The Radiophonic Workshop was a studio at the BBC that was created in the late 1950s to produce sound effects and experimental music for various radio and television programs. Their task was to find the right sounds to accompany the new wave of programming coming out on the BBC, especially science fiction shows.

One important early member of the Radiophonic Workshop was Delia Derbyshire, who joined the group in 1962. She was a mathematician and composer who was actually turned down a job at Decca Records before joining the workshop; Decca did not employ women in their recording studios at the time. To listen to a good range of her work, download or try to find a copy of‘Music From The BBC Radiophonic Workshop’, which was released on Rephlex Records in 2003.

Her most famous work for the BBC was the Doctor Who theme song. Originally composed by Ron Grainer, the song was truly realized through the hands and ears of Delia (sadly, she never received any credit for the song during her lifetime). Without synthesizers or drum machines available, she experimented with musique concrète, or the sampling of sounds from everyday objects (and not so much everyday objects such as oscillators), and then tweaking them through pitch bending and various other audio manipulation techniques. At the time there were also no sequencers available, so she would have to record a single note and then play that note back on magnetic tape loops to create a beat. Multiple tape loops were then manually synced and layered to create the composition.

It’s hard to think of all this as too impressive, but at the time everything was completely new and some real tinkering, experimentation, and ingenuity went into the work coming from the Radiophonic Workshop. Not much is known to the general public about the workshop, but the work done there in the 50s, 60s, and 70s played a prominent role in the furthering of electronic music. After the cut there is the seven part BBC documentary ‘The Alchemists of Sound’, which showcases a complete history of the workshop and those whom were involved. For the parts about Delia, check out the end of part 4 and beginning of part 5.

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Some friends invited me along to an opening this past Friday at the Oliver Kamm 5BE Gallery and I’m now recommending it to all. Seonna Hong was the artist who was featured. The work shown mainly consited of whimsical animals, that were sometimes accompanied by a little girl. Her technique was both striking and suddle, and the images she created have lingered in my imagination long after first seeing them.

Pleix films, a community of motion designers from Paris, has just posted another kick ass video. It’s for a song called Get Down by Groove Armada and was produced by Chased by Cowboys. After watching it, I just want to party with a bunch of bunny rabbits. Other Pleix hits include Birds, which features an all star cast of different dog breads, and Beauty Kit, which educates young girls on the advantages of plastic surgery.

Last night Kurt Vonnegut passed away at his home in NYC. I don’t have much to say, except that he was one of my favorite authors and his work is some of the wittiest and most imaginative writing that I have ever connected personally with. I would like to share my favorite short story of his, Harrison Bergeron, with everyone. If you have not read it, I definately recommend it.

Kurt Vonnegut
1922—2007

It’s been a long week and I have a few other things I want to post, but first let me get some videos on here. I decided to keep going with new wave/pop groups from the 80s. This week there is Tears for Fears, China Crisis, Bill Nelson, A Flock of Seagulls, and Phil Collins. Word.

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Apparently I only post on days that begin with the letter T. This week I selected five more rockin’ 80s videos, from five different artists. I’ve also included a commercial this week. It’s for Kirin beer from Japan, and it features the Yellow Magic Orchestra. Behind the cut there is Information Society, Erasure, Alphaville, Nena, and Falco. I think that next week I may switch it up to a different genre of music videos . . . or maybe not.

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For over a decade Max Cannon has been writing and illustrating one of my favorite comic strips, Red Meat. I remember reading it online, as well as in the Metro Times while in Detroit. It also appears regularly in The Onion’s A.V. Club. After not checking out any new ones for a while, I went to the Red Meat website to discover some funny stories with my good friends Milkman Dan, Ted Johnson, and Bug-Eyed Earl. I also noticed that Max Cannon has been working on an animated web comic for Comedy Central called Shadow Rock. Although not quite as funny as Red Meat, the shorts are equally as twisted and it’s worth watching a few if you think dead clowns are good for a laugh.