I borrowed the remastered version of this from the station last week and gave it a listen today.
I was very suprised. I had previously written off Wendy Carlos as being the synth version of Steve Vai or Joe Satriani. Switched On Bach, Tron, and a few other things I had heard really did not impress me in the least. I can respect the historical value of those recording from a technical perspective, but there is nothing particularly vital about them, to me at least.
I'd been thinking about the disposablity and lack of innovation threads on ilm the night before, and mentioned that I do not get novelty buzz from music anymore. I was not expecting to have any particular reaction to this album, just another album to catalog and digest for future reference. I was not expecting to like it at all.
What I heard genuinely shocked me. I will not claim that the album is great and the nu-electro people on ilm will hate it. It is a primitive early digital synth record from 1986 that explored a lot of interesting programming and microtonal structures. It is not good in the way that Nude Photo or Blue Monday are good, it is good in a really dry way.
It is not the sort of thing that I expect other people to enjoy. The thing that I found so refreshing was how primitive yet far out it was compared to so much of the electronic music I have heard in the last decade. This was when she was very into writing in microtonal scales and incorporating them into trad western musical structures with elements of world music. On top of the strange writing, she was using additive synthesis for most of the sound design.
It is not a "good" album, but it does sound very weird. I find that some of the musical ideas are a little over the top and cheesy, but there are also some very striking moments as well. The programming of the album is great. The sounds are all horrible digital patches that sounds very 80's but in a good way. It sounds like hell, but it is a million miles away from everything else that is fashionable these days. I haven't heard sounds like this on a record ever, and I think that is great.
It will not get you laid, it will not increase your ilm cred, and there is not a club scene to associate with it, but it is still one of the strangest and most charming records I have heard in awhile. I am enjoying it because it is so naive and primitive. She actually broke rules with this record, which is something a lot of faux nu-electro and most dance records could do with these days.
― mt, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
or to sum it up in a sentence:
It is like the coolest because it is the most horribly uncool thing I
have heard this year.
― mt, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
I think it is a fairly well known fact that Wendy/Walter is
transgendered. I can understand why she avoids the subject, it must
be terribly fustrating to have your work marginalized because of your
physical history. It seems more people discuss the fact that she used
to have a penis, rather than the content of her work. I imagine that
would hurt, especially consider the amount of time and effort she
puts into her music.
That being said, I was thinking about why I do not consider Wendy
Carlos to be cool. I figured out why, her music is so
asexual/sexless. If cool = Sexy, then her work is about a million
miles away from that. I do think it is interesting though, it lends
her music a very strange character. Sexuality in music is very
pervasive, but transgendered sexuality is still considered very
taboo. What an odd feeling, to feel so alienated from you own body
that you feel the need to change it. That must add a very unusual
character to your work.
Are there any other noteworthy transgendered musicians out there?
― mt, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Don't know of another transgendered musician, but Terre Thamelitz
came to mind, b/c a lot of his work is about these issues.
I find it amazing that it's still so difficult to talk about Wendy
Carlos w/ out bringing up the sex change. It was 30 years ago! And
yet, everything you'll ever read about her will stick a "(formerly
Walter)" line in there somewhere. I actually reviewed one of her
records without saying anything about it & the editor inserted a
reference before publication.
Anyway, haven't heard Beauty & the Beast but now I want to. I do
agree that she is terminally uncool in a way, mostly because of who
she's associated with. The Switched On Bach stuff kicked off New Age.
Carlos' background was in classical, and she never worked w/ rock or
pop musicans (like Eno & Cluster etc.).
― Mark, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)