SYNAPSE The Electronic Music Magazine

Thanks to my friend Simon who passed on this link to the Dangerous Minds site where they shared links to a digitized archive of 70s US electronic music magazine Synapse.

You can read all issues online at cyndustries.com, and here are a couple of the covers, featuring DEVO man-child Booji Boy and Mr Robert Moog, to get yr synapses firing.

Charles Darwin: Is He Not Man?

Charles Darwin is 200 years old today! Congratulations Charles, you've earned yourself another telegram from the queen (except these days it's done by email, and being a bit of a luddite, Charlie's will just languish in his in-box)

He's got the electric blanket on, but there's just time for a quick lesson in De-Evolution before bed.

DEVO - Jocko Homo

I spy (with my little eye)

Everyone out there’s ranting on about James Bond double-o seven… Now we have no idea what a Quantum of Solace is, and we couldn’t really give a flying Nick Nack.

Let’s go back to a time when Bond themes were good, and when CGI wasn’t relied upon as a valid plot-replacement device: It’s 1969, Jean-Jacques Perrey unleashes The Amazing New Electronic Pop Sound of Jean-Jacques Perrey. Track 7 is his very own Moog-ed up homage to Her Majesty’s number 7 spy - a poignant, understated little ditty, which probably wasn’t even considered for official Bond-theme material because its composer was French!

Jean-Jacques Perrey – Mister James Bond

[Space Age Pop has a nice little biog of Perrey including links to get hold of his albums.]


Rewind three years: At the height of her fame, Petula Clark must have been itching to get her voice ‘round a Bond theme. But Mister Barry snubbed her, so she penned her own, complete with comedy dying sound effects.

Petula Clark – L’Agent Secret

[Dans Mon Café posted this song in January 07. It’s all gone quiet over there at the moment, and I imagine the mp3 link is long-dead now. However, a helpful reader left a comment with the lyrics in English and French, so you can see all the ways those secret agents died, and how to be the best!]


Here's something every spy should carry in their briefcase:

But there are other spies too y’know…

Plastics will tell you all about the most elusive spy ever to operate out of Tokyo:

Plastics – Top Secret Man

[I love Plastics, they’re like Japan’s answer to Devo and The B-52s. If anyone out there knows where I can hear more Plastics, please write in.]

And talking of Devo, here’s their De-volutionary cover of the US Danger Man theme from Duty Now For The Future.

Devo – Secret Agent Man

[I much prefer this earlier jerkier garage-version featured in the short film In the Beginning Was The End: The Truth About De-evolution. Things to look out for: Booji Boy’s wayward hand-jiving; 2 ape-masked men paddling the behind of a strange looking china-doll lady; the monkey-masked man that goes “SE-CRET!”; and the home-made electronic drums that look like car hub-caps. One thing to ignore: the idiot who introduces the video]

Devo – Secret Agent Man

Podcast and setlist - 26 July 2008

watch out for Sarah's Devo double-header - c'est fantastique!

Verity
Françoiz Breut – Vingt à Trente Mille Jours
John Foxx – You Were There
Jeanne Morreau - La Tourbillon (Jules Et Jim OST)
Glass Candy – Life After Sundown
Ruth – Polaroid-Roman-Photo
Baccara – Parlez-Vous Français?
Depeche Mode – The Meaning of Love
Dominic
Serge Gainsbourg – Le Poinçonneur Des Lilas
M.A.R.R.S. – Pump Up The Volume
Serge Gainsbourg – Hotel Particulier
Gillian Hills – Rentre Sans Moi
Michel Polnareff – Beatnik
Thomas Leer & Robert Rental – Day Breaks, Night Heals
Ladytron – He Took Her To A Movie
Brigitte Bardot – Gang Gang
Glass Candy – I Always Say Yes
Françoise Hardy – Fleur De Lune
Sarah
Laurie Anderson – O Superman
Japan – Fall In Love With Me
Sylvie Vartan – De Bonheur
Alice Dona – Les Trois Couleurs De L’Amour
John Foxx – Glimmer
The Associates – Those 1st Impressions
Peepholes – Milk + Honey
Relaxed Muscle – The Beast Master
Verity
Jacno – La Poupée Qui Fait Non
Françoise Hardy – Ça a Raté
Kraftwerk – Ohm Sweet Ohm
The Buggles – Johnny On The Monorail
Soft Cell – Bedsitter
Dominic
Fabienne Delsol – I’m Gonna Catch Me A Rat
Stereolab – Tempter /
French Language Disque
Von Südenfed – Fledermaus Can’t Get It
Norman Frechette et Les Hou-Lops – J’Etudie Mon Grec
Anna Karina – Rollergirl
Space – Magic Fly
Sarah
The Human League – Rock ‘n’ Roll
Stereo Total – Cannibale
The Chap – Fun and Interesting
Metal Mickey – Lollipop Lollipop
Kid Carpet – I Don’t Want To Fall In Love With You
Kemper Norton Collective – Denaissance (live)
*****PODCAST BEGINS*****
Verity
Pulp – Countdown
Dauerfisch – Peter Thomas Kam Nicht Zahlen
Mareva Galanter – Pourquoi Pas Moi?
Add N To (X) – Adding N To X
Petula Clark – L’Agent Secret
Magnetic Fields – Smoke and Mirrors
Deux – Game and Performance
Dominic
Holy Fuck – Royal Gregory
Jacques Dutronc – Et Moi Et Moi Et Moi
Clothilde – Et Moi Et Toi Et Soie
Brezel Göring – Ich Bin So Süchtig (mit Christiane F)
Christine et Ses Copains – Mon Mini Croulant
John et Jehn – 20L07
Françoise Hardy – Les Petits Garçons
Sarah
Nicole Croisille et Pierre Barough – Un Homme et Une Femme
Fayrouz – L’Amour De L’Autre
Depeche Mode – Boys Say Go!
Devo – Satisfaction (I Can’t Get Me No)
Devo – Praying Hands
Giorgio Moroder – From Her To Eternity
*****PODCAST ENDS*****

