[Music] Bruce Haack – Electric Lucifer


Canadian composer Bruce Haack is credited with being among the first electroacoustic composers to be influenced by psychedelic music with this Moog-heavy release, just reissued by Canadian record label Telephone Explosion.  From his Wikipedia page:

As the 1960s progressed and the musical climate became more receptive to his kind of whimsical innovation, Haack’s friend, collaborator, and business manager Chris Kachulis found mainstream applications for his music. This included scoring commercials for clients like Parker Brothers Games, Goodyear Tires, Kraft Cheese, and Lincoln Life Insurance; in the process, Haack won two awards for his work. He also continued to promote electronic music on television, demonstrating his homemade device encased in a suitcase on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in 1968, where he sampled a song by the Rolling Stones entitled “Citadel”. He released The Way-Out Record for Children later that year.

Kachulis did another important favor for his friend by introducing Haack to psychedelic rock. Acid rock’s expansive nature was a perfect match for Haack’s style, and in 1969 he released his first rock-influenced work, The Electric Lucifer. A concept album about the earth being caught in the middle of a war between heaven and hell, The Electric Lucifer featured a heavy, driving sound complete with Moog synthesiser, Kachulis’ singing, and Haack’s homegrown electronics including a prototype vocoder and unique lyrics, which deal with “powerlove” — a force so strong and good that it will not only save mankind but Lucifer himself. Kachulis helped out once more by bringing Haack and Lucifer to the attention of Columbia Records, who released it as Haack’s major-label debut.

As the 1970s started, Haack’s musical horizons continued to expand. After the release of The Electric Lucifer, he continued on Lucifer’s rock-influenced musical approach with 1971’s Together, an electronic pop album that marked his return to Dimension 5. Perhaps in an attempt to differentiate this work from his children’s music, he released it under the name Jackpine Savage, the only time he used this pseudonym.

[Music] Bandcamp: Hasana Editions Documents the New Sound of Indonesian Experimental Music

On January 7th, Marc Masters of Bandcamp Daily posted a very interesting synopsis of experimental music coming out of Indonesia these days.  I was aware of the amazing progressive rock, jazz and fusion coming from the region, but it’s good to see Hasana Editions shepherd the experimental scene out of obscurity.  Adding to the ‘cool’ factor is that the first four releases have been published as cassettes.

[Music] Кино (Kino) – Ночь (Night)


Kino were the closest thing the Soviet Union had to a new wave band, and they were pretty damn good at it.  Co-led by singer and part-time actor Viktor Tsoi, his death in 1990 from a car accident ended the band’s career.

By the time this album had come out in 1985, the band were nearing their peak, selling two million units (though receiving hardly anything for their efforts). Amazingly, they also managed to sell around ten-thousand records in Southern California, both for the quality of the music and the novelty of being one of the first rock records ever released in the West by a Soviet band.

[Music] 稷廬 / jì lú – 阿笈暮鈔歌集 / Songs of Agama


When I see music tagged with the term ‘neofolk‘, I expect to hear something like Death In June, The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud or Current 93, not this. I’m not entirely sure where jì lú hail from in China, but the label who released this disc, Raflum, hail from Sichuan, home of some seriously good food.  If you remember the Japanese psychedelic band Ghost, fronted by guitarist Masaki Batoh, this might be a corollary.  It’s exceptionally psychedelic, and has the feel of the Incredible String Band on even more acid, feeling more placid.  This is gorgeous.

I have to admit that I’m a bit jealous that I haven’t heard anything this good in Beijing yet.

[Music] Passepartout Duo – Ólafsfjörður

The Passepartout Duo are pianist and keyboardist Nicoletta Favari and drummer/percussionist Christopher Salvito.  For such a minimal setup, they manage to put together a sound that is cinematic in scope.  There are elements of contemporary classical music, but a bit of jazz slides in there as well.  Quite a profound release from them.

As an aside, the artwork was made by a Chinese company, as the Bandcamp website indicates:

This item is produced in China by the arts organization AnyOne Workspace, and all the proceeds from this sale go to the artists Yannis Zhang and Yumo Wu.

Though the limited edition set is a bit out of my price range, it’s going to a worthy cause.  As someone who is currently residing in Beijing, it’s good to see local artists collaborating worldwide.  There is a wealth of talent locally, and they need exposure.