A bit of Googling just made sense of a tiny Fairlight-related narrative that I thought I’d drop into the blog…

1. There’s Fairlight splattered all over Yes’s Trevor Horn-produced album 90125 (talk about guilty pleasures); it’s obvious on tracks like Owner Of A Lonely Heart  and Leave It (Spotify links).
2. Various members of Horn’s production team went on to form The Art Of Noise, who Fairlighted up some of the drums from 90125 (have a listen around 3:00 of Leave It) to produce Beat Box.
3. They remixed Beat Box, then gave it to Anne Dudley to arrange  a bit more musically, and out of that came Close (to the Edit), which made me crap myself stupid when I first heard it in 1984. The video’s bananas, too. I didn’t hear 90125 for another 18 months after that.

So there you go: chopping beats out of existing records, re-sampling, constructing tracks from chunks of noise. I don’t know how it feels, that falsetto-harmony-singing prog rockers invented most pre-computer sampling tricks half a decade before electronic dance musicians worked them out. Oh yes I do. It feels hilarious.

High-tech:

Medium tech:

Download audio file (mot_radio_-_episode_7.mp3)

Tonight at 22:30 UK / 17:30 EST / 14:30 US Pacific, the final episode in our current radio series will be broadcast on Resonance FM. It will be entitled “Karaoke.”

In this episode, the Technicians are charged with organising a night out for the Museum staff.

We discuss the impact on nightclubs, electronic music and other forms of group entertainment of communicable diseases like swine flu, and the fundamental links between the will to public performance, social satus and sexual success in various cultural contexts.

The show features the our customary guerilla sound design, including phonography from one of Croydon’s most generic pubs, and culminates in a rare live musical performance by Braidy and Cornwell – to the music of Mr David Powell.

Many thanks to everyone who’s contributed to the show, and to everyone who’s listened and given us your valuable feedback. We hope to be back soon with more over-produced yet underthought nonsense in the nearest possible future.

Oh – the show’s repeated at 15:30 UK time on Saturday, and archives are available on our Soundcloud page, http://soundcloud.com/museumoftechno.

Cheers, have a great week

Dave (Braidy)

High-tech:

Medium tech:

Download audio file (mot_radio_-_episode_6.mp3)

Museum of Techno on Resonance 104.4FM

Tuesday 1 September 2009
22:30 (UK) | 17:30 (US Eastern) | 14:30 (US Pacific)

http://resonancefm.com/listen

Join us for the vegetable murderation.

Previously on Museum of Techno: Grime

www.resonancefm.com/listen

Tuesdays – 22:30BST, 16:30EST, 14:30 US Pacific

Saturdays – 15:30BST, 09:30EST, 07:30 US Pacific

Now then. Now. Then. Now; then; and the future. Now and then.

Resonance FM has been off air for a week or two, while its engineering team carries out scheduled upgrades and maintenance. Therefore we have been blessed with a short break, two-thirds of the way through our radio series.

This has meant that I forgot to upload last week’s show. Which is a stupid thing, because it was actually the boom shit. So (a) steel yourself for next Tuesday’s show, which will rock hard, and (b) read on for an immediate fix of magical audio/deep wisdom.

Previously on the show

Here’s last week’s episode, Grime, in which we learn about the flow of music and energy within London’s maligned but burgeoning underground grime scene, during an amazing interview with Rinse FM DJ and Butterz blogger Elijah, and then demonstrating our knowledge of the scene in a discussion of its specialist vocabulary, the structure of its music and the best way for a producer to promote his/her music within the scene:

Nang.

www.resonancefm.com/listen

Tuesdays – 22:30BST, 16:30EST, 14:30 US Pacific

Saturdays – 15:30BST, 09:30EST, 07:30 US Pacific

We’ve been gasping to bring you some of our fiery wisdom about the cutting edge of London’s electronic youth music, and here it comes: this week, we’ll be talking to Rinse FM DJ and Butterz blogger Elijah about the trials and tribulations of trying to promote grime music in the teeth of a world recession and what might be described as less than 100% support from the local metropolitan police.

The Technicians, Cornwell and Braidy, present a linguistic analysis of grime lyrics, and discuss the mechanics of getting your tracks heard by grime MCs.

Previously on the show

Here’s last week’s episode, Valve Power:

It’s the mutt’s living nuts.

www.resonancefm.com/listen

Tuesdays – 22:30BST, 16:30EST, 14:30 US Pacific

Saturdays – 15:30BST, 09:30EST, 07:30 US Pacific

Back! Caught you looking for the same thing. And this week’s show does, admittedly, cover broadly similar topics in a not wildly inconsistent format. This week, we have a fascinating interview with North London analog electronics engineer Theo Argiriadis; we apply Theo’s advice about valves to improve the sound of our listeners’ early techno tracks, and the Museum’s toilets. Along the way, the Technicians learn some important truths about motorway service stations.

Previously on Museum of Techno Radio

Here’s last week’s episode, Hip Hop and Skin Conditions:

Our topic was an in-depth discussion in two strands, relating to hip hop and common dermatological complaints. So engrossed in the discussion were we that we forgot to interview anyone this week. Our apologies go out to anyone.

Thanks for your hotly glowing feedback about the show so far: we hear that you have been “laughing like a mentalist, ” and judging our work “amazing”. Because we are useless at self-promotion, we would encourage you to tell all your friends – and, in fact, anyone within a 1-mile radius of your current geographical location – about us.

Here you may listen to and even download the episode, Hip Hop and Dermatology. We hope you enjoy it. Obviously you will: it rocks the hut.

Download audio file (mot_radio_-_episode_3.mp3)