I was going to post some squealing guitars today but I had a text exchange with an old friend who mentioned the Jamie Xx album (see yesterday) and also that apparently Jamie's favourite album is Paperclip People's 1996 The Secret Tapes Of Dr. Eich. Paperclip People was an alias for Carl Craig, Detroit techno scientist and wizard. The Secret Tapes... is a twelve track dancefloor masterpiece- pure, streamlined, machine music. Being from Detroit it is also gritty and dark. It manages to be both minimal and big sounding. This one, Oscilator, begins with a siren blast on repeat, then the drums kick in and distorted bass hits. After that you get six minutes of modulating, oscilating synths that twist and turn things upside and down. Straight to the point dance music that sounded like the future in 1996 and still sounds modern now. I love the album cover too, the reel to reel tape recorder (a 2012 re-mastered, re-issue had updated artwork. you can buy it here).
Oscilator
4 comments:
I enjoyed this a great deal. I'm off to check out the whole thing via the link. Good stuff.
Not bad, and yet every time I pick up that album I experience a flood of disapoint as I re-re-recall that the version of Climax on it is less than half as long as it needs to be.
Agreed. The Climax is essential in its extended 12" version.
Swiss Adam
By 96, even the dance floor was getting a bit fractured and complicated musically - for my taste - and I found myself falling back on sounds that were both soulful and deep in nature. But there were some real bright spots and Paperclip People lead the way. This was an influence of Techno that didn't obliterate beats and groove. The Secret Tapes Of Dr. Eich is a classic! I put it in a musical tryptic with Paul Johnson's - The Other Side Of Me and Cajual Records compilation The Many Shades of Cajual.
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