Verity
Stereolab – John Cage Bubblegum
New Order – Round and Round
France Gall – Nous Ne Sommes Pas Des Anges
Louis Philippe – L’Oiseau De Nuit
BBC Sporting Themes/Ray Davies – Breezy Bounce
Jacques Dutronc – La Leçon Gymnastique du Professeur Dutronc
Dominic
Hot Butter – Popcorn
Of Montreal – Suffer For Fashion
Die Perlen – Jeudi Noir (Tony Punk remix)
Stereo Total – (I Hate) Everybody In The Discotheque (version by Echokrank)
Frank Alamo - Ma Biche
The Mae-Shi – Lamb and Lion
Blue Sisters – Il Va T’Aimer
Sarah
Grace Jones – La Vie En Rose
Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygene
Dauerfisch – So Gut
Miss Pain – Shelf-Location ROM (r@zorbla.de hardcover remix)
Captain Sensible – Happy Talk
Verity
OMD – Enola Gay
Dominic
Stella - Pourquoi Pas Moi?
Sarah
Christie Laume – Rouge-Rouge
Verity
Serge Gainsbourg et Brigitte Bardot – Comic Strip
Dominic
Françoise Hardy – Non Ce N'est Pas Un Rêve
Sarah
Orlane Paquin – Le Train De 10h03
-FIN-

DOWNLOAD THE PODCAST
[This podcast has now been archived, download it from here, 73.3mb, duration: 64m03]

Computer L.O.V.E. pt.1

This Devo mix of Datarock’s Computer Camp Love surfaced a little while ago. It seems like the ideal marriage: what are Datarock, if not the present day Devo?

The mix: it’s not really a huge departure from the original – but they’ve added some vicious Whip It-esque percussion hits (though I hear “She’s not that kind of a girl”) there’s also a nice little twist when Judy (“that’s a nice name”) gets a cameo appearance, and tells her side of the story, apparently she faked the big ‘O’ (and we’re not talking about her Roy Orbison impression)…

Datarock - Computer Camp (DEVO Mutato Mix)

Talking of the big ‘O’:

YMO Anecdote 1: One morning about half a year ago, We had to get up at some really stupidly early hour to do something really stupidly important. So we set the radio to come on at stupid-o’clock on Radio 2. I have this strange half-dream/half-awake recollection of hearing Yellow Magic Orchestra playing in the background whilst some montone DJ, who’d presumably been moved to the graveyard shift as a punishment, waffled endlessly to himself and the 2 insomniacs who were still tuned in. Thankfully my mind’s eye was picturing 8-bit colour explosions and pixelated mayhem, rather than DJ Monotone, in his grey shirt, whispering down his grey windshield...

Yellow Magic Orchestra – Computer Games

YMO Anecdote 2: Our reporter on the frontline who goes under the alias Feline1, relayed to us news of a small-scale synth-geek uprising when Yellow Magic Orchestra played the Royal Festival Hall in London on 15 June. It seems that even though they were billed as YMO, they only actually played about 3 YMO songs. Naughty. Feline1 wasn’t best pleased and felt like demanding his money back…

Yellow Magic Orchestra – Computer Games


Talking of Feline 1: On my birthday last year he gave me a CD-R of ZX Spectrum Madness. It seems he sat down on his trusty old ZX Spectrum 128K and played some of his favourite games and simultaneously recorded the soundtracks to some of them. So I get to hear some ace 8-bit anthems from the likes of David Whittaker, Dave Rogers and Rob Hubbard. And now you do too.

This one’s quite a jaunty little number, just perfect for going out for a spin in yr hydrofoil (or yr hydrofool) on a Sunday afternoon.

Rob Hubbard – Theme from Hydrofool (ZX Spectrum 128K)
[nb. watch out for the abrupt ending]

........................................................

addendum:

Thanks Lew for pointing out the ZX Spectrum game is actually called 'Hydrofool'. I'll be the first to admit my knowledge of ZX Spectrums starts and ends with playing Horace Goes Skiing during the last Computer Science lesson of the school term when I was about 10...

If anyone goes out for a spin in their hydrofool this week, be careful, they handle a lot differently from the old hydrofoil pictured.