Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Artificial Radio Hour with Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill Part 49

This EMS Synthi 100 is not heard in this podcast



Hey folks!

This episode is basically part two of episode 47, the one with the mostly electronic, mostly soundtrack stuff.

Thanksgiving kinda set me back a bit, so I’m going lower-effort for a couple of weeks. This show and the next one will be more of that episode 47 stuff, without any podcast clips included. I’m gonna try and get a bit ahead of the game, hopefully I can.

This one is about half soundtrack stuff and half electronic stuff that maybe could be on a soundtrack.

The designer of this poster definitely saw the poster for Thief.
 
The first and last tracks are from the soundtrack of the 2011 movie Drive. I don’t know much about the artists, but they’re both really great atmospheric pieces. If you’ve never seen Drive, I recommend it. It’s a neon-tinged noir film set in Los Angeles with a really great cast (Ryan Gosling, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Albert Brooks). It gets pretty violent, but it’s really good.


 I’ve mentioned The Tripods before, I really like Ken Freeman’s synth-y score.

People expect Giorgio to have sunglasses and a moustache.

Giorgio Moroder is (yet again) an electronic music pioneer, in his case a disco pioneer. He started his career writing bubblegum pop like his early hit “Son Of My Father” (as heard on Episode 38), but had great success later using synths and drum machines on songs like “Love To Love You Baby” and “I Feel Love” for Donna Summer. His own records are a lot of fun, with vocoder vocals for that robotic effect.

More Magic Sword, I really can’t get enough of those guys. I bet they’ll score a movie someday, I just hope it’s a good movie.

When he doesn't have sunglasses and a moustache, it's harder to recognize him.

Daft Punk is a French electronic duo who, like Magic Sword, wear masks. They don’t appear in public without their robot masks… but I guess if they did you wouldn’t really know. This track is their Moroder tribute, featuring Giorgio talking about his life and career.

Another Griffin McElroy track, which is simultaneously another Mort Garson track! I love that Plantasia album, and I guess Griffin does too.


Jean-Michel Jarre’s biggest hit from his biggest album is Oxygène (Part IV). A second-generation film composer, this was his first non-soundtrack album. It seems very French to me somehow, despite not having any lyrics. It really is classic “space music” though, and it became something Jarre went back to again and again. (By the way, this track is also available on the 1994 as-seen-on-TV compilation “Pure Moods”, so if it rings a bell that could be why.)


I’ve never seen Assault On Precinct 13, but I love the score by director John Carpenter. It’s interesting to compare it to Oxygène (Part IV), which also was released in 1976.

I kind of imagine the structure of this episode in cinematic terms, and Assault On Precinct 13 leads us into the third act. The “epic guitar solo act”, if you will.

The poster is not the only similarity between Thief and Drive.

Although “Beach Theme” is not the main title music of Michael Mann’s 1981 film Thief, it’s probably the most epic piece. It certainly has the most epic guitar solo.

Aerodynamic was not written for a film soundtrack, but all of the tracks from Daft Punk’s 2001 album Discovery were used in the animated space opera Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. It also has "impossible, ridiculous Yngwie guitar arpeggios" and a great baroque synth coda.

Finally, the epic guitar solo section concludes with Magic Sword. This live version of this track is the one that was heard in the Thor: Ragnarok trailer. None more epic.

No sunglasses, but it's still definitely Giorgio.
 
After that cinematic climax comes the credits. Giorgio Moroder’s 1979 album E=MC² luckily has credits included in the last track. I love that the tea lady gets a credit!

A Real Hero, again from the Drive soundtrack, is our post credits song, something to hum as you walk out into the lobby.

That’s it for this week! Hopefully I’ll get the next episode out by Sunday, and I’ll try to keep to my schedule for the last couple weeks of the year. Fingers crossed!

Leave a comment wherever you read this, and I’ll talk to you next time.

Enjoy!

- Rev. Dr. Dr. Phill


Nightcall - Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx (2011) 0:06-4:26

Ozymandias - Ken Freeman (1984) 4:15-5:08

Utopia - Me Giorgio - Giorgio Moroder (1977) 5:02-8:21

Retrogram (Scattle Remix) - Magic Sword (2016) 8:19-12:10


Giorgio by Moroder - Daft Punk (2013) 12:03-21:08

Plantasia - Griffin McElroy (2016) 21:05-24:24

Oxygène (Part IV) - Jean-Michel Jarre (1976) 24:11-27:27
Assault On Precinct 13 (main title) - John Carpenter (1976) 27:18-30:50

Beach Theme - Tangerine Dream (1981) 30:30-34:13

Aerodynamic - Daft Punk (2001) 34:07-37:36

In The Face Of Evil (Live) - Magic Sword (2017) 37:31-43:31

E=MC²    - Giorgio Moroder (1979) 43:23-47:57

A Real Hero (feat. Electric Youth) - College (2011) 47:54-52:22

I like this poster better than the other one, but I like the typeface better on the other one,

3 comments:

  1. I liked this episode a lot! On future episodes, any chance of getting running times next to the track descriptions? On the selections that I'm less familiar with I'm sometimes uncertain which track I'm listening to. But I realize this may be a lot of work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a great idea, I never even thought of it. It won't be hard at all.

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    2. I added them, but they don't seem to quite match up with the streaming widget embedded on the blog. I don't know why that is.

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