwards of 15 Hz) applied to the ‘carrier’ input. A multiplexer – this specially-constructed device contained of a circle of fixed capacitor vanes, connected to the outputs of the tape recorders. The multiplexer’s output came from a rotating vane, driven by a variable-speed motor. As this turned, each signal was heard in sequence, one sound fading into the next".
| S A M P L I N G
There is no special point in listing the sources of sounds used at the Workshop as such could take "a while". Just wanted to mention an interesting machine, sort of storage – "the BBC’s Programme Effects Generator (PEG) provided ‘spot effects’ for radio drama. This device used a separate tape cartridge for each effect, the tape being pulled out of the cartridge, played and then drawn back in again. A further development of PEG was the Mellotron, a keyboard instrument with cartridges containing sampled instruments".
End. Next level – Delia Derbyshire.
"Lady Jaye died suddenly on Tuesday 9th October 2007 at home in Brooklyn, New York from a previously undiagnosed heart condition which is thought to have been connected with her long-term battle with stomach cancer. Lady Jaye collapsed and died in the arms of her heartbroken "other half" Genesis Breyer P-Orridge."
Back to work on Thuersday. Two weeks of vacation passed... passed hardly. Cause this time I spent my annual leave in ruins, reconstructing our kitchen. 24 hours (in sum) spent in IKEA. A day or so – on construction market. And the rest of time – separeted in one room stuffed with kitchenware, used and freshly wrapped, with the door looked from the outside by the deliberate builders. And now it just would be fatal to push me into the office. So, as far as I got my visa (it was approved but I still have no documents in hands) I'm going to prolong my leave - detination - Florida, Palm Coast... Scarcely I will find any SH record stores in there and for sure I will not be able to ripp any of the items bought, if... so, no profit for the bloggers... but at least I'll spend a few days in another dimension.
"Yeah, I take my baby down to the corner and I buy him a soda-pop" 
Sounds like a manifesto "Trust, Obsession, Action". Three more pieces by Chris & Cosey.
Sleepless for 24 hours by now. Accidentely hit on a clip from Werner Herzog's "Auch Zwerge haben klein Angefangen" ("Even Dwarfs Sarted Small") ' 1969. Lay this out together with work of one of my favorite photogrpaphers Roger Ballen. The image above is a piece from "Shadow Chamber" series I've once managed to pull into "a" magazine although it's too bizzare to be printed in non-art-observing periodical. One cigarette and go to bed.
One more thing from Shanghai. I promised myself not to re-upload gemms I'd downloaded from any other site and before this upload I'd kept my promise. But this EP sounds so similar to the previous post subject and was in such a heavy rotation duiring our stay in China that I think... I'll Bring Philip "Endoscopy" ' 1983. Previously posted by Mutant Sounds and described in full caliber by Vdoandsound.
No uptades for a while... We (me and my wife) have travelled to Shanghai. Now we are back with a whole bunch of impressions these are slightly vapouring from day to day - work, ordinary needs, unusual heat (yesterday it was 43 degrees centigrade here in Moscow) help to make these transparent faster. So, in attempt to "keep it real" I post the Shanghai OST... no playlist, no miscellaneous assemblage of pop masterpieces of all the times - just an EP that had pierced through my head in it's "stereo" manner during our stay in China. A while ago Vdoandsound (Eric Lumbleau) wrote on Mutant Sounds: "Damaged electropop-into-mutant-funk curiosity, sounding not remotely like anything else I've ever heard." Same shit here, Eric... 
Genesis P-Orridge: “As to the Cosey being with Chris situation beinganything to do with TG splitting up. Absolutely not. Cosey and Chris had been sleeping together since we all met. Often in the bed with me. Yes I was very heartbroken initially to see her leave. But mainly because she felt compelled to do it secretly, behind my back, not in a mature, open way. The deception made me distraught. By 1981 I was married and very happy with everything except TG." ' Taken from the footnotes to "PostPunk 1978-1984" by Simon Reynolds.
First of all, this child above is completely OK... For wonderers, there is the whole story at end of the post.
"Twentieth Century" is a literal translation of "Siglo XX" from Spanish. But "Siglo Iks Iks" or "Siglo Veinte" also terms an anarchist movement during the Spanish civil war...
The Au Pairs formed in Birmingham in 1979, part of what became known as the "second wave" of punk, or simply "post-punk". The Au Pairs was fronted by Lesley Woods (on vocals and guitar (who was at the time one of only a handful of "out" lesbians in the whole punk music scene). The other members included guitarist Paul Foad, bassist Jane Munro and drummer Pete Hammond. 
Here is Martha and the Muffins – a new wave band out of Toronto that got started in 1977 and "Metro Music" - their debute LP dated 1980.
Third – I still count gems of mine. And the first LP I bought... Kevin Dunn and the Regiment of Women "The Judgement of Paris", Armageddon Records 1981, Atanta. Of course, I thought it was Kevin Drumm... was in such a nervous tremor, visiting the vintage LP store near by for the first time=). Thanks God, it was Dunn... First a Fan, then sole leader (and member) of a Regiment of Women.
The Sensational Creed is kinda band-phantom for me... absolute info absence. I mailed to Mutant Sounds and left comments on several blogs more in attemp to get any info that would be somewhat more than just niggardly cat description. Well, anyway, The Sensational Creed "Nocturnal Operations" is a masterpiece... and nevertheless I cannot inform you in a worthy manner, this LP is the one I would like to share more than any. Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin. In 1977, spurred by the prevailing DIY aesthetics of the British punk rock movement (then at the height of its popularity), they decided to join the fray as an independent label and release records under the Beggars Banquet imprint. Two daughter labels, Situation Two and 4AD Records, were launched to release artists like The Pixies, Cocteau Twins and others. Situation Two was the label to press the first The Sensational Creed 7'' under the same name three years later their 12'' "Nocturnal Operations" was pressed on Beggars Banquet. This ripp was done from the 1984 BEG 12''.
As my survey of the wast "hauntology" array here comes the first (awaited and thoroughly prepared...) ripp from the orginal UK print dated 1984. Temple Records curated by Genesis P-Orridge and the T.O.P.Y (World Network System) are the units to thank for that homogenic piece (and my Maranz 6300+Logic Express as well=)).
"Robespierre's Velvet Basement", "Roping Wild Bears", "Vibing Up The Senile Man", etc. Listed are the strange letters in double commas from the "senile" LP sleeves I've found in the basement of the near by building. There is a small room... or a big one... difficult to estimate the space cause the space is stuffed with 100 000 LPs – pasteboard boxes jauntily marked as... "POST POST", for example... dusty secondhand with 7.64 USD for the new wave "no-name" and up to 76.4 USD for an item from Woebot list.
In November I reviewed Vert's "Some Beans and an Octopus". Finishing and pushig "PUBLISH" I left the line "In awiting mode for the Adam's playlist..." leaving the post in "to be continued" mode. It' s February. And I've got an e-mail from Adam.
Next level. "Radiophonic Workshop" – no cognizance? Read the previous post. 
"What is the noise supposed to be that precedes the two-o'-clock Television News? It sounds like a nightmare in a railway train!" – F. M. M., Shrewibury (Letter to Radio Times, 10th November 1960).